Wednesday, February 4, 2026

The Two Torah Problem



There is nothing unsound about positing two Torahs.   From the top of Sinai, Moses received the written and oral Torah(s).  They are the same Torah, but in two formats.  Yet how can we say that they are not two?

Other concepts of two, or dualisms, have a come complicated relationship in Judaism.  There can be put One Power to the Universe.  If HaShem cedes power to another entity (an angel, a force, a sefiortot) it is because the Governor delegated that power.  And in another view, that delegation is an illusion.  The maximalist view holds that there is nothing but HaShem - The Existent.  Humans needs to view things in gradations, but God has no such limitations.

We can understand the reluctance of the Tradition to postulate two Torahs: a Divine and an Earthly.  A Torah for Now and a Torah for Later.  Who is to say when that time comes?  Who is to say when one Torah supersedes another?  This is dangerous terriority.

But some have desired this model to enact certain obscure distinctions.   If there is a Heavenly Torah, do not some gifted human, through their efforts, get to reads its pages?  And if they do, are those people no longer obliged to follow the Earthly Torah?  But we do not live in the realm of the Heavenly Torah.  Our Torah is here.  Is it not incumbent upon us to only hint at the Heavenly Torah, while reading its Earthly Copy?


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