From: ljmorly@polaris.utu.fi (Laura Johanna Manninen)
Newsgroups: alt.messianic
Subject: Torah SheB'al Peh
Date: 8 Jan 93 20:38:59 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: University of Turku

Hi Harvey ! I'm reposting some stuff of yours (unless there are 2 Harvey
Smiths) from the time you still hadn't an access to AM. Sue me...

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                       UNDERSTANDING THE ORAL LAW
                                  By
                            Harvey A. Smith      

Is what is called the Torah Sheba'al Peh (Oral Law) really G-d's Holy Word
   

The real issues facing us today is: Are we in Messianic Judaism following  
the Torah min Hashaymyim,( the Torah from Heaven), which we call Biblical  
Judaism,  for want of a better word, or are the Rabbinic Jews of the  
Orthodoxy which call their faith, Torah Judaism really the keepers of the
Torah Min Hashomaim.

Have the Orthodox Rabbis, kept the covenant with the Almighty?  Is the 
Torah She-bik-htab,( The Written Law) taught and its precepts kept, or is the  
Torah Sheb'al Peh, the oral law, the covenant that the Rabbis teach and try  
to keep.. Mixed in with all this is the Gramatria of Cabalah which allows  
one to re arrange the letters of a word in Torah to mean something  
different than the literal meaning.

To quote the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Dr. I Jakobovits and Mr Chaim  
Schimmel, a lawyer and co-founder and chairman of the Hovevey Torah  
educational movement, plus being the Chairman of Yeshiva Etz Chaim, and  
convenor of the A.O.J.S. speakers panel to British Universities...

"The Jewish people are frequently called "The People of the Book, yet if  
one were to search out a people who follow literally the Bible's behest,  
one might be led to the Samaritans, who still practise their religion on  
the outskirts of Shechem (Nablus) or the Karaites who are now settled to  
the south of modern Tel-Aviv,(Israel), but NEVER TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE.   
THEY DO NOT NOW FOLLOW THE LITERAL WORD OF THE BIBLE, NOR HAVE THEY EVER  
DONE SO.(personally i take issue with that because under David, and Solomon  
and under Ezrah and Nehemiah, the Word of Torah was supreme).
  They have been fashioned and ruled by the verbal interpretation of the  
Written word, more particularly by the "Torah" which embraces both the  
written and the Oral law"

Make no mistakes about it, no matter what they call themselves, they do not  
follow the literal covenant that Moshe gave them at Mt Sinai.

Could it be that this is the sin that has kept our people in exile for over  
1900 years??
Certainly we cannot fault the Rabbis for writing commentaries of the Torah,  
a practice that every religion and denomination has followed to explain the  
Word of G-d... and for sure we cannot fault the Rabbis for trying to  
explain the code of Law that is contained within our covenant with the  
Almighty.  But to claim that the Torah Sheb'al Peh, the Oral Law is from  
G-d and was given by Moses at Sinai and is as Holy as the Written Torah can  
very well be the sin of the Fathers which is passed from one Generation to  
the other.  Hence is the Torah Sheb'al Peh, a Torah at all??

Certainly the Experts of Jews for Judaism who claim Torah Judaism as their  
Faith, know that they do not practice the Torah as is written, so do not be  
deceived by Titles...We in Messianic Judaism are not Samaritans or  
Karaites... We are the inheritors of the Torah from Heaven, to keep it pure
and to share the Revelation of Messiah with our people, which is the true  
Torah.  We also have a halacha, It is in the New Covenant the 16 letters  
which were written to show us how to fulfill and live in the Joy of the New  
Covenant.  In this article  i will endeavor explore the Oral Tradition of 
the Orthodoxy of Rabbinic Judaism and will show where it veered off the path 
of Biblical Judaism, the Judaism of Mosheh Rabbanu (Moses).
  

              TORAH1, THE ORAL TRADITION,(SHEBE'AL PEH)    

    IS THE SHEBE'AL PEH (THE ORAL LAW OF THE RABBIS) A TORAH?
    IS THE SHEBE'AL PEH INSPIRED BY THE ALMIGHTY?
    WAS THE SHEBE'AL PEH GIVEN TO MOSES AT SINAI BY G-D?
    DOES THE SHEBE'AL PEH OF THE RABBIS' EQUAL IN INSPIRATION  
    TO THE "TORAH SHE-BIKHTAB" (THE WRITTEN TORAH)?

These are the pertinent questions that we must answer.  According to Rabbi
Neusner, a foremost Talmudist, the Oral Tradition really begins with Rabbi
Akiba in the end of the First century, and reaches its height in the second
century under Judah HaNasi with the codifying of the Mishnah, the central 
core of the Oral Tradition.

The two main arguments that are used in Rabbinic Judaism to prove that the 
Oral Tradition has its origins at Sinai are as follows:

I) "That it is difficult, if not impossible, to make sense of the written 
law, without an oral tradition" (Talmud Shabbat 31A).  Rabbi Hillel,
a Babylonian Rabbi who existed during the time of the Messiah, even went
further, to say that without an oral tradition, it is impossible to even
identify the letters of the alef-Bet" (alphabet).

