Question:

Hello. I have a question. As the Torah was given to Moshe at Sinai and describes the events that took place after the giving of the Torah, as the sin of the golden calf, the wanderings in the desert and others., That is, it turns out the future?


Thanks in advance for your reply.


Meets Rabbi Nathan Agres


Why does the Torah describes the events after her talent?

Dear Aaron, thanks for your question.

The fact is that when we talk about the Torah, Moses received at Sinai, and the book (scroll) of the Torah, we are familiar with, we do not mean the same thing, although the two concepts are called - the Torah. This refers to the separation of the oral and written Torah.

The basic meaning of the word "Torah" comes from the root "Moret", "leorot" - to teach, instruct. The Torah is a set of laws and teachings, the Creator sent his people. And this is what we mean when we speak of the Sinai revelation. 7 Sivan 2448 from the creation of the world, in front of all the people of Israel, Gd descended upon Mount Sinai and spoke 10 sayings that are the quintessence of all the other commandments. Then Moses went up to the top of the mountain and arrived there for forty days, to get a full set of instructions in expanded form, but it is still only in oral form, and only 10 utterances were imprinted by God on two tables (much later, after the destruction of the Second Temple is the Talmud, Midrash, book of Zohar, etc.) -., a significant part of the Oral Torah was written down as necessary.

Writing Thor (Chumash - Pentateuch) also includes the above-mentioned laws, but not in expanded and compressed, or more precisely - in coded form. Rabbi Moshe mi-Kutsi (in the preface to his book of commandments "Smaghi") has defined the Written Torah as a brief summary of the Oral. Rav Shimshon-Raphael Irsch expanded this analogy, explaining that in the synopsis is sometimes enough of a particular icon or an underlined word to renew the memory a number of ideas and propositions, and the Written Torah specific word order or extra letter contains a lot of information obtained in Sinai orally.

Besides Chumash contains historical data: the history of creation and development of mankind, genealogy of our forefathers, the descent into Egypt, and the outcome there, giving of the Torah, the sin of the Golden Calf and the sin of the spies, because of which the generation immigrants are not worthy to enter the land of Israel, and further, until the beginning of the conquest of the promised land at the end of 40-years of wandering in the desert.

All the written Torah from the first to the last letter was dictated directly by the Supreme Moshe (Ramban in his introduction to the Torah, the Talmud says in Tractate Menachot 30a). But here at the expense of the exact time of her entry, a dispute arose between the sages (Gittin 60a).

According to one view, the five books of the Torah were given in complete form and Moses wrote them on the day of his death at the end of 40 years of his reign. However, the individual chapters yet been recorded before, but not like a book "Torah", but for special needs, for example, for an alliance between Gd and the people or for the purpose of study.

Another opinion says that the Torah was recorded gradually, as they say, in the course of events (during the 40-year wanderings in the desert). Individual chapters and excerpts Moshe recorded in separate scrolls, but in the end only sewed them in a certain order. According to this view, writes the Ramban (ibid), the first book of the Torah Genesis, as well as the beginning of the second book, Exodus, including the commandment of the Mishkan - the Tabernacle, Moses wrote down the day of the Sinai revelation immediately after receiving the 10 utterances.

In any case, it became clear that there is no contradiction between the giving of the Torah at Sinai (orally), and the fact that the Chumash (the Written Torah) describes the events that have occurred after that during the 40 years of wandering in the desert.


Sincerely, Nathan Agres

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