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Teachers’ Guide to Torah Mi’Sinai Prepared by Bracha Sendic

I. The introduction is meant to emphasize the importance of the belief that the Torah was divinely given. The first source (mishnah) states that certain people have no One of those is someone who doesn’t believe in the Divine Origin .עוה"ב portion in of the Torah. The Gemara adds that the above applies even if the person denies the Divine Origin of only one pasuk. The importance of quoting the Rambam was to emphasize that this statement of the Gemara is later codified by the Rambam as a .בני ישראל binding on all of הלכה

disagree about the fundamental principles a רמב"ם and the ס' עיקרים The Jew must believe in. The Rambam has 13 while the Ikarim has 3. They both agree is one of them. The Rambam adds that all of the pesukim in the תורה מסיני that Torah have equal kedusha: pesukim about wives and the “shma” are equivalent. In has the same תורה שבעל פה the underlined section of the Rambam he adds that regarding its Divine origin. In the section highlighted grey the תורה שבכתב status as Rambam gives the example of Menashe (king of Yehuda) who was considered by because he didn’t believe that the stories of the Torah had a כופר to be a חז"ל Divine origin, rather Moshe just wrote them in.

the number of people that were :מעמד הר סיני II. There are two components critical to .and not only through Moshe בנ"י witness to it and the fact that Hashem spoke to was crucial because since Hashem spoke מעמד הר סיני ,According to the Ramban directly, it can never be contradicted by a future prophet. (This point בני ישראל to מעמד הר ,is mentioned later on in the Malbim as well). According to the Kuzari once they saw that Hashem was talking to ;נבואה belief in בנ"י facilitated סיני Moshe, they trusted that all of what Moshe was telling them (and would be telling them) was coming directly from Hashem (and not from Moshe himself).

The Sefer Ikarim states that any event that happens to the person himself and to a lot of people is more powerful (the two points raised above). He quotes that mentions two of the other nations that Hashem וזאת הברכה the pasuk from The pasuk mentions only those two because they .בנ"י offered the Torah to before represent the two major religions today: Islam and Christianity. Hashem wanted to publicize that he gave the Torah to all the Jewish people specifically to those two religions to make the point that only a religion that is given to a multitude of people is true. As opposed to a religion that begins with only one person (like both Christianity and Islam do). That is why Hashem did not give the Torah to the Avos, because even if it would have been passed down faithfully from generation to generation there might have been some doubt as to its veracity over the years and Hashem wanted the Torah to infallible.

or מסורה adds that a person needs to rely on (אמונות ודעות) R’ Saadia Gaon reports of an event because otherwise one would never trust anything he hears. בס"ד

However, there are two problems with a story. One, that is is false, second, that the person telling over the information does not say it over correctly. He continues that the Torah is immune from both of these faults because the above problems are only found regarding individuals. (An individual can falsify an account or make a mistake about details.) However, anything that was given to a large group of people, it is not likely that they would all have a false impression of an event. Regarding the second problem, had there been a false account, that could not have been kept a secret from millions of people. Therefore the Torah and our mesorah took place with a lot of מעמד הר סיני are true. This relates to the idea above that people present.

III: The first three sources all approach the Torah’s immutability from a different .”"לדורותיכם say מצוות quotes three pesukim as proofs: First, that all רס"ג .angle will be around forever and the Torah is what defines our nation so בנ"י ,Second to keep the Torah until בנ"י therefore both must be timeless. Third, Hashem tells The first passage from the Sefer Ikarim discusses the historical .אחרית הימים perspective on the matter. The Torah could not have been changed in any of the that were נביאים there were בית ראשון ,following three time periods. During prevalent and everyone was fluent in Torah. (the grey section just explains that the does not imply that יאשיהו during the reign of ספר תורה excitement at finding a they had forgotten the Torah, rather their feelings were aroused because of the בנ"י the leaders of גלות בבל exact passage the Torah scroll was opened up to). In before the Churban and had reestablished Torah there. In בבל had been exiled to the weakest of the nation א"י Ezra brought with him to בית שני the beginning of Ezra himself was able to א"י in Bavel. Therefore in תלמידי חכמים and left the big supervise that the Torah would not be changes and even if it would be, those in Bavel would have the accurate edition of the Torah and protest.

