Oral Torah

History of Oral Culture in Modern Religion

Posted by

1

by Guest Author/Contributor, Devorah Yocheved

Part I

The Convergent Tides of Oral Cultures and the Rise of Literate Cultures Produced Two Major Religions in a Backlash to Retain the “Old” While Embracing the “New” World Order

Israel went into the Babylonian exile on the cusp of a major paradigm shift in history: the rise of the written text and literacy.  Scholars in this area of study attribute the addition of vowels to the Greek alphabet for hastening the “literate world.”  As was typical of the emerging nations of the new Western worldview, the people of exiled Israel, now the Jews in the nations struggled to retain their ancient identity as the chosen people of the Torah of Moses while embracing the new literate world founded in the Greco-Roman cultures.

The shift from purely oral cultures, without writing, to text driven literate cultures allowed people to remember their thoughts without the use of memory aids and to work out more complex solutions.  This gave birth to the analytical and systematic thinking which produced science, history, philosophy and liberal education.  Professor Walter J. Ong wrote extensively about this “evolution of consciousness” in his 1982 book “Orality and Literacy.”  This evolution is manifested in the classical Greek years as seen in the science of Euclid and Meton, the philosophical works of Plato and Aristotle, and the more objective historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Ctesias.

This new world was no longer solely dependent on the elite scribal class of literates who controlled not only the limited written texts; they controlled the oral narratives from 3000 BCE through the 1st millennia CE.  The West developed along these lines as a more secular, pragmatic and individualized society through the text based education of “higher learning.”  The purely oral cultures that did not let go of their “orality,” as humanity moved towards “literate” text based cultures, were relegated to the “primitive” end on the continuum to “modernity.”  The growing literate cultures remained segregated into classes of the uneducated poor and the educated rich, farmers and city dwellers, the people of oral folk traditions and the townsfolk of letters.

In the midst of this major shift in human history two new religions emerged that not only embraced the new literate mind set but used ancient scribal traditions to preserve their “primitive” oral traditions in their literature and liturgical traditions alongside new theologies that have endured the test of time: Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.  The rabbis of the Talmud claimed that they were handing down “the oral tradition that was given to Israel through Moses at Sinai.”  The Christian founding fathers claimed equal infallibility in their new theology and text, the New Testament.

Is there verifiable authority for these claims?  Looking first at the earlier rabbinic tradition, we ask these questions: 

What if the Jewish people have bet our collective soul on the wrong oral tradition that is based in lies and false narratives that aids and abets the exile mentality far from our original Covenant?  And if we have, how do we know that and, for the sake of a true return to our Maker, how do we do that?

The Mishna Talmud created a new utopian world for the Jewish people to learn of, embrace, and use to manage the changing social environs in their ever extended exile far from their original covenant and homeland of Israel.  This new oral tradition retained a memory of their original texts, the Torah and the Prophets, placing them alongside new texts from the exile that were added to the Hebrew canon.  The rabbis completed their work of codifying the Talmud which included ancient scribal devices of repetition and mnemonic memorization along with formulaic expressions such as proverbs and pithy maxims required in a purely oral tradition absent the use of a written text.

This method cleverly allowed the rabbis to invent new and every changing interpretations of the original and foundational text memorialized in the Torah and the Prophets Masoretic text.  In the earliest meeting places of the exile and during the second temple period in Israel the people gathered to hear the public readings from the Torah, but in a new and different language [Aramaic] and with new and different interpretations and translations [targumim].

What followed was a vast and never ending collection of commentaries from generation after generation of “Torah scholars” known collectively as the rabbis and sages of the past two thousand years.  The retention of this “oral tradition” has worked well to help the Jewish people feel “connected” to their original covenant made at Sinai.  

It is implemented through ritualistic formulas of blessings, prayers, mitzvot, and celebrations that replaced the Covenantal temple, priesthood and appointed times in Israel.  The orality of the rabbinic tradition is reinforced with the hermeneutical learning method of the Mishna Talmud which interprets Torah through formulaic and mnemonic expressions and repetition.

I forsook the false narrative of my birth religion Christianity that teased out its oral traditions and theologies based on the reinterpretation of the Torah and the Prophets in the New Testament.  I chose the Jewish faith and tradition in my adult years seeking an authentic connection to the Covenant Maker of Israel as given in the Torah and the Prophets.  I chose to move to Israel as an heir of Abraham through Jacob. 

