Asu Seyag La Torah 99

Again, the preservation of the Jewish people and their faith took precedence over scrupulous observance to the laws of the Torah , even those as significant as Sabbath prohibitions. Jews in later days could cite these important precedents for legislative activ­ity. In fact, on first glance it appears that the Talmudic sages sim­ply assumed that they were empowered to legislate for Pirkei Avot taught:

Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the men of the great synagogue. The latter used to say three things: be patient in[the administration of] justice, rear many disci­ples and make a fence around the Torah (va-asu seyag laTorah).

What hutzpah for the earliest sages to claim the right to legis­late! Did not the Torah explicitly warn against altering the laws of Moses ?“Lo tosifu al hadevar asher Anokhi metzaveh etkhem ve-lo tigre-u mimenu”(Do not add anything to that which I have com­manded you and do not subtract from it”(Deuteronomy 4:2).%

To overcome this imposing obstacle, the sages understood lo foseif and lo tigre-u narrowly. Rashi interpreted lo tosifu(do not add) as a prohibition against adding to the prescribed elements ofa commandment. For instance, we are prohibited from adding a fifth species to the four species of the lulav and etrog. Likewise, We are forbidden to add a fourth blessing to the threefold priestly blessing(birkat Kohanim) found in the Torah.** Nachmanides Noted that the addition of the reading of the Scroll of Esther on Purim was an early challenge to the above prohibition.” By what right did our ancestors add the festival of Purim to the Jewish calendar of observances when it celebrates an event that hap­pened centuries after the canonization of the Torah ? In the words of Nachmanides , Purim and other rabbinically legislated obser­vances are permitted as long as:“one realizes that these takarnot (ordinances of the sages) were enacted as a fence[to protect the Torah ] and are not the actual words of the Holy One Blessed by He of the Torah ."26

_ Athirteenth century contemporary of Nachmanides , Rabbi Hizkiyah Hizkuni(Hazekuni) of Provence, had another inge­ious way of limiting the effect of Deuteronomy. 4:2. Quite logi­cally, he understands that the injunction not to add or subtract is 'N Specific reference to the Torah ’s prohibition against the wor­Ship of other gods and idol worship.” Thus, the Torah ’s intent