Selected Topics from: S. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology

The "Law":

• Acceptance of God as King implies obligation to observe God's laws, as found in the Torah

• Refutations of negative Christian stereotypes of Torah and Rabbinic Judaism as merely "legalistic"

• "Torah" is not the same as "Law."
• The word means "teaching" or "Instruction."
• The frequent juxtaposition of "Torah and commandments" implies that the two terms are not synonymous.
• Torah as "an institution and a faith."
• Different uses of the word "Torah":
• Narrowest meaning: The Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch), contrasted to the Prophets and Hagiographa.
• Broader meanings: To include the whole Hebrew Bible
• Even more inclusive meaning: To refer to any religious teaching, even the individual conduct of a teacher, etc.

e.g., Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 62a:

Rav Kahana went in and lay down under Rav [i.e., Rabbi Abba] 's bed.
He heard him chatting and joking [with his wife] and doing what he required.
[Rav Kahana] said to him: It sounds as if Abba's mouth has never sipped a dish before!
He said to him: Kahana, are you here?! Get out, because this is not proper behaviour.
He replied: It is Torah, and I need to learn.

• Moses as greatest of the prophets --> Superiority of Torah over the rest of the Bible
• Schechter tries to minimize the claim that the rabbis held the Torah far above the other portions of the Hebrew Bible.
• There is no antagonism between the Torah and Prophetic religion. The Prophets were believed to be a commentary on the Torah.
• The Torah contains much non-legal material: Narratives, exhortations, moral teachings and values.
• Even incidental or trivial-looking material in the Torah were believed by the Rabbis to contain valuable lessons.
• The rabbis also revered the Prophets and Hagiographa.
• The Rabbis had encyclopedic familiarity with the entire Bible, not only the Pentateuch.

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