Q&A: Additions to the Torah and the Tradition of the Oral Torah
Additions to the Torah and the Tradition of the Oral Torah
Question
If, in your view, it is plausible that part of the Torah consists of later additions, how do you rely on the tradition of the Oral Torah (the hermeneutical principles by which the Torah is expounded, a Jewish law given to Moses at Sinai, etc.)? If the tradition did not manage to preserve the original text, is it conceivable that it preserved its interpretation?
Answer
First, I never said anywhere that this is a large part of the Torah. Second, in cases of doubt we follow presumptions, and so long as it has not been clarified to me that a particular detail is an error, the assumption is that what I have is from the giving of the Torah at Sinai, and it is binding.
Discussion on Answer
It has nothing to do with omnipotence. You could ask the same question from the fact that sins are committed and He does not prevent them. The world has been handed over to us, and therefore things can happen that are not in accordance with His will.
The Creator desires free choice and therefore allows sins to be committed, but additions to the Torah are not the same. Why would the Creator want there to be additions that distort His own Torah?
Unless you say that this too is in order to create a test for a person, and is therefore part of the divine plan.
What do you say?
The distortions too are part of our freedom of action.
Why? Because it gives a person a test, to think, God forbid, that the Torah is not true? And then observance of the Sabbath and the like would not be forced upon him like a mountain held over them?
In any case, even if you say that this is what you mean, it seems strange to me.
Not because of that. Because the Holy One, blessed be He, left the world to us and does not intervene in it. This is not non-intervention in order to achieve some result, but rather granting autonomy to human beings.
Michi, do you think it would be correct for me to wonder as follows: if we assume there are additions to the Torah, then we have limited God’s ability to anchor the content He wanted to convey to the people of Israel without any additions. And that in itself reflects a lack of understanding of God’s omnipotence.
Unless, of course, we answer that this itself is what the blessed Lord wanted.
What do you say?