We learn that many Jewish laws are currently followed by observant Jews based on our Sages’ writings, yet much of these writings fail to show the logical link between practical Jewish Law and the Written Torah. For example, the Torah says that one should not cook a kid in the milk of its mother. From this statement, we now have volumes exploring to the nth degree what is or is not permitted; such discussions always assumes facts not explicitly stated and requires a leap of faith. In the Passover Hagadah, we read Rabbi Tarfon stating that because the Torah says an” outstretched arm ” it means there were 50 plagues. How does he know for a fact that there were 50 plagues ?
These two examples point out the problem with practical Jewish Law. Many people reject Torah because the Rabbis fail to teach it in a way that fulfills ones sense of logic and spirituality.
Many Rabbis say that one must simply do, without knowing why – that is the problem. I’ve read a number of books on this subject by noted Rabbinic authors, yet each have failed to show the logical reasons to perform many of the rituals we are required to perform. One can believe in God and accept the Torah without accepting what appears to be unexplained dogma.
Why must Teffilin be black? Why does ” a sign between your eyes” mean Tefillin ? Why is an Etrog the “most beautiful fruit” ?
You’re raising a very important question and I’ll do my best to clarify things a bit. Lets take your question step by step –
You stated that:
“many Jewish laws are currently followed by observant Jews based on our Sages’ writings, yet much of these writings fail to show the logical link between practical Jewish Law and the Written Torah.“.
This assertion is simply incorrect; the overwhelming majority of the Talmud, which is that part of our sages’ writings upon which most of our observance is based , is devoted solely to logically tracing the Halacha (Practical Law) back to the Written Torah – in terms of your example, there are pages and pages dealing with how we trace all the details of the prohibition of meat and milk mixtures back to the simple verse which states not to cook a kid in its mothers milk. When you say that “such discussions always assumes facts not explicitly stated” you are right in the sense that almost nothing is explicitly stated in the Written Torah but incorrect in calling the facts assumptions – the Sages could not tolerate assumptions in their pursuit of Truth – each detail is carefully derived from the verse using a system of logic taught to Moses by G-d on Mt Sinai i.e the 13 principles of Biblical exegesis; let me elaborate a little.
According to Jewish Tradition, Moses received both the Written and Oral Law from G-d on Mt Sinai i.e G-d taught him all 613 mitzvot (written law) along with a detailed explanation of how to carry each one out (Oral Law). For example, G-d would say ” You shall dwell in Succot [booths] seven days” which is the verse appearing in the Written Torah; He would then give over the details i.e who is obligated, how big must the Succa be, what does it have to be made of, etc, etc which are part of the Oral Law. The Sages of later generations would then use the 13 principles mentioned above to see how each of these details handed down to them as part of the Oral law can be traced back to the verse in the Written Law. In terms of the example you cited, it was G-d who informed Moses that the verse ‘thou shalt not cook a kid in its mothers milk’ must not be taken literally and limited to the simple case it presents, i.e He told him that the laws of meat and milk are not limited either to a kid or to its mothers milk; Again, the point is that the Rabbis of the Talmud did not start with the verse and extrapolate the laws, but rather they started with the all laws and used the 13 principles to see how they are implied in the verse; the genius and beauty of the Written Law is revealed when we discover that G-d’s simple and seemingly obscure phrasing of the laws actually alludes to a vast multiplicity of details.
Thus, when you ask ‘Why is an etrog the “most beautiful fruit”?’ the answer is because G-d said so – he taught it to Moses on Mt Sinai, who then passed it down to us as part of the Oral Law. The Rabbis of the Talmud then discussed their different opinions as to how the words in the Written Torah ” Pri Eytz Hadar ” allude to the etrog fruit. However, there are a number of laws taught to Moses by G-d which cannot be traced back to the Written Law in any way – there is simply no allusion to them whatsoever and they cannot be derived using the 13 principles – these are termed by the Sages ‘Halacha Le’Moshe MiSinai’ (a law of Moses from Sinai). One of them happens to be that the Tefillin must be square with black straps. Now that we know the law we can speculate about the symbolism involved – What does a square represent? Why the color black? These are not reasons for us to follow the law, rather possible implications of the law – the only reason we do it is because that is what G-d told us to do.
Of course, not all the laws that we follow today were handed to Moshe on Mt Sinai; changing historical circumstances demanded new responses that were not necessary or relevant during the times of Moses and so the Prophets and later the Sages used the 13 logical principles to derive new laws from the Written Torah; they also had the authority to create ‘fences’ (Gezerot) to ensure that the Torah would not be violated (for example, prohibiting us from leaving something cooking on an open flame at the beginning of Shabbat so that we won’t come to increase or lower the flame which would be transgressing a Biblical prohibition); the reasons behind these ‘fences’, and for all the other Rabbinical enactments, are also to be found in the Talmud.
You ask ‘In the Hagadah, we read Rabbi Tarfon stating that because the Torah says an” outstretched arm ” it means there were 50 plagues. How does he know for a fact that there were 50 plagues? ‘ – he knows because he probably had a tradition from Moses that this was the case and has used the 13 principles handed down from Sinai in order to see how the verse alludes to it..
Those Rabbis who you’ve heard say ‘one must simply do, without knowing why’ do not mean that one should never know why; all they are saying is that the first step must be to do even if you don’t know why – would anyone in their right mind refuse to take medicine to cure a potentially fatal disease just because he doesn’t understand how it works? When the Jewish People accepted the Torah on Mt Sinai they said “whatever G-d has said, we will do and we will understand” – first we will do and then we will devote our lives to understanding the Truth. The fact that some Rabbis ‘have failed to show the logical reasons to perform many of the rituals‘ doesn’t mean that the reasons and sources don’t exist – the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, the Midrash, and the tens of thousands of books of commentaries are all open for anyone who has the desire to understand reality as presented by the creator; when one accepts the Torah upon himself he is accepting all of it – the explained and the unexplained, the logical and the illogical – and then the quest for Truth begins.
Yours sincerely,
Ari Lobel