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From: rhendel@king.mcs.drexel.edu (Russell Hendel)
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 13:15:16 -0400
Subject: he Written Law, Orah Law and defintion of Torah

Chana Luntz [V24 #96] following Akiva Miller raises some interesing
questions about the defintion of Torah. I believe 3 simple points
can help answer most of the questions.

FIRST: There are three (not two) categories of Torah:
TORAH SHEBICTAV: This includes all matters dealing with reading
the Tenach (punctuation, laining) as well as meaning (e.g. a Rashi
in Megillah explaining the meaning of an obscure word).

TORAH SBAL PEH: This has two parts:
MISHNAH: This includes all laws and traditions not explicitly
found in the Torah. As Chana correctly points out without the Mishnah
I would have no way of knowing the 5 invalidations of a Schecitah.

GEMARRA (See Rambam for this definition) This includes all matters
of analysis, generalization, rationalization and distinction on
Torah and Mishnah matters.

SECOND: A variety of modern psychological authors have dealt with
the concept of self esteem or perception of accomplishment which
is very important for emotional health. Using this concept we
can analyze a possible **reason** for having 3 categories of Torah by
suggesting that it creates a balance between the needs for self
esteem on the one hand and humility on the other.

Thus Torah Sbal Peh can be mastered by memorizing a finite number
of vowel and cantillation signs. A person can say (=self
esteem) that they e.g. know how to lain their Bar Mitzvah parshah.
The knowledge in this case is complete.  Similarly (using Chana's
example) a person can say that they  know the five (all) methods
of invalidating a Schchitah...the knowledge is complete and a person
has a feeling of self accomplishment.  On the other hand Gemarrah
is notorious for being endless and hence engenders a sense of
humility since we are constantly made aware of the distinctions and
generalizations that we don't know. It also creates self esteem
by allowing individuals to create new Torah.

THIRD: In an article I wrote, Towards A Definition of Torah, I
suggest that the Torah was not meant to be fixed in domain but
rather to continually grow.  I use the analogy of loveletters.
Loveletters grow in effect not by repeating phrases of love
but rather by the couple sharing with each other more and more
experiences (ie. the loveletters are defined by the *relationship*
and not by the *content*).  In a similar manner if say I use
the proof that the square root of 2 is not rational and *connect
it to other Torah such as the measurments of Succah* then that
piece of mathematics becomes Torah since I share my worldly
experiences with Hashem (see the Tosafoth in Succah which *is*
Torah but pure geomery).

Using these three concepts we can quickly answer many questions:`
1) A rashi explaining a Biblical word is Torah Shebictav
2) All 24 books are Torah Shebictav
3) Mishnahs collecting laws are Torah Shebal Peh--Misnah.
4) A rashi explaining a meaning of a text is Torah Shebictav
5) A rashi explaining reasons for Posooks may be Gemarrah
6) An internet posting that summarizes known laws or views isMishnah
7) An internet posting that compares and contrasts texts is Gemarrh

Some further examples might help

8)A listing of which drugs are ok on Pesach and which you have
to watch out for is MISHNAH (like the list of Wicks in Bemeh
Madlikim)
9)Similarly a Rabbi who in a Shabbos Derashah connects a
Political event to a Torah law is also engaged in Mishnah
10) If the Rabbis sermon has distinctions comparisons and
generalizations then it is Gemarrah.

If one asks why this is so: Why should dentists and Rabbi sermons
be classified as Torah.. we could respond either using the loveletter
analogy or the self esteem analogy---the purpose of Torah is to
share with God our worldly matters; its emotional affects on
us should balance a sense of humility about what we don't know with
the self esteem of having mastered old torah or creating new torah.

I hope these ideas add clarification to this difficult subject.

Russell Hendel, Ph.d ASA, rhendel @ mcs drexel edu