100 Rabbi Richard S. Rheins
was simply to preserve the absolute ban on idolatry, not to limit the later generations from adding legislation.
Tradition has established that the Torah text contains 613 commandments(mitzvot) that are explicitly divine in origin. Though there is some variation about which are the specific 613 commandments from the Torah , they are generally divided intc two categories: 248 affirmative commandments(mitzvot aseh) and 365 negative commandments(mitzvot lo ta-aseh).?® The rabbis understood Deuteronomy 4 :2 as prohibiting them from adding to the 613 Torah laws(de-oraita), but that verse did not restrict them from legislating rabbinic laws(de-rabbanan).
Having overcome the restrictions of Deuteronomy 4 :2, the rabbis still had to find the textual support in the Torah for the authority to add laws that would help shape and define Jewish practice. They grounded the right to legislate on Deuteronomy 17:11:“According to the sentence of the Torah which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not deviate(“lo tasur’) from that which they instruct you either to the right or to the left.”
The operative verse is Deuteronomy 17:11, Al pi hatorah asher yorukha ve-al hamishpat asher yomru lekha ta-aseh lo tasur min hadevar asher yageedu lekha yamin usmol. The Torah specifically referred to the Levitical priests(Kohanim) and the local judge (Shofet) as the authorities which must be obeyed. Naturally, the rabbis saw themselves as the rightful heirs to judge, guide and instruct the Jewish people in the post-Temple era. This crucial verse helped to establish rabbinic authority and the right to legislate. But it also taught that their words must be obeyed. As the Talmud taught:“All the ordinances of the Rabbis were based by them on the prohibition lo tasur(you shall not deviate).”?’
Interestingly, the above proof-text was an important argu ment in the arsenal the medieval Rabbis marshaled during the infamous Disputations organized by the Catholic Church. ® The church’s persecutors charged that Jews had abandoned the Bible in favor of the Talmud . They cited as evidence the rabbinic teach” ing that the Talmud (Torah she-b’al peh) was divine. Christian doc trine, according to Augustine, based its“tolerance” of Jews On the predica-tion of Jewish adherence to the divinity of the Bible If it could be proven that Jews had abandoned the Bible (in favo! of the Talmud ), Christians no longer needed to tolerate Jews I Europe.’ The rabbinic defenders in the Disputations had t°