Oral Torah

And that, in fact, forms an important part of the big picture to talk about the ethics that's in Pirkei Avot, and I'll come back to that later, I think.

So let's get into kind of the form of your book, right? You begin by talking about major themes in your book, commitment to oral Torah, the importance of Torah study.

And I'm curious if, let's pick a few and have you talk about kind of what did you uncover about these big themes? So let's start actually with your first chapter, commitment to oral Torah.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yes.

Now we're looking at it from the outside rather than from the inside.

From the outside, the question is, how did Rabbi Yehudah Nassi and his colleagues gain the support of all the Jewish people after the Mishnah was written? he had to have some source of authority for what he said was now the true Judaism.

And the source of authority that was introduced this time was the notion of an oral Torah.

So why don't you just tell me the bottom line? What do you have to give me? Everyone's different opinions.

Why is Torah Shema Peh? Why is the Oral Torah filled with all this dispute? See, right here, I have the underline.

He says it's specifically the disputes, the disagreements that make the beauty of our Torah, right? The entire Torah is called a song.

The beauty of song, we know, Noam's going to display it for us, Motsi Shabbos.

If he says that he's betrothing her on the understanding that I can read Mishnah, he must know how to read out of the Mishnah.

If he says that he's betrothing her on the understanding that he is a Tanah, one who is versed, in the teachings of the Oral Torah.

He must know how to read out of the Mishnah, Sifra, Sifrei, and the Toseft of Rabbi Chia.

These are all the writings that embody the Oral Tradition, that contain the basic teachings of the Oral Tradition, before the Gemara, the elucidation of the Oral Teachings, were put into writing.

Let's go back to what we were talking about.

He says, by creating an oral Torah that is written down, we are saying, even if they tell you that your right is your left, the Amra Torah al-Otto Hador, which the Torah said about that generation, that the minority is beholden to the majority's decisions, it is lasting from when the Talmud and the Mishnah were sealed, גם מדור לדור, generation to generation, שאם דור שאחר חתימת המשנה ימצא שבעלי המשנה טעו, If a generation after the close of the Mishnah finds that the Mishnah authors made a mistake, or after the sealing, after the close of the Talmud, people find that they made a mistake, sorry, all we have is what's written by Chazal.

whether that is more strict or it is more lenient.

And like the Sefer HaChinuch wrote, better that we are willing to tolerate one error in one halacha than uprooting the whole edifice.

The minute you assume that human beings are going to be involved in shaping תרשב הפה, you know there are going to be mistakes.

התביעה התערנית, the purest approach, לחאורה, seemingly, לחזור אל אמת, to go back to truth with a capital T, which is outside of the historical framework, undermines Torah Shabal Peh, she said.

And basically says, you shouldn't have humans involved in oral Torah.

Because what we really want is we want to be able to find the ultimate truth.