Q&A: The Authority of the Sages
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The Authority of the Sages
Question
Hello. I wanted to clarify a few questions regarding the authority of the Sages:
- Where is it mentioned in the Torah that they have authority to enact ordinances? It seems that the verse "If a matter is too difficult for you" refers to the lack of knowledge of the person asking about what is written in the Torah itself, and not necessarily about ordinances that go beyond it.
2. Why was the authority given דווקא to the authors of the Talmud? In other words, if there is formal authority for the sages, why specifically they, the authors of the Talmud?
3. We accepted the Talmud upon ourselves. So what? Who established this criterion that one is obligated to obey the sages if the entire public accepted them upon itself?
4. A somewhat different question: how do we know that all five books of the Torah were written through prophecy? (Not necessarily at Mount Sinai itself.)
Thank you.
Answer
- I have explained this more than once in the past. Clearly there has to be authority to interpret and legislate, otherwise the system cannot function (which is what happens today when we do not have a Sanhedrin). Once the Torah grants authority to judge between people and fill legal gaps, it is only reasonable to extend that to legislation as well.
- You answered this in your question 3. It was not given to the authors of the Talmud but to the Sanhedrin. The authority of the Talmud is not by virtue of "do not deviate," but by virtue of public acceptance.
- Just as the public accepts law and a constitution upon itself. What a person or a group accepts upon itself is binding on them. Rabbi Shimon Fisher discussed this at length in Beit Yishai, volume 2, no. 15.
- I did not understand the question. The tradition says that the books of the Torah were given to us at Sinai from the Holy One, blessed be He. Are you asking how we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, equipped Himself with divine inspiration or prophecy before He wrote them?
Discussion on Answer
That is probably just a textual support, because they do not count it and the halakhic decisors do not cite it as a source.
Regarding no. 1, isn’t this learned from "You shall keep My charge" (Leviticus 18:30) — "make a safeguard for My charge"? True, that is a midrashic interpretation, because the plain meaning of the verse is: "And you shall keep My charge, not to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and not to defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord your God"; but still.