Eclectic Topics in no Particular Order
Various Topics Discussed
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Did he write it when he got the 10 utterances or sayings ("commandments" is a mistranslation). Did he write it when he spent 40 days on Mount Sinai? Did he write it when the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years? 3,333 years ago -- on the 6th of Sivan 2448 -- G-d spoke to the entire Jewish nation while they encamped near Har (Mount) Sinai. This would have been 1312 BCE (or there abouts). This was seven weeks after the Exodus from Egypt. Even today Jews celebrate this date with the holiday of Shavuot / שָׁבוּעוֹת / Weeks. G-d spoke to the entire nation, not just to Moses. This would have been over 3 million people -- 600,000 of whom were adult men. The people heard G-d and were afraid, so after the first two utterances they begged G-d to speak through Moses from that point forward. What of the written Torah? When did Moses actually write it down? Well, in fact there are many opinions on that subject. We know that he did not write it when he first came down the mountain with the tablets. We also know that he received everything (mitzvot that is) contained in the written Torah in the 40 days he spent on Sinai by himself. So when did he actually put pen to scroll? Gittin 60a says: "Rabbi Yoḥanan says in the name of Rabbi Bana’a: The Torah was given from the outset scroll by scroll, as it is stated: “Then I said, behold, I come with the scroll of the book that is written for me” (Psalms 40:8). King David is saying about himself that there is a section of the Torah, “the scroll of the book,” that alludes to him, i.e., “that is written for me.” This indicates that each portion of the Torah constitutes a separate scroll. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: The Torah was given as a complete book, as it is stated: “Take this scroll of the Torah” (Deuteronomy 31:26), which teaches that from the outset the Torah was given as a complete unit." According to this quote from the Talmud Rabbi Yohanan said that the written Torah was created scroll by scroll as events happened. R' Shimon ben Lakish said that G-d dictated the Torah to Moses at one time, at the end of the forty years in the desert. Two opinions, but both state that the written Torah was created after the events at Mount Sinai itself. One says that Moses wrote the first Torah part by part over the forty years the Jews wandered in the desert, completing it shortly before the Jews entered Israel. Another opinion says that Moses wrote the first Torah all at once, at the end of his life. The Ramban (Nachmanides) reconciled these seemingly differing views in his Introduction to the Commentary of the Torah when he wrote: "It is likely that he wrote it on Mount Sinai for there it was said to him, Come up to Me unto the mount, and be there; and I will give thee the tablets of stone and the Torah and the commandment which I have written, to teach them.' The tablets of stone include the tablets and the writing that are the ten commandments. The commandment includes the number of all the commandments, positive and negative. If so, the expression and the Torah includes the stories from the beginning of Genesis [and is called Torah - teaching] because it teaches people the ways of faith. Upon descending from the mount, he [Moses] wrote the Torah from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the account of the tabernacle. He wrote the conclusion of the Torah at the end of the fortieth year of wandering in the desert when he said [by. command of G-d], Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Eternal your G-d." The Ramban is saying that Moses wrote B'reshit / Genesis and S'hmot / Exodus, through the end of the passages about the Mishkan / tabernacle, on Sinai. Per the Ramban Moses wrote the rest of the Torah at the end of the forty years. There's a tradition that Moses finished writing thirteen Torah scrolls on the day of his death -- one for each of the tribes and one for the ark of the covenant.
1 Comment
P v Poelgeest
12/4/2020 10:40:42 am
Good afternoon Sophie Saguy Can you explain this text
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