Dear Rabbi Simon,
I was wondering, is it true that the Talmud (which I understand contains the Jewish law) was written down after 0 AD, and that the Jewish law practiced by the Prophet Elisha for example was never written down but he followed the orally preserved Talmud and Jewish law?
Thanks
Ali
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Dear Ali
Thank you for your questions.
According to Jewish tradition (and historical evidence) the Oral Torah was recorded in the Mishnah between the years 200 bce (Before the Common Era) and 200 ce. The further elaboration on the Mishnah, known as Gemara, was compiled between 200 and 500 ce. (These dates are approximations, of course.) Collectively, the Mishna and the Gemara are known as the Talmud.
According to our tradition, biblical personalities such as Elisha would have been aware of the Oral Law, and indeed was among its primary guardians and transmitters. So, yes, he would have conducted his life in accordance with its provisions. However, some rabbinic enactments contained in the Talmud were not yet promulgated in the biblical era.
I hope this is helpful.
Sincerely
Rabbi Rashi Simon
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Dear Rabbi Simon,
Thank you for your response. So just to clarify, looking at those dates, did Moses not uphold the Talmud because it didn’t even exist at that time?
Secondly, what is the difference between an oral tradition of observation and hearsay. How can we trust the preservation method?
Thank you,
Ali
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Dear Ali
The Talmud is a written record of a body of knowledge which had previously been transmitted orally over the course of approximately 1000 years. So yes, Moses lived according to the principles of the Oral Law, however, which were eventually committed to writing in the Mishnah.
Hearsay is casual information laced with opinion, inference, assumption, extrapolation, guesswork, falsification, and more. The Oral Torah was scrupulously transmitted from master to disciple, generation after generation. Compare to Chinese medicine or other forms of biological, horticultural and pharmacological knowledge transmitted in cultures who did not even have a written alphabet. If one’s life or livelihood depends upon it, the information will be preserved faithfully.
Rabbi Rashi Simon
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Thank you Rabbi Simon. Just to clarify did you mean that the Chinese used oral tradition because they didn’t have an alphabet?
Also I read a commentary on the Jewish bible and it said that Jesus was part of G-d’s plan to bring religiousness to the world, was it?
Ali
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Hi Ali,
Although the Chinese alphabet is very ancient, it is likely that only the elite (men) were actually literate. Yet women, for example, were the transmitters of much medical knowledge. But my point was simply that in pre-modern times, the great preponderance of knowledge was oral rather than written. Of course, the Oral Torah is essentially an explication of the Written Torah. It does not exist in isolation.
Jesus: Allusions to Jesus are widely claimed by Christian readers of the Torah (Hebrew Scriptures) but it is doubtful if any of these are genuine. This is eisegesis rather than exegesis.
There is a famous passage near the end of Maimonides’ Code (Laws of Kings and Their Wars 11:10-12) which refers to both Jesus and Mohamed, placing them within the Divine plan for mankind. These paragraphs have been censored in most printed editions of the Mishneh Torah, but have been restored in some modern editions and can be found online.
Best wishes
Rabbi Rashi Simon