Question 10, © 2005:
Johanan Carsonowitz, moderator of the talk-show “Fightline,” sponsored by Gucci Tallit and Tefillin Co. – the official phylacteries of the 1992 Summer Olympics – invites you to participate in a program on the topic, “Will the Real Torah Please Stand up!” What points do you make?
What does the word Torah mean? The Hebrew word Torah denotes the guidance or instruction.[1] Beyond that simple definition, we have a number of different possible meanings before us today, all of which have been used by Jewish theologians, and which have been compared to a series of concentric circles, the second one being built around the first one, and so forth.[2]
Torah has been used to refer to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, traditionally understood as the books of Moses. This was the understanding in the Rabbinic period, as the “Rabbis recognised various degrees of inspiration, i.e. the inspiration of the Torah (the Pentateuch) is of a higher and more direct nature than that of the prophetic books.”[3] This usage is reflected in the acronym Tanakh, used as a term for the Hebrew Bible, formed from the initials of the three sections thereof, the Torah, the Neviim (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings or Hagiographa).[4] Yet in the Pentateuch itself the word Torah is used to refer to a specific rule or law, not to the Pentateuch itself, as in Deuteronomy 4:44: “And this is the Torah which Moses set before the children of Israel.”[5]
Another usage of Torah includes all three divisions of the Hebrew Bible, which after canonization formed what the Rabbis called the “Written Torah.”[6] Thus we see that the second circle includes the first; the Pentateuch is in one sense the Torah, and in another a part of the Written Torah.
Yet another usage adds the Oral Torah alongside the written Torah. In the Rabbinic view “the expositions and derivations from Scripture found in the Rabbinic literature were thought of as revealed.”[7] At this point we find disagreement among different movements within Judaism, dating back to ancient times. “The Sadducees did not believe in the oral Torah, and their interpretation of the written Torah was narrow and conservative.”[8] On the other hand, the “Pharisees believed that both the written and oral Torah came directly from God and were therefore valid and binding.”[9] It should be noted that, even as new meanings have been added to the word Torah, the Pentateuch has retained a special significance and identification with the Torah.
During the Rabbinic period there came the understanding that the term Torah meant not only the Written and Oral Torah, but “the later applications and deeper understanding of the content of these down to the present day.”[10] It can refer to “all of Jewish law and religious studies,” with Torah she-be-al peh referring to the Oral Torah, and Torah sheh-bik-sav referring to the Tanakh.[11] Torah also refers to the scroll containing the Pentateuch, “handwritten by a scribe on parchment, and read in the synagogue.”[12] Torah has been further extended in meaning to include the private conduct of Jewish masters, of everyday talk of people in the Holy Land, or remarks of a Rabbi:[13]
From a mystical Jewish point of view, “The word Torah is used in two senses: the supernal Torah, the existence of which preceded the creation of the world, and the revealed Torah.”[14] So Torah includes both wisdom known to this world, and heavenly wisdom not known here; “the incomplete form of heavenly wisdom is the Torah.”[15] According to a theory in Jewish literature, “the Torah, which is eternal in spirit, assumes different forms in various eons.”[16] It was known in its spiritual form in the Garden of Eden, but is now known in material form.[17]
So, which is the real Torah? Will the real Torah stand up! I hesitate to give a final answer to which of these choices is the “real answer” to the question, as it is a matter of personal faith and conviction. I come to you not as a legislator of a final codification of the halakhah, but simply as a beginning student of Jewish Theology. Furthermore, though a student of Jewish Theology, I am not a Jew, but an adherent of another great monotheistic faith, which also looks at the Tanakh as the word of God, but places alongside it writings that do not fall within the Jewish smörgåsbord of sacred texts. Thus I would definitely place the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings in the heart of those writings which for me are “the real Torah.” But, looking back at the simple meaning of torah as guidance or instruction, and not insisting on a monolithic view that the word torah necessarily means “the final, unchangeable answer,” I will bravely venture an answer, from my own recent experience. The teacher of a Jewish Theology course I have taken calls the teacher-student relationship “one of the most sacred and intimate relationships valued by Jewish tradition.”[18] Through this relationship I have been stretched by the encounter with thoughts, traditions, and wisdom which in many cases I had never before encountered or even imagined, though it is a tradition to which my teacher is “deeply committed,” “knows intimately and thoroughly,” and with which he “is intimately engaged on the deepest personal levels.”[19] For me this is a true torah, an adjustment of my vision which changes the way I look at my world as well as my faith. So, when answering the question, “which is the real Torah?”, the answer I give is, in various senses, “all of the above.”
[1] W.A. Whitehouse, “Law,” in A Theological Word Book of the Bible, Alan Richardson, ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1950), 122.
[2] Byron L. Sherwin, Jewish Theology (Chicago: Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, 1995), Course lectures on videocassette, Topic #4, cassettes #9 and #10.
[3] Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology (Springfield,
N.J.: Behrman House, Inc., 1973), 199.
[4] Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology, 199.
[5] Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology, 201.
[6] Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology, 200.
[7] Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology, 200.
[8] Richard D. Bank, The Everything Judaism Book (Avon, Mass.: Adams Media Corporation, 2002), 13.
[9] Richard D. Bank, The Everything Judaism Book, 13.
[10] Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology, 200.
[11] Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yiddish (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968; Simon & Schuster Pocket Book edition, 1970), 408; Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology (Springfield, N.J.: Behrman House, Inc., 1973), 200.
[12] Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yiddish, 408.
[13] Solomon Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, quoted in Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology (Springfield, N.J.: Behrman House, Inc., 1973), 201.
[14] Abraham Joshua Heschel, God In Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1955, 1983), 262.
[15] Abraham Joshua Heschel, God In Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, 262.
[16] Abraham Joshua Heschel, God In Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, 262.
[17] Abraham Joshua Heschel, God In Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, 262.
[18] Byron L. Sherwin, Jewish Theology: Curricular Materials (Chicago: Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, 1995), 3
[19] Byron L. Sherwin, Jewish Theology: Curricular Materials, 3