Rabbinic Judaism

Generally speaking, contradictions are found in all aspects of life, and certainly within both history and religion. The values of the sages who practiced Rabbinic Judaism would, at first glance, appear to be such a contradiction. Jeffrey Rubenstein, in his introduction for Rabbinic Stories, calls this “a paradoxical theological statement,” which “asserts that all opinions uttered by sages in the future were already revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai” (2). The rabbis during the rabbinic period believed that although their interpretations of the Torah were innovative, they were also, in fact, part of the original Jewish tradition, which is evident through the stories in the Talmud.
Before analyzing this paradox, one must first understand who …show more content…
Explicitly stating that “Moses received the Law from Sinai,” Pirkei Avot emphasizes the traditional view of the revelation of the Law. The passage goes on, however, to show how the Law, meaning both the written and the oral Torah, has been passed down, or “committed” through the generations until it reached the sages of the Rabbinic period. This list, starting with Moses, is filled with the names of rabbis, including some of the most famous, Hillel and Shammai (Biale 202-203). Essentially, it makes Moses out to be the first rabbi. Again, this emphasizes the belief that all of the rabbis’ opinions were revealed to Moses, the first of their kind. Moreover, it also highlights how each rabbi’s opinions were still inventive. For example, the text lists Hillel’s advice as “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and bringing them nigh to the Law” (Biale 202-203). This saying may have been generated by Hillel, but it is still grounded in the Law that he “received,” making it both original and unoriginal at the same time. One aspect of this first part of the Pikei Avot that is important to bring awareness to is that the list of people who have received the oral Torah does not include the names of any priests or kings, whose authority was supreme in the previous eras (Biale 199). Some might say that this exclusion is …show more content…
The Oven of Akhnai is a popular rabbinic story found in the Babylonian Talmud in 59a-b of the Bava Metzia. This narrative describes a debate between the sages, who have the majority opinion, and Rabbi Eliezer, who represents the views of the minority. When a heavenly voice announces support for Rabbi Eliezer’s opinion, the sages respond with, quoting Deuteronomy 30:12, “It is not in Heaven.” “We do not listen to a heavenly voice, since you already gave it to us on Mount Sinai and it is written there…” they explain. The Laws do not come from Heaven or God anymore; they come from the rabbis, because the Rabbis have received their Law from what was originally written at the revelation. This seems to give the rabbis authority over even God, yet in the story, God is not upset by this. He merely laughs, announcing “my sons have defeated me,” which could be taken to mean that God expected the sages to have authority all along, that this was his intention when he first gave the Torah to Moses (Rubenstein 80-83). This would certainly complement the story from Menachot, where God explains why the embellishments exist on the Hebrew Letters, and how the rabbis of later periods are meant to glean the Law from them. So, God’s response is evidence to how the sages were able to create new meanings of the Law while still originating these