Levites, Rabbis, and the Oral Law (29 March 2016, 19 Adar-B, 5776)
The Bible was given along with explanations. We were told how to read the words, how to pronounce them, and what they meant. We were also told how to put the Laws into effect. This must have been the case since many of the laws are public ones intended for the whole community and the simple text is not sufficiently explicit. We were given the Oral Law.
We have written about this in several articles as well as iin books that we have published.
Recently we came across a new and somewhat surprising item of evidence proving the reliability of Rabbinical Oral Tradition.
One of the several key passages of Scripture proving the Oral Tradition is Deuteronomy 17:8-13.
Deuteronomy 17:
8 If any case is too difficult for you to decide, between one kind of homicide or another, between one kind of lawsuit or another, and between one kind of assault or another, being cases of dispute in your courts, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God chooses. 9 So you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case. 10 You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be careful to observe according to all that they teach you. 11 According to the terms of the law which they teach you, and according to the verdict which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left. 12 The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will not act presumptuously again.
If one had doubts or there was disagreement as to how the Law should be applied then you had to go to "to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days" (Deuteronomy 17:9).
They would decide and so would the law be decided. it had to be obeyed whether one agreed with it or not.
In each generation there have been judges and organized hierarchy of authority. Even though the Jews were in Exile and divided they still managed to maintain a consensus of agreement regarding as to how the Law needed to be applied, right down to our own time.
The expression concerning the obligation to go to "to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days" (Deuteronomy 17:9) in the Hebrew may be better rendered as saying,
"to the Cohens [priests], the Levites, and the Judge that will be in those days."
This brings us to the Tribe of Levi. The Cohens {Priests] and the Levis [Levites] are both from the Tribe of Levi. They comprise about 10% (or less) of the total mainstream Jewish population.
I once discussed the Oral Tradition with a friend who had queries about it. I referred to the passage in Deuteronomy 17:8-13. He pointed out that the simple meaning of the expression in Hebrew in Deuteronomy 17:9 implies going tot he Cohens or to the Cohens and Levites together. Strictly speaking this is not correct. The verse speaks of "the judge who is in office in those days" (Deuteronomy 17:9). It does not have to comprise Cohens or Levites. It rather refers to the actual situation that shall prevail and of going to whosoever is a recognized authority at the time.
The Rabbis learnt the Law and still learn it and they pass it one from one generation to another.
There are however rabbis and then there are Rabbis.
Some decide what the Law is and others carry it out.
There were several tradition concerning interpretation of the Law and Tribal affiliation.
In general anyone who learns can get to the top.
Some of the greatest Rabbis (e.g. Shemaraiyah and Abtalion) were converts to Judaism and had not been born Jewish.
The father of Rabbi Akiva was a convert and perhaps not even that religious since at first Rabbi Akiva was thoroughly ignorant and hostile.
Nevertheless it was generally accepted that most top Rabbinical scholars came from the Tribes of Issacar, Judah, and Levi. The other Tribes excelled in other fields.
Moses blessed Levi that,
"They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob,
And Your law to Israel" (Deuteronomy 33:10).
The Talmud and nearly all the great Commentators on the Talmud (see Yoma 26;a) say that most great arbiters of Rabbinical Law have been from the Tribe of Levi.
Some would have it that this applies to nearly all of them (see Rabbi Nathan Lubert, "Shearit Nathan", i.e. Rabbi Nasan Lubert, "Shearis Nasan"). This source was brought to our attention by Rabbi David Feldman).
This applies today and it did in the past.
This is what Deuteronomy 17:9 implies would be the case "in those days" i.e. forever and such is the case.
This too is evidence. It is also proof that the Almighty has not abandoned the Rabbis nor the Jewish People.
Rabbinical Decision-Makers are Mainly from the Tribe of Levi!
To re-capitulate in a somewhat over-simplified manner: There are Rabbis and Rabbis. Amongst the Rabbis there are those who know how to formulate the law when faced with new circumstances and others who ask they who know what should be done. Let us refer to they who know as "Decision-Makers". Amongst the Jewish People no more than ca. 10% are from the Tribes of Levi (i.e. Levites or Cohens) and conscious of it. Among the Rabbis the proportion from the Tribe of Levi may be much higher but it is still a minority. Among the "Decision-Makers" however more than 80% are from Levi!!!
No other reason exists to explain this phenomenon other than inherited aptitude!!!
We were told that in case of doubt we should go to the Decision-Makers, i.e.
"to the Cohens [priests], the Levites, and the Judge that will be in those days" (Deuteronomy 17:9).
Here we have Cohens in the plural and Levites in the plural and the Judge in the singular. The minimum plural number is two i.e. 2 Cohens. So too, for the Levites who are in the plural i.e. 2 Levites. Both Cohens and Levites are from the Tribe of Levi.
The singular number is one, and we have one Judge, i.e. one from one of the other Tribes against 4 from the Tribe of Levi (see "Torah Temimah" on Deuteronomy 33:10). Four out of five is eighty per cent and more than eighty per cent of the Rabbinical Decision-Makers both in past and past are from the Tribe of Levi!!!
This is proof of the Bible, proof of the Rabbinical Oral Tradition, and Proof of Israelite Tribal Traits being inherited. It is also a proof of the validity of geneaological tradition for the families of Cohens and Levis and indirectly for the whole Jewish People!