237) WHEN WAS THE TALMUD WRITTEN DOWN?

THE PAPER TRAIL:

The 1342 Munich Manuscript is the earliest extant copy of the Babylonian Talmud.

INTRODUCTION:

Any child with a basic Jewish education would know that the Mishna remained an oral tradition until around the year 200 CE when it was finally redacted by R. Yehudah haNasi - and three centuries later, the Gemara was redacted by Rav Ashi and his student Ravina (d. 499) around the year 500 CE.

From 500 CE onwards, both Mishna and Gemara combined to form the Talmud which remained in the same written form till this day.

In this article, we will first explore some rabbinic sources which differ from the model presented above - and thereafter, examine the manuscript evidence from that same period.

SECTION ONE - RABBINIC SOURCES:

R. ARYEH KAPLAN (1934-1983):

R. Aryeh Kaplan writes:

“There is a question as to when the Mishna was put in writing. 

Some authorities maintain that Rabbi Yehudah himself published it. 

According to others, however, it was preserved orally until several generations later.”[1]

Clearly, as R. Kaplan points out, there are sources which suggest that the Mishna was indeed written down in 200 CE but we are looking at those who propose it was written down sometime later. As to just how many ‘generations later’ the Talmud was actually committed to writing, remains an open question.

The Meiri, however, may shed some light on this matter:

MEIRI (1249-1310):

Although after the year 200 CE it was permitted to write down the Mishna, and after the year 500 CE, it was permitted to write down the Gemara - the combined Talmud continued to remain essentially an oral tradition for many centuries.

The Meiri writes about a group of sages known as Gaonin who lived between 650 and 1038, which was many centuries after the Talmudic period had concluded in the year 500: 

 “And they (the Geonim) knew the entire Talmud by heart, or close to it...And therefore they didn’t find it necessary to go on at length in their compositions [i.e. to write too much][2], for the explanation was all arranged in their mouths [i.e. in an oral tradition][3].”[4]

The Meiri is of the view that the writing of the Talmud takes place towards the end of the period of the Gaonim and just before the period of the Rishonim (around the year 1038). This places its practical transition from an oral to a written form, 500 years later than commonly believed!

RAV SHERIRA GAON (906-1006):

In 987 Rav Sherira Gaon wrote a letter to the Jews of Kairouan, now Tunisia, of which two versions -the Tsorfati (French) and Sefardi (Spanish) - exist today. In the French version of the letter, which is considered to be the most accurate, he writes: 

“And that which you [Jews of Kairouan] wrote; ‘How was the Mishna written, and how [was the] Talmud [written]?’

- The Talmud and Mishna were not written, but they were arranged.

 And the sages were careful to recite them by heart, but not from written versions.” [5]

According to this, the Talmud may have been ‘arranged’ earlier on, but fundamentally it remained an oral tradition right up to the end of the period of the Geonim around 1038.

THE COMMENTARIES OF RASHI AND THE TOSAFISTS:

Professor Fishman[6] develops the idea that soon after the close of the Gaonic period in 1038, Rashi (1038-1105) began to consolidate and unify the ‘relatively recently’ written down Talmud by preparing an overall commentary on it which would bind it all together. 

And continuing along the same lines, Rashi’s grandsons and students known as the Tosafists, began reconciling apparent contradictions between the various written sections of the Talmud - something which would not have been required while it was in its previous oral form.

It seems to make sense that these first comprehensive commentaries only started appearing once the Talmud was finally committed to written form, otherwise, we should have seen similar commentaries surfacing from 500 years earlier.

-The above are just some of the sources which imply that the Talmud was only written down in full, sometime (give or take a century or so) towards the close of the Gaonic period around 1038).

[For more details, see Everyone Knows When the Talmud was written Down.]

SECTION TWO – FORENSIC PALEOGRAPHY:

THE PAPER TRAIL:

Let us now turn our attention to manuscript evidence from this same period and see where that leads:

The earliest full manuscript of the Babylonian Talmud is known as the Munich Talmud, and it dates from as late as 1342.[7]

What exactly transpired textually during the many centuries between the year 500 - when the completed Talmud was said to have been committed to writing - and 1342 is a hotly debated issue.

Professor Malachi Beit-Arié is the head of the Hebrew Paleography Project which has examined and documented nearly all extant Hebrew manuscripts in about 250 libraries throughout the world.

He has spent sixty years studying Hebrew manuscripts. 

