Today, we're going to consider a question someone sent me last week: Why did the Creator of the world, when He gave us the Torah, give us Torah Shebichtav (the written Torah) and Torah Shebe'al Peh (the oral Torah)? Why didn't Hashem write everything down clearly in the Torah? This way, there would be no mistakes. It would be clear exactly what He wants from us, and there would be no doubts about the direction. Now that we have an oral law, Torah Shebe'al Peh, we may have certain machloket (disputes) about what Hashem wants from us. Why did Hashem give us two types of Torah, the written Torah and the oral Torah? I think this is a very, very important and fundamental question that all of us really must think about and understand. It can help us understand, but it will help us do things better.
Before I answer this question, I think it's important to know the following fact. I'm going to share a story that happened to me. Years back, somebody asked me, “Rabbi, could you please tell me where it says in the Torah that you can't put on lights on Shabbat?” I wasn't sure whether this was a sincere question, but at the same time, I thought it was a good question. So I asked him, “Really? What you just asked is a very good question. But I want you to know that the question you just asked is a lot bigger than you think. You're asking me where it says that you're not allowed to put on lights on Shabbat. Where does it say,” I asked him, “that you're supposed to put on tefillin (phylacteries)?”
He said, “What do you mean? Isn't there a pasuk (verse) in the Torah?” I said, “There is a pasuk in the Torah that says we should put a sign on our hand. What exactly does that mean—a sign on my hand? Would you ever dream that this means a box with parashiyot (sections) written inside it? Who would have dreamed, when the Torah says that we should make these signs, or totafot bein einecha (frontlets between your eyes), what totafot means? You're right, it's written in the Torah: to put a sign on our hands and to have totafot between our eyes. What are totafot? Does your Torah come with pictures? Mine doesn't. There are no pictures in the Torah. So what do these words mean? How are we supposed to know what tefillin really is, what it looks like, where you put it, where on your arm? What does it mean, ‘between your eyes’? Where exactly on the head is that?”
I asked him, “How do we know?” I said, “You put on tzitzit (fringes), right?” “Of course,” he answered. “Where does it say in the Torah to put on tzitzit?” I said, “That's an easy one. It says it. We say it every day, at least three times. What does it mean? What does it say? What does tzitzit mean? How do you know what tzitzit means? Again, there are no pictures in the Torah. What should I put on my four corners? Tzitzit. Go figure what that means.”
“Shabbat? You're asking me where it says to put on lights? Where does that say? Where does it say you can't cook on Shabbat? Where does it say you can't build on Shabbat? The Torah says that on Shabbat, we're not allowed to do melacha (work). But what is melacha? What does that mean? What is the definition of a melacha? What is called work? You know, on Shabbat, if a person took a heavy table, put it on his shoulder, and walked around his house for 24 hours straight, from candle lighting to Havdalah—25 hours—he'd be running around with a heavy table on his back. By the time Shabbat was over, the man would be completely exhausted. He'd never worked so hard in his life. That person, according to halacha (Jewish law), is considered shomer Shabbat (one who observes Shabbat). But if a person takes one seed, an apple seed, and throws it in the ground, that person is mechalel Shabbat (one who desecrates Shabbat). How are we supposed to know that? Where does it say in the Torah what's called work? It doesn't say.”
“You heard the laws of Kibbud Av Va'em (honoring one's father and mother). The Torah says, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ That's an easy one. Clear. Not clear at all. What does it mean to honor my father and mother? What are the rules? Let's say my father says, ‘I want you to get married today.’ Do I have to listen to my father? To my mother? They tell me, ‘You know what? I want you to be a doctor, not a lawyer. I want you to be a doctor.’ Is that Kibbud Av Va'em? If I listen or I don't listen, how does it work? What are the rules? You're supposed to stand up for them. You're supposed to kiss their hand. What are you now? Are you allowed to argue with them? Could you argue nicely? You know how many rules there are to Kibbud Av Va'em? I once saw a book, probably a thousand pages, just on the mitzvah (commandment) of Kibbud Av Va'em, with all the details that come up in the relationship between a father and mother and a child. And all the Torah says is, ‘Honor your father and honor your mother.’ That's it. How am I supposed to know what to do?”
