Right away it is clear that Shimmel is a deeply religious man. He only gives time to sources in the Jewish tradition and never quotes anything else. He does quote the gambit of rishonim and talmudic sources, but he never strays away from his own tradition. This effects every topic that he discusses. He never entertains the possibility of opinions that may be construed as heretical, and is very orthodox in his approach. This can be seen most decisively when he discusses the extent to which the Oral law is a direct tradition from Moses. He quotes many opinions, but for brevity sake, I will only talk about the extremes. On the one hand, he quotes the Ra'avad who says that other than Takkanot, which were laws purely created to make a "fence around the Torah", everything that is recorded in the Mishnah and the Talmud are directly from Sinai. He then quotes many sources that seem to indicate that at different times the law was forgotten in all its detail, which then leads to arguments. On the opposite end, Shimmel quotes the Rambam. The Rambam breaks up Sinaitic law into interpretations received at Sinai of the Scripture and Halacha Lemoshe meSinai. Everything else, including laws derived by logic and sevara, takkanot and gezerot, are from the Rabbis. This by no means covers all opinions. When Louis Jacobs discusses this same issue in Rabbinic thought in the Talmud, the Rambam seems to be the most extreme to the right. Perhaps this is a fault with Jacobs work as well, but by not lending an ear to historical data whatsoever, Shimmel seems to be missing out on a lot of valuable information.
Another topic Shimmel discusses is whether or not the Oral law, which was not given at Sinai is the Divine WIll. This is a topic that can be of great significance. Either way, the Halacha as we have it today is indispensable for keeping together a society of people that live in many different lands. The Rabbis, although not infallible, had great wisdom and I believe in the system that they have set into place. But, when I am washing my hands before eating bread, am I fulfilling G-d's will? Rav ELchanan Wasserman and Rav DZ Hoffman, take this view, against Rav Shimon Shkup. Personally, I would like to believe that G-d is helping the Halachic process and when we do these things we are doing them because G-d wants us to. Obviously, these issues are not verifiable on either side, but how you look at them can drastically change your mind view.
The Oral Law was an interesting read by all accounts. Although it was not as broad as I would have liked, Rabbi Shimmel covers a tremendous amount of sources in the Jewish tradition to make his points.
Next week The Challenge of Creation by Nathan Slifkin.
