page_title: Oral Torah
section_title: In rabbinic literature and commentary
hierarchical_section_title: Oral Torah / In Jewish tradition / Orthodox Judaism / In rabbinic literature and commentary
caption_attribution_description: English: A modern edition of Sefer HaKsav veHakabalah by Yaakov Tzvi miKolenberg - Volume 1 (Hebrew Edition). It was first published in 1839.
context_page_description: According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah or Oral Law represents those laws, statutes, and legal interpretations that were not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the "Written Torah", but nonetheless are regarded by Orthodox Jews as prescriptive and co-given. This holistic Jewish code of conduct encompasses a wide swathe of rituals, worship practices, God–man and interpersonal relationships, from dietary laws to Sabbath and festival observance to marital relations, agricultural practices, and civil claims and damages.
  According to Jewish tradition, the Oral Torah was passed down orally in an unbroken chain from generation to generation until its contents were finally committed to writing following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when Jewish civilization was faced with an existential threat, by virtue of the dispersion of the Jewish people.
  The major repositories of the Oral Torah are the Mishnah, compiled between 200–220 CE by Rabbi Yehudah haNasi, and the Gemara, a series of running commentaries and debates concerning the Mishnah, which together form the Talmud, the preeminent text of Rabbinic Judaism.
context_section_description: This section, discusses the Rabbinic treatment of the Written Law in light of the Oral Law, and the consequent overlap of the oral and written, and is not a general discussion of rabbinic Literature, per se. 
  As above, the Oral Law is recorded in the Midrash and Talmud, while later rabbinic literature builds on these works. 
  Here, it is important to note that these source, "oral", documents, are nevertheless intimately connected to the written. 
  Thus, the midrash provides a verse by verse discussion of the entire (written) Tanakh, per the oral Torah. 
  Similarly, the Talmud, although applying a different framework, discusses and analyses the written Torah—both from an aggadic and halakhic perspective—drawing from (and recording) the oral tradition; here the discussion is organized around the Mishnah, and the discussion does not proceed verse-wise as with the Midrash.
  The era of the Rishonim sees the Oral Law incorporated into the first formal Torah commentaries, where the biblical text is discussed and / or analysed based on the various Midrashic and Talmudic traditions. The chief of these is perhaps Rashi's commentary on Tanakh. This work clarifies the "simple" meaning of the text, by addressing questions implied by the wording or verse or paragraph structure, by drawing on the Midrashic, Talmudic and Aggadic literature. It has given rise to numerous counter- (e.g., Ramban) and super-commentaries (e.g., Mizrachi), all similarly drawing on the Oral Torah, and widely studied to this day (see Mikraot Gedolot, Yeshiva #Torah and Bible study).
  In more recent times, Acharonic times, 
  
  several (Orthodox) commentaries have been produced, which, in some sense, reverse the direction of the analysis. These originated in response to the (erstwhile) challenges of haskalah and Biblical criticism, and were intended "to demonstrate the indivisibility of the written Torah and its counterpart, the oral Torah", and in so doing, "showing the organic relationship between the Written Law and the Oral Law", often in the light of the above. Given this purpose, these provide a further detailed and explicit analysis here. The main of these:
  Ha'emek Davar ("The Depth [of the] Word") on Torah, and Davar Ha'emek on Nevi'im and Ketuvim, by Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, the "Netziv"
  Haketav VehaKabbalah ("The Written [Torah] and the [Oral] Tradition") on Torah, by Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg
  HaTorah vehaMitzva ("The Torah and the Commandment") by Meïr Leibush, the "Malbim", covers all of Tanakh except Kohelet and Eicha.
  Uebersetzung und Erklärung des Pentateuchs ("Translation and Commentary of the Pentateuch") by Samson Raphael Hirsch.
  Torah Temimah ("The Perfect Torah") on Torah, by Baruch Epstein.
  A more recent work of this type is the Israeli Da'at Miqra (and to some extent Da'at Sofrim by Chaim Dov Rabinowitz); see also Mordechai Breuer #Literary contribution .
  Contemporaneous with, and complementary to these commentaries, were specific, monograph-like works discussing the Oral Torah in concept and historically. These included:
  Dor Dor v'Dor'shav ("Each generation and its Scholars"), by Rabbi Isaac Hirsch Weiss, a five volume history of the Oral Law, Halakha and Aggada, from Biblical times until the composition of the Shulchan Aruch.
  Mevo Hatalmud ("Introduction to the Talmud") and Torat Neviim ("Teachings of the Prophets"), by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes. The first, a detailed history and classification of the Talmud and its underlying oral tradition, formulating the nature, extent, and authority of tradition. The second, treatises on the authority of Talmudic tradition, and on the organic structure and methodology of the Talmud.
  Die Erste Mishna (The First Mishna), a historical and linguistic analysis of the Mishna by David Zvi Hoffmann, positing an early, uniform, undisputed, and therefore authoritative collection of the Oral Law. (R. Hoffmann also authored a Torah commentary addressing some of the same issues  as those mentioned.)
  Matteh Dan (or Kuzari Hasheini; London 1714) written by Rabbi David Nieto demonstrates the authority of the Oral Law, and def
caption: Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg's Haketav VeHaKabbalah deals with the relationship between the written and oral Torah
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