Torah not in Heaven

Explanation of the Concept “It is Not in Heaven”

We, the Jewish people, believers and the children of believers from generation to generation, believe in HaShem and in His oneness, believe in His holy Torah which was given to us from Heaven, at Mount Sinai, through Mosheh the son of Amram, who received it directly from God. As is stated in Tractate Avot 1:1: “Mosheh received the Torah from Sinai, and transmitted it to Yehoshua, and Yehoshua transmitted it to the elders, and the elders transmitted it to the prophets, and the prophets transmitted it to the men of the Great Assembly.” In fact, we received two Torahs on Mount Sinai: the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.

Ever since we received the Torah, it isn’t in heaven but is with us, as is clear from Devarim 30:11-14:

For this commandment which I command you today is not hidden from you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven for you to say, “Who will go up to heaven and take it down to us and teach it to us so that we might do it?” Nor is it beyond the sea for you to say, “Who will cross the sea and take it back to us and teach it to us so that we might do it?” But the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart for you to do it.

Rashi comments there: “Because if it were in heaven, you would have to go up after it and learn it.”

Our sages expounded on this verse that since the Torah is no longer to be found in heaven, it is impossible to “take” it from there with any kind of signs or wonders, and it is necessary to learn its contents and the specifics of its laws according to the tradition of rules that were given on Mount Sinai as part of the Oral Torah. The story brought in the Gemara Bava Metzia 59b attests to this:

[Rabbi Eliezer] responded to them: If the law is like my opinion, let a proof come from heaven. … A bat kol (heavenly voice) went forth and said: Why are you arguing with Rabbi Eliezer, since the law is like him in every case? Rabbi Yehoshua stood up and said: “It is not in heaven.”

From the moment that the Torah descended from above and was given to us, halachic disputes are not to be decided in any way other than rules of pesika (decision-making), not by relying on prophecy or a bat kol. This rule prevents a prophet from determining a law for future generations, or from making any change in the tip of a yud in Mosheh’s Torah. Similarly, in the Gemara Temurah 16a:

Rav Yehudah said in the name of Shemuel: Three thousand laws were forgotten in the period of mourning for Mosheh. They said to Yehoshua: Ask! He said: “It is not in heaven” (Devarim 30:12). They said to Shemuel: Ask! He said to them: “These are the commandments” (VaYikra 27:34) – this teaches that a prophet is not permitted to innovate something from now on. … They said to Pinechas: Ask! He said: “It is not in heaven.” They said to Elazar: Ask! He said: “These are the commandments” – this teaches that a prophet is not permitted to innovate something from now on.

The Rambam explained in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 9:1 that this is the case both for the commandments and for their interpretation:

We are commanded to perform all the words of the Torah forever, as it is written: “An eternal decree for all your generations.” And it is said: “It is not in heaven.” Thus you learn that a prophet is not allowed to innovate something from now on. Therefore, if a man, whether from the nations or from Israel, performs a sign or a wonder and says that HaShem sent him to add a commandment or subtract a commandment, or to explain in any of the commandments an explanation that we have not heard from Mosheh … this is a false prophet, since he comes to contradict Mosheh’s prophecy, and he is subject to death by strangulation for having dared to speak in the name of HaShem what He didn’t command him.

And in his Introduction to the Commentary to the Mishnah, the Rambam adds another sentence to these things, and concludes that this is the also the case for learning: “And HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn’t permit us to learn from the prophets, but only from the Sages.”

Indeed, Jewish sages divide the Torah to four main parts, Pardes, which stands for peshat, remez, derash, and sod. The peshat dresses and expresses the sod, and the sod is like the marrow as compared to the revealed and more external layers of the Torah. The main part of the Torah is its soul, the hidden Torah, as compared to the body which is secondary to it – the revealed Torah. We can confidently say that in the category of peshat we will find most of the pages of the Gemara, the decisions of the Shulchan Aruch and other treatises in Halachah. The remez and derash are the hints and ethics in the Torah. And the category of sod includes Sefer Yetzirah, Sifra DiTzniuta, Raya Mehemna, Mayan HaChochmah, Zohar and Tikkunei Zohar, Idra Rabba, Sefer HaBahir, Hechalot Rabbati, Hechalot Zutrati, Merkavah Rabbah, Maaseh Merkavah, Berayta DeMaaseh BeReshit, Shiur Komah, etc., and the books of the Ramak who gathered and explained the aforementioned books of Kabbalah.

The secrets of the Torah which are its internal essence, the soul of the Torah, constitute the main part of the Torah and the extremity of its wisdom as compared to the revealed details of the Torah and discussion of them, which are important and numerous. They, like the peshat as well, were given at Mount Sinai as a part of the Oral Torah and were also explained and expounded by the Sages. And if in remez and derash one can innovate things and reasons based on human intellect, this is not the case for sod because the words of sod are all in the inner world which there is no possibility to access through simple human intellect by accepted ways, but by tradition from mouth to ear, from sage to sage, back to Mosheh Rabbenu.

If so, it is simple and clear that a prophet is also not allowed to invent something in the secrets of the Torah, the soul of the Torah, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn’t permit us to learn the secret Torah from the prophets, but it is only learned from the Sages.

What are the ramifications? This matters for the kabbalah of the Arizal, which was received from an angel in the 16th century, which contains things that contradict the words of the Sages.

The kabbalah of the Arizal has no authority or basis to rest on to force the Jewish people to believe in it and follow it.

To prove this, we have brought a number of basic contradictions between the kabbalah of the Arizal, which was received from an angel, and the Torah of Mosheh Rabbenu, which was received directly from HaShem at Mount Sinai. First of all we note that the Arizal didn’t write any book, and everything that is said in his name was allegedly written by his students more than one hundred years afterwards.