Must There Be an Oral Torah? - Rabbi Yaakov Lynn

[Music] it's over the Torah and what it is and where it came from and all these words that you hear today you're gonna learn well that won't be today but soon remember it's very important words that you hear in just about every class and you may not know what they mean right so the real point of this class is that you should understand where everything else that happens in your Jewish education is coming from right what is it already to come from what's the written Torah what's the Oral Torah what's the Mishnah what's the Talmud what's a Midrash what do they mean when they say it says distracted on page 28a words attract Aid and what do you mean 28a right all of those words last week we talked about the five books of the written Torah and we talked about the five books were broken up into watch here are the five books broken up into every week we read one parsha good all right the parshat Shiva means the partial of the week every week we read one parsha which is a section of the Commish right of the written Torah and we talked about how every year we go the whole thing we talked about the prophets in the books of the writings and then we take from the books of the prophets and create after that was our last week's class okay now we started this class by drawing on the board the important moment if we want to talk about the giving of the Torah he's what happened at man Sinai so he's spoken about the written Torah now turn in your packet to the last page okay where is he some very interesting things that are in the written Torah okay take a look let's start in the middle or it's this excerpt from Deuteronomy everybody see that somebody want to read this this is a one even a part of her verse from Deuteronomy greet in English and you shall slaughter go ahead [Music] good what a lahar Jewish law is this verse teaching us good what about kosher good right kosher animals need to be slaughtered in a kosher way in order for the meat to be kosher and when people ask you what makes this kosher what do people usually say good there's no what you people usually say but you're right it's been blessed by a rabbi right I cannot with the power vested in me blessed meat and turn it into kosher meat there's no such thing as being blessed by rabbi there is a blessing Abraha that one makes before slaughtering an animal in a kosher way right but that's not what makes a kosher but makes a cloture is that it was a coach or animal and the animal slaughtered in a certain way and then it was salted and prepared in a certain way right so this the slaughter in a certain way comes from this verse right now all it says in this verse is that Hashem told Moshe you should it says in the Torah that you just slaughter your animal in the way in which I have commanded you right we're in the how much does it say what that way that as I'm commanded him was it doesn't now you can flip through the five books of the Torah and it never ever tells you how to slaughter an animal it doesn't know all it says is you have to slaughter it and the way I have commanded you one second right but in the reader you can flip through the whole wind or all five books every parsha and you won't find anywhere where it says what is this way that hashem commanded us right so where is it in the oral torah what does that mean where's the oral torah [Music] okay good so what happened was that when a Shem Gabe we talked about our job gives it to her word for word letter for letter right when I Shem gave told the Torah to Moshe he would say Moshe write this down right and then you would say the words when you slaughter your cattle and your sheep and the which God has given you in the way in which I've come in did you stop don't write this part down but watch me and then Hashem would explain to him how does let her an animal and he said you have to slaughter over the knife and you have to make sure the knife doesn't have any Nick's and you have to make sure that it use you cut this many of the vowels that connects the trachea and you have to do great there are all these laws of exactly how to slaughter and what blessing disable each slider what to do with the blood and all of those things right so Hashem told all that to Moshe and told them not to write it down we'll talk about why he did it that way right but that's where the oral torah comes from right the oral torah was not written right now but it was like about the rabbis role in oral torah later right but it's not something that was invented later it's not a series of legends the oral torah is origin is that when a Shem gave the written Torah at Sinai he gave along with it in oral torah and without the oral torah the written Torah makes no sense again what was happening was as Shem was telling Moshe right is there a word for word letter for letter stop let me explain it to you right the next verse down word word letter for letter stop let me explain it to you Moshe didn't write that part down he remembered him right and then most you taught that to the neck tease students which was an entire generation of people we'll talk about what happened from then on right but that's where the now with this we answer a lot of questions right because there are a lot of things that are like I said they make no sense if you don't have an oral torah to go along with it right for example if you see below that right where in the Torah