Based on his extensive research[8], we will briefly examine the development of rabbinic texts around this period and see what bearing this all has on the question of when the Talmud was written down.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE CODEX:

The complexity of the medieval codex (handwritten manuscripts bound together in a book-form) as opposed to the more ancient scroll, should not be underestimated in terms of its technology. The codex was the speciality of the preindustrial era and is considered to be “one of the most complex products manufactured during the Middle Ages.”

A codex comprises a number of quires (sheets of folded parchment) of bifolia (pages with writing on both sides) which is then sewn and bound together to form a book allowing easy and quick access to all the pages - unlike the scroll whose different sections are harder to access because it has to be laboriously rolled from one side to the other.

The codex is also more resilient and is easier to transport and to archive than the more ancient scroll.    

        

The codex and its revolutionary impact shaped the thought development within the Jewish world at that time.

Beit-Arié explains that:

“In the regions where Hebrew Books were produced during the Middle ages we witness an entire configuration of traditions, patterns, and practices which were preserved continuously for hundreds of years...”

ADOPTING THE CODEX IN PLACE OF THE SCROLL:

The Christians adopted the codex in place of scrolls from around 300 CE.

The general, non-Christian or ‘pagan’ world started adopting the codex from around 500 CE. 

The Jews, however, transitioned to the codex much later, from the early Gaonic Period around 700 CE and even later.

This is borne out by a statement by Rashi (1038-1105):

“The books that were [in existence] in the days of the [earlier Talmudic] Sages were all in the form of our Torah scrolls.”[9]

This indicates that certainly during the Talmudic period (0-500 CE) and possibly even for about two centuries after that, we were still using scrolls and had not yet started using codices.

THE MYSTERIOUS GAP OF 800 YEARS:

Beit-Arié describes an uncertain period of 800 years between about 100 BCE to 700 CE:

“An obscure and puzzling gap of some eight hundred years exists between the abundant finds of Hebrew books dating from the late antiquity (namely the Dead Sea Scrolls dating from the Hellenistic and early Roman period) and the earliest explicitly dated surviving Hebrew codices.

From that period in time there is hardly any extant evidence of the Hebrew book apart from a few dozen surviving fragments...”

This shows that for about 800 years - until 700 CE - there is virtually no trace of Hebrew writings.

[For more on early rabbinic texts, see The Italian Geniza.]

A POSSIBLE EXPLANATION:

Beit-Arié (citing Roberts and Skeat) explains that while Jews would have maintained the scroll format for copying Sifrei Torah - because such copying was governed by strict laws - Christians, on the other hand, had no problem copying their scriptures in the newer codex form.

However, once the codex was adopted by the Christians in 300 CE, the Jews were then reluctant to emulate that format (even for non-scriptural writings) and the scroll format was therefore perpetuated for some centuries longer.

The first time clearly datable Hebrew codices begin to appear is from the beginning of the 900s (although, as mentioned, their origins can be traced back to the 700s)![10]

WHY NO EVIDENCE OF SCROLLS DURING THOSE 800 YEARS?

Having established a possible reason as to why there is no codex record, the question then is why is there no significant scroll record (which, as Rashi pointed out, was favoured by rabbinic literature over codices) either?

This question becomes compounded when we see that thousands of Latin and Greek manuscripts have indeed survived that same era.

BECAUSE IT WAS AN ‘ORAL TRADITION’:

The answer must lie in the fact that rabbinic and Talmudic literature during that time period was essentially transmitted orally. This is corroborated by the very designation of that rabbinic literature as the ‘Oral Tradition’.

However, now we encounter a fascinating difficulty:

BUT THE PROSCRIPTION AGAINST COMMITTING THE ORAL TRADITION TO WRITING ENDED IN 200 CE?

Although Beit- Arié does not go into the details, the problem - as pointed out - is that according to popular perception, the Mishna was committed to writing around the year 200, and the Talmud was committed to writing around the year 500.

If that popular understanding was to be the case, then surely there should at least be some (albeit) scroll evidence of the Mishna and Talmud from the latter segment of that 800 year period, after the year 500!

And it would have been a vast literature, because besides the Mishna and Talmud, the writings of that period would have additionally included Tosefta, Talmud Yerushalmi, Midrashim and the mystical Heichalot compositions as well.