II)"That there are principles of Oral Law which date back from the same time
    as the written law."

III) The Rabbis had made note that they must now share the Torah with the 
   Nations of the world (due to the rise of Christianity), so that the differences
   between the true people of G-d would become clouded.  Since the Rabbis' 
   considered that the gentiles had stolen Torah from them, the only way for G-d 
   to discern between the true people of G-d was through the Sheba'al Peh"
   .(Tanh.,Ki Tissa, 58b) 
   When the Gentiles would say to G-d, we are the true children 
   of the L-rd because we keep the Torah, the L-rd would respond to them: 
   "do you know my secret?"  They would respond: What secret.  and the L-rd 
   responds, my children know my secret". (R Judah, Pes.R. 14b)  That secret 
   is the Oral Tradition, the Torah Sheba'al Peh!" 

IV) The oral tradition are the codes and rules for observing the Mitzvot 
that the Rabbis attribute to Moses.  They're statement "That the teaching 
which came to us from the Mishnah of the Sages is of identical date and origin 
with that which is derived by interpretation of the Scriptural word, all 
is given by One G-d and communicated by one and the same Prophet", must 
be rejected.  It is noted that some statements of Mishnah date back to the 
time of Joshua or even Moses.  However they were discussions of how to handle 
certain leperous signs in the camp.  Another dealt with the daughters of 
Zelophehad when they first settled in the land of Israel.  These tractates 
were by the Rabbis considered amongst the first Mishnayot.  And as we shall
see  later that even the framers of the Mishnah did not intend that they 
should become Scripture but when the overwhelming majority of Rabbis 
began to subscribe to the notion that the Mishnah was so powerful that it 
was even more precious than the Torah. (Num.R., Naso, xiv, 10.), the 
framers of the Oral tradition succumbed to the majority and Oral Tradition
became the modis operandi of Rabbinic Judaism.

Of course all this hinges on the Rabbinic theory that Moses did not 
receive the entire Torah at Sinai (Exodus R. 41).  Rabbi Akiba asks
rhetorically "and did then Moses learn the entire Torah" and he replies
"No, G-d taught him only the principles of Torah". Also Sefer Ha-Ikarim 
III,23 states  "It is not possible to claim that G-d gave the Torah 
in such a way that it should provide for all times and all events.  
Moses was given only the Principles.            

Of course Torah Davarim (Deut.) 31:24 states that Moses wrote them all
down. The Book of Davarim gives testimony that the covenant between the
Almighty and children is what G-d dictated to Moses at Sinai and Moses
spoke to the Children of Israel to keep.  The warnings to world wide
dispersion  for breaking the Torah She-bikhtab(Written Law) are a sinister 
spector of prophecy that warn us to go back to the Bible.   

This article is the  result of my personal study and the quotes come out   
of several books: "The Oral Law" by H. Chaim Schimmel, "The Book of   
Redemption" by Ramban (Nachmanides), "Rabbinic Anthology" by Moses   
Montifiore.
                   
            DID THE RABBIS TRY TO BUILD SAFEGUARDS AROUND THEIR
            WRITINGS IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THE WRITTEN WORD OF G-D?

The Rabbis' intended to safeguard their writings and legislative   
capabilities by:
1. "Rabbinic legislation was not to be misrepresented as though it were   
inspired by prophecy.

2. Nor was it to be misrepresented as though it were Torah legislation

3. Torah law and decisions of earlier Bet Dins were not to be abrogated

4. The will of the People

5. The Will of G-d

6. The Will of the Bet Din

Because of these severe restrictions, the Rabbis sought other means or   
loopholes to create new laws. First they developed what is called "Legal   
Fiction, where a statement which is known to be Untrue, but no debate is   
allowed to make it invalid or denied, so some new law could be enacted."

(If their laws were of G-d and not man made, there would not have been this  
 need to lie and then go around the old law to bring in a new more workable  
 law)

Once again to quote Mr Schimmel (The Oral law pg 57) "Yabneh was a time of   
comparative calm in the midst of political upheavels in the land, and the   
SAGES FELT THAT THEY MUIST GRASP THE OPPORTUNITY TO ESTABLISH THE  AUTHORITY 
 OF HALACHAH."(So evidently before Yabneh 1 century CE, Halachah  was not 
the  established authority in the Jewish communities and certainly  did not 
come  from Moshe MeSinai)(This is recorded in the Talmud for all to  see).

The classic example of "Legal Fiction" is Hillel's famous Pruzbal (Gittin  
36a)

Hillel cited a pretence that a person's debt was assigned to the Bet Din  
until after the Sabbatical Year.  The reason for this was, during the  
Sabbatical Year according to Torah Law, all debts were to be forgiven.

By doing the above they kept the man in debt for after the Sabbatical Year  
the man's debt was reassigned by the Bet Din back to the lender, thus  
successfully circumventing the law which said "His debts shall be forgiven"
That they say was fulfilled by the lender, who forgave everyone their  debts 
during that year.(Note he had already passed ownership of the debts  to the 
Bet Din, so he did not have any debtors to fulfill the law.)   Remember it 
is the Almighty who looks on the heart.

