Is the Torah all from God? A question I received.

Rabbi,

So I have been studying the Documentary Hypotehsis(DH) theory recently. At first, I was listening to the Orthodox who said that they do not believe in the DHT, and that the Torah is written by only Moshe, etc.

I tried to make myself believe that, but I couldn't. And I still can not.

So for I while I lose my faith. Then, I satrted hearing from Conservative and Reform Rabbi's who said that the DH CAN go hand in hand with Judaism, and that it is all a diving plan.

I am not sure if you believe in the DH, but I have been watching your videos on youtube.. And here and there it seems that you might be intending that you do believe in it.

So I was wondering.. How can the DH go hand in hand with Judaism? Who wrote what, and how do we know it is inspired? What if the Torah is corrupt?

And not only the Torah, but also the Tanakh. (Many say the Deuteronomist wrote several books of Torah.) Do you know which ones were written by what (or at least speculated by scholaars are so?)

Shalom, and thank you for your time.



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Great question. it was the most important question in my life the beginning of my sophmore year of college. I was at U of Chicago majoring in religion, after primarily an Orthodox education. Even my Conservative finish to elementary ed did not teach DH (or else I wasn't paying attention. ) I often tell the story that German Prof Jay Wilcoxen at U of C Divinty school was teaching Old Testanment, which I thought would be an easy A. First class, everyone else nodded knowingly (they were all graduate students in Divinty) when he began with DH, but I was stunnd. I ran out after class to the local Conservative Synagogue which housed my old Orthodox day school. the first person I ran into was the Orthodox principal. He told me what I heard was all anti-sdemitism. Then I went to see Rabbi Ralph Simon, ZL, the great Conservative Rabbi there, who told me Prof Wilcoxen was basically correct and all the Bible profs at the Conservative JTS Seminary I wanted to attend taught versions of DH. I asked your question He gave me many books to read and I wrote my senior paper on your question.
Get a copy of Etz Hayyim, the new Conservative Torah and commentary and read the commentary. Also, read Chaim Potock's novel
The Book of Lights (Mass Market Paperback)
by Chaim Potok (Author) .

The Torah is not a word-for- word tape recording from God. Even the talmud says the last 8 verses after Moses died were written by Joshua. It is the product of many authors redacted by at least one editor. many theories of who and when. Who Wrote the Bible is one such effort. As One great thinker said The R scholars assign as the redactor serves as our traditional R too, Moshe rabbenu-Moses our teacher. The Torah is itself a midrash on what God wants from us and of our early history. of course th Orthodox believe this is heresy, but they are wrong.