Rabbi Richard S. Rheins
(Numbers 36:1-9). Thus we can see the evolution of halakhah occurred in the Torah itself!
Ezra the scribe was also a noted biblical legislator. He enacted new laws against intermarriage(Ezra 9:1-10:44). He was credited with a number of takanot, including: the public reading of the Torah at the Minhah service on Shabbat and on Mondays and Thursdays; and other matters(Baba Kama 82a).
Tellingly, Ezra was credited with revolutionary changes to the very fundamental elements of the Torah : its script. Sanhedrin 21b stated:“Originally, the Torah was presented to Israel ir Hebrew script and in the Holy Tongue(bikh-tav iv-ri uleshon hakodesh). It(the Torah ) was presented to them again in the days of Ezra in Assyrian script and the Aramaic tongue(bikh-tav ashurit uleshon arami).” A Baraita then continued:“Rabbi Yosi says, Ezr: was worthy of having the Torah presented to Israel through him had Moses not preceded him(Sanhedrin 21b).”
What compelled Ezra to institute(legislate) such radica changes? The Book of Nehemiah explained that Ezra and Nehemiah were faced with Jews who were unfamiliar with the Torah . They apparently were unable to understand Hebrew. “They read from the scroll of the Teaching of God(va-yikreu va-Sefer beTorah ha-Elohim), translating it and giving the sense; so they understood the reading(Nehemiah 8:18). Ezra decided that if a language barrier prevented Jews from understanding the Torah , then then tradition and form should not stand in the way of essential principles and integrity.
Another ancient example of legislation that altered the literal reading of a Torah law can be found in I Maccabees . Early in the war against the Seleucids , many Jews were unwilling to violate the laws of Shabbat even to defend themselves. The Seleucids therefore attacked on the Sabbath and the defenseless Jews were slaughtered.” Shortly thereafter, Mattathias , the leader of the Jewish revolt, proposed a takkanah:
When Mattathias and his friends heard this, they mourned greatly over them, each one saying to the other,“If all of us do as our brothers have done, and do not fight against the heathen for our lives and our laws, they will soon destroy us from off the earth.” They then made the following decision,“If any man attack us in battle on the Sabbath day, let us oppose him, that we may not all die as our brothers did in the hiding places”(2:39-41).