No wonder Yeshua said "Why do you transgress the Words of G-d for your  
ordinances" "You despise the Word of G-d by your Ordinances" Matt 15:3-7
and again " because this people has come near with their mouth and has  
honored me with their lips, but their heart is far from me and their  
REVERENCE TOWARD ME IS THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN WHICH HAVE BEEN TAUGHT"
(The Gospel of Matthew according to primitive Hebrew Text)

                               MISHNAH

It would be wrong to continue this discussion without a comment or two on  
the Mishnah. i am quoting again from "The Oral Law"

"The Mishnah is the basis of the Oral Law which is known to us, and its  
formulation was entirely the work of the SAGES.  THERE IS NO SUGGESTION  
THAT THE TEXT OF THE MISHNAH IS OF DIVINE ORIGIN."

"The Mishnah comprises a simple statement of the law or of a difference in  
Rabbinic opinion concerning the Law and DOES NOT SEEK SCRIPTURAL PROOF."

What the Rabbis' failed to see was that by circumventing the rules of  
Safeguards, they removed from themselves all traces of accountability.   
Anyone Rabbi could change the laws according to his or her whims, without  
any type of accountability.  Certainly if they had stayed within their  
parameters, many of their decisions and legislations would have been widely  
accepted by the people instead of them rebelling against the harsh  
oppression of Rabbinic Rules that have been handed down as from G-d and  
Moses at Sinai, in direct opposition to their own rules of conduct.

Because of these great Sins of the Rabbis' our people have been kept  
captive, until now.  Thank G-d, that He is bringing our people back to 
Eretz Yisrael, according to Ezekiel 36, and Isa. 11, where it is not for 
Israel's sake but for G-d's Holy Name Sake, which they have profaned amongst 
the heathen  when they said "We are the people of the L-rd and have left His 
land."

In conclusion, the reason Halachah is so great a Sin, is that the people  
were taught these were G-d's Laws, so now when a person rebells against  one 
of these Rabbinic Laws, they believe they are rebelling against G-d.
Soo the rebellion becomes a hatred for G-dly things.

We have a similiar problem in Messianic Faith.  There are some Shepherds  
who heap laws and legalism unto their sheep, causing them to rebell and do  
the same thing.  Let us not Add to the Words of the Almighty or detract  
from them.  Let us fulfill the New Covenant Mitzvot by doing those things  
that are acceptable to HaShem.

There is much to be learned in Rabbinic Literature.   
There is much to understand especially in the area of Torah Law.
Remember the Rabbis' were not only concerned with Law but of how to keep  
our people together during this harsh exile and to govern when allowed our
little communities amongst the sea of Gentile nations.

 
IS THE HALACHAH (ORAL TRADITION OF THE RABBIS BASED ON TORAH 
                   OR GRECIAN PHILOSOPHY?
   
I have said before that i believed that Orthodox  Halachah, was based 
primarily on Philosophy and Logic rather than the Torah  from Heaven.

The Rabbis during the age of the Mishnah, (100-250 CE), made it rather  
plain that they were following the Torah MeEretz, rather than the Torah  
from Heaven.  A heavy dispute between two Rabbis on the issue,  caused the  
dismissal of one from the Sanhedrin.

This principal is known as "S'Bara".  The Talmud ascribes the authority for  
many Halachic laws as being "S'Bara".  "What need is there for basing the  
decision on a Biblical verse"."It is S'Bara", meaning the decision is  
logical so therefore Torah, whether or not it is based on the Torah.
(page 3 Not in Heaven by foremost Orthodox Talmudist, Eliezer Berkovits)

With the re-establishment of the Nation of Israel, the Halachists found  
themselves in a quandry.  While in exile, all they could think was that  
halachah had many problems there  because it was laws written for Jews 
who were supposed to be living in the Land of Israel.  
Now back in the land, they have found according to Rabbi Berkovits that the  
Halachah is also alien to Eretz Yisrael (land of Israel).

In his book, Not in Heaven, Rabbi Berkovits is calling for a total  
re-evaluation of halachah, calling it the captive of the Galut, (Exile).
This more than ever points to the fallacies of halachah of being only the  
work of man and not of the Almighty.  The problem with Rabbi Berkovits  
answers to the problems of Halachah is that he wants to keep using it to  
get around the Biblical Torah laws, especially that which is connected to  
the land and the debts of individuals. "Shmitta".  These are the very  
abuses that caused our exile in the first place. 

I heartily suggest the reading of the book "Not in Heaven" published by Ktav
as to an understanding of the "Nature and Function of Halakha"

While we suscribe to the fact, that there are many Halachic rules that are  
good, we must also suscribe to the Halacha, the position of commentary, and  
explanation.  There is a treasure of History within the Halachaic reports  
as well.

As Jews and Messianic Believers   we must totally reject the premise that the 
Sheba'al Peh is in fact a Torah, which was given to Moses at Sinai.  

****************************************************************************
- Laura
--
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government 
will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Councellor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  - Yeshaya 9:5 (9:6)
 
"To the Jews who had believed him, Yeshua said, "If you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.""   - Yochanan 8:32-33
Newsgroups: alt.messianic