Q&A: These and Those Are the Words of the Living God
These and Those Are the Words of the Living God
Question
How should one relate to disputes in the words of the Sages about matters of reality? For example, in the Book of Esther it says that Esther came to Ahasuerus herself, and in the Talmud several Jewish laws are derived from this, whereas in the Zohar it says that Mordechai sent a demon in Esther’s place. If so, one has to understand what actually happened, and whether the principle of “these and those are the words of the living God” applies here. And likewise with other disputes about reality — does “these and those” apply there? And if we say like the Zohar, how can one rely on Scripture as historical truth if it can be distorted like that?
Answer
Each dispute has to be considered on its own merits. There are factual disputes in which one side is right and the other is mistaken. There are disputes that are not really on the factual plane. There are factual disputes in which one side is right and the other is mistaken, but the halakhic or moral lesson of both sides can still be valid.
The Zohar you mentioned can also be interpreted as a midrash with a message, not as a factual description. I certainly would not draw halakhic conclusions from those “facts.”