Yerushalmi Gittin

y. Gittin 4:2, 45c

220–400

If he transgressed and annulled [the divorce document]? Let us hear from the following: If he annulled, it is annulled, the words of Rabbi. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel says: He can neither annul it nor add to his condition. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel says it correctly. What is the reason of Rabbi? It is the word of the Torah that [i.e., according to Torah law] he has the power to annul, but they [the rabbis] said: He shall not annul. Can their word uproot the words of the Torah? But is it not from the Torah that one may [give] olives for oil and grapes for wine [as terumah],1 but because of robbing the [priestly] tribe they said not only that one may not give terumah [in this way] but if he transgressed and gave, his terumah is not terumah.

Notes

[Terumah is also sometimes called “heave offering” because it is heaved or hefted up when it is offered. It was one of the agricultural gifts given to the priests.—Ed.]

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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The Palestinian Talmud’s assertion of the continuity of the Written Torah and Oral Torah may “protest too much”; it is clear that in practice the rabbis knew some of their rulings were innovative to the point of discontinuity. In the following discussion of one of the innovative rabbinic enactments listed in m. Gittin 4, one rabbi endorses a position that would uproot a husband’s biblical rights concerning divorce in a particular circumstance. This prompts a consideration of the larger question: Can the rabbis make a ruling that overturns biblical law? The answer, it appears, is yes. (See “Mishnah Gittin.”)

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