There also would have been sufficient time - 500 years at least - to create a ‘paper trail’ certainly from the end of the Mishna period in 200 CE when permission was granted to put texts down in writing. Additionally, there are still at least two centuries for the same to have occurred with regard to the Talmud which was completed in 500 CE!

So why is there hardly any evidence of any written literature during this time when the era of an exclusive Oral Tradition had apparently officially terminated?

THE SPIKE BETWEEN 900 TO 1400:

On the other hand, from the beginning of the 900s (and possibly even slightly earlier) until the end of the 1400s (when printing was invented) the number of manuscripts and fragments suddenly rise to as high as 100,000.

And Beit-Arié is quick to point out that this larger number only represents “a small proportion of the manuscripts produced in that era.” Colette Sirat estimates that the actual number of manuscripts produced during that time (although not surviving) would have been as high as about one million.

What suddenly changed around the year 900 CE that the ‘paper trail’ begins to spike after such a long plateau?

A SOLUTION:

To answer this question, we have to turn to the writings of the later Gaonim (650-1038).

Beit-Arié says:

“[U]ntil the beginning of the Gaonic period, Hebrew literary creations were for the most part transmitted orally, at least till they had reached their final editing and perhaps even later.[11]

The continued use of the scroll, which made searching very cumbersome, seems to have conformed to a reality in which putting a text in writing was either prohibited or strictly limited to a small number of copies, so as to monitor the text and preserve it.

The adoption of the codex by the Jews could take place only after the attitude towards text dissemination had changed, and after the shift from oral to visual transmission.”

According to this, the period and practice of oral transmission did not end with the Mishna in 200 CE nor with the Talmud in 500 CE. While some private scrolls (the codex was only adopted after 700) may have been produced after the proscription ended, essentially the Talmud continued to be transmitted orally right up until the latter part of the Gaonic period around 900 CE.

Amazingly - based on rabbinic sources as well as forensic palaeography - all this information flies in the face of how the transition from Oral to Written Tradition is generally taught. The popular perception appears to be out by centuries.





ADDENDUM:

According to Talya Fishman:

"Testimonies such as the tenth century Epistle of Sherira Gaon, which insists that Mishna and
Talmud have been preserved and transmitted, not in written form, but by means of oral recitation, and the assertion by the Gaon Aaron Sarjado in the same century, that “most students in the academy do not know what a book is,” have led scholars to conclude that Talmud remained an orally-transmitted corpus of tradition throughout the Geonic period, that is, between the seventh and eleventh centuries."

Fascinatingly, Fishman also weaves in the possibility of secular trends also having an effect of the committing of previously oral texts to writing. These trends were taking place in the world at the same time:

"Many political, economic, demographic and theological developments have been cited as factors contributing to this shift [from oral to written traditions - parenthesis mine]: conditions of civil stability following centuries of barbarian conquest, culminating in the eschatologically-motivated Peace of God; the growth of cities, local economies and bureaucracies; increased contact between people of different regions and heightened awareness of the variety of legal norms; the Gregorian Reform and establishment of Cathedral Schools; and the Investiture controversy. Whatever its causes, however, I wish to stress that the textualization of medieval northern Europe was not a “Christian” development, but a theologically-neutral one, akin perhaps, to a shift in modes of technology."

(Rhineland Pietist Approaches to Prayer and the Textualization of Rabbinic Culture 
in Medieval Northern Europe, by Talya Fishman, p.11.)

---

[1] Handbook of Jewish Thought, by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan p.188

[2] Parenthesis mine.

[3] Parenthesis mine.

[4] See Becoming the People of the Talmud, by Talya Fishman p. 165.

[5] Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon.

[6] See Becoming the People of the Talmud, by Talya Fishman

[7] The Leiden Codex of 1289 (printed by Daniel Bomberg in 1523) is the oldest extant copy of the Talmud Yerushalmi.

[8] HEBREW CODICOLOGY Historical and Comparative Typology of Hebrew Medieval Codices based on the Documentation of the Extant Dated Manuscripts Using a Quantitative Approach, by Malachi Beit-Arié.

[9] Rashi to Megillah 19a.

[10] Beit-Arié, however, also points out that these early Hebrew codices do show a degree of craftsmanship which indicates an apparent established tradition.

[11] Emphasis mine. This places us around the year 900 CE.

085) TALE OF TWO SEFORIM:

INTRODUCTION:

In the previous post we looked at the possibility (as recorded by some classical Geonin and contemporary scholars), that the Talmud may have been finally completed in written form a lot later than commonly believed. 

