Biblical Law versus Rabbinic Law in Rabbinic Texts

Despite assertions of the Sinaitic authority of the Oral Torah, other rabbinic sources mark the discontinuity and distinction between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, or halakhah. (See for example, “Mishnah Ḥagigah,” which describes some rabbinic laws as “floating in the air,” that is, having no scriptural basis.) Without memorization and active transmission, the halakhah is in danger of being lost. According to t. Eduyyot 1:1, the destruction of the Temple was the impetus for an effort to preserve the inherited teachings of halakhah. This text credits the postwar generation of sages (tannaim) with gathering at Yavneh to “testify” to the legal traditions and teachings they had heard from preceding generations and to establish normative practice (i.e., halakhah), primarily—but not exclusively—in accordance with the Pharisaic school of Hillel.

The Talmuds distinguish Torah law (divrei torah) from later scribal traditions (divrei soferim). A passage in b. Eruvin 21b valorizes the latter over the former and argues—hyperbolically and counterintuitively—that violation of the halakhah of the sages carries more severe consequences than a violation of Torah law.