The written Torah was like half a book until ....x

Then Moses inquired about the goat of sin offering, and it had already been burned! He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and said,

“ Moses diligently sought out the goat for the sin-offering ” (Lev. 10:16).

The Masorah notes that these words, “diligently sought” are the midpoint in a letter count of the Torah [bQid 30a].

One needs to understand what is meant by this, what difference it makes. In my humble opinion, [it is as follows]:

We know that the written and oral Torahs are all one, that neither can be separated from the other. Neither is indeed possible without the other, since the written Torah reveals its secrets through oral interpretation. The written Torah without the oral Torah is incomplete. It was like half a book until the Sages came and interpreted Torah, enlightening our eyes and revealing its hidden secrets.

Sometimes they would uproot something from the Torah, as is the case regarding the [punishment by] lashes. The Torah says, “He shall be struck by forty lashes” (Deut. 25:3), but the sages reduced them by one.

They did all this through the manifestation of their holy spirit, because blessed YHWH appeared over them. [This enabled them] to see the root of everything written in the Torah in its true state, empowering them to do this. The wholeness of the written Torah is thus dependent upon the oral. . . . Everything depends upon the sages’ interpretations; they constitute the wholeness of the written Torah. . .

This is true of each generation and its interpreters. They make the Torah complete. Torah is interpreted in each generation according to what the generation needs. God enlightens the eyes of each generations sages [to interpret] His holy Torah in accord with the soul-root of that generation. One who denies this is like one who denies Torah, God forbid.

(Translation by Arthur Green)