On this view, although written texts were extant, the Talmud may have continued to be transmitted primarily in an oral format until towards the end of the Geonic period, sometime before 1038.

[Note: As pointed out in the previous post, not everyone agrees with this hypothesis. Most take the common view that the Talmud was completed as a written document by around 500 C.E.]

In this article we will expand on this issue, by analyzing two of the earliest post-Talmudic writings (from the Geonic period), and see what bearing they have on our thesis.

THE SHE'ILTOT:

In the middle of the Geonic period, around the 8^th-century Rav Achai Gaon penned the She'iltot in (what is said to be) the first rabbinic work of the post-Talmudic period. This pioneering work paved the way for what is today an unimaginably voluminous labyrinth of rabbinical writings.

Although referred to by the title ‘Gaon’, he never became an official head of either the Sura or Pumpedita academies. He was, however, groomed for the position but was upstaged by his assistant Natronai ben Nechemia with some assistance from the Nasi, Shlomo bar Chasdai.

Hurt by this apparent corruption, Rav Achai left Babylonia for Palestine, where he wrote his She'iltot.

The She'iltot is an unusual work because, in its original form, it contains very little reference to earlier Talmudic decisions. It is for that reason that it appears to have been written for the layman and not for the scholar. The book follows the order of the weekly portions of the Torah, and deals with general and broad themes such as love, kindness, respect for parents and the importance of truth. It also contains frequent repetitions of the same phrases.

Some contend, therefore, that this work may have been directed towards the youth. Others say the reason it lacked Talmudic scholarship was because it was written for the Jews of Palestine who were not known for their scholars at that time.

The Meiri (1249-1310) wrote:

“We received a clear tradition regarding R. Achai of blessed memory: He had a son who was not at all inclined to be diligent [in his studies]. And [so] he [R. Achai] compiled for him Sefer ha-Sheiltot so that, each and every Sabbath, when the Torah portion would be read, known halakhot from the Talmud [connected with the weekly reading] would be explained...”[1]

When the book was eventually printed (Venice 1546), it included material that had accumulated over time and took on a more scholarly and Talmudic appearance compared to the older and original manuscripts.[2]

HALACHOT GEDOLOT:

Around the 9^th-century, a little after the Sheiltot, Rav Shimon Kayara (or Kiara) wrote the Halachot Gedolot, in Sura, Babylonia[3]. He is also known as the ‘Bahag’- which stands for Baal (author of) Halachot Gedolot. He too, although of the Geonic period, never assumed the title ‘Gaon’.

Halachot Gedolot was to a large extent based on the She'iltot, with over 150 references to it throughout the book. However, it does have a more scholarly style and is probably one of the first attempts at codification of Talmudic decisions.

But it was only a hundred years after it was first written, that the Spanish edition, known as Mahadurat Aspamia (from around the year 900), incorporated many texts from the Talmud itself.

This may have some bearing on our discussion as that is (according to Meiri’s hypothesis) around the time that the Talmud in its entirety may have been put into writing.

(Although called the Spanish edition, it may have originated in North Africa in Kairouan (now Tunisia), as it contains references to ‘benei Africa’.)

Just like the She'iltot, with the passage of time many additional halachic rulings of the later Geonim had been added to the work, so that when Halachot Gedolot was first printed (Venice 1548), it no longer resembled its less technical and original text.

Accordingly, after looking at both the original versions of the earliest rabbinic writings of the Geonic period, the She'iltot and Halachot Gedolot, it could be feasible that Talmudic texts were not quoted as frequently as one would have expected because they were taught primarily as an oral tradition until the end of that era. This would support Meiri’s view.

(However, see previous post and here where we mentioned that Otzar HaGaonim - a collection of other Geonic writing only recently discovered in the Cairo Geniza - did contain reference to Talmudic texts! The compiler of this work, ironically, was upset that his scholarly anthology never gained acceptance by the ‘yeshiva world’.)

 THE RAMBAM / MEIRI DEBATE:

Rambam, an early Rishon, wrote that he was disappointed that the Geonim (whose era preceded his), had written so sparingly and sparsely. 

The Peninei Halacha underscores this point and writes; “Throughout the generations, the number of books (manuscripts) increased exponentially. Already in the era of Rishonim (in which Rambam lived, and which followed the era of Geonim) they began to write numerous commentaries to the Talmud.”[4]

The big question is why did it take in excess of 500 years to begin, in earnest, to write commentaries to the Talmud?

