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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: "Prof. Levine via Avodah"
<avodah@lists.aishdas.org><BR><BR>Are you asserting that Torah shel Baal
Peh was not given with <BR>precision and definitiveness? If so, then
this is a chidash to me.<BR><BR>YL <BR><BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>>></DIV>
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<DIV>I'm sure you know the answer to your own question but here is a brief
answer anyway.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[1] Some of the halachos that were given to Moshe Rabbeinu ba'al peh
were forgotten over the course of centuries, especially after the churban bayis
sheini, with the mass deaths and dispersions that occurred at that
time. This was precisely the reason the chachamim began to write
the Mishna and later the Gemara -- because they saw that details were being
forgotten.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[2] Some of the original laws were davka not given with precision and
definitiveness. For example, there was an obligation to daven but the
exact wording of brachos and tefillos was not given on Har Sinai.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[3] Over time there were many enactments made by Chazal. Holidays
(Purim and Chanuka) and fast days (Tisha B'Av et al) were added to the Jewish
calendar to commemorate historical events, and the laws specifying how these
days were to be observed were, needless to say, not handed down on Sinai.
There were also enactments like declaring chicken to be fleishig, or the rules
of muktza, and many more. If you were magically transported back in time
and invited to share a Shabbos meal with Dovid Hamelech, you would hardly
recognize his religion. (He wouldn't recognize your religion,
either.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>[4] Finally, and most dramatically, with the importation of
potatoes from the New World, ancient chulent and kugel recipes were
rendered obsolete. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby Katz<BR>t613k@aol.com</FONT><FONT lang=0
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