“Oh, that's an easy one. It says in the Torah that you're supposed to love your friend. That's an easy one. Not easy at all. Read the words: ‘Love your friend like you love yourself.’ So what do you want me to do? What does that mean? Let's say I go and buy a car. My friend also needs a car. Do I have to buy him a car too? It says, ‘Love your friend like you love yourself.’ I'm going to rent an apartment. Should I get my friend one too? Who is my friend, by the way? Who is that guy? Is everyone my friend? Is it only my neighbor? Is it my cousin? And what does it mean to love him? How much should I love him? What do I have to do for him? What are the parameters of these halachot? Clueless.”
“Allah, on Sukkot, I asked him, ‘Where does it say in the Torah that you're supposed to take the lulav (palm branch)?’ I see you want Sukkot with the lulav. Where does it say in the Torah, ‘Take the lulav’? It doesn't say. It says something to do with the dates. What does that mean? How would anyone know that's a lulav? ‘Take a beautiful fruit.’ A beautiful fruit. How would you ever dream that isn't an etrog (citron)? You know how many beautiful fruits there are? Sukkot. Oh, that's an easy one. Yeah, it says—oh, really? Easy. What is a sukkah (shack)? What does it mean to live in a shack? What is the definition of a shack? Does it have a roof? Does it have walls? What is the definition of a sukkah? What material is it made from? No idea. You read the Torah, and you have no clue.”
I told my friend who asked me this question, “You're asking me where it says in the Torah that you can't put on lights? You don't even realize how big your question is. Because if you really look in the Torah, you will not be able to understand even one halacha. You think you only don't understand the lights on Shabbat? You will not be able to figure out one halacha the right way. Even the most popular halachot, you wouldn't know what they are. Not tzitzit, not tefillin, not Sukkot, not Shabbat, any halacha—not kiddush (sanctification). What does it say about kiddush in the Torah? What does it say? Every Friday you make kiddush. What does it say? Oh, it says, Zachor et yom haShabbat lekadsho (Remember the Shabbat day, to sanctify it). Mention the Shabbat, remember the Shabbat. What does that mean? How do I do that?”
“How about kashrut (Jewish dietary laws)? How about shechita (slaughtering)? Nobody here would eat a piece of meat unless they knew it was slaughtered according to Jewish law. So there must be somewhere in the Torah where it says how to slaughter, right? Yeah, it does, actually. It says Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu that you should slaughter as I told you. Could you imagine that? In the Torah it says, ‘And you should slaughter as I told you.’ Now, how are we supposed to know what He told them? Who would know that shechita is with a knife by the neck, with the simanim (signs), the two sides? How are we supposed to know that? It doesn't say in the Torah anywhere, exactly, the process of shechita. There are chapters and chapters of Shulchan Aruch in the laws of shechita, of slaughtering. But in the Torah, you don't find anything.”
Again, the man who came to ask me the question had a big question in his mind: Where does it say in the Torah that you can't put on lights on Shabbat? He walked away from me with much bigger questions than that. Where does it say anything in the Torah? There isn't one law that would be clear in the Torah, that you would be able to learn from it. Again, the Torah says, “Keep Shabbat.” But what does that mean? The Torah says, “Put on tzitzit.” What is tzitzit? The Torah says, “Put on tefillin.” What is tefillin? There are no pictures. How are you supposed to know what these things are?
I told him, “I think it's important for all of us to know that when you read the Torah, you understand that it was not written in a way that you could understand on its own. That's the first lesson. Before we ask why Hashem gave an oral Torah, first we have to make sure that there has to be an oral Torah. There is no way for a human on this planet to pick up the book called the Torah and actually learn how to live from it. From the way it's written, I know there has to be an oral Torah. It could not have been given by itself. There is no way. From the way it's written, you don't have to be a genius. You don't even have to have tradition. Just read it and say, ‘Oh wow, I don't know how to do anything.’”
“Imagine you're 20 years old. You never had any tradition, you didn't grow up in a home that has rules, you grew up by yourself somewhere in the jungle. Someone gave you a Torah to read, and you know Hebrew, luckily, and you started to read it. You know how many laws you get out of it? Almost nothing. That means the Torah was not written in a way that you and I could pick it up, read it, and walk away with conclusions. That's not the way the Torah was written.”
