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Is it possible for a prophet to add to the Torah, or change any of it? Can a prophet say that God has told him that certain parts no longer apply or are wrong? How do we know?

Daniel
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  • The answer to this question is no, as noted by the answerers. A better question is whether a prophet can add a "rabbinic" mitzvah, on which see this article: http://hakirah.org/Vol%2012%20Krakowski.pdf. Short answer: according to the Rambam, no, but according to some others, yes. – wfb Feb 20 '13 at 03:00
  • I'm not sure if this is authoritative enough, but related: The Snake Oven - תנורו של עכנאי, and Not in Heaven. – Kobi Feb 20 '13 at 07:26
  • What about God commandment to build beith hamikash in Jerusalem? Or what about God's commandment to the niniveh to do tesuvah? All those are done after the torah. – user4951 Dec 29 '14 at 11:10
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    @JimThio Why do you say that the commandment to build the Temple came after the giving of the Torah? And in any case, how do either of these change the Torah? – Daniel Dec 29 '14 at 13:51
  • No further commandments after the torah. And yet God commanded the niniveh to do tesuvah. That's additional commandment. What am I missing? Does mitvah means everlasting commandments? So commandment toward niniveh doesn't count? – user4951 Jan 15 '15 at 19:04
  • Some jews told me: Judaism allows for additions to the rules as long as they don't contradict existing rules. It also allows for fluidity in uncertain situations. There are rules in Orthodoxy that are clearly man made. For example, rules that are "Zeicher Le'Mikdosh" (remembering the Temple).

    Ezra saw a new problem and he created rules to address that problem. That's not only OK, but it's expected of the leadership in Judaism.

     – user4951 Jan 15 '15 at 19:04
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    @jimThio the "additions to the rules" that you are talking about exist, but they are admittedly rabbinic in origin. They do not claim to change what is in the Torah. God's "commandment" to Nineveh to repent isn't a new mitzvah. Teshuva is always required. There was no new law that needed to be upheld. – Daniel Jan 15 '15 at 19:14

4 Answers4

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The answer is no. In Yehoshua 23:6, Yehoshua says to the people:

וַחֲזַקְתֶּם מְאֹד--לִשְׁמֹר וְלַעֲשׂוֹת, אֵת כָּל-הַכָּתוּב בְּסֵפֶר תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה: לְבִלְתִּי סוּר-מִמֶּנּוּ, יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאול

Be very strong to protect and do everything that is written in Moshe's Torah. Do not deviate from it to the right or to the left.

In Deuteronomy 4:2

... לֹא תֹסִפוּ, עַל-הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם, וְלֹא תִגְרְעוּ, מִמֶּנּוּ

Do not add onto what I am commanding to you, and do not detract from it...

Proverbs 30:6

אַל-תּוֹסְףְּ עַל-דְּבָרָיו: פֶּן-יוֹכִיחַ בְּךָ וְנִכְזָבְתָּ

Do not add onto [God's] words, lest he test you and you be found to be a liar.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, Rambam writes in his Mishneh Torah

לפיכך אם יעמוד איש בין מן האומות בין מישראל ויעשה אות ומופת ויאמר שה' שלחו להוסיף מצוה או לגרוע מצוה או לפרש במצוה מן המצות פירוש שלא שמענו ממשה או שאמר שאותן המצות שנצטוו בהן ישראל אינן לעולם ולדורי דורות אלא מצות לפי זמן היו הרי זה נביא שקר שהרי בא להכחיש נבואתו של משה ומיתתו בחנק על שהזיד לדבר בשם ה' אשר לא צוהו

Therefore, if a person will arise, whether Jew or gentile, and perform a sign or wonder and say that God sent him to:

a) add a mitzvah,

b) withdraw a mitzvah

c) explain a mitzvah in a manner which differs from the tradition received from Moses, or

d) if he says that the mitzvot commanded to the Jews are not forever, but rather were given for a limited time,

he is a false prophet. He comes to deny the prophecy of Moses and should be executed by strangulation, because he dared to make statements in God's name which God never made.

All of these sources clearly show that nothing may be added or subtracted from the Torah. Even someone who claims to be a prophet may never do so, and to attempt to do so will show him to be a false prophet.

