Ki Siso – Torah Shebaal Peh, The Oral Torah Law

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  • #2062122
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    It says על פי הדברים האלה with the oral transmission which is explained by the Rabbenu Bachaya with a mashel to a father who write a letter to his son commanding him what to do and what not to do. He promises a reward for following his commands. Being afraid that the letter will fall in the wrong hands and the ones reading will want to follow it and claim the rewards, he leaves some important conditions out of the letter and commands him orally. The comparison is obvious. The written Torah is the letter and the talmud is the oral law.
    The Chasam Sofer mentioned by the Ksav Sofer in Parashas Yisro in the name of his father gives another mashel. A father had a goldmine which he wanted to give to his youngest child. In order avoid jealousy, he taught the youngest child the act of goldmining and then divided it equally among his other children. They did not know what to do with it, so it automatically fell to the youngest child. The goldmine is the written Torah and the act of goldmining is the oral law. The goyim never received the oral law, so they had no use for the written law.
    The Midrash Tanchuma at the end Parashas Noach says that the Jews wanted to accept the written law but had to be forced on the oral law, as the written law without the oral law is not workable. The goyim never accepted the written law, so there was no reason to force them on the oral law.

    #2062231
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    The others explain that the reason that not everything is written down is because of יגדיל תורה ויאדיר the Torah should not be limited and that is its beauty.

    #2062188
    Yabia Omer
    Participant

    Ki Siso? What is that?

    #2062230
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    The Rabbenu Bachaya explains also the expression of the gemora חסורי מחסרי והכי קתני something is missing and this is the way it should be learned . Rebbi, when he composed the mishna left certain things out on purpose because he felt that it was understood without it and only what was needed for the utmost understanding was allowed to be written down. The gemora came about because the generations became weaker and more explanations were necessary and so on from one generation to another. Rav Nassan Adler ztz’l did not publish a sefer as he had a photographic memory and a dot in the margin was sufficient for him to remember things. The Ben Ish Chai interprets the above expression in a joking fashion. A person usually has a job and has no time to learn but the one who relies on others to fulfil his needs will be able to learn, so if he is missing money, he will learn.

    #2265619
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

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