“I'll give you a mashal (parable) of the way it's written. Imagine I was speaking somewhere and there was an hour-long lecture. The place was packed, everybody was intrigued, their eyes open, their ears interested, and you walked in right in the last two minutes. You'd see what was going on and realize that something good was happening, and then it was over. Everyone's saying, ‘Chazak u'Baruch.’ Everyone's walking out: ‘Wow, that was unbelievable. Amazing. I never heard such inspiration. I never heard such clarity, and it was funny also.’ You see your friend walking out over there and say, ‘What happened here?’ He says, ‘The rabbi—tonight was unbelievable. The last hour went by in a minute. You don't understand how much information. He must have quoted 45 sources, stories, in the books, from modern times. I mean, the whole thing was unbelievable. You missed it.’ ‘Was it recorded?’ ‘No, no, it's Shabbat, not recorded. You missed it.’ ‘Oh, I feel terrible. I really want to know what he said.’”
“So your friend tells you, ‘You know what? I realized that the rabbi kept looking down. He must have had a little piece of paper that he wrote everything down on. Maybe if you ask him, he'll give it to you.’ That's a good idea. He goes up to the rabbi and tells him the story: ‘I heard it was great tonight. I'm sorry I came in late. I missed it. Please, would you mind sharing with me the paper you were reading from? I'd like to take it so I can know what you said.’ And the rabbi says, ‘Yeah, of course, absolutely. Here, you can take it. Take this little piece of paper.’”
“Now he sits down at home, trying to read it to get all the inspiration and all the information he missed. And he reads: ‘Hmm. Masechet Berachot, 40th page. The story of Rabbi Yochanan. Torah speaks about Kibbud Av Va'em. Halacha, Shulchan Aruch.’ The guy's reading all the bullet points. He can't understand a word. I mean, he sees basically what the subject matter is from putting together all the bullet points, but doesn't understand anything. He goes to his friend and says, ‘I don't understand a word.’ He said, ‘This is the greatest lecture you ever heard, the greatest speech you ever heard.’ He said, ‘I can't understand a word. I have all the notes. I don't see anything. I don't understand anything.’”
“It's no surprise to us that the man doesn't understand anything. You can't blame the author for that. The author didn't write those notes for someone to pick them up, read them, and understand. When the author writes bullet points, it's to remind him of information that he already knows. In case he forgets the point while he's speaking, he writes bullet points. It's clear from the way he wrote them that they weren't intended for the listener to understand from the actual words he wrote. That's obvious.”
“There are certain books today you can go to the bookstore and pick up. The author who wrote them clearly had in mind that when you pick up his book, you'll read it and be able to understand what he wants just from reading the book. So if I'm writing a book for you to read and understand on your own, without any other help, I'm going to write it a certain way. If I'm going to write bullet points, it's a different kind of book. From the book and the way it's written, I can understand what the one writing it was thinking about. What was his expectation of me while I read this book?”
“Clearly, when you read the Torah, you understand there is no way the author of the Torah could have expected any human to pick it up and walk away from it. It's not possible. You can't walk away with any understanding. Forget lights on Shabbat. Like I told you, you will not be able to know the most basic halachot of the Torah if not for another body that explains it. That is clearly the way it's written. There is no other way for anyone to explain otherwise. It's from the text itself.”
“So it's clear that the Creator of the world gave us two types of Torah, or the Torah in two ways. He gave us the written Torah. We'll call the written Torah the bullet points: ‘Yes, give charity.’ To whom? How much? In what way? All the details of charity are in the oral Torah. The oral Torah explains to us all the bullet points in the written Torah.”
“Let me add one more important point. Most people don't realize this, but the oral Torah was actually given to us before the written Torah. It's true that the oral Torah explains the written Torah. But really, the oral Torah came first. We received the Torah by Har Sinai, and we stayed in the desert with Moshe Rabbeinu for 40 years. Moshe Rabbeinu wrote Sifrei Torah at the end of his life. That means that for 40 years we were a nation who kept the Torah and learned the Torah, but we didn't have a written Torah.”
“So what were they learning? When Moshe Rabbeinu came down from Har Sinai and taught the Jewish people the Torah, he taught them the laws of Shabbat, the laws of kashrut, the laws of tzniut (modesty), the laws of shaatnez (mixed fibers), all the laws. What was he teaching them? Have you ever wondered what they were learning for 40 years in the desert? They didn't have a Torah. They didn't have Chumashim (Pentateuch volumes). There was nothing. So what were they learning? What was Moshe Rabbeinu? What did he come down with from Har Sinai? What was he there for? If all he did was pick up the Torah and bring it to us, why did he have to stay so long over there? He was there 40 days and 40 nights. What's he doing there?”