It has been heartbreaking to learn that the Jewish people in the exile inherited the false narrative based on the new Writings and expounded in the Talmud as their interpretive text of the Torah and the Prophets.  The written Hebrew text of the Torah and Prophets has been sublimated to the replacement theology of rabbinic Judaism.  The Jewish people have inherited this false religion crafted for the exile with no way back to our Covenant of the Ten Words, the Land of Israel, and the proper authority under the Levitical priesthood in the House of YHVH on Mt. Zion.

In fact, we learn that the Torah and the Prophets are not historically significant but allegorical, that Ezra rewrote and restored Torah, that the rabbis replaced the Levites as the presumptive authority to handle and reinterpret the Torah through a contrived chain of transmission, and that when the “mashiach” comes the rabbinic tradition will continue as the legal and religious authority over the Jewish people. Many believe that there is no need for the temple to be restored and that the Jewish people are not required to live in their Covenant Homeland of Israel … none of which is supported by the Torah, the Covenant or the Prophets.

The deep seated angst that continues to reside in the soul of the Jewish people is palpable and is reinforced by the nations continuing hatred of Israel, her people and her land.  We are at war again with our neighbors and their allies in the world for our very survival in this Land of Israel.  No one can be trusted or believed to have the answer.  There are no good answers politically or religiously that will take us back to our Covenant Maker.

Many of us are asking: how do we return to our Covenant Maker as He wills for us?

We must return to our original Torah as given to Moses and as seen through our Prophets, through the end of the first kingdom and into the Babylonian exile, before we have a chance to understand the Will of our Covenant Maker.  Even though there is evidence of scribal tampering and false narratives that made it into our canon, it is possible to see through these lies as enabling the post-biblical replacement theology of exile.

We must admit that we have exchanged our Covenant and our very essence for a manmade construct that enables our exile mentality.  We must seek the ancient and everlasting path back to our Covenant Maker.

As suggested by students of ancient history, we must be willing to put ourselves in the sandals of those ancients.  We must wipe our minds clean of our preconceived assumptions and work to understand their worldviews in their lifetimes.  We must forsake manmade interpretations of Torah and relearn what YHVH said then and what He is saying now from His Written Word that was given to His Servant Moses in that day.

Starting with the understanding that Moses and the people who stood at Sinai in 1552 BCE lived in a world that did not have writing for the many.  There were no books that could be accessed, no libraries or education for the common people. From Genesis to the first kingdom of Israel was a time of purely oral cultures, bereft of literacy and written literature.  The people were wholly dependent on the narratives of the elite scribal classes regarding the heavens and life itself.  

Most of humanity has been dependent on and enslaved by the dominance and persuasiveness of the few who controlled the flow of information whether orally or textually received.  The people of the world are in the same predicament today.  No matter how much we have “advanced,” we are being held hostage by the few self-proclaimed elites who control the flow of information, politically, socially and religiously.

With this basic understanding and in that mindset, we will approach our written text and behold what the Creator of the universe, the Holy One of Israel, actually did for all of humanity through the Covenant He made with Israel.  We have forgotten and even forfeited the redemption from bondage that was granted to us 3500 years ago at Sinai.  We have forgotten who we are as Covenant Israel.  We must remember.

And, keeping in mind that He never changes and that His Word is everlasting, we can at least begin to understand that what He willed for Israel then and what He wills for us today has not changed.  We have changed and that is why we must seek His ancient and everlasting paths back to Him and His Covenants.

נִדְמוּ עַמִּי מִבְּלִי הַדָּעַת כִּי־אַתָּה הַדַּעַת מָאַסְתָּ וְאֶמְאָסְאךָ מִכַּהֵן לִי וַתִּשְׁכַּח תּוֹרַת אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶשְׁכַּח בָּנֶיךָ גַּם־אָנִי׃

Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from ministering before Me.  Since you have forgotten the Torah rule of law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

שִׁמְעוּ אֵלַי רֹדְפֵי צֶדֶק מְבַקְשֵׁי יְהוָה הַבִּיטוּ אֶל־צוּר חֻצַּבְתֶּם וְאֶל־מַקֶּבֶת בּוֹר נֻקַּרְתֶּֽם׃ הַבִּיטוּ אֶל־אַבְרָהָם אֲבִיכֶם וְאֶל־שָׂרָה תְּחוֹלֶלְכֶם כִּי־אֶחָד קְרָאתִיו וַאֲבָרְכֵהוּ וְאַרְבֵּֽהוּ

Isaiah 51:1-2: “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek YHVH: look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug.  Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; when he was but one I called him, then I blessed him and multiplied him.”

2024-02-22 devorah yocheved

Follow Take Hold the Tzitzit on WordPress.com

The First Thou Shalt Not–Who are the “Other Gods”?

