The Oral Torah

[StirnersRevenge1844]

If you ask a rabbi why we should care what the Oral Torah says, his response will be that we cannot rely on individual interpretations of the Old Testament, because people will do so based on their own biases, so we are encouraged to rely on the Rabbis and their Talmud entirely. When I abandoned Christianity following a debate with an Orthodox Jew I did so based on tales about how Judaism did not rely on blind faith like Christianity, yet when confronted with Karaite arguments he did exactly what Evangelicals do and pretended to have already won the debate while systematically reading-onto the text whatever interpretation was convenient.

[searchinmyroots]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

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On to your post -

I would say your first sentence is in error because there are many different types of Rabbi's so you cannot just say "if you ask a rabbi".

Next, I would say if you read what the Sages of the time wrote, you'll notice they disagreed a lot of the time so how can you say they were "systematically reading-onto the text whatever interpretation was convenient."?

That's the beauty of Judaism, there isn't really a right or wrong answer. It's a study of the text, the words, the letters and trying to understand what it means as a whole.

The Karaties don't believe in the Oral Torah from what I understand, but then again they do have certain rules and regulations they follow, so isn't sort of the same thing?

If I'm not mistaken, they even wear a kippa. If that's the case, where did they get that from? It's certainly not in the Torah.

[StirnersRevenge1844]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The first posts are moderated to help keep out spam and bots.

On to your post -

I would say your first sentence is in error because there are many different types of Rabbi's so you cannot just say "if you ask a rabbi".

Next, I would say if you read what the Sages of the time wrote, you'll notice they disagreed a lot of the time so how can you say they were "systematically reading-onto the text whatever interpretation was convenient."?

That's the beauty of Judaism, there isn't really a right or wrong answer. It's a study of the text, the words, the letters and trying to understand what it means as a whole.

The Karaties don't believe in the Oral Torah from what I understand, but then again they do have certain rules and regulations they follow, so isn't sort of the same thing?

If I'm not mistaken, they even wear a kippa. If that's the case, where did they get that from? It's certainly not in the Torah.

This is a common response, but I would point out that their disagreements were generally inconsequential- they left incongruencies alone while obsessing over non-issues, and since beliefs cannot be defined except by reference to behavior, this means that in effect we are forced to take up a particular interpretation in an even stronger sense. 

The Karaites derive their liturgy from grammar- when examining alaw the first question is always what the subject of the law refers to, whereas in the Talmud it is on how the law was *intended* to be *followed.*

[Blue Bird]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The first posts are moderated to help keep out spam and bots.

On to your post -

I would say your first sentence is in error because there are many different types of Rabbi's so you cannot just say "if you ask a rabbi".

Next, I would say if you read what the Sages of the time wrote, you'll notice they disagreed a lot of the time so how can you say they were "systematically reading-onto the text whatever interpretation was convenient."?

That's the beauty of Judaism, there isn't really a right or wrong answer. It's a study of the text, the words, the letters and trying to understand what it means as a whole.

The Karaties don't believe in the Oral Torah from what I understand, but then again they do have certain rules and regulations they follow, so isn't sort of the same thing?

If I'm not mistaken, they even wear a kippa. If that's the case, where did they get that from? It's certainly not in the Torah.

This is a common response, but I would point out that their disagreements were generally inconsequential- they left incongruencies alone while obsessing over non-issues, and since beliefs cannot be defined except by reference to behavior, this means that in effect we are forced to take up a particular interpretation in an even stronger sense. 

The Karaites derive their liturgy from grammar- when examining alaw the first question is always what the subject of the law refers to, whereas in the Talmud it is on how the law was *intended* to be *followed.*

I don't follow you because your statement is very general, could you please give some examples? Thank you.

[searchinmyroots]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The first posts are moderated to help keep out spam and bots.

On to your post -

I would say your first sentence is in error because there are many different types of Rabbi's so you cannot just say "if you ask a rabbi".

Next, I would say if you read what the Sages of the time wrote, you'll notice they disagreed a lot of the time so how can you say they were "systematically reading-onto the text whatever interpretation was convenient."?

That's the beauty of Judaism, there isn't really a right or wrong answer. It's a study of the text, the words, the letters and trying to understand what it means as a whole.

The Karaties don't believe in the Oral Torah from what I understand, but then again they do have certain rules and regulations they follow, so isn't sort of the same thing?

If I'm not mistaken, they even wear a kippa. If that's the case, where did they get that from? It's certainly not in the Torah.

This is a common response, but I would point out that their disagreements were generally inconsequential- they left incongruencies alone while obsessing over non-issues, and since beliefs cannot be defined except by reference to behavior, this means that in effect we are forced to take up a particular interpretation in an even stronger sense. 

The Karaites derive their liturgy from grammar- when examining alaw the first question is always what the subject of the law refers to, whereas in the Talmud it is on how the law was *intended* to be *followed.*

Inconsequential and incongruencies, obsessing over non-issues??

Forced to take a particular interpretation?

Well that may be your opinion but to me it shows you know very little about what it really is.

Hmmm, the Karaties derive their liturgy from grammar.

So what is their definition of work that should not be done on the Sabbath?

Where is the grammar in the Hebrew bible that says they should wear a kippa?

What does their mezuzah contain?