The Rishonim, however, did indeed make up for the Geonim’s sparseness of writing.

The Meiri picks up on Rambam’s criticism of the meagre writings from the Geonic period, but believed it was a mistake to condemn the Geonim. This was, he contends, because the Geonim were in fact so much more astute than the later generations of Rishonim, as they had committed the Talmudic teachings to memory. They transmitted the Talmud throughout their 500 year period primarily through an oral format.

What Rambam considered a flaw - was instead an attribute in the view of Meiri!

Meiri wrote that because of the Geonim’s reliance predominantly on oral tradition:

“...this is what caused them to write only a little...And even this (minimalistic writing) was not (even) for their own need, but [only] for their children or relatives who lacked the competence of the other students. And they wrote short [hiburim] (compositions) to be a mouth (means of instruction) for them...”

Then the Meiri continues:

“We have similarly received [a tradition] regarding our Master, Sa’adya (Gaon), of blessed memory regarding Sefer ha-Piqqadon - that he compiled it for one who was appointed a judge in his town...And the judge was sometimes perplexed. And pleaded with him [Sa’adya] to explain to him the laws...”[5]

It is clear that, at least according to Meiri, the Geonim hardly wrote anything (except, as our examples brought above seem to show, for the young and the relatively unlearned). This was because they were still transmitting their teachings orally.

Rav Sherira Gaon makes this point in his Iggeret, where he wrote of the Geonic era:

“The Talmud and the Mishna were not written, but they were arranged. And the sages were careful to recite them by heart, but not from written versions.”[6]

CONCLUSION:

- Considering the reasons why Rav Achai Gaon (She'iltot) and Rav Shimon Kayara (Halachot Gedolot) wrote their original sparse and rather non-technical compositions. And why Rav Sa’adia Gaon (Sefer ha-Piqqadon) wrote an unusual legal aid.

- Considering why there was not a major commentary on the Talmud during the Geonic period until Rashi at the beginning of the period of the Rishonim.

 

- And considering the forthright views of Meiri, Rav Sherira Gaon and others, that the Talmud was not written down until towards the end of the period of the Geonim... 

- Taken all together, could this not strongly indicate that the final committing of the Talmud to writing may have been closer to the year 1000 than the year 500?

---

[1] Translation from Professor Fishman, Becoming the People of the Talmud, p. 166

[2] Some of these manuscripts are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford and also in the Bibliothéque Nationale , Paris.

[3] Some put the date at 825.

[4] Peninei Halacha, Likuttim 1, p.7

[5] Translation from Professor Fishman, ibid.

[6] See Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon.

078) THE 'SECRET SCROLLS' WHICH PRESERVED THE INTEGRITY OF TORAH TRADITION:

INTRODUCTION:

It is well known that 3 300 years ago, Moshe received two Torahs at Sinai - one Written the other Oral.[1]

Actually it’s a little more complicated, because there are different views as to exactly how much of the Written Torah Moshe received at Sinai.

According to some, it was the Torah in its absolute entirety (including the last few verses which describe Moshe’s death).According to others, it excluded the last few verses, which were written not by Moshe but by his successor Joshua.

There is, additionally, much debate as to which sections of the Torah were written when, with some sections possibly transmitted even before Sinai.[2]

According to Rashi, just prior to Sinai, Moshe presented the people with the entire book of Genesis as well as the section of Exodus up to that point in history[3]. Moshe may have drawn from earlier biblical manuscripts which did already exist, some of which apparently were authored by Abraham.

And then there is the view that the Sinai revelation was primarily about the Ten Commandments and the Oral Torah, with the Written Torah essentially only presented in its complete form by Moshe just prior to his death about forty years later. According to this view, the Oral Torah actually preceded the Written Torah.

Whatever view one takes, Moshe effectively left us with a Written Torah and an Oral Torah (which served to expound upon the Written Torah in much greater detail, ultimately creating the interpretation of Judaism as we know it today.)[4]

WRITING DOWN THE ORAL TORAH:

The Oral Torah remained a strictly oral tradition for about 1 500 years, until just before 200 C.E. when it was eventually committed to writing by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi.

The reasons for the dispensation allowing for the Oral Tradition to be written down, are well known. Following the terrible period of persecution in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., Jews fled to exile in faraway places. Over a million Jews were killed in two ill-fated uprisings, the Great Revolt and the Bar Kochba rebellion. Yeshivas were destroyed and rabbinical leaders killed. 

