Fifth Reading: The Union of the Written and Oral Torah
At Mount Sinai, we received two Torahs—the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Written Torah is the Divine revelation from the heavens, the manifestation of God’s word and His revealed sovereignty over us to the extent that even the nations of the world recognize it. In contrast, the Oral Torah rises from below; it is renewed and revealed through the study of the sages and the tzaddikim of the Jewish people.
The sages state, “There is nothing as honorable as Torah” (הָרֹוּא תָּלֶד אֹבוָין כֵּא). This applies equally to both the Written and Oral Torah. The Written Torah, the Torah from the heavens, reveals the honor of the heavens, the revelation of God’s sovereignty. At the same time the Oral Torah reveals the honor of the sages of the Torah, to the degree that they two are likened to kings who are sovereign, as captured in the statement, “Who are the kings!? The Rabbis.”
Of course, despite referring to the Written Torah and to the Oral Torah, in truth the Torah is one. We must be careful not to divide or separate the Torah into two, God forbid. Rather, the union of both aspects of Torah—the Written and the Oral—can be likened to the union of a groom and his bride. This is the union referred to by the Kabbalists as the union of the Holy Blessed One, representing the Written Torah, and His Divine Presence, the Shechinah, representing the Oral Torah.
In Chasidut, it is explained that the verse “Above all honor shall be a (wedding) canopy” (הָּפֻד חֹבוָל כָּל כַּע) is a symbol for the honor of the groom and the honor of the bride. The groom’s honor is his love for his bride, and the bride’s honor is her love for her groom. Carrying the image to the analogous relationship between the Written and the Oral Torah, the Written Torah’s reveals God’s glory, but as the figurative groom, God’s intent is to increase the honor of the Jewish people, His bride and particularly the honor of the Torah sages—foremost among them Moses. At the same time, the Oral Torah, indeed reveals the glory of the Jewish people, but as the figurative bride, the Jewish people and its scholars, those who study and innovate the Oral Torah, aim to increase the honor of Heaven and dedicate everything to the Holy Blessed One.
The Bronze Serpent
An example of this relationship between the Written and Oral Torah and between God and Moses can be found in the story of the bronze serpent related in our reading. The Torah recounts that “the people spoke against God and Moses....” In response, “God sent against the people venomous snakes”: “snakes” because of their words against God and “venomous” because of their speech against Moses—the Torah scholar whose hiss is likened to the hiss of a venomous serpent. When Israel repented and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against God and against you,” Moses prayed for them, and God instructed him how to turn the very source of illness and death into a source of healing and life. The verse states that God told Moses, “Make yourself a venomous [snake].” God did not mention the word snake, which as we said refers to the punishment of speaking against God, meaning that God was careful to protect Moses’ honor, whom we said was captured in the venom of the snakes. For his part, Moses made a copper snake, a play on the word “snake,” which in Hebrew is cognate with the word for “copper.” Thus, even though God had not mentioned a “snake,” the punishment for speaking against Him, Moses was careful to protect God’s honor, the honor of Heaven.
We can go a little deeper and discover that the relationship between the Written and Oral Torah is even more profound. It is explained that God indeed said to Moses, “Make yourself a venomous snake,” but the Torah text shortened His words and omitted the word “snake.” This was, it is explained, in response to the spirit of the people, which grew short-tempered on their journey; measure for measure, so too, in a manner of speaking, God’s patience was shortened, yet He wished to minimize the Israelites’ disgrace and concealed the offense against Him by omitting the word “snake.” Thus, what God actually said to Moses is revealed only through the Oral tradition. We can refer to this special phenomenon as “the Oral aspect of the Written Torah,” with God’s honor—the word “snake”—concealed for the sake of protecting the honor of Israel.
And once again, for his part, Moses’ derivation from the missing word, “snake”—that the snake placed on the pole be made of copper—is written explicitly in the Written Torah’s text. Thus, the words, “Moses made a copper snake” designate “the written aspect within the Oral Torah” since this particular derivation made by Moses, was written into the Torah text. Moses’ derivation is meant to insist on the honor of Heaven, because it aims to reveal that “no evil descends from Above” and that within the apparent evil itself (the snakes attacking the people) there already lies God’s hidden remedy. Making the snake out of copper demonstrates that God preemptively provides a cure for all sickness and that He heals the bitter with bitter—He heals the bite of the snake with the sight of the copper snake. To do so, Moses must divine how the healing is revealed in the bronze serpent itself.
(translated from www.pnimi.org.il; based on a class given on 3 Tammuz 5780)