The second piece in the Sefer Ikkarim discusses three factors about the Torah that makes it illogical to be changed: from the Giver, the recipient and the religion itself. From the point of the Giver, Hashem would not desire evil once and then change his mind and desire righteousness. (The Sefer HaChinuch quoted later elaborates on this point when he explains why it is forbidden to add or take away to any Mitzvos of the Torah. He states that Hashem is perfect, and therefore to add or subtract to any of the Mitzvos implies an imperfection on Hashem’s part). From the point of view of the recipient, people change over time and need new guidelines but a nation as a whole does not change over time. From the perspective of our religion itself, if the Torah is teaching us universal truths and values, those ideas also do not change with time. Therefore the Torah is immutable.

R’Hirsch fits in well with the ideas of the above Sefer HaIkkarim. He also adds that other religions, because they began with man (as opposed to G-d) must change with time. But because Judaism came from G-d, is not changing or bound by time.

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?הלכה in מחלוקות If Torah is unchanging, how do we explain the many There seem to be three basic approaches (as quoted by Rivka Kahn in Shavuos to בית until the students of מחלוקת Go 5769): The Tosefta implies that there was no who didn’t understand their teachers properly. On the other בית הלל and שמאי hand, the Ritva writes that the differing opinions in Halacha are not inherent contradictions; they were all shown to Moshe on Har Sinai and are all valid in some way. The Shmos Rabbah states that what Moshe received on Har Sinai was י"ג only the general principles of halacha, the rest was mean to be derived by the because only מחלוקת Therefore there is a lot of room for .מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן .הר סיני the principles were given at

The next four optional sources discuss the apparent contradiction between לא בשמים the Rambam and the Gemara. The Rambam (from the use of the pasuk (cannot introduce any new halacha from now on נביא as the source that a היא is not a definitive source for a halacha. On the other בת קול seems to say that a that determined that we בת קול hand, the Gemara states that it was precisely a explains this אור שמח The .בית שמאי and not בית הלל pasken halacha like הלכה did not come out to decide a specific בת קול contradiction by saying that the can never בת קול rather it was about a specific person. The Rambam is saying that a decide a particular halacha, but to say that the general halacha is like a certain has a similar approach. He explains that the reason אור ישראל group, is fine. The go on מחלוקת were disheartened after having this בנ"י was because בת קול for the to come out and declare בת קול for three years. Therefore it was necessary for a was not בת קול The .בית הלל but we follow"דברי אלקים חיים" that both opinions are coming to pasken halacha.

.תורה שבכתב, and תורה שבעל פה IV: This section discusses the relationship between Shmos Rabbah .הר סיני was given at תורה שבעל פה The Gemara clarifies that all of explains why Hashem made the Torah such that some of the most important information was given over orally. Hashem wanted the sole possessors of the Torah to be the Jewish people. Had the Torah been written down in its entirety, in later generations non-Jews could come along and claim the Torah as theirs (which The Ohr Hachaim .בני ישראל they did….). This way the Torah remains only for tries to reconcile sources which imply that Moshe knew the whole Torah, with sources that say that when he heard Rabbi Akiva teaching he did not know the תורה שבכתב subject matter. The Ohr Hachaim explains that Moshe learned all of תורה שבכתב However, Hashem did not teach Moshe the source in .ותורה שבעל פה That is why Moshe was “confused” when he later heard .תורה שבעל פה for all of Rabbi Akiva expounding on halachos we learn from certain words in a pasuk.

תורה R’ Hirsch gives a beautiful analogy for the relationship between He says that the Torah is like the notes of an oral .תורה שבעל פה and שבכתב Just like when a student takes notes, it is just to .בני ישראל lecture heard by all of remember salient points of the lecture and a dash, comma or exclamation point has inherent meaning, so too the Torah. Any extra word or pause has meaning for .because they heard the original lecture from Moshe בני ישראל

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:תורה שבעל פה An optional source is the Rambam who lists the five types of

,halachos given by Moshe for which there is a hint in the text. (ex -פירושים מקובלים (1 (אתרוג is an פרי עץ הדר .halachos given by Moshe for which there is no hint in the text -הלכה למשה מסיני (2 .about them מחלוקות are black)The above two have no תפילין .ex) laws derived through the 13 principles through which the Torah is-פירושים מחודשים (3 learned out from. from the Torah only meat and) אסור ex. Chicken and milk together is still -גזרות (4 (אסור milk are The last two sources from the Rambam .שמיטה before פרוזבול ,example-תקנות (5 in regard to their דאורייתא have the same status as הלכות דרבנן emphasize that in the Torah that לאו upholding: we are required to do both. In fact there is a .הלכות מדרבנן requires a person to keep any

