ORAL TORAH VS. WRITTEN TORAH(S): COMPETING CLAIMS TO AUTHORITY

We find two bodies of ancient Jewish tradition that show a belief in a single Torah: the priestly halakha from the Second Temple period and traditions ascribable to R. Akiva. The priests were loyal to the written Torah, its spirit, and the worldview inherent in it.57 R. Akiva established a single Torah by subjoining human exegetical endeavors to the written Torah. The Pharisees endorsed the existence of two Torot, but expressed their allegiance only to one, given orally at Sinai. R. Ishmael affirms the existence of two Torot, both of which he examines and interprets.58 R. Ishmael’s method of expounding the written Torah is similar to that of the priestly halakhah. However, when one must decide between the two Torot, he favors the oral Torah, the independent system of halakhot. While those who held to the existence of oral Torah refrained from putting their learning into writing, both groups who believed in only one, written, Torah did not hesitate to write down the outcome of their exegetical activity, thus creating a second authorized written text. The priests of Qumran presented their written text to outsiders as part of the Sinaitic revelation. Among themselves, however, they understood that they possessed a different basis for authoritative teaching because of the divine exegetical tools they had received. Like R. Akiva, the Qumranite priests felt that God had bestowed upon human beings the ability to interpret and expand His written Words. Unlike R. Akiva, they restricted this ability to their chosen group alone.