All these factors were taken into account by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, and he felt compelled to break with tradition and, in order to save Judaism for perpetuity, he wrote down what had never been published before, and the Mishna was born.[5]

THE PARADIGM SHIFT:

The writing down of the hitherto Oral Tradition, changed the face of Judaism forever.  It paved the way for the codification of Jewish law and brought with it some fascinating changes to the law itself:

One change related to the classical importance of the role of the teacher, who (according to Shulchan Aruch HaRav) was now, to a large extent, replaced by the book.

“Today, when the entire Torah is committed to writing, there is no longer an obligation to hire a teacher for one’s son. It is now sufficient...to give him the tools (i.e. to teach him how to read) by which he will know how to continue his learning on his own...and it is considered as if the teacher taught him.”[6]

This is an amazing (if not controversial) piece of writing because, notwithstanding the pivotal role of teachers and learning academies today, it seems as if the essential mode of Torah teaching post 200 C.E. is private study through books as opposed to public study with teachers. According to this, it seems as if teachers and public education were, in principle, more relevant in the era when the Torah was actually transmitted orally![7]

Rav Zadok HaKohen records another practical halachik change, post 200 C.E. It concerns the requirement to write down EVERY possible Torah thought or idea that an individual may come up with, lest it too be forgotten. This emphasises the fact that what was previously considered a grave prohibition, subsequently became a very positive imperative and mitzvah which had to be encouraged! This is an example of a prohibition (not to write oral law) transforming into an actual precept (to write oral law).[8]

A LESS KNOWN EXPLANATION:

The Maharal of Prague (1512/26-1609), however, offers a very different and rather mystical explanation as to why the Oral Torah was written down. His explanation is unlike any of the common and ubiquitous reasons we mentioned above.

He posits that the Oral Torah had to remain an oral tradition only until Christianity had firmly been established[9]. He quotes the Midrash Tanchuma[10] which states (paraphrase):

“G-d originally intended to give the Mishna and Gemora in writing. But He was concerned that the nations of the world would take it from the Jews and claim it as their own (as they were to so with the Written Law). That would leave the Jews with no unique literature. Therefore He gave Bnei Yisrael the Oral Torah and commanded them to keep it an oral tradition in order to sustain a unique and exclusive Jewish tradition that could never be imitated by anyone else.”[11]

The Maharal continues in his own words:

“The Written Torah was not (historically) specific to the Jews. Only the Oral Torah remained peculiar to them. For this reason it was important for it to remain an oral tradition so that the nations could not expropriate it as their own.  

Although the Written Torah may have been adopted by other nations, it technically still remained in the possession of the Jews because it is incomprehensible without the Oral Tradition. This is because the spirit of the Written Torah is found only in the Oral Tradition.[12] 

The covenant between G-d and Bnei Yisrael could never just be written on parchment. It had to be more personal. And the only way to make it personal was to introduce the human factor in its transmission process. Hence the essential covenant was not between G-d and the Written Torah, but instead between G-d and the Oral Torah.”[13]

So, according the Maharal, the Written Torah was a kind of ‘code’ that could only be cracked with the Oral Tradition. The Written Torah acted almost like a ‘red herring’ – so that even though it was adopted by others, the integrity of a unique Jewish religious literature still remained untouched because of the existence of the Oral Tradition. 

This Oral Tradition effectively remained ‘secret’ until such time the Christianity had taken root. Thereafter there was no longer a fear of any more textual misappropriation. This ties in historically with the timing of committing the Oral Torah to writing, which occurred in the year 200, so soon after the beginning of the Christian era.

Surprisingly, the only other contemporary English reference I found supporting this view, as put forth by the Maharal, is in the writing of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan:

“Since many non-Jews also accept the Bible as sacred, the Oral Torah is the main thing that distinguishes Judaism and makes it unique. The Oral Torah could therefore not be written down until the gentiles had adopted their own religion based on the Bible.”[14]

THE ‘SECRET SCROLLS’:

It’s interesting to see that before the Oral Torah was written and published, the heads of the various academies did keep their own private collections of notes. They did this so as to maintain the accuracy of their teachings. These notes, however, were strictly private and were not for public consumption. They became known as the megilot setarim or ‘secret scrolls’, and they remained ‘secret’ for 1 500 years.[15] 

Amazingly it was these ‘secret scrolls’ that preserved the spirit of our tradition more than anything else including the Written Torah.

