From the Disproofs of the Oral Law series.
11. How does one fulfill the biblical commandments of circumcision [Gen. 17:10-14], fringes [Num. 15:38-39], and booths [Lev. 23:42]? There is not enough detail in the biblical directive to know how to fulfill these commandments properly. What are fringes? What is a booth? How much and where must be cut off in circumcision? The biblical text is too silent to enable following these commandments unless there was an oral explanation [Kuzari, ibid; Rashbatz, ibid.].
1. This objection is basically the same as the last two, which I have already answered. The Torah does not say anywhere that the Law given by God is meant to specify all the details. Rather, with those things that are not specified, we can do as we like.
2. "What are fringes?" is very similar to an earlier objection regarding mesorah. If an Oral Torah was needed to preserve the meanings of words, then all books, written in all languages, would need accompanying Oral Torahs. How is it that Hindus, when reading the Vedas, can understand Sanskrit without any Oral Torah, but we need one to understand Hebrew? Transmission of language from generation to generation is not the same as the transmission of an Oral Torah. All peoples transmit their languages, but only Orthodox Jews claim an Oral Torah.
In most cases when we are not sure about what a word means, we can find clues as to its meaning from either textual or historical context. And even if we cannot find such clues, which is rare, that still does not point to an Oral Torah. All it says is that we do not know what the word means. But we can still attempt to make the best possible decisions, regardless of the circumstances.
3. Here is the passage that commands circumcision:
"Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised / mil. You shall circumcise / namal / cut off the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days. As for the homeborn slave and the one bought from an outsider who is not of your offspring, they must be circumcised, homeborn, and purchased alike. Thus shall My covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting pact. And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his kin; he has broken My covenant."
As is explained in the passage, circumcision means cutting off the foreskin. This is mentioned in other places as well. For example, Exodus 4:
At a night encampment on the way, YHWH encountered him [Moses] and sought to kill him. So Zipporah took a flint and cut off / karet her son's foreskin, and touched his legs with it, saying, "You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!" And when He let him alone, she added, "A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision / milah."
4. Circumcision is practiced by many people throughout the world. Somehow, everyone who performs circumcision knows where the foreskin is, and how to cut it off. Yet, none of them have any Oral Torah.
5. Here is the commandment regarding fringes / tzitzit:
Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes / tzitzit on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner.
It is given again in Deuteronomy 22:12: "You shall make twisted threads / gedil on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself."
The word tzitzit is used in Ezekiel 8:3: "And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock / tzitzit of mine head".
From all of this we see that:
Interestingly enough, (the overwhelming majority of) Orthodox Jews specifically refuse to attach a cord of blue to their tzitzit.
6. Likewise, the requirements for a booth / sukkah, which we must build for the holiday of Sukkot, can be seen from the text. For more details, see Nehemia Gordon's article on the subject. Briefly, a sukkah is built out of four types of vegetation, namely:
The two main source texts for this are Leviticus 23 and Nehemiah 8.
Posted by Ami at January 25, 2004 02:17 AM | TrackBack