Written and Oral Torahs

The Sages taught: There was an incident involving one gentile who came before Shammai. The gentile said to Shammai: How many Torahs do you have? He said to him: Two, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The gentile said to him: With regard to the Written Torah, I believe you, but with regard to the Oral Torah, I do not believe you. Convert me on condition that you will teach me only the Written Torah. Shammai scolded him and cast him out with reprimand. The same gentile came before Hillel, who converted him and began teaching him Torah. On the first day, he showed him the letters of the alphabet and said to him: Alef, bet, gimmel, dalet. The next day he reversed the order of the letters and told him that an alef is a tav and so on. The convert said to him: But yesterday you did not tell me that. Hillel said to him: You see that it is impossible to learn what is written without relying on an oral tradition. Didn’t you rely on me? Therefore, you should also rely on me with regard to the matter of the Oral Torah, and accept the interpretations that it contains.

Know that each commandment that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to Moshe, our teacher – peace be upon him – was given to him with its explanation. He would say to him the commandment and afterward tell him its explanation and content; and [so too with] everything that is included in the Book of the Torah. And the manner of its teaching to Israel is as it is said (Eruvin 54b – in Chapter 5),

Moshe would enter his tent, and Aharon would enter it first, and Moshe would tell him the commandment that was given to him, and teach him its explanation one time.

And [then] Aharon withdrew and retreated to our teacher, Moshe's, right, and Elazar and Itamar, his sons, entered after him. And Moshe would tell them what he told Aharon.

And they withdrew, and one sat to our teacher, Moshe's left and the second to the right of Aharon. And afterward, the seventy elders came, and Moshe taught them as he taught Aharon and his sons.

And afterward, the masses and 'all who sought the Lord' came and He placed that commandment in front of them, [and so forth] until they heard everything from his mouth.

It came out that Aharon heard that commandment from the mouth of Moshe four times, his sons three times, the elders twice and the rest of the people once.

And Moshe withdrew, and Aharon reviewed the explanation of that commandment which he learned – that he heard from the mouth of Moshe four times, as we said – to all those present.

And Aharon retreated from them, after his sons had heard the commandment four times – three times from the mouth of Moshe, and once from the mouth of Aharon.

And Elazar and Itamar reviewed [it,] to teach that commandment to all the people that were present, after Aharon withdrew. And they withdrew from teaching.

And it came out that the seventy elders heard the commandment four times – two from the mouth of Moshe, one from the mouth of Aharon and one from the mouth of Elazar and Itamar.

And afterward, the elders also reviewed [it,] to teach the commandment to the masses one time. It came out that the entire congregation hears that commandment four times – once from the mouth of Moshe, once from the mouth of Aharon, a third [time] from the mouth of his sons and a fourth [time] from the mouth of the elders.

And afterward all the people went to teach – each person his neighbor – all that they heard from the mouth of Moshe – and write that commandment in scrolls. And the officers would circulate to all of Israel to teach and correct, until [the people] knew the commandment by heart and became accustomed to reading it. And afterward, they taught them the explanations of that commandment that was given from God – and that explanation would include [many] matters. And they would write the commandment and study [it] according to the received tradition.

Our saintly Rabbi Judah compiled the Mishnah. From the days of Moses to the time of our saintly Rabbi Judah they had composed no work to be taught in public on subjects of the Oral Torah; but in each generation, the head of the supreme court, or a prophet who lived in that period, would note down for himself a memorandum of the traditions which he apprehended from his teachers, transmitting them to the public orally. So too, everyone would note down for his own use as much as he could the traditional intrepretation of the Torah and the rules of conduct that were based on it, as he perceived them.— — This used to be the regular procedure until the appearance of our saintly Rabbi Judah. He compiled all the traditions, laws, comments, and interpretations, which had been transmitted by our teacher Moses and by the courts of the preceding generations, with regard to the entire Torah. He employed all this material, of which he composed the work of the Mishnah. Then he taught it diligently to the students in public, so that it became well known to all the people of Israel, who made copies of it and taught it everywhere, so that the Oral Torah might not be forgotten among the Jewish people.

