The Torah

The relationship of the written law to the oral law, and where it all comes from

G‑d told Moses that he will give him "the Torah and the commandments." Why did G‑d add the word "commandments?" Are there any commandments which are not included in the Torah?

Our sages tell us that Torah can be interpreted in four different general ways: peshat, remez, drush and sod.

The greatest conspiracy theory of all time is materialism. The second greatest conspiracy theory is that the Jews invented the Torah...

Imagine Albert Einstein walking down the street and dropping a pen. As he bends down to pick it up, the unfortunate occurs. His pants split. He heads back home, and mends the pants...

To explain that, I would need a long conversation with you about what is G-d and how G-d talks to people and why....

There are so many differences of opinion as to what happened and what it means--how can they all be right?

We claim to believe in the Bible, but it seems to me that in reality we're controlled by a small group of old men and their Talmud...

Why do the rabbis add so many laws to the Torah? Isn't that what caused Adam and Eve to sin--the fact that Eve made unwarranted additions to G‑d's law?

In what way are the laws of the Talmud "the wisdom and will of G-d"? What's so "wise" about the how to divide a garment that two people are fighting over? Why G-d would "will" the procedures for buying a donkey?

Why are there two Talmuds? And why is the "Babylonian Talmud" concidered more authoritative than the "Jerusalem Talmud"?

Is Torah really absolute, all-encompassing Truth? Do the rabbis never disagree? Could we have invented Teflon™ and Superglue™ just by reading Torah?

How could Jacob have studied the Torah, if it was given to Moses centuries later? Did he learn, in advance, how Laban would trick him on his wedding night or how Joseph would thrown in a pit and sold as a slave by his brothers?

I wonder about how the Orthodox view the fluidity of the Torah and the teachings of the past. Clearly there are aspects of the Torah that have been outdated since it was written, such as stoning etc.

Democracy and human rights are cornerstones of our moral vision in the modern era. Where do we Jews fit--historically and ideologically--into this picture?

Yes, there's tension here, and as every good dramatist and massage therapist knows, tension is a good point to play with

Didn’t G‑d give Moses the Torah while he was on top of Mount Sinai away from the rest of the Jews who were waiting down below? Isn’t this similar to the stories of Jesus and Mohammad, because no one was actually there to verify that anything was unequivocally given from G‑d to Moses?