V: The first Gemara discusses two opinions as to how the Torah was given and taught. Rabbi Yishmael says that the general principles were said over as Sinai, but the details were given over after the Mishkan was set up. Rabbi Akiva says that both general and specific halachos were given over at Sinai and they were repeated The second .ערבות מואב after the Mishkan was set up and then said again in Gemara quotes two opinions as to how the Torah was written down. Either each was written down separately as Hashem taught it to Moshe and then פרשה assembled together at the end of the 40 years. Or, the whole Torah was written as a whole at the end of the 40 years.(this is according to how Rashi understands the means that the מגילה ניתנה Gemara). The Ramban understands that the phrase מעמד first half of the Torah (until after the Mishkan was built) was recorded after .while the rest was recorded in the 40th year הר סיני

that (חתומה ניתנה The Chazon Ish explains (based on the opinion that he only told certain Mitzvos to הר סיני although Moshe received the whole Torah at that Hashem commanded him to. Based on the opinion of the Gemara quoted בנ"י above that the Torah was taught three times in three different locations, the Chazon Ish explains that this fact was evident when Moshe wrote down the Torah. Even though the Torah was written at the end of the 40 years, the language .certain Mitzvos in each location was preserved בנ"י Hashem used to instruct

The Sforno and Netziv discuss the fact that the Torah was originally given The Ramban .שמותיו של הקב"ה- as many letters without a break in between them states that in that form, the Torah could be read in many different ways-one way, or the way we have it today with Mitzvos etc..The determining שמותיו של הקב"ה .according to the Sforno ,חטא העגל factor in the final version of the Torah was After that sin, we were no longer worthy of receiving the Torah in its original .and it was given to Moshe in the form we have it today שמותיו של הקב"ה version of ,כתב וקבלה A place in the Torah where this is seen is the last eight pesukim. The about who wrote the last eight pesukim חז"ל in מחלוקת cites the (גר"א quoting the) He explains that .יהושע and some say בדמע of the Torah: some way Moshe wrote there is really no argument here; both opinions are right. Moshe wrote the last בס"ד

can also בדמע) .a train of letters ,שמותיו של הקב"ה eight pesukim in the form of mean mixing up). Yehoshua then separated those letters into the pesukim we have today.

.מדעתו Sefer Devarim is unique in the fact that Moshe seems to have said it ,ואלה as opposed to אלה mentioned the word ר' בחיי ,קללות Chazal mentioned the) states this explicitly). The Malbim raises the question that if in fact אור החיים the are Moshe’s words then, first of all, why were they written down, and if they דברים He !קדושת ספר תורה not have the נביאים were, it should have been included in is ספר תורה inherent in a קדושה has the ספר דבריםanswers that the only reason because after Moshe said his words, Hashem then commanded him to go back and write down everything that Moshe had said earlier. Moshe wrote exactly as Hashem commanded him. The fact that Hashem instructed Moshe to write down .of Torah קדושה his words, gave his words the

to בנ"י enabled מעמד הר סיני VI: The Rambam reiterates the point made earlier that .further נבואה of Moshe. The Ikarim discusses Moshe’s specific נבואה believe in the ”believed in Moshe (who was in essence changing the “Torah בנ"י He states that that they knew about from the Avos) because he was greater than all previous of Hashem was verified. Regarding the first נביא and because his job as a נביאים .נביא were not in the scope of any previous מצרים proof,- the miracles done in proved that Moshe was Hashem’s מעמד הר סיני ,Regarding the second proof נביא messenger. Sefer Ikarim continues that it is not possible that in the future a to give a new Torah, because he would have to fill the above בנ"י would come to two criteria. The first criteria is already impossible to fulfill since he would have to be greater than Moshe and that is not possible since the Torah testifies that there .greater than Moshe נביא will never be a

have a speech ,נביא The Ran questions why did Moshe, the greatest impediment? His answer goes back to the earlier sources about the importance of is so fundamental to our religion that Hashem did not מעמד הר סיני .מעמד הר סיני want the possibility to exist that people would claim that we accepted the Torah because Moshe was “charismatic” and a “good speaker’. Specifically his speech impediment proved that we did not accept the Torah or follow Hashem because of Moshe.