how did anybody ever been to a religious wedding how do they get married under the chuppah good right man gives a ring or something of value to the woman right she receives it he says a sentence that indicates that he's giving this to her cuz he wants to marry her - cause you're witnesses see it they're married right where does it say that in the Torah it doesn't right no it does say I've I'm married sorrow and it does say that you'd suck married anybody know why is it married rifki and it says the Jakob Jakob married good propellent Leia right I'm all kinds of stories about people getting married Moshe I married Zipporah right everybody we know that there is such a concept your parents well your person oh yeah okay if you said give her brother name Gershon so right the all kinds of way we know people got married but it never tells us how to get married right the oral torah learned from one verse almost all the laws of how to get married right but it doesn't say in the written Torah right also you ever see anybody wearing filling yeah good where do they wear them good on their arm and on their head what color are they black and use every city anybody with pinks feelin not yet someday somebody's gonna say yes god forbid right but right they're black all right what shape are they square here's the round ones no right what's inside them certain parchments right if you look inside every set of two filling in the whole world hopefully they all have exactly the same things inside them and if you look through them hundred years ago to introduce five hundred thousand years ago they have exactly the same thing inside them right so we're in the written Torah doesn't say sure where it's fill in all it says in the written Torah is that men should wear something called tota food on their hand and between their eyes it's all says in the Torah now there were total folds it turns out it's not even Hebrew it's a contraction of two words from two different languages right and nobody knew what that word meant right and it doesn't say it just says where your hand on your hand in between your eyes right what does it mean I should be wearing them here and here right but if you're obviously wearing some earrings fun you've never seen anybody wear them they're in there and somehow everybody seems to know what talked about are what color they are what the where to put them and what's inside them but none of that is in there in Tara that was all in the oral torah right now by the way there was a group of people there are actually several groups of people but the most recent one was a group called the Karaites anybody ever hear the cat rights apparently there are a few wandering around somewhere still but the carrots were people who believed in the written Torah and they didn't believe in the Oral Torah right is it this one we can accept that there's a written Torah given by God but we don't accept this oral torah stuff so they actually would we're there to fill in on their hand and between their eyes right I don't know how they knew what color it was I don't know how they knew what to put inside you they don't even know what I don't really know who worries it and who doesn't right I don't know they knew straps on it right etcetera etcetera I don't know how they got married I mean that because without the oral law none of this makes sense but there were groups of people the carrots offer them the Sadducees who tried to do this and it didn't work right because Judaism without there were a lot doesn't make any sense and I often tell people if you want to learn more about Judaism there are a lot of great books I can recommend but one book you should definitely not read to start learning about Judaism is the Torah right at least not without commentaries right because if you take this book right and you read you start reading through it you will find grammar mistakes you will find things make sense you will find things that aren't explained well enough you would find things that seem to contradict those things isn't it Sara right so without the oral torah i don't know how to make heads or tails of the written Torah right I'll give you another example right everybody knows that prayer is a very central part of Judaism right synagogue or not in synagogue with you pray once a day or twice a day three times a day right all of that is not in the Torah it's something anywhere in the written Torah that anybody should pray it does say that we should do some kind of service with our heart we have to serve Hashem with our heart and the Oral Torah explains that the way you serve a chef with your heart is by praying but if you just read through the written Torah you'd say okay just don't pray because we don't about any any time where it tells us that we should pray we do whether people prayed but we don't find that we're told to pray right okay more right on Shabbos so if you've ever kept Chaves you ever been to somebody's house to keep shopping as you know that they have all kinds of rules but what you can and can't do in Java can't turn on lights and and if you want to separate out the peace and the carrots is the way you can do it and what you can't do it right and if you're playing with one of the kids and you say let's build a puzzle you might say we're not allowed to go to Buzzo or you can't do it like that how you can't move that thing right all these laws right you're all familiar with