Daniel
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    http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/3919/what-letter-is-not-found-in-bentching#comment17544_3920 – Double AA Feb 19 '13 at 17:05
  • @double aa, I don't get it. – Seth J Feb 20 '13 at 01:10
  • @SethJ I think he was just pointing out as an aside that one of the psukim quoted in this answer happens to be the only pasuk in tanakh with a final Pei. – Daniel Feb 20 '13 at 01:47
  • So do you still stone people for working on Sabbath now? What happened to that mitzah? Or what about ensuring that a priest is descendant of a priest. – user4951 Sep 25 '13 at 05:38
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    @JimThio Priests (kohanim) are still determined today by paternal lineage. As far as capital punishment is concerned, we don't say that the mitzvah does not exist anymore. Rather, we don't have a court who is authorized to confer that punishment. Even back when the Sanhedrin was still around, though, capital punishment was only meted out extremely rarely. There are many mitigating factors when it comes to capital crimes, and it would be extremely rare (probably impossible) for someone to actually do something worthy of capital punishment today without any of the mitigating factors applying. – Daniel Sep 25 '13 at 16:15
  • @JimThio related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/7739/472 – Monica Cellio Sep 25 '13 at 17:51
  • And what about same sex marriage, now legal in Israel. And what about anti polygamy no concubinage, no more slavery,... tolerance of Shiwa worshipping hindu. Not deviate ha... Some rabbi must have added or remove or reinterpret the mitsva way differently than the way Moses would have. – user4951 Oct 11 '13 at 05:06
  • Let's examine anti polygamy. Some rabbi must have said well, it's only for a king or not allowed. Moses would have disagreed. Or take a look at prostitution. Rabam said it's wrong. Yet it were legal in Solomon era. All those "new rabbi", Rabam, Rashi, whatever, interpret Torah in ways that differ than what Moses and his contemporaries would. Hard to weasel out of this. – user4951 Oct 11 '13 at 05:10
  • Or about killing all the males and enslave the women. Moses would say that's what IDF should do. I mean you won war, right? Again and again and again... Why not finish them all once and for all.... – user4951 Oct 11 '13 at 06:27
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    AFAIK, killing all the males and enslaving the women is only for a milchemet mitzvah, which Israel's wars today would not qualify as. Nobody considers the ban on polygamy to be an addition to the Torah. We agree that the Torah does not require us to be polygamous. We have added an additional stringency outside of the Torah, not to the Torah. We are certainly not required to practice polygamy according to the Torah, so there is no contradiction. The same is true of your other examples about concubinage (not the same as prostitution) and slavery. – Daniel Oct 11 '13 at 15:30
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    @JimThio ^ Also, remember that Israel is not a halachic state, so even if they allow same sex marriage (which I don't think they do since Israel only has religious marriage and no "civil marriage"), that doesn't mean that it's permitted according to the Torah. And of course, it is not permitted. – Daniel Oct 11 '13 at 16:42
  • Torah says that if you saw someone persuading people to worship other God you would have to kill the whole town inhabitants. So what about if a hindu dance hare krisna or worse, christians talking about Jesus in Jerusalem? Will you nuke your own capital? I mean if Sanhedrin exist, what would they rule? Now it's all tolerance and friendly. Looks like you have deviate way way to the left here (not that it's a bad thing). – user4951 Dec 30 '13 at 00:41
  • @Daniel- According to what Rambam writes in his Mishneh Torah, if the Christian gospels assert the true Jesus the Nazarene is a false prophet, as he would have said: "He who repudiates his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a repudiated woman commits adultery. ". Is this correct what I am saying? Shalom – Amos74 Dec 21 '17 at 16:00
  • @Amos74 I don't really understand what you're saying. – Daniel Dec 22 '17 at 19:04
  • @Daniel - Let me explain it better. The Torah states that it is perfectly lawful to marry a woman divorced from her husband, either to divorce his wife and marry another. According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus said that the granting of repudiation was given by HaShem for the "hardness of the heart" of the people but is contrary to the authentic divine will, and therefore both the aforementioned conduct constitute adultery. If the historical Jesus has really pronounced these words, he has arrogated the right to change the Torah, and so it would be a false prophet according to Mishneh Torah – Amos74 Dec 23 '17 at 08:58
  • @Amos74 I don't think there's any question that Jesus was a false prophet. The Christian bible is full of examples of him violating the Torah (and getting mad at the Pharisees for calling him out for it). If he said that it is adultery to marry a divorced woman, then that would be just another example of him teaching something contrary to the Torah. – Daniel Dec 24 '17 at 13:21
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The Bavli records (Temurah 16a):

[The verse states: "These are the commandments" (Leviticus 27)] These are the commandments and no prophet is allowed to innovate something from now on.

That said, later authorities do have a number of interesting powers (when not claiming to be doing so under direct divine order) including directing Jews to not perform certain mitzvot when done passively (שב ואל תעשה), removing certain principles from the Torah (יש כח ביד חכמים לעקור דבר מן התורה), redistributing wealth at will (הפקר בית דין הפקר), and temporary permission to violate any prohibition except Avoda Zara (הוראת שעה).

Double AA
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The 9th Ani Maamin - which are based on the