Rabbinism (Rabbinical Judaism) has been the principal form of Judaism since the sixth century CE (AD). Its thesis is that Moses received not one but two Torahs at Mount Sinai.
Rabbinism advances the proposition that one Torah, the Written Torah, was transcribed from the preserved laws and history provided to Moses and was delivered to the Second Temple in Judea by Ezra, on or about 440 BCE. That Torah, the Written Torah, is the one which is known as the Masoretic text and today resides in the sanctuary of temples worldwide.
Rabbinism maintains that there was another Torah delivered at Mount Sinai at the same time as the Written Torah, called the “Oral Torah”. Rabbinism insists that God simultaneously provided the Written Torah with the Oral Torah so as to help interpret and understand the Written Torah. That proposition, of necessity, compels several questions. 1. Why would God create a document so complex that the people to whom it was directed would not understand it? 2. If the Torah were difficult to understand, why did God not just provide the explanations within the Written Torah itself? 3. What was the value of an explanatory document that was not reduced to writing until almost 1000 years after the Written Torah was delivered to the Jewish people at the Second Temple?
Rabbinism’s thesis suggests that the Oral Torah passed orally for a period of 1785 years (1285 BCE-500 CE) from person-to-person, i.e., 58 generations, before it was finally “accurately” transcribed on or about 500 CE. The Oral Torah is in fact the recharacterization of the rabbinically produced Talmud, which includes the Mishnah and the Gomorrah.
The Mishnah was commenced at the beginning of the third century AD by Yehudah ha-Nasi who, fearing that the oral traditions of the second Temple might be forgotten, undertook the mission of consolidating various opinions into one body of law. The Mishnah, together with the Gomorrah, a series of commentaries and debates regarding the Mishnah, constitute the “Talmud”. Within Rabbinism, especially amongst the more traditional branches, the Talmud is identified as the Oral Torah. It is important to note that while all Jews apparently respect the rabbinical concepts and effort of the Talmud, there are Judaic religious disciplines which do not adopt its credo and remain dedicated only to the express provisions of the Written Torah. During biblical times, they included the Sadducees and the Essenes. Existing Judaic disciplines include Karaites, Samaritans, and Beta Torah.
The Analysis
For many Jews (especially those whose Jewish education was limited to one or two hours of Hebrew School focused on Bible stories and holidays) a review of the elements of their faith might well be helpful. Be forewarned, however, elements are not necessarily elementary.
The Written Torah
A divine code for Judaic conduct, coupled with the early history of the Jewish people, the Torah, was delivered by God to Moses at Mount Sinai on or about 1285 BCE. It is the only historical record of the Israelite/Jewish people from the birth of Abraham in the 19th century BCE until the Israelites were released from slavery and poised for the conquest of Canaan. It is the embodiment of the sacred laws given to the People of Israel by their God, and was later compiled and ultimately delivered by Ezra to the Second Temple in 440 BCE as the Written Torah. Many Orthodox Jews of today believe that the Torah was written by God. Within conservative Judaism, one would more frequently hear that the Torah was divinely inspired. However, current academics who studied the text of the Torah believe that the Masoretic text of the Torah was assembled and transcribed by four different individuals.
Jews
The Written Torah recounts that Jews are genetically the direct lineal descendants of the zera (zerais Hebrew for semen or seed) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Patriarchs. See Genesis 12(7), Genesis 17(6-8), Genesis 17 (10-12), Genesis 26 (2-4), Genesis 28 (14), and Deuteronomy 34 (4-5). The Written Torah does not provide for conversion, or any other means by which a person can become a Jew. A person born a Jew does not cease to be a Jew because he is an atheist or has adopted a different faith. Conversely, a person not born a Jew does not become a Jew because he or she has adopted the Jewish faith. The Written Torah does, however, exquisitely provide and protect the rights of non-Jews who are residing in Jewish communities.
Judaism
Judaism is a religious faith that originated with the God of Israel, and whose tenets and requirements are documented in the Written Torah. Without a transcribed series of religious laws available to a population which it serves, no formal religion would be viable. Without such available transcription, there would be no way in which a community could identify, engage or confirm a common faith or practice.
Although there were laws and history described to Moses at Mount Sinai, no written document was available to the Jewish population until the Masoretic text of the Torah was delivered to the Second Temple. It was only at that point that the God of Israel curtailed his direct communication to the tribes of Israel through prophecy, and allowed his documentation of the laws of the Torah to establish a faith by which the Jews could conduct their lives in accordance with His precepts.
Resolve in Judaism must be born of faith study and conviction. Jews and Judaism have often been the subject of unjustified criticism.
