Proposition: From time to time, any society must enact new laws. Yet, it does not appear that the Tanakh allows this. Therefore, there must be another code, the Oral Torah, which allow this.
Response: 1. Anything that is not forbidden is allowed. If the Oral Torah permits something that is forbidden by the Tanakh, then the Oral Torah contradicts the Tanakh and is therefore invalid. If the Oral Torah "permits" something that is not forbidden in the Tanakh anyway, then there is no need for this "permission", as it is already permitted by the fact that it is not forbidden.
2. The Tanakh does contain the following prohibition (Deut. 4:2):
You are not to add to the word that I am commanding you,and you are not to subtract from it,in keeping the commandments of YHWH your God that I am commanding you.
There are different types of human legislation. Some laws are clearly understood to be human, and are repealable and alterable by other humans. Other laws pretend to be Divine in origin, or to be passed by humans on Divine authority, and are, at least for practical purposes, not repealable or alterable by other humans. I call the first type of laws Republican Laws and the second type Divine Right Laws.
The prohibition given above clearly does not apply to Republican Laws. "You are not to add to the word that I am commanding you": which words is Moses commanding? He is commanding words given to him by God ("in keeping the commandments of ... your God"). In other words, he is saying, do not create any more laws claiming that they are Divine. This is it for Divine laws; there are no more. Moses is closing the canon. The prohibition applies to Divine Right Laws, which is what the Oral Torah is.
3. Any command given by anyone in power is a law. We know that righteous leaders of Israel did issue such laws. Since they were righteous, we know they acted in accordance with the correct interpretation of the Torah; since they issued laws, we know that such action is not forbidden by the Torah.
Posted by Ami at August 1, 2004 12:43 AM | TrackBackKenneth,
A good example would be any taxes levied over and above the poll tax or tithe. We know that both Solomon and his son Rechavam imposed very high taxes on the people, and this to the split of the kingdom. (We are told is was over idol worship, but taxation has proved to be a much stickier political problem.)
SL
Posted by: SL Aronovitz at August 2, 2004 04:27 PMCan you provide some Scriptural examples of human legislation?