“Moshe Rabbeinu came down with the oral Torah. For 40 years, our people only had an oral Torah. They were only able to learn from Moshe Rabbeinu all the halachot, all the details, the thousands and thousands of details that come up in life. The Torah is not a religious book that tells you what to do on Shabbat morning. The Torah guides every moment of our lives, every decision. The Torah has something to say about it. Every situation, the Torah has an opinion about it. You know how many? Tens of thousands of situations, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, that people can come up with: ‘Oh wow, this happened to me. What do I do now?’ These were all given over to Moshe Rabbeinu.”
“So the oral Torah was given to us before the written Torah. And the written Torah is like the bullet points of the oral Torah. ‘Yes, keep Shabbat.’ That's what it says in the Torah: keep Shabbat. It's true. That's what you're supposed to do. But see, that's the bullet point. The real rules and the real laws are only from the oral Torah. Without an oral Torah, we have nothing. We have zero. We must always remember that. The oral Torah is not a new explanation of the Torah. The oral Torah is the Torah. The written one that we have is the bullet points.”
“Now here's the question that was asked today. Why did Hashem do it this way? Why didn't Hashem give the Torah on a hard drive, or maybe on a CD, DVD, or maybe a little USB? Nice, imagine that. You got a USB. Hashem gave out USBs on Har Sinai. And don't tell me, ‘Oh no, there were no USBs then.’ Hashem could have figured it out. Each guy gets a USB, and anytime you have a question, boom, you type it in: ‘Okay, what do I do in this situation?’ Here it is. Here's the answer. Simple. Guidance. Clear. Why wasn't the Torah given to us? Why wasn't it given to Am Yisrael (the Jewish people) on a USB? That's a very important question. Why is there an oral Torah here? With the oral Torah, it could be forgotten, it could be misunderstood. You go to a class sometimes, the Rabbi said something, and three guys walk out: ‘The Rabbi said this.’ ‘No, no, he said that.’ ‘No, no, he really meant this.’ What are you there for? Give us a USB. Direct connection to the Creator. It's all good. It's a nice question.”
“I'm going to tell you the answer to this question. It's a very fundamental answer. I feel I got clarity from this answer through an experience I had in my life. About 20 years ago, maybe a little less than that, I ended up being sued by a neighbor for something that I didn't do. So I went to see a lawyer. I drove to the lawyer's office. I'll never forget this. At the time, I was learning Torah full time. I was used to being in a room with books and people learning. That was my whole day, morning till night. I walked into this lawyer's office, and we went to a conference room surrounded by books, from the bottom to the top. They all had the same binding, the same exact cover. The colors were exactly the same, and they were all numbered in order, from AA to AB to AC, all the way to Z. I'm in this room talking to the lawyer, but I'm really not paying attention. I can't believe how many law books there are in this country. I can't believe it. I'm looking around. I said, ‘Wow.’”
“In the middle of the meeting, I asked this lawyer, ‘Can I ask you a question? I know you're a lawyer. So you're telling me you learned all these books? You know all these books? That's a lot of information.’ He looks at me with a smile. I said, ‘No, no, no. I don't learn all the books.’ I said, ‘So what are they there for?’ He said, ‘Whenever I have a case, whenever I have a situation—a car hits a pedestrian—okay, let's go to vehicle, to the V. We look up the case. I study the rule, what it says. And then I have the rule. I have the book. I have the law.’”
“That's exactly what Hashem doesn't want from us. Let me explain. In life, it's not what we do that's important. It's who we are that's important. The Torah expects us to become great people, not only to do things that are correct, but to become people of quality. We're not here to do. We're here to become. It's a very big difference. Now, obviously, to become, you have to do. But, for example, we have to become kind people. We have to become charitable people. Of course, if you're a charitable person, you give charity. But it's not about giving charity. It's about becoming charitable. That means that even if you're in a situation in life where you can't give charity, because there are no poor people around you, or because you have no money, even then, you could be a charitable person. You just don't have the ability to give right now.”
