Calendar
Rabbi HaLevi asks what month is being referenced in Shemot 12:24: “Let this new moon be for you the beginning of new moons, the beginning-one let it be for you of the new moons of the year.”1
We clearly see in a verse shortly after this mitzvah is given that the month referred to is the month of the aviv.
“Today you are going out, in the new moon of ripe grain (אָבִיב).” (Shemot 13:4)1
Rabbi HaLevi goes on to ask how the Yisraelites would know if the calendar was to be according to the lunar months or the solar months. A literal translation of this verse instructs us that the new moon is the beginning of a month according to the calendar that God had given to the Yisraelites. This was clearly something that Moshe ha-navi and the Yisraelites would have seen on that day and understood the mitzvah. There is no need for an “Oral Law.”
Textual
The Rabbinic Jews claim that there are proofs within the Tanakh itself that prove there is an “Oral Law” that was given to Moshe ha-navi.
The Eternal One said to Moshe: Go up to me on the mountain and remain there, that I may give you tablets of stone: the Instruction and the Command that I have written down, to instruct them. (Shemot 24:12)1
Rabbinic Jews will declare that the Instruction and the Command refer to the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.5 This is simply a misunderstanding of the peshat (plain) meaning of this passage. It is clear that the Instruction and the Command were written. There is no indication of an “Oral Law” for it clearly states that these things were written down.
In (the country) across the Yarden, in the land of Moav, Moshe set about to explain this Instruction… (Devarim 1:5)1
Again, Rabbinic Jews state that this verse refers to Moshe giving the “Oral Law” to the Yisraelites to clarify any ambiguities in the Written Torah.5 It is clear that Moshe is expounding upon all the mitzvot that had been given because the Torah was received and written during the time in the Wilderness. We see here that Moshe was reiterating the Torah that was already given and ensuring that the Yisraelites knew the Torah. Repetition is a form of teaching – and a very effective form of teaching especially since there were not copies of the Torah for each individual or family. This passage in no way indicates that an “Oral Law” existed.
In addition to these proofs from the Written Torah there is also the concept that there are three components to the “Oral Law”. These three components are:
1. Edicts;
2. Thirteen principles of Torah; and
3. Laws given to Moses at Sinai.2
When any legal matter is too extraordinary [פָּלָא] for you, in justice, between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, between stroke and stroke, in matters of quarreling within your gates, you are to arise and go up to the place that the Eternal One your God chooses, you are to come to the Levitical priests and to the judge that there is in those days; you are to inquire and they are to tell you the word of judgment. You are to do according to this word that is told you, in that place that the Eternal One chooses; you are to take care to observe what they instruct you. According to the instruction that they instruct you, by the regulation that they tell you, you are to do; you are not to turn away from the word that they tell you, right or left. (Devarim 17:8-11)1
The argument for the “Oral Law” is that one of the components of the “Oral Law” allows for edicts to be pronounced. We see that these verses begin by telling us that we are to go to the Levites for a judgment if the matter at hand is too difficult for the individual to judge or if there is a controversy within the community. There is no mention that these edicts become law for the masses but are simply edicts – judgments – made for an individual case. Of course, this also means that there is a possibility that this judgment will then spread throughout the communities and become de facto law.
The argument that when Moshe was given the Written Torah he was also given instructions as to how one is to study and understand Torah is baseless.2 We see that these thirteen principles are not followed by all rabbis or all communities. I ask, are we to follow the seven rules of Hillel, the 13 rules of Rabbi Ishmael, or the 32 rules of Rabbi Eliezer ben-Yose HaGelili?3
Now if the entire community of Yisrael errs, and the matter is hidden from the eyes of the assembly so that they do one of any of the things (regarding) the Eternal One’s commandments that should not be done, and so incur guilt: when it becomes known, the sin that they sinned, the assembly are to bring-near a bull, a young of the herd, as a hattat-offering; they are to bring it before the Tent of Appointment. The elders of the community are to lean their hands on the head of the bull, before the presence of the Eternal One, and one is to slay the bull before the presence of the Eternal One. (Vayikra 4:13-15)1
We see here that if the Levites ruled wrongly and the community errs in response to the judgment of the Levites then the Levites are responsible for the error. If this is the case then how can we remain certain that the rabbis who wrote the “Oral Law” are absolutely correct in their judgments? How can we be sure that the edicts in the Talmud are correct when the rabbis themselves generally cannot agree as to the correct judgment?
With all this evidence against an “Oral Law” how can we possibly believe that the traditions and writings of the rabbis in the Talmud should be wholeheartedly taken as Divinely inspired writings? How can we seriously say that the “Oral Law” is in fact halakhah and not simply tradition? Why should we hold the Mishnah or Talmud above any other rabbinic writings and ignore (or even contradict) what was given to Moshe at Har Sinai?
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1Everett Fox. The Five Books of Moses. New York: Schocken Books, 1997.
2Naftali Silberberg. “What is the ‘Oral Torah?’” chabad.org. Chabad, n.d., accessed 15 April 2012. [http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/812102/jewish/What-is-the-Oral-Torah.htm]
3Jewish Encyclopedia. “Talmud Hermeneutics.” jewishencyclopedia.com. The Kopelman Foundation, 1906, accessed 15 April 2012. [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10801-middot-the-seven-of-hillel]
4Gil Student. “The Oral Law.” aishdas.org. The AishDas Soceity, 2001, accessed 15 April 2012. [http://www.aishdas.org/student/oral.htm]
5Aryeh Kaplan. “The Oral Tradition.” aish.com. Aish HaTorah, 26 February 2005, accessed 15 April 2012. [http://www.aish.com/jl/b/ol/48943186.html]