Thursday, August 21, 2008

Why can the Rabbis add to the Torah?

So I am sitting in shul last week and we read in the parsha the comandment that you "Can't add or subtract from the Torah". Before I get to my issues with the Torah She Ba'al Peh, can someone explain to me how we have hilchot d'rabanan? How can the rabbis add something like muktzah on shabbat when that is clearly not what the torah said? How can they add extra boundaries to make sure we don't transgress the real torah laws? wouldn't you think God knew what he was doing when he made it up?

Regarding Torah She Ba'al Peh . . . Does it not bother anyone else that it isn't mentioned in the Written Torah (i.e. the 5 books of Moses)? Of course, this is assuming for the sake of argument that there is no question that the Written Torah is divine. I just can't get past the fact that we have so many laws that have nothing to do with what is plainly written in the torah.

so what's the deal?