One
of the most iconic rabbinical statements is that cited by Rashi from a
Sifrei, and is also in the Midrash, makes an Orwellian statement,
which would be fit to fall into the Newspeak rules.
Regarding
the alleged authority of the Sanhedrin, it claims:
“Even
if they tell you that right is left and that left is right (you
should listen to the sages) certainly if they tell you right is right
and left is left. (Rashi, Deut. 17:11)”
This is repeated in
Midrash:
“You
shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall declare to
you to the right hand nor to the left. If they tell you that the
right hand is right and the left hand left, listen to them, and even
if they shall tell you that the right hand is left and the left hand
right.(Midrash Rabbah - The Song of Songs 1:18)”
Firstly,
this is a misrepresentation of the Torah , Deut 17:
11
According to the law which they shall teach thee, and according to
the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do; thou shalt
not turn aside from the sentence which they shall declare unto thee,
to the right hand, nor to the left.
This
is in the case of a local dispute that cannot be resolved, and is
taken to the Kohen in the Temple. Thus, for example, I have a
publishing dispute with my friend Shawn, who wants a 50/50 royalty
deal, and I am greedy, asking for 51/49 in my favour. We can resolve
this between ourselves, or go to the High Priest. The High Priest
might say something that is to my benefit or to my friend's, or
something that is perfectly just. It is a risk we take that we do
not like the final judgement, but it is ultimately our own choice to
take this risk. Thus, the Torah commands us not to veer left or
right from the decision of the Priest or Judge.
What
the Sifrei/Talmudic rabbis did was to transmute the meaning of the
Priestly authority, to their own advantage. And not only in matters
of High court appeals, but every pronouncement made by rabbis at any
time or place.
There
was a dissenting voice to this, and it came, surprisingly, from the
Jerusalem Talmud.
“Is
it possible that if they told you right is left and left is right you
would have to listen to them? The verse teaches we must follow [the
sages] "left and right" only when they tell you right is
right, and left is left. (Yerushalmi Horiot 2b)”
This
is interesting because the Rabbis of the Yerushalmi were the
inheritors of the Mishnah, and were not in receipt of such an alleged
tradition. This is further evidence of the controversy of the mainstream
Babylonian Talmud, in that they differed even from the Yerushalmi.
Unsurprisingly, this dissenting view is not accepted by the rabbis,
who follow the Babylonian Talmud.
In
Deut 13, the law of not adding or subtracting to the Torah is
followed immediately by the law of the false prophet, implying that
one who adds to the Torah, claiming he has heard it from Moses or
God, is a false prophet. In Deut 18, we are told how to test a
prophet, or one who claims to have Divine law (eg an unknown
revelation from Sinai).
22
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow
not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not
spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be
afraid of him.
These very powerful and rational Torah commands have application in both Torah law and in science.
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