This series of shiurim is sponsored anonymously and is l’ilui nishmat Michael Yirmiyahu (Jeremy) haCohen Barkan.

Last week Rabbi Triebitz explained that the Vilna Gaon, in Safra de-Tzne’uta explains that the three concepts of Sefer, Sapar and Sipur correspond to chochma, binah and da’at.
In other words, the Gra views sefer as the text, sapar as the interpretation, and sipur as the speech connecting to the tradition.
When a person recovers the meaning of the text he connects directly in conversation with the author of that text. He is able to recover the oral tradition as transmitted from Moshe Rabbeinu.

In the footnote 1 there the Gra writes: “With these three books the world was created, and the Torah was given…”

This means that the Vilna Gaon understood that there was an earlier oral tradition, which was redacted by Moshe Rabbeinu (at Divine command) at the time of the Giving of the Torah.

We find a similar idea in the Rashba. In his responsa (vol 1 number 12) he writes that “the text does not keep the exact words, but retains the intent – even in the text of the Torah itself”
This means that the Rashba held that the written text was created from an earlier oral tradition.

Even though Rav Chaim Heller (in his introduction to Sefer HaMitzvot) rejects this responsa and claims that it must be a forgery, the Rashba is basing himself on Ramban’s commentary on Chumash. See Bemidbar 2:14 and Devarim 2:10

Next week Rabbi Triebitz will look more closely at Ramban’s understanding of Chumash, and we will see that he understood that Devarim is a commentary on Shemot.

We hope you enjoy these shiurim.
At the moment, these shiurim are free of charge because Rabbi Triebitz has generously volunteered his time and there are no overheads. If you would like to show your appreciation to Rabbi Triebitz, please contribute to this site by pressing the ‘donate’ button on the side of the page. Contributors will receive American tax receipts for charity upon request.

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Oral Tradition of the Written Torah 04
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Oral Tradition of the Written Torah 04

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Oral Tradition of the Written Torah 04