Interpreting the Torah II

The Mishnah (Teaching)

The Mishnah, Teaching, was sealed by Rabbi Judah the Prince6 in about 220 CE. It’s almost 600 chapters were divided into 6 orders, and each order into smaller divisions called masechtotm, Tractates. Each tractate was divided into chapters, and each chapter into smaller divisions, called Mishanyos – teachings. The Mishnah was quickly accepted as the authoritative representative statement of the oral Torah7.

The Gemorah (Learning)

If the Mishnah is the Teaching, then the Gemora is the Learning. Once the Mishnah was complete, the rabbis immediately began teaching it in the academies of study. Their lessons on the Mishnah explained the relationship between the oral and the written Torah, the methods of interpreting both, and the practical conclusions. These studies in the Mishnah are called Gemora, Learning. Eventually, all of the Gemorah was collected and written down alongside the Mishnah. The two side-by- side, are called the Talmud. The Talmud was completed between the 5th and 6th centuries.

The Talmud

As mentioned above, the Talmud is a two-part work comprised of the Mishnah, a representative statement of the oral Torah, and the Gemorah, a vast collection of studies on the Mishnah. After the diaspora, the two centers of Torah study were Bavel (modern day Iraq) and, to a much lesser degree, Israel. Each of these centers produced their own editions of the Talmud.

·         Talmud Bavli – The Babylonian Talmud. The collection of studies produced just over the border of Israel in Bavel. The greatest of the Jewish scholars had been exiled to Bavel. Their Talmud is considered far more authoritative and reliable than the Yerushalmi Talmud. When people refer to the Talmud, they are usually referring to the Talmud Bavli. The Babylonian Talmud is the authoritative text for Torah law and study. Occasionally, when an issue in the Babylonian Talmud is uncertain, the Jerusalem Talmud is used for clarification or to find consensus.
 

·         Talmud Yerushalmi – The Jerusalem Talmud. The collection produced by the few scholars remaining in Israel after the exile. They suffered terrible privation and hardship and worked under very difficult conditions. Their Talmud is generally considered inferior to its counterpart in Bavel. One problem is that the Jerusalem Talmud is not a universal text. There are numerous versions of the text, many of which contradict each other. Additionally, vast sections of the Jerusalem Talmud have been lost or were never completed. 

Other Torah Texts

The Midrash, Exposition, is the oral Torah’s interpretations of the non-Legal aspects of the Torah. It includes ethical, theological, moral meditations upon the text of the Torah. It also fills in many missing details of the Torah narrative based on Mesorah.

While the Midrash may be used to clarify details of Talmudic interpretations, it is important to remember that we do not decide law or practice based upon Midrash.

Mystical, philosophical, and metaphysical mesorah is part and parcel of the Torah. There are a vast number of mystical texts, yet the one that reigns supreme is the Zohar, The Book of Splendor. The Zohar is a medieval compilation of Midrashim from the school of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai – an early mystic who appears throughout the Talmud.

The Zohar is the cornerstone for the Kabbalistic (mystical) study of the Torah. The Zohar does, to a certain degree, influence the practical observance of halakhah (religious practice and law). However, only the greatest experts in Torah are able to discern when and how mystical concerns affect real practice.

The Zohar is an exceedingly difficult text that cannot be understood at face value. It should only be studied under the guidance of one who is an expert in its intricacies or by someone who has sufficient grounding in the rest of Torah literature. 

Rabbinical Authority

Experts in the above texts have been given authority to decide issues. This is found in numerous places in the Torah text itself (i.e. Ex. 18:20, Deuteronomy 16:18 and 17:8–13). Not only this, but they have also been given the authority to make decrees to safeguard the laws of the Torah. Their authority is also hierarchical.

Deciding Halakhah (ActualPractice)

The system of deciding religious practice, halakhah, is part and parcel of Torah. The system of halakhah exists to preserve the mesorah and to fill in gaps when they occur. Not all rabbis are capable of deciding matters of halakhah. Those who are capable are known as poskim (decisors, or singular posek) or dayanim (judges – singular dayan). A posek or dayan must:

·         Be fluent in the hierarchies of Torah authority and rules of derivation and interpretation,·         Have a complete mastery of the source materials,

·         Possess sufficient scholarship to understand how a decision in one area will affect the “homeostasis” of the entire halakhic system,

·         Thoroughly understand the boundaries of mesorah and evaluate decisions in its context.

The structure of rabbinic authority in exile is a meritocracy. The greater and more accomplished a scholar, the greater the authority he holds. No scholar today, however, can overrule an accepted decision from an authority in an earlier era of Torah scholarship.

Eras of Torah Scholarship and Authority

Since the destruction of the Temple and worldwide dispersion of the Torah community, there has been a constant global effort to unify and preserve Torah observance in exile. The Torah world has gone through many stages in accomplishing that goal.

The Gaonim - (The Respected or Eminent Ones) 700 to 1000 CE

From about the 7th until the 11th century (when the Jewish community began to spread beyond the Middle East, settling in Spain, Africa, France, and Germany) the exile communities corresponded frequently with the Gaonim, the leaders of the remaining academies of Torah study in the Middle East.  The Gaonim answered questions and compiled guidelines for them on prayer and holiday observances...

The Rishonim - (The Early Scholars) 1000 to 1500 CE

The Jewish community eventually abandoned the Middle East as the centers of scholarship shifted to Spain, Germany, and France.  The scholars in these countries established their own schools and produced producing extensive, foundational commentaries on the Talmud and the Torah.  They were known as the Rishonim.

Koviim - (The Establishers) 1500 to 1680 CE

The Koviim sought to collect and systematize all of the scholarship produced in the diaspora to produce a unified form of Torah observance in the exile. Their work  is the basis of all Jewish practice today.  The most important of the Koviim is Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488 – 1575).  He literally collected, studied, compiled, and systematized every known piece of Torah thought produced since the exile.  His magnum opus was the Shulchan Aruch, the Set Table - a complete statement of Jewish practice in exile.  It is a massive work based upon the thought of thousands of Torah scholars working for over 1000 years.  It is the basis of all Jewish practice today.

The Acharonim - (The Later Scholars) 1680 to 2013?

With the Shulchan Aruch’s acceptance, the rabbinic world now had a launch pad – a universal foundation – from which to work.  There was a sudden boom in all areas of Torah scholarship.  The generations of scholars following the Koviim are known as the Acharonim.

With the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in 2013, many believe that we are entering a new era in Jewish scholarship.  The nature of this era has yet to be defined.