Most have heard the tale of Jesus overturning of the tables of the money changers in the entry of the Temple. The suggestion of such act, for which he is acclaimed, is that he confronted wickedness in the Temple which took place with the permission and authority of the temple priests. Nothing could be further from the reality. Jesus and his disciples were Jews who were present, as it was customary to be, in Jerusalem for the holiday of Passover. For many, it was an opportunity to make a sacrifice of animals for foostuffs at the temple. If they did not have the local currency, there was a need for exchange to acquire the appropriate animal for sacrifice. The persons who were professionally engaged in that exchange were absolutely essential to the normal operation of the temple. It was not at all, as implied by some, a “wicked” activity. How many of those who criticized its necessary function would achieve a spiritual experience by throwing a brick through the window of an airport currency exchange?
Rabbi
With the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD and the inability to sacrifice food animals and agricultural products, the Jews did not end their relationship with the God of Israel. They gathered together to read the law as the Torah required. Instead of sacrifices, they substituted prayers and benedictions. For religious leadership, they often used the same Pharisees who served them in the temple. The term priest no longer applied, and so, the term Rabbi (teacher) ultimately evolved.
The original concept of the designation rabbi (between 360 –425 CE) was one who achieved Semikhah “transmission of authority from Moses”, pursuant to Deuteronomy 17 (9-11). It was presented to be the transmission by Moses of his authority to the priests and the judges in a similar manner as he did for Joshua by laying on of the hands. Of course, recipients of such authority could have no more power than Moses himself. No one, including Moses, had the authority to change, add to, diminish, or reject God’s law expressly articulated in the Torah. Deuteronomy 4 (2) provides: “You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that he may keep the commandments of the Lord, your God which I command you.”. The only authority was to apply Torah law to a given fact situation over which they had jurisdiction. There has been an attempt over the years to revive the notion of Semikhah, but without significant success.
Today, in the contemporary Jewish community, the Rabbi functions as a teacher, and often the religious leader and authority in a Hebrew congregation. Modern Jewish life has conferred upon today’s rabbis a multitude of other social and community obligations. The Rabbi has no closer connection to God than anyone else in the Jewish community. The title of Rabbi, in former years limited to men only, is now conferred on women.Now women rabbis frequently occupy the pulpit of many synagogues, save and except those of strong Orthodox orientation.
Jewish law is that law which is expressed in the Written Torah and which was accepted by the Jewish community as the sacred law provided to them by the God of Israel. There is no credential that authorizes alteration of the Torah by interpretation or any other means. The Torah is not a Wikipedia amendable by the reader.
Tradition
For centuries, Jews have been charmed by notions of “tradition”. It is a form of cultural and religious connective tissue that binds Jews and their community together and often serves in lieu of prayer. It is lionized and regaled in Jewish theater, as in the case of “Fiddler on the Roof”. Yet, tradition is singularly one of the most dangerous cultural tools that the Jewish community can use. It celebrates age and endurance without examination of the verity or relevance of the event about to be iterated. An appropriate protective label should be assigned to all traditions: Read the history and use with care.
From Temple Sacrifice to Synagogue Prayers
In both the First and Second Temples, Jews would commune with their God through the sacrifice of food animals and foodstuffs. With the gift of the sacrifice from both their heart and their pocket, Jews could ask God for his forgiveness or convey appreciation for a happy event in their life. The sacrifice served another significant purpose. The animals and foodstuffs ultimately went to the priests and the Levites and their families as a source of income for their services.
When the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, the Pharisee/rabbis, in the inventive phase of their stewardship, designed prayer in lieu of sacrifice, which, because of the destruction, could no longer be performed. Presumptively, it was a temporary measure until the temple could be reconstructed, but it never was. Because the Torah required the periodical reading of the law, community prayers were added to the agenda. More and more, the communal prayer phase became the focus of the gathering. The prayers were largely devotionals written and designed by the early rabbis and uttered by the congregants. With the advent of printing, they became part of the universally accepted prayer book (Siddur) from which congregants could read and recite simultaneously.
While individual or personal, spontaneous prayers were not prohibited or discouraged, rabbis suggested that a more efficacious communication would occur if done uniformly in the presence of a minyan (ten males over the age of 13 years). Presently, some prayers cannot be uttered in the absence of a minyan. Ultimately, prepared prayers were designed to be recited with the presence of a minyan three times a day (Shachrus (morning), Minchah (afternoon) and Maariv (evening)).
With a small exception for the prayers of Sabbath and holidays, Rabbinism has, for hundreds of years, required those three sets of stylized prayers to be uttered by religious Jews every day of their lives. Sadly, in many synagogues, those prescribed prayers are uttered with such speed, acquired by repetition, that is more like a mantra than a heartfelt communication with one’s deity.
