לרפואת אבי מורי שליט"א, ר' מרדכי דוד בן קריינא, הרב יצחק בן ברכה, הרב אליעזר חיים בן אסתר סימא, הרב אברהם יוסף בן חנה, הרב שי בן לאה ושרה לאה בת רבקה בתוך שח"י.
What came first - the chicken or the egg? In order to find out, I went on line and ordered both a chicken and an egg and waited to see which comes first.....
Are the Jewish people special because Hashem gave us the Torah or did he give us the Torah b/c we are special?
OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH - Million dollar question!! Here, Amazon can't give me the answer.
The Torah itself is not clear on this issue. It could really go both ways. But according to the approach of the Kuzari, Maharal and many others, the answer is a resounding - we were given the Torah b/c we are special. [Some claim that the opinion of the Rambam is the opposite. Could be. Open for debate. Hopefully for a future post!!! EXCITING!!!:-)]
So one one hand, the תורה שבכתב is greater. It came from Hashem DOWN to us in a once-in-history-revelation. The source of of our learning [i.e. תורה שבעל פה] is the תורה שבכתב. We can't begin without it.
HOWEVER, from another perspective, תורה שבעל פה, the passed down, transmitted Oral Law, including our own interpretations of the written and oral traditions, is greater [PUT ME IN CHEREM!!! How can anything be higher than the word of G-d Himself?].
The Torah was only given in the first place b/c of the special qualities of the Jewish people. If not for us - there would have been no one worthy of receiving the Torah, so it would have stayed up in Shomayim. [That is the claim of the angels in Shabbos 88. Give us the Torah. A ילוד אשה, a man born of a woman, is just not worthy!!!]. So the prerequisite for תורה שבכתב appearing at all on our planet [or any planet!] is the unique holy, character of the Jewish people. This unique character is expressed in תורה שבעל פה. It is WE who decide Halachic questions - not "שמים" or Hashem himself [Bava Metzia 49]. What WE decide down here is the Halacha above as well [See the prefaces to Ktzos Hachoshen and Igros Moshe]. In that sense, תורה שבעל פה, the special nature of the Jewish soul, is even higher than תורה שבכתב. We are the platform!
It is compared to a man and woman. A woman is fertile. She is GREAT!! The BEST!!! But there is no baby if the man doesn't do his part. The man is תורה שבכתב. It comes from above. It gets the ball rolling. It comes from a higher place. Everything starts there. Everything is rooted in the man's seed. But it is the woman who develops and cultivates this seed. חכמה and בינה for the Kabbalists out there. חכמה - first flash of wisdom. בינה - from מבין דבר מתוך דבר. Developing the חכמה.
That might be what Chazal meant when they said [Yerushalmi Brachos 1-4 and similarly in Bavli Avoda Zara 35a] חביבים דברי סופרים מדברי תורה. In a certain respect, the words of the חכמים are greater than the words of the Written Torah!!
First "אשר בנו בנו מכל העמים" and only then "ונתן לנו את תורתו"!!!
Like - WOOOOOWWW!!
