Many people think that the Oral Torah was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Many rabbis preach this view despite it being untrue to encourage Jews to obey the Oral Torah teachings believing that God ordered them to do so. Actually, the Oral Torah was developed by the Pharisees and later rabbis. The Pharisees made [...]
The first paragraph of Pirkei Avot does not say what people think it says The first paragraph of Pirkei Avot, The Ethics of the Fathers, states: Moses received Torah from Sinai And [...]
The Sages Character, Context & Creativity Volume 4: From the Mishna to the Talmud Translated by Ilana Kurshan By Rabbi Binyamin Lau Maggid Books, 2015, 319 pages One of the best series of books that I enjoy reading is the very well-written, comprehensive, informative, and engrossing four volumes by Binyamin Lau, a highly [...]
The Oral Torah was not revealed at Sinai One of the fundamental principles of Orthodox Judaism is the belief that there is both a Written and an Oral Torah, both of which were revealed by God to Moses. Quite a few Orthodox rabbis declare that if a Jew does not accept this teaching, [...]
By Israel Drazin The Oral Torah is made up of laws that were developed after the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, was completed. The changes were made by Pharisees and later by rabbis. These changes are called Oral Torah.[1] So many changes were made that Judaism today is not Torah Judaism [...]
By Israel Drazin In my essay “Divine revelation continues today,” I discussed the views of Rabbi Kook, Maimonides, Aristotle, Ba’al Shem Tov’s grandson, and others who stated that divine revelation continues today. I showed that these thinkers felt that modern people can and should seek God’s revelation in history [...]
By Israel Drazin Judaism today is not Torah Judaism, but rabbinic Judaism. Virtually all Torah laws, if not all of them, were modified by the rabbis to meet the needs of the time when the alterations were made.[1] These changes are called Torah shebalpe, Oral Torah. While they are innovations, they [...]