Posted by

Several thousand years ago Abraham, called Abram at the time, rejected the many gods that the people around him had set up. He spoke to Elohim who revealed himself to him as El Shaddai. (see here) He was, according to Scripture, the only one in his day who saw the falsity of strange gods. He was obedient to the One   God. We know this because of what the Torah says of him:

Gen 26:5 “…Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

How did he know these things if the law had not yet been given? This is perhaps a mystery that we cannot understand, except that he spoke directly to the Eternal, and as it says above he “obeyed my voice.” He apparently had no human interpreter. 

So how can a human understand the voice of the Most High, One and Only   God without others to direct him? 

By the time Moses came on the scene, there seemed to be a need for someone to guide and lead. Moses heard the Voice at the burning bush and was in direct communication with Elohim. He had no interpreter nor leader. And apparently there has never been another like Moses by whose hand we received the written down “voice” if you care to call it that, or “Words” of   God. 

Deu 34:10 “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the YHVH knew face to face,”

Today, several thousand years later, human leaders have overtaken every religion in the world. How do we know that they correctly interpret the written words of Elohim? I say that usually they don’t give it to us as it was given through Moses. And they stand in the middle between us and our Creator, as interpreters or mediators. If we look at the 10 commandments, the very first “Thou Shalt Not” says something very big. Let’s look at the Hebrew for Exodus 20 3, and then look at the meaning in our own language.
לֹא יִהְיֶה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָיַ׃

This is usually translated as “thou shalt have no other gods before me.” But if we look deeper we see “there shall not be to you other gods upon my face or in  my presence.” עַל־פָּנָיַ (literally: upon my face or countenance or in my presence).(See Strongs).

Exodus 20:3 does not mean merely to not worship other gods, but rather not even to have them in between us and Hashem. He should not have to work through them to reach us. He would rather have a direct connection with us. 

If we look at the word Elohim throughout the Tanakh we will see that it is often used for judges or powerful men as well as false gods. 

From Strong’s Hebrew definitions:

אֱלֹהִים “ĕlôhîym, el-o-heem’; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:—angels, × exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), × (very) great, judges, × mighty …rulers, judges, either as divine representatives at sacred places or as reflecting divine majesty and power.” Strongs.

So anybody that is great enough in our imagination that we look to as an interpreter of   God’s laws, or anything to do with Him, anyone who stands between us and the Eternal or in the presence of   God as a mediator, is a false elohim or god: as it says: “there shall be to you no other elohim upon my face.” 

Moses actually stood in that place for the people of Israel who had just been delivered from Egyptian slavery. But who is as great in our day as Moses? Priests? Rabbis? Are there even any true prophets today? What about all the books that have been written to interpret Torah? Who gave anyone the right to define or reinterpret Torah, let alone add to or take away from it?”

If you are a religious Jew, you probably believe in the Chain of Transmission (See here) which endorses the passing down of the Torah through the generations of Sages and Rabbis who developed the Oral Torah and Tradition which is today’s Judaism. But did you know that not even Joshua was allowed to change even one word that Moses handed over?

Jos 1:7 “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

So, not even Joshua who was on Mount Sinai at the giving over of the two tablets of 10 commandments, was allowed to reinterpret anything. (See Exodus 24).

How do we get back to hearing the voice of  God speak to us in the wilderness like Abraham and Moses? Is it even possible? Perhaps some of us feel that YHVH has withdrawn his face from us. Maybe the question to ask ourselves is: what do we need to turn away from in order to cause His face to look once again upon us?  If the literal commandments were not to be altered or added to, then there may be a reason why we are not getting the connection we desire. 

Zec 1: 3” Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. 4 Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD. 5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.” 

We can see evidence in the verses above that even in the time of the prophet Zechariah, the people blamed the Eternal for abandoning them. And it is still true today, when troubles come upon God’s people, He often gets the blame, rather than people taking a hard look at their lives and measuring themselves with the only standard of righteousness–the written Torah!

Are we the chosen people just because we once were? Is there any standard at all that we must measure up to in order to qualify? Is there a slim chance that Hashem will or has abandoned us? The prophet Jeremiah serves up a very dire warning to the house of Israel. God forbid that it should be true of us today!

Jer 18:6 “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay  is  in the potter’s hand, so are  ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. 7 At what  instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9 And at what  instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant  it ; 10 If it does evil in my sight, that it obeys not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”

So, if we have been following the interpretations of men who set themselves up as leaders who claim to teach the ways of the Creator, and we admit that we really do not understand the Torah and that we somehow cannot connect with the Eternal other than through manmade rituals, then why not begin studying in earnest what the literal Torah says. Is it really that difficult?

