Organization: Bar-Ilan University Computing Center, Israel
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 19:01:31 IST
From: Shaul Wallach <F66204@BARILVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish,soc.culture.arabic
Subject: Re: Jews and Ozir (Was Re: What is H a m a s ??)
 <93026.203346F66204@BARILVM.BITNET> <1993Jan27.231951.12106@trl.oz.au>

     This is a most remarkable "ecumenical conference", in which a
Christian asks a Jew to answer Muslim criticism of the Torah!!

In article <1993Jan27.231951.12106@trl.oz.au>, faris@sarcasm.trl.OZ.AU (Aziz
Faris) writes:

>In article <93026.203346F66204@BARILVM.BITNET>, Shaul Wallach |> >
>|> >There is no need to explain the above verses!
>|>
>|>      For a Muslim, of course, this is true. This is, of course, one
>|> raison d'etre for Islam; namely, that the previous religions had
>|> been corrupted and that Islam came to restore the original, correct
>|> version. Needless to say, Jews believe that their version is correct,
>|> and accept all the explanations our Rabbis gave for the apparent
>|> "contradictions" in the Torah.
>
>May I ask you Shaul what are those explanations for the apparent
>contradictions in the Torah?.
>
>A.Faris

     While I have no illusions that anything I can say will wholly
satisfy you, not to mention the Muslims, I will nevertheless
try to sketch the traditional Jewish explanation in general.

     The answer has to do with the organic relationship between
the Written Law (the Bible) and the Oral Law (as expounded in
the Mishna and the Talmud). Traditional Jewish belief holds
that both Laws were given to Moses (A"S) on Sinai. There are
even hints within the Written Law at the existence of the Oral
Law. Thus, in Deuteronomy, Moses tells Benei Yisrael about
the slaughtering of animals for food in the words "as I have
commanded you", but no laws about how ritual slaughter is
to be done are found in the Bible. The inference is that
Moses gave us the laws of slaughter orally in parallel with
the Written Law. The Written Law serves as a summary of
code words for us in roughly similar fashion to a notebook
containing lecture notes. The latter are necessarily brief
and incomplete and must be supplemented by reference to the
complete textbook or research literature. Likewise the
Mishna, and ultimately the Talmud, serve as the authoritative
digest of laws which are given to us in the Torah only in
outline. Our Rabbis gave us exegitical principles by which
Biblical verses can be interpreted, even in nonliteral
fashion, as clues to or reminders of laws whose primary
source is the Mishna or Talmud. Thus there are cases
where the halacha (accepted law) may appear to contradict
superficially the plain sense of a verse, or where two
verses may appear to contradict each other but the halacha
turns out to be different from both. But there is no
contradiction, with each source having its own purpose
as parts of a whole.

     I will illustrate with an example. The Feast of
Unleavened Bread (Pesah or Passover) lasts seven days.
In one verse it is said "seven days you shall eat maza
(unleavened bread)" while another verse says "six days
you shall eat maza". But the halacha is as neither of
these, since it is required to eat maza only on the
first night of the holiday in accordance with a another
third verse. The two verses are reconciled by inferring
that eating maza is optional on the seventh day and
consequently on all seven days, except for the first
night.

     This is one of many examples of Talmudic textual
analysis, which might seem rather strange to the uninitiated.
But to Jews who believe in the Divine authority of the
Oral Law, there is nothing strange and everything fits
together in harmony.

Shalom,

Shaul Wallach
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish,soc.culture.arabic