It is a sign of a sincere religious commitment that Jews would repeat the same scripted prayers three times a day during all of their lives. It is a sign of a loving God, that He would endure such a continuum without giving up his human experiment. Examination of the Torah, and especially Deuteronomy, confirms God’s goals for His designed people. The service required of the Jewish people was, and is, faithfulness to the one God of Israel, and to the commandments and laws provided to Moses and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Infinite daily repetitive lip service was not one of them.
While it may be argued that the real benefit of a lifetime of communal repetition of designer prayers is for the benefit of the supplicant, that argument appears more than marginally specious. Any such assembly would best serve both God and man in pursuit of the goals of Tikkun Olam by precept, example, and outreach for which the Jewish people were originally designed.
Can the Torah be Updated?
In most synagogue services, the reading from portions of the Torah which occur on Saturday, Monday, and Thursday are flanked by communal prayers. In the Torah scroll itself, the Hebrew script is without vowels and is not capable of being read by most of the Hebrew reading congregation. For that reason, many temples have a special Bal Korah (Torah reader).
Since it was accepted that the Torah originated from the revealed word of God, it was viewed as immutable and as a divine resource. The Mishnah and the Gomorrah, on the other hand, surfaced as rabbinical opinions in service of the interpretation of the Torah. Occasionally, the zeal of the rabbis, in trying to identify the outer limits of Mosaic law, resulted in creative endeavors, not unlike their antecedent Pharisees. However, alterations, additions, or rejection of Torah law were absolutely prohibited by the Torah itself, as we have seen in Deuteronomy 4 (2).
Clearly, this did not mean that biblical law could not be interpreted fairly and honestly within the spirit and intent of the Torah. With equal clarity, it did mean that one could not enlarge, diminish, distort or reject the letter and spirit of Torah law by interpretation or devious device.
Since the Torah would not allow modification of its language, spirit or intent in any form, why could it not be broadened by amendment,like the United States Constitution? The answer, of course, lies in the source of authority from which the document originated. With regard to the United States Constitution, its source was the people of the United States of America. They, through their elected representatives, agreed to be governed by the language of the law of the Constitution. Additionally, the Constitution, itself, provided for its amendment in the event of a desire for change.
The Torah, on the other hand, contained laws that were promulgated by the authority of God, who is the only entity authorized to amend that document. Unfortunately, the world has not had word from God for a very long time. Indeed, who would step forward and suggest that he or she had the power to amend the Torah?
Yet, ironically, Rabbinical Judaism was, in fact, changing the Torah in multiple ways, most often under the guise of rabbinical interpretation. Traditionally, rabbis have never served as intermediaries between God and humans. The profession of rabbi is not an occupation found in the Torah. There has never been a process in which rabbis who, by interpretation or declaration, had any right to effectively change the Written Torah.
Rabbinical Judaism Speaks in “Tongues”
Since the beginning of the 19th century and the advent of Reform Judaism, there are now multiple independent segments of Rabbinical Judaism, which include Orthodoxy, Conservatism, Reform, Reconstruction, Renewal, Humanistic and others. There is no hierarchy and no central authority in Rabbinical Judaism that supervises the singularity of operative Jewish law. Among Rabbinism’s denominations, there is no one single standard of ordination, Torah compliance and authority to effectuate change. Rabbinical Judaism does not, and cannot, speak or interpret with one mindset or voice.
Sadly, over the centuries, Rabbinism has knowingly altered a significant number of the express provisions of the Written Torah. Some of the more prominent alterations are:
1. Early on, it rejected the Torah’s genetic patrilineal origin of Jews by substituting a Jewish mother in place of a Jewish father in order for the child to qualify as a Jew. This change alone is sufficient to change the identity and character of the Jewish people. It might even pose the question as to whether the current composition of the Jewish community includes those to whom God had promised the Land of Israel.
2. While Rabbinical Judaism’s Talmud does not discuss future worlds, it is not uncommon for its adherents to postulate a world to come, known as Leolum Habah or Gan Eden, where one who did good deeds, or was scrupulous with Halacha, might reside after his earthly journey.
3. The Torah’s warning against changing its law applies equally to additions as to subtractions or alterations. A classic example of such prohibited additions is found in the Torah’s thrice expressed provision which instructs: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” (Exodus 23 (19).
