Anonymous asked Staff ago Hello, Daat Emet.
I am a great fan of yours.
I am utterly secular (I am doing my doctorate on the evolution of religion) and I noticed a serious contradiction in Judaism, The Torah, including the Scriptures and the Talmud, were supposedly given to Moses at Sinai, but for some reason no one deals with the information contained therein. David could have known not to count the population, Yonah could have avoided the whale, etc. A large part of the text was oral, so it could not be that no one knew what was going to happen…I wanted to know if rabbis and commentators dealt with this issue.
Thank you,
Yuval Laor
jsadmin Staff answered 22 years ago
Dear Yuval,
Your argument is written in Maimonides’ works, and there he rejects the view that everything was given at Sinai. Maimonides in writing the nine roots as an introduction to Sefer HaMitzvot, clarifies the principles through which it is appropriate to list the 613 Torah commandments. In the first root he comes out strongly against the rabbis (the author of Halachot Gedolot) who count the reading of the megillah and the Chanukah candles as Torah commandments though they were established in later periods. He argues: There is one whose judgment was mistaken in understanding the Talmudic term ‘spoken to Moses at Sinai,’ and therefore he counted the Chanukah candles and the reading of the megillah as commandments given to Moses at Sinai. But this thought — that it was told to Moses at Sinai to command us in advance that the Greeks would later issue harsh decrees and in the end we would be redeemed and would light Chanukah candles, or that it was told Moses that the evil Haman would in the future wish to destroy the Jews and in the end there would be an upset and the Jews would destroy Haman and be required to read the megillah — I cannot see how anyone could imagine this (Sefer HaMitzvot by Maimonides, first root).
On the other hand, Nachmanides was prepared to accept this strange thought, and as proof of this he brings a citation from the Palestinian Talmud, tractate Megillah (1:7). Rav, R’ Chanaiah, R’ Nathan the son of Kapra, and R’ Joshua the son of Levi sat and said that this megillah was given to Moses at Sinai, but there is no chronological order to the Torah (Nachmanides’ gloss on Sefer HaMitzvot, first root).
If you want more information on the subject, see what we wrote on the portions of Bo, Shoftim, and Vaetchanan.
Sincerely,
Daat Emet
jsadmin Staff answered 21 years ago
Dear Hoomi,
The Talmud overflows with expressions which imply that everything was given at Sinai, and it seems you come out strongly against this because it contradicts the plain meaning of the Scriptures and common sense. But to say that “no one claims the books of the Prophets were given to Moses” is a mistake. The man asked in accord with the approach of Chazal, who do so claim.
We will cite for you a medrash from Chazal. “Rabbi Levi the son of Hama quoted Rabbi Shimon the son of Lakish: Why is it written ‘And I will give you the tablets of stone and the teaching and the commandments which I wrote to teach them’ (Exodus 24)? Tablets — these are the 10 Commandments; Teaching — this is the Scriptures; Commandments — these are the Prophets and Writings; To teach them — this is the Talmud. This teaches that they were all given to Moses at Sinai” (Berachot 5a). It is a pity that you do not carefully read the Torah portion essays to which we link.
Sincerely,
Daat Emet