Deu 30:10-14: if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11 …what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Ariella Golani

Please subscribe, share, like and or comment! It will help me get the word out!

Follow Take Hold the Tzitzit on WordPress.com

Torah is Enough, or isn’t It?

Posted by

1

Time for Temple and Torah

My journey in the religious world often confronts me with challenges that go against a gut instinct, that for most of us defines truth. I am not saying that my gut is the standard of truth for it has been wrong in the past and has a need for fine-tuning just as a piano or navigational guidance system in planes or ships must be frequently adjusted.

But with the mind and matters as important as truth, what shall our compass be set to? What is our North Star? What IS our measure of ground zero truth? I often hear a voice in my head, the voice of my father who would say in a deep and dramatic tone: “Only those who have made the Bible their unyielding foundation of truth will be able to stand in the last battle.” And as my journey unfolds, I see many paths that branch off to one side or another, paths that seem to be right but are based on men’s assertions and interpretations of the Bible.

These paths are crooked paths and lead either to the steep cliff of unbelief or into a circling maze of religious confusion. In my study of Judaism, I more frequently than not am invited to study passages of the Talmud, the Gemara, the Mishnah—books which in themselves show the wisdom of the day in which they were written but are clearly not the original Tanakh and Torah. They are claimed to be the Oral Torah, equal to the written Torah of Moses and the true interpretation and codification of the Torah.

I have been pointed to the authority of the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud time and again and shown several passages in the Torah about the setting up of the Great Assembly, Sanhedrin, Seventy Elders, and the Shoftim (judges). What are these verses?

From the Parsha Shoftim (Deuteronomy) 16:18-19:

“Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God gives thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a bribe: for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.”

Deuteronomy 17:8-13:

“If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between plague and plague, matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and go up to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall tell thee the sentence of judgment: according to the sentence of the Torah which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not deviate from the sentence which they shall tell thee, to the right hand, or to the left.

And the man that will act presumptuously, and will not hearken to the priest that stands to minister there before the Lord thy God, or to the judge, that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Yisra᾽el. And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.”

Now that could be scary and is for most Jews. DO NOT defy the sages or you have a death sentence?!

But what is this really saying? Look closely! there are at least three qualifications:

“…come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge that shall be in those days.” (1.The rabbis are not the priests and Levites as far as I know. 2. “in those days”: each time period has its own priests and Levites, not the counsel of long-dead sages. )

“according to the sentence of the Torah which they shall teach thee.” (3. most importantly! “ACCORDING TO THE SENTENCE OF THE TORAH,” the Torah is not speaking of any Torah other than the written Torah here. The Oral Torah that evolved over the centuries was not needed when this was written for Moshe was alive and understood the Torah perfectly.)

To summarize the above requirements; the group of judges, priests, and Levites compose the ultimate court which must judge from the place that Hashem has chosen (Jerusalem, and the Temple). They must be obeyed. They are present at the day when the judgment is needed and they base their judgment on the Torah of Moses, nothing more. Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it? But we don’t generally even know who the priests and Levites are in our day and there is no Temple yet, so what do we have?

But well-meaning rabbinic schools and rabbis that have been educated for many years in the writings of the sages, suggest that the Torah of Moshe had several laws that could not be understood as they are written and for this the Oral Torah came down from Moshe. (From history we know that the claim that the Oral Torah passed from Moshe to Joshua and onward is askew, we know that the Yeshivas in Babylon were where most of this started, we have the Babylonian Talmud, don’t we? And what existed before that?)

The arguments for Oral Torah base their logic on places where Elohim said to Moshe concerning a particular law, “as I have shown you on the Mount.” These included things like the slaughtering of Kosher animals for meat, the boiling of a kid in it’s mother’s milk, and the building of the Mishkan and other things.

So, let’s keep this simple; If the three guiding rules above are kept, all we need is to have a Temple, vetted and verified priests and Levites and a requirement that they make judgments based on the written Torah itself.

Is that even possible?

Deuteronomy 30:11-15:

“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it, and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it, and do it?

But the word is very near to thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayst do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;“

So if it is so simple, why do we need anything else?

Once we see that we need a temple in Jerusalem and that we need to reinstate the Levites and Cohenim to their rightful positions, then they are qualified to judge from the Torah itself any matter that concerns us and then we must be careful not to defy their judgment. We also read a warning about their decisions—they are not to be decided by majority rule if they pervert justice:

Exodus 23:2-3:

“Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to incline after a multitude to pervert justice: nor shalt thou favour a poor man in his cause.”

To a lot of us, this is simple enough… Why aren’t we doing it?