That simple mother-child animal relationship has Rabbinically been expanded to include: a) the milk and meat of unrelated animals of the same species, b) the milk and meat of unrelated animals of any specie or species, c) the meat of birds like chickens or other fowls that do not even give milk, with the milk of any specie. Yet, in what appears to be a clear violation, it permits the consumption of a kosher chicken and its egg in the same meal. What was it that the rabbis did not understand about a mother-child relationship?
For two centuries, in order to accommodate meat and dairy for both regular and Passover use, that bizarre interpretation has caused Jewish households to maintain four sets of dishes, pots and pans, silverware, dishtowels, etc. Was this really what God intended with this simple moral provision?
4. There are few religious moments that are as sensitive, warm and welcoming as observing the women of one’s household, with a napkin over the head, and hands over the eyes, blessing the Friday evening candles. The candle blessing, Rabbinical in its origin, recites as follows: “Praised be thou O, Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments, and hast commanded us to light the Sabbath candles.” In truth and in fact, God never commanded the lighting of Sabbath candles. Such command was a fiction created by the rabbis to allow light into one’s household after sundown on Friday evening because fire could not be kindled after dark. Howsoever charming the blessing of the candles may be, it is nevertheless a blatant untruth. More important than that, it is violative of the third of the 10 Commandments, which enjoins us not to take God’s name in vain.
Growing Resistance Against Rabbinical Changes to Torah Law
By the eighth through the tenth century AD, there was a sizable part of the religious diaspora Jewish community, called Karaites, who were disturbed and offended by the way in which Rabbinism altered the Torah. Historians see Karaites as having channeled the views of the Second Temple Sadducees in order to protect the integrity of the Torah.
Karaites maintained that the Jewish people are patrilineal in origin and rejected the biblically unauthorized change to matrilineal-ism. They did not accept the notion of life after death in a world to come. The Karaites were especially affronted by Rabbinism’s attempt to bootstrap themselves to the level of the deity by elevating the Talmud to the Oral Torah. Karaites established their own institutions, and, at one point, represented 40% of world Jewry.
In the tenth century, the Saadia Gaon (Gaon, usually referred to the head of a yeshiva), led Rabbinism’s organized effort against Karaism, which, though weakened by the controversy, survived and is alive to this day.
Karaite Jews today, most of whom remain very religiously oriented and dedicated to the Written Torah, do not light Friday evening candles because of the absence of God’s direction to do so. They do not utilize phylacteries or mezuzahs because they deem less as words curious mean the Torah language “and thou shall bind them for a sign upon thy hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes” as figurative, metaphorical and aspirational, in the same spiritual category as the Torah reference to the circumcision of one’s heart in Leviticus 26 (41). It is estimated that there are now approximately 40,000 Karaites living in Israel, with smaller communities in Turkey, Europe and the United States.
Rabbinate’s Infinite Additions to Torah Law
Not at all discouraged by its battle against Karaism, Rabbinical Judaism kept adding to Rabbinism infinitely more spurious rules, regulations, extensions and traditions. Nowhere is it more evident than in the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), assembled and written by Joseph Karo in 1563. Reference to some of his chapters might prove enlightening:
Laws relating to the conduct upon rising in the morning
Laws relating to dressing and manner of walking
Laws relating to decency in the lavatory
Laws relating to making up of omitted prayers
Laws concerning the separation of (Hallah) dough
Laws concerning the bread, cooked food and milk of a non-Jew
Laws regarding one who desires to eat or drink before meals
While the foregoing codes and others in the Code of Jewish Law may be well-stated practices relating to cleanliness, physical health, and orderliness, they do not, for the most part, state Torah laws or reasonable interpretation thereof. If this is, in fact, the case, then they are in clear violation of Deuteronomy 4 (2), which prohibits adding to the rules provided in the Torah.
The Deification of the Talmud into the Oral Torah
The Talmud, a work of the rabbis, was viewed by them as indispensable to the understanding of the Written Torah. Traditional rabbis refer to the Talmud, as “the Oral Torah”. Examination of the two sets of laws, the Written Torah and the alleged Oral Torah, identified that they are uniquely different in significant ways. For example:
1. The people to be served by these biblical laws are genetically different. Under the Written Torah, Jews are children of Jewish fathers. Under the Oral Torah, Jews can only be children of Jewish mothers. In the modern American era of over 50% of mixed marriages, those are two different populations.
2. The Written Torah creates only one world. There is no mention of afterlife or resurrection. The Rabbinical world appears comfortable, in the ideation of a world to come called Leolam Habah in which Jews can receive their just reward after death and in notions of resurrection (see prayer in the Amidah which exalts God for M’chai Hamaysim [God who calls the dead to life everlasting] and “The Treatise on Resurrection” by Maimonides.
