Sunday, October 24, 2004
God and Oral Law
We might even say that the Oral Law was given to us orally because even after receiving the Torah at Sinai man's job was not complete. G-d gave us principles and rules of Biblical exegesis, but He did not spell out for us every detail of our lives. G-d was not interested in dictating to man step-for-step how he must live his life. His "kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6) was not to be an army of mindless automatons, each following a prepared script and acting precisely the same way. G-d made each of us different. Each of us must study the Torah and interpret its personal and individualized message for him or for her. Thus, we did not merely become *recipients* of G-d's Torah; we became G-d's *partners*. We would take the Torah, master it, and apply it to all of life's situations. And so, the Oral Torah represents the fact that even after giving us the Torah, G-d's work was not complete. Only we can complete G-d's sacred mission. Only we can take G-d's eternal messages, assimilate them, and apply them to our lives.