this yeah what is it saying the turbo Travis this is one thing two things there's never one you can't certifier number two you can do something called Malaka there was my laughs I mean [Music] yes good 39 right good all this is in the Torah is don't do Malacca another word Melissa loosely translated means work right so you don't allowed to work on Chavez okay so I don't go to work fine otherwise sometimes I do go to work right because if you pay each episode and know if I would come and speak right shiron I've spent Chavez together right right so what does that mean my violating Chavez if we'd says don't work I quit to work right tell you something else if I were to pick up this tape on let's say it was a really heavy table and I want to carry it up and down all the steps in to pay my job is can I do that yes but if I go over here and I go like can I do that no right so this word work obviously is much more complicated than the word work and it as ariella said there are 39 categories of it where does all that come from now one word about that in the written Torah all it says is the lid afire and dr. bilac right that's it so everything we know about Chavez is only because we have an oral torah and the last one that I listed here there many many of these things we talked about a few more but it says in the Torah I ain't us I'm an eye for an eye what does that mean what does it mean to die for night okay well what's the simple understanding [Music] good right specifically cord right that if somebody is part of the court and when I say he did something we say okay well if you did that to him so we'll do the same thing to you right and there were systems of court systems that work that way right so if if somebody kills somebody let's say somebody not sets up his eye what should the punishment be well right okay that's literally with the reason I've heard I mean right has there ever been a Jewish Court in history that's done that ever any record of thousands of years of Jewish history of any court ever taking out anybody's high because they were accused of taking out somebody else's I know right do we take the Torah literally we Jews in general yes we always are literally right except this verse this first and I meant to be taken literally how do we know it says in the oral torah if he they wouldn't take it an eye for an eye right if if it didn't say that in the oral torah we'd be taking people's eyes out right sorry said to do right but every Jewish Court in history has known that this verse is not meant to be taken literally even though we think everything else in the written down literally right how do we know that from the oral torah right well thank you something else very very interesting what does anybody know a little bit of Hebrew what word is that good hello right what word is that call out okay good right except if I tell you that this one is spelled like this and this one is smelled like this right now what word is this hey live right now what is hell out milk way to say that Halen is a type of fat that's found around the kidneys in an animal right the Torah says visit Arabs say about Hollow can you drink co-op yes but not with now with me right now Caleb this fat that's an animal were in the kidneys is a very serious prohibition you may not eat it right kosher animals we remove all the anything that might have Caleb in it right it's a certain type of fat not all fat but so right at these forbidden types of fat it says in the Torah doesn't it or we can't do the tame them right we don't know the reason for that okay now what has anybody ever seen as her scroll yeah what's interesting about this is a Torah scroll those are the vowels so all the Torah says is that this is completely forbidden is completely permitted just donea with me and this is absolutely forbidden don't ever let us find you ingesting this right now I have no way of knowing which ones which right it could be that the Taurus is thou shalt not by very serious punishment thou shalt not ever drink milk right and the forbidden bells around their kidneys eat them just do anything with me right one could very easily read the Torah that way right but the oral torah tells us know that the first one is calab which means milk and the second one is kind of which means forbidden tense but without the world's aura that doesn't make it yes well when it needs to I mean again remember the oral torah is not not written down we'll get to the written down part today is written down but the oral torah was not written down it was explained right so therefore Moshe would tell people hey guys this project that says don't eat meat and and pet llama bet it means don't eat meat and milk and they would say how do you know and he would say because Hashem told me right so right there was the written part and then it will talk about why it is this way it will also talk about why do we believe this Sid or all didn't mistakes happen along the way okay but first what we want to point out that it must be if you believe in the written tire if you believe therein there's divine you can't not believe in the oral torah right because the wind 'red is unreadable without an oral torah right it must be that motion that hashem not only gave us the text but explained the text to us right and that's what we understand the oral torah it to be the Oral Torah is a Shems explanation that comes along with the written Torah [Music]