Editing Orthodox Judaism (section)

=== Revelation ===
The defining doctrine of Orthodox Judaism is the belief that God revealed the [[Torah]] ("Teaching" or "Law") to [[Moses]] on Mount Sinai, both the written scripture of the [[Torah]] and the [[Oral Torah]] explicating it, and that [[chazal|sages]] promulgated it faithfully from Sinai in an unbroken chain. One of the foundational texts of rabbinic literature is the list opening the ''[[Pirkei Avot]]'', enumerating the sages, from Moses through [[Joshua]], the [[Moses Elects Seventy Elders|Seventy Elders]], and [[Hebrew Prophet|Prophets]], and then onward until [[Hillel the Elder]] and [[Shammai]]. This core belief is referred to in classical sources as "The Law/Teaching is from the Heavens" (''Torah min HaShamayim'').

Orthodoxy holds that the body of revelation is total and complete. Its interpretation and application under new circumstances, required of every generation's scholars, is an act of inferring and elaborating, not of innovation or addition. One clause in the [[Jerusalem Talmud]] asserts that anything that a veteran disciple shall teach was given at Sinai: a story in the [[Babylonian Talmud]] claims that Moses was taken aback upon seeing the immensely intricate deduction of future [[Rabbi Akiva]] in a vision, until Akiva proclaimed that Moses had received everything he was teaching. The Written and Oral Torah are held to be intertwined and mutually reliant. The latter is a source of many divine commandments, and the text of the Pentateuch is seen as incomprehensible. God's will may be surmised only by appealing to the Oral Torah, which revealed the text's allegorical, [[anagogical]], or [[tropological]] meaning, rather than by a literal reading.

Lacunae in received tradition or disagreements between early sages are attributed to disruptions, especially persecutions such that "the Torah was forgotten in Israel." According to rabbinic lore, these eventually compelled the [[legist]]s to write down the Oral Law in the [[Mishna]] and [[Talmud]]. The wholeness of the original divine message and the reliability of those who transmitted it are axiomatic. One of the primary intellectual exercises of Torah scholars is to locate discrepancies between Talmudic or other passages and then demonstrate by complex logical steps (presumably proving each passage referred to a slightly different situation, etc.) that no contradiction is obtained.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meyer |first=Michael A. |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=E097BTUssM4C |page=3}} |pages=3–6 |title=Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism |date=1995 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=978-0-8143-2555-1}}</ref> Orthodox Judaism considers revelation as propositional, explicit, verbal, and unambiguous. Revelation serves as a firm source of authority for religious commandments. Modernist understandings of revelation as a subjective, humanly-conditioned experience are rejected.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ward |first=Keith |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=4rwsM_w1uAwC |page=85}} |title=Religion and Revelation: A Theology of Revelation in the World's Religions |date=1994 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-826466-8 |pages=85, 115, 209}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Freundel |first=Barry |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=qaCfpwuTv68C |page=29}} |pages=29, 35 |title=Contemporary Orthodox Judaism's Response to Modernity |date=2004 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc. |isbn=978-0-88125-778-6}}</ref> Some thinkers at the liberal end of the liberal wing promoted such views, although they found virtually no acceptance from the establishment.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schimmel |first=Solomon |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Ku-xzIY5mecC |page=202}} |pages=202–203 |title=The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs: Fundamentalism and the Fear of Truth |date=2008-08-15 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-518826-4}}</ref>

An important ramification of ''Torah min HaShamayim'' in modern times is the reserved, and often totally rejectionist, attitude of Orthodoxy toward the historical-critical method, particularly [[higher Biblical criticism]]. The refusal by rabbis to employ such tools, insisting on traditional methods and the need for consensus and continuity with past authorities, separates the most liberal-leaning Orthodox rabbinic circles from the most conservative non-Orthodox ones.<ref name=srf />{{rp|115–119}}

While the Sinai event is held to be the supreme act of revelation, rabbinic tradition acknowledges matters addressed by the Prophets and [[Bat qol|God's later announcements]]. [[Kabbalah]], as revealed to illustrious past figures and passed on through elitist circles, is widely (albeit not universally) esteemed. While some prominent rabbis considered Kabbalah a late forgery, most generally accepted it as legitimate. However, its status in determining normative halakhic decision-making, which is binding for the entire community, and not just for spiritualists who voluntarily adopt kabbalistic strictures, was always controversial. Leading [[Posek|decisors]] openly applied criteria from Kabbalah in their rulings, while others did so only inadvertently, and many denied it any normative role. A closely related mystical phenomenon is the belief in ''[[Magid (Jewish mysticism)|Magidim]]'', supposed dreamlike apparitions or visions, that may inform those who experience them with certain divine knowledge.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=כ"ץ |first1=יעקב |last2=Katz |first2=Jacob |authorlink2=Jacob Katz |date=1980 |title=Post-Zoharic Relations between Halakhah and Kabbalah / יחסי הלכה וקבלה בדורות שלאחר "התגלות" הזוהר |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24191185 |journal=Daat: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah / דעת: כתב-עת לפילוסופיה יהודית וקבלה |issue=4 |pages=57–74 |jstor=24191185 |issn=0334-2336}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Shlomo |last=Brody |url=http://text.rcarabbis.org/halakha-and-kabbalah-rabbi-joseph-karos-shulchan-aruch-and-magid-mesharim-by-shlomo-brody |title=Halakha and Kabbalah: Rabbi Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch and Magid Mesharim |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205003255/http://text.rcarabbis.org/halakha-and-kabbalah-rabbi-joseph-karos-shulchan-aruch-and-magid-mesharim-by-shlomo-brody/ |archive-date=5 December 2018 |publisher=Rabbinical Council of America Rabbis' blog |year=2011}}</ref>