BY OUR MASTER MOSES BEN MAIMON OF BLESSED MEMORY
"Then should I not be ashamed, when I have regard unto all Thy Commandments". (Ps. 119.6.)
All of the commandments which were given to Moses on Sinai were given together with their oral explanation for, it is said: "And I will give thee the tables of stone, and the Torah and the commandment" (Ex. 24.12.); the Torah, is Holy Writ; and the commandment, its oral explanation. Moreover, He commanded us to observe the Torah by the word of the commandment; thus it is this commandment which is called Oral Torah.

The whole Torah was written by Moses our Master, before his demise, by his own hand; and he gave a Book to each and every tribe, and one Book he deposited in the Ark as testimony, even as it is said; "Take this Book of the Torah and put it by the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there as a witness against thee" (Deut. 32.26.);

but the commandment, which is the oral explanation of the Torah, he did not reduce to writing, but he charged the Elders and Joshua and the rest of all Israel concerning its observance, even as it is said: "All the word which I command you, that shall ye observe to do" (Deut. 13.1.); therefore, is this word of the commandment called, Oral Torah.

Although the Oral Torah was not reduced to writing, Moses our Master gave instructions in its full scope at his tribunal-seat, to seventy Elders. Eleazar, Phinehas and Joshua, all the three of them received it from Moses; yet, unto Joshua, because he was the disciple of Moses our Master, he transmitted the Oral Torah and charged him concerning its observance. Joshua likewise continued throughout his lifetime to study it orally;

One is obligated to divide his time of study by three; one third for the study of Holy Writ, one third for the study of the Oral Torah, and one third for thinking and reflecting so that he may understand the end of a thing from its beginning, and deduct one matter from another, and compare one matter to another, and reason out by the hermeneutical rules in which the Torah is expounded to the end that he may know which are the principal rules and how to deduct therefrom that which is forbidden and that which is permitted, and other like matters which he studied from oral tradition. This subject of study is called Gemara.

Now, why did our saintly Rabbi Judah do what he did and did not leave things as they were? Because he realized that the number of students kept decreasing, while ever new troubles kept coming; a wicked government was spreading out in the world and rising in power; the Jewish people were wandering about, migrating to distant localities. So he composed a work, designed as a handbook for everybody, in order that they might study from it speedily and that it should not be forgotten. He spent all his life teaching the Mishnah in public together with his colleagues, members of his court.— —

Rav compiled the Sifra and the Sifré to explain and to impart the principles of the Mishnah. Rabbi Hiyya compiled the Tosefta to explain the subject matter of the Mishnah. Similarly, Rabbi Hoshaya and Bar Kappara compiled Baraithoth to interpret the wording of the Mishnah. Rabbi Yoḥanan compiled the Jerusalem Talmud, in Eretz Yisrael, about three centuries after the destruction of the Temple.— —

Ravina and Rav Ashi were the last sages of the Talmud. Rav Ashi compiled the Babylonian Talmud, in Babylonia, about one century after Rabbi Yoḥanan's compilation of the Jerusalem Talmud.— — It follows therefore that Ravina and Rav Ashi, together with their colleagues, were the last great sages who transmitted the Oral Torah.— —

The scholars who rose shortly after the compilation of the Talmud and studied it deeply became famous for their wisdom. They are called Geonim. The Geonim who rose in Eretz Yisrael and Babylonia, Spain and France, studied the method of the Talmud, elucidated its obscure passages, and explained its subject matter; for indeed, the way of the Talmud is exceedingly deep.— — The inhabitants of every town addressed many questions to each contemporary Gaon and asked for explanations of difficult passages in the Talmud. The Geonim would answer the questions to the best of their knowledge. Those who posed the questions compiled the responsa into books for purposes of study.