The Engraved Torah
By Rabbi David Polsky

We take it for granted that the Torah portion we read this week, parashat Mishpatim, is the foundation for the Jewish legal code. Although reasonable, the Vilna Gaon believes that this assumption is not correct. In many cases in the parasha, the law as practiced contradicts the simplest explanation of the verse. The most notable example occurs in Exodus 21:24, which discusses the penalty for a person who injures another. The punishment, the Torah famously demands, is “an eye for an eye.” In contrast to the verse’s plain meaning, the Talmud declares that one who injures his fellow’s eye does not lose his eye but rather pays the value of the eye. Instead of understanding the law as being the result of a close analysis of the Bible, the Vilna Gaon takes a bolder approach. He argues that the law often contradicts and “uproots” the simple meaning of the verse. The relationship between the Written and Oral Torah is like that between a stamp and the engraved image it makes. Although there is a correspondence between the two it is because they are the inverse of each other. This tension between the Bible and the law as practiced leads the Talmud to inveigh against those who respect a Torah scroll but not a Torah scholar. They are acting foolishly because the halakhah follows the scholar rather than the scroll (Bavli Makkot 22b). Those who make such errors lack the proper appreciation for the rabbinic tradition.