My question has to do with the recent Parshot and I am almost sure that it will embarass me, but it is something that has has been on my mind for some time, I am a bit confused:

Did Moshe Rabbeinnu receive the actual Torah on Mount Sinai or only the 10 commandments? What was the content of the Scriptures kept in the Mishkan?
If he received the Torah there how come the Torah recounts the story of what happens after he received it?

Many thanks in advance,

It is a very good question you are asking!

In terms of when the laws were taught, there is an argument of what Moshe Rabanu received on Mount Sinai. Gemara Zevachim 115b states: R. Ishmael said: The general laws were stated at Sinai, while the details were stated at the Tent of Meeting. R. Akiba said: The general laws and the details were stated at Sinai, repeated in the Tent of Meeting, and a third time in the plains of Moab.

In the verse of Exodos 24:12 - And the Lord said to Moses, "Come up to Me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the Law and the commandments, which I have written to instruct them." Rashi explains that all 613 mitzvoth are included in the Ten Commandments and brings Rabbenu Saadiah Goan who explained the mitzvoth dependent upon each commandment.

In terms of when Moshe Rabanu wrote down the written Torah it is an argument in Gemara Gitten 60a: Abaye asked Rabbah: Is it permitted to write out a scroll [containing a passage] for a child to learn from? This is a problem alike for one who holds that the Torah was transmitted [to Moses] scroll by scroll, and for one who holds that the Torah was transmitted entire. It is a problem for one who holds that the Torah was transmitted scroll by scroll: since it was transmitted scroll by scroll, may we also write separate scrolls, or do we say that since it has all been joined together it must remain so? It is equally a problem for one who holds that the Torah was transmitted entire: since it was transmitted entire, is it improper to write [separate scrolls], or do we say that since we cannot dispense with this we do write them?

The first opinion holds is was written down by Moshe scroll by scroll over time and the second opinion holds it was memorized by Moshe and written down at the end of his life.

The Gemara in Baba Bathra 15a states: The Master has said: Joshua wrote the book which bears his name and the last eight verses of the Pentateuch. This statement is in agreement with the authority who says that eight verses in the Torah were written by Joshua, as it has been taught: [It is written], So Moses the servant of the Lord died there. Now is it possible that Moses being dead could have written the words, ‘Moses died there’? The truth is, however, that up to this point Moses wrote, from this point Joshua wrote. This is the opinion of R. Judah, or, according to others, of R. Nehemiah. Said R. Simeon to him: Can [we imagine the] scroll of the Law being short of one word, and is it not written, Take this book of the Law? No; what we must say is that up to this point the Holy One, blessed be He, dictated and Moses repeated and wrote, and from this point God dictated and Moses wrote with tears.

The Rambam's Introduction to the Mishnoys states the conclusion that is at the foundation of Judaism: "Every mitzvah that HaShem gave to Moshe Rabanu, may peace be upon him, was given explicitly. First HaShem would say the mitzvah and after he would explain it etc. all the general rules and particular laws of each mitzvah were explained to Moshe by HaShem."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rabbi Mitterhoff,

Dear Rav Mitterhoff,

It was with great pleasure that I read your explanation. As any explanation usually does - which is good, because without that there is no progress in understanding - it did provoke another question.

I understand that the Laws, along with their reasons (for some) and ways of following them (for all) were given to Moses Rabbeinu, and that we all witnessed that event.

When was the narrative of the Torah compiled? The reason I am asking that is that one of the Qumran scrolls contained some very enlightening narrative in the first person "written"(?) by Lamech, Noach, Abram (before he became Abraham). It does not change the Torah story, with one exception. It describes there that Lot took himself a wife out of the daughters of Egypt when the King of Egypt returned Sarai to Abram and gave her Hagar as a maidservant.

The Qumran scrolls were written probably from the last of the Hasmonees to the start of the War of 68 CE; was it just a literary interpretation of the traditional Torah narrative, or was it a part of Torah that did not make it into the final text compiled after the Babylonian Exile?

And another question. I was told that Lot's wife was from S'dom and Amorrah area; which is why she turned to look at the destruction. This Abram's narrative makes it a different story. Could you please comment on this matter as well?

Thank you,

Alex