Q&A: Is the Entire Torah from Heaven?
Is the Entire Torah from Heaven?
Question
Hello Rabbi Michael Abraham, I don’t really understand this issue, and I saw that you write and speak about the idea that not all of the Torah is from Heaven and that there are additions, and it reminded me of Maimonides, who says: “One who says that the Torah is not from God—even one verse, even one word—if he says that Moses said it on his own, behold, he is a denier of the Torah.”
What does the Rabbi say about that?
Answer
Just when I’d gotten used to the title “Rabbi,” now I’ve gone from rabbi to rabbis?
I didn’t understand the question. You quoted what I say about it, so what are you asking me?
Either I do not accept Maimonides on this point, or he too means a normative statement and not a factual-historical one—that one must relate to all of it as though it came down at Sinai. The same is how one should interpret rabbinic sayings such as that everything a veteran student will someday innovate was shown to Moses at Sinai, and that both the general principles and the details were given at Sinai, and the like.
Discussion on Answer
As for the Oral Torah, it’s obvious that not everything was given. In practice, it’s clear that almost everything was developed over the generations. You can see this in the Talmud. Therefore, “everything that a veteran student will someday innovate,” and similar statements, are normative statements.
As for the Written Torah, I didn’t really say that. What I said is that there is no necessity to assume it, and that at least a few verses clearly appear to have been added later (such as “to this very day”). And many have already pointed this out.
Why doesn’t the Rabbi take the statement in its simple sense, that everything was given from Heaven?
Why does the Rabbi assume at all that this is a normative statement and not a factual one?