Ironically, these ‘secret scrolls’ were to become the well known and well studied texts we commonly use today. And yet they still go by their original name - Torah Shebe’al Peh or Oral Torah.

Only now they are no longer secret and their glorious printed volumes proudly grace the bookshelves of Jews throughout the world.

Their mission accomplished.

---

[1] According to Rav Kook, both these Torahs are alluded to in Shemot 24:3/4-7;

“Moshe came and TOLD the people all of G-d’s words and all the statutes.” – Referring to the ORAL TORAH. And then in the next verse; “Moshe WROTE all of G-d’s words...and READ it to the people.” – Referring to the WRITTEN TORAH. (Rav Kook, Midbar Shur pp. 160-165).

[2] This would have taken place at Marah, where the Seven laws of Noah, Shabbat, Honouring parents and the Red Heifer were transmitted. See Rashi to Shemot 24 quoting Mechilta and Sanhedrin 26b. See also Ramban, Rambam and Ibn Ezra.

[3] Rashi on Shemot 24:4.

[4] For more on the fascinating story of the transmission of the Written Torah see KOTZK BLOG 73) The Aleppo Codex.

[5] According to Rambam, he gathered ancient writings from the past and created an anthology of previously oral Torah traditions. This was because individuals were allowed to write down notes for their private usage although they were not permitted to publish them for public consumption. See Rambam’s Introduction to Mishnah Torah.

[6] Shulchan Aruch HaRav  1, 6

[7] I think it should be pointed out that this is probably only a technical or de jure observation, and not a practical suggestion for a change in the contemporary educational system.

There are other changes in halacha also as a result of the Oral Torah having been written down. One example concerns the prohibition of forgetting one’s studies. According to some, once the Oral Torah was written down, the prohibition became less severe (as even if one did forget one’s studies, it still remained preserved within the pages of books. (See Peninei Halacha, Likuttim 1, chap.1,10, bottom of p.20.)

Another example of a change in halacha relates the commandment for each person to write his own personal Torah scroll. Part of the prohibition against writing down the Oral Torah also applied to writing down the Written Torah in a format other than a kosher Torah scroll. Once the Oral Torah was written down, however, it became permissible to write the Torah on any manuscript (although obviously one could not read from that manuscript in synagogue during the public reading of the Torah). This new development, according to some, made the commandment for every man to write his own Torah scroll, now obsolete.  (ibid. p. 67 footnote 1.)

[8] Rav Tzadok bases this thesis on Yoreh Deah 270:2 and Shach 5.

Another example of a prohibition changing into a precept - where a dramatic turnabout took place in halacha - was with regard to paying and supporting people who study Torah. Originally, in Talmudic times, this was forbidden and the sages worked and supported themselves. Towards the end of the period of the Rishonim, however, some poskim (halachik authorities) wrote that scholars who do NOT take money from the community are actually falling foul of the law!

(See Peninei Halacha, Likuttim 1, Chap. 1: 17, p 37 at the top of the page. This is brought by the Shach in the name of Maharshal and Bach.)

[9] Maharal does not make mention of the name of the actual religion, but the inference is obvious. He refers to ‘umot hanizkarim’ (the abovementioned nations’) instead of ‘ Christianity’ , perhaps for fear of reprisals.

[10] The Midrash Tanchuma was compiled around 500 C.E.

[11] There is another similar Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah 14:10 which states:

“He gave the Jews the Oral Torah to be distinct from all other nations. It was not presented in written form, so that the Gentiles could not forge it or claim it as their own and then declare themselves to be the real and true Israel – as they did with the Written Torah.”

The Bamidbar Rabbah is about 600 years younger than the Midrash Tanchuma that Maharal quoted. It is dated some time after the 1100’s as Rashi (1040-1105) was unaware of it.

The Maharal (d.1609) would have had access to it but, although it states the point more directly than the Midrash Tanchuma, for some reason he didn’t quote Bamidbar Rabbah. Again this may have been out of concern for not offending the non-Jewish authorities.

[12] Gittin 60 b.

[13] Maharal, Tiferet Yisrael 68.

[14] Rabbi Arye Kaplan, A Handbook of Jewish Thought, p.179.

[15] See Rashi to Shabbat 6b. See also Bava Metzia92a.