3. The Written Torah does not support or provide for conversion of Gentiles to Jews. Rabbinical Judaism conducts such procedures regularly.
4. The Written Torah does not allow modifications, additions, reduction or rejection of its laws. There are multiple examples of Rabbinical modification of the Torah, including a pervasive one relating to rules regarding the mixing all meat with all milk from any source.
5. For Rabbinical Judaism to maintain that the Written Torah and the “Oral Torah”, which contain conflicting provisions, are the product of the same God, delivered at the same time, for the same population defies credibility. The alternative to that concept is that there are two different gods promulgating two different codes of law, a notion that would fly directly in the face of Judaic dedication to monotheism.
A more plausible concept is that Rabbinic Judaism could not sustain its rejection of, and changes to, portions of the Written Torah without some divine authority. By dubbing the Talmud (opinions of its rabbis) as a Torah emanating from Mount Sinai, it sought to provide a divine veneer or patina on those Rabbinical writings.
Doing that is worse than a Chillul Hashem (the desecration of the name of God). It is worse than taking God’s name in vain in violation of the third Commandment. It is, in fact, co-opting God’s persona in service of their own agenda, which includes rejection or modification of portions of the Written Torah.
Sadly, not all of Rabbinical Judaism’s avoidance of total precepts are accomplished by rejection or alteration. Sometimes, they involve avoidance by sham or device. This is especially sad because it can involve the assistance of the Rabbinate:
1.The Eruv- Jews are required to remain and rest in their home during the entire Sabbath, Exodus 16 (29). However, that would not allow them to attend services in the synagogue, visit with friends and neighbors or other outside activity. With the help of fictional imagination, the Rabbis allow for the extension of one’s home, often by miles, by public power or telephone lines. On the island of Manhattan, a home can be as much as 18 miles long.
2. The Documented Sale- The Torah does not permit business activities during the Sabbath. Not infrequently, Jews who wish to keep their business open during the Sabbath enter a sham contract of sale with a Gentile, which is effective Friday afternoon, with repurchase on Sunday morning.
3. The Lease of Israeli Agricultural Land Every Seventh Year-The Torah mandates, under the laws of Shmitah, Exodus 23 (10-11), that agricultural land in Israel must be allowed to rest uncultivated every seventh year. A number of Israeli farmers, during the seventh year, lease their farm to an Arab neighbor. The owners have the benefit of that year’s lease income, but the land is not rested during that year.
4. Painful, but relevant, is viewing the ceremony of lighting of Friday evening candles to welcome the Sabbath, when you know that its real purpose was simply to provide light for a dining room or kitchen on Sabbath.
5. The Shabbos Goy – is simply a device to avoid the violation of the Sabbath by assigning the task of turning on the lights or air conditioning or other prohibited act to one who is not Jewish. Under no system of law or civilization can a principle avoid responsibility for a prohibited act by assigning it to an agent. Imagine the response if someone hired an assassin to do in his neighbor and then claimed innocence because “He did it. I didn’t do it.”.
6. The Use of Baking Powder on Passover- In prescribing for the holiday of Passover, the Torah provides that “no leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel” Exodus 12 (15-20) The Torah does not identify any particular form of leaven that would escape that injunction. In recent years, Rabbinism, through some unjustified rationale, has concluded that baking soda and baking powder, modern chemical products, are authorized for use on Passover, although they are clearly chemical leavening agents. That Rabbinical notion stems from the alleged “logic” that since the original biblical leavening experience occurred when water was added to flour and resulted in in fermentation, then fermentation is the only form of leaven that is prohibited. Such a clear violation of the Torah leaves one to wonder who, if anyone, benefits from such illogic.
While these and similar devices may appear clever to some, they nevertheless, originate in sham and are directed to fool none other than the God of Israel, who claims the right of vengeance.
Conclusion
Rabbinical Judaism maintains and endorses as sacred the Written Torah. It does so while, at the same time, it has rejected, altered and expanded a number of those provisions by means other than reasonable interpretation. That situation prompts the old Yiddish expression “one cannot dance at two weddings at the same time”.
If Rabbinical Judaism, now fragmented into multiple, incongruent denominations, wishes to survive, it must distance itself from asserting total Torah compliance and establish its own unique individuality. That can include the position that Rabbinical Judaism recognizes the spiritual inspiration of the Torah, but reserves, for itself, the right to alter such policies or practices as it deems appropriate.
A similar, but reverse posture has been adopted by both the Karaites and the Samaritans. The Karaites and the Samaritans are totally dedicated to the language and the law of the Written Torah. However, though familiar with and respectful of the Talmud, neither require its adherence to comply with its precepts.
Douglas Kaplan