“The Torah wants us to become people of quality, people who appreciate our parents, even if we can't do Kibbud Av Va'em. The actions are only a testimony to who we've become. But really, it's about who we've become. It's about us. The Torah was not meant to be on a shelf, for you to pick it up and learn about something when you need to know it. No, no, no. The Torah has to be living inside of you. Whether you have the chance to do the halacha or you don't, you have to know the halacha of a vehicle that hits a pedestrian. Whether that ever happens in your life or not makes no difference. That has to be part of you. You have to have the wisdom inside of you. You have to have the middot (character traits) inside of you. Whether the situations come up or they don't come up, that's just when things come into the open. But the reality is: Who are you?”
“Hashem is interested in us being charitable people, not people who give charity. There's a huge difference between that. Again, Hashem expects us to be charitable people, not people who give charity. You can give charity but not be a charitable person. You can do it for many reasons. Or you can give no charity and be charitable; you just can't do it for whatever reason. That's the Torah. The Torah is the expectation of a human. The Torah is there not for social justice. The Torah is not there to make people live together in peace. The Torah is there to make the perfect human, to make a person shalem (complete). And in order for a human to be complete, he has to have all the wisdom in him. He has to have all the middot in him. He has to be a quality person.”
“It's not the killing itself that bothers the Torah when you kill somebody. It's the fact that you're a murderer. Don't be a murderer. Of course, if you kill, you're a murderer. But it's not the killing per se. Let's say the guy right now is sitting somewhere. He'd love to kill. He's dying to kill somebody. He just can't. He's tied up in jail somewhere. The minute he gets out, he wants to kill. He's a murderer, even if he never killed. The Torah wants us to be people of shlemut—complete humans. To perfect us.”
“If the Torah was given to us on a USB, it would be a reference encyclopedia when we need, like that lawyer. That lawyer doesn't live the law. He doesn't live the law of this country. Whenever he needs something, he goes and says, ‘Let me learn what it says about that.’ That's not what the Torah is. The Torah is a living Torah. It's supposed to be alive in us. That's why you see a Talmid Chacham (Torah scholar), you stand up. You're not standing up for him. You're standing for the Torah that's living inside of him. That is the purpose of the Torah.”
“That kind of Torah can only be given through learning. It cannot be given through a person sitting with his book, his legs up on the chair, and reading. That kind of Torah, the kind that becomes part of you, comes when you have a havruta (study partner), when you argue. You know, when you argue about something, when you use your mind, you acquire something. It becomes yours. You read something, it's just reading material. But when you learn it, and you argue, and go back and forth, and explain, you can ask, ‘Rabbi, I have a question about that. How do you explain the other thing?’ That back and forth, that oral Torah, that mesorah (tradition) that we have from Rabbi to student, Rabbi to student—I learned with my Rabbi, with my father; he learned with his Rabbi, and he learned with his—we have a connection to Moshe Rabbeinu.”
“Yes, through the years, there have been things that have been forgotten. True, we were in exile for many years. There are rules and laws that we're not sure about anymore. It's true. Certain details—the big things, there's never arguments. Everyone knows there's 39 melachot on Shabbat. Nobody argues about those things. But the small details: sometimes, you know, you go to a wedding in your life, it's a huge wedding, a crazy wedding. The next day, somebody asks you about the wedding, and you know every detail. You know what they served, what they were wearing, what the flowers looked like. You have every detail. A year later, they ask you about the wedding, and you remember there was a crazy wedding. You remember, but you don't remember the details. Yeah, there are arguments throughout the Torah, throughout Shas, about the details. Nobody's arguing about whether you're allowed to cook on Shabbat. But what's called cooking? What temperature? What about if you recook? Okay, there are details.”
“But the process of learning from a Rabbi, teaching his student, the back and forth, makes the Torah ours. That's what David HaMelech says at the beginning of Tehillim. He says, ‘A person first begins to learn the Torah of Hashem.’ But then it says it becomes... Then it becomes his Torah. The purpose of the Torah is not to keep it in God's hands and refer to it whenever we need it. The purpose is for the Torah to become a part of me. And that can only happen by me learning. In the Chokhmah (wisdom) of the Creator, it can happen through relationships. Hashem gave it to Moshe. Moshe gave it to Aharon. Moshe gave it to the Jewish people. They gave it over to their children. That's how Torah becomes acquired. That is the Chokhmah of Hashem: to make us complete people. Torah on a USB would never change us. We may live by its laws when we need to, but it won't make a difference in who we are. The Torah is there to make us great people and to make us complete people. That is at least one of the reasons Hashem chose to give us the Torah Shebe'al Peh, the Oral Torah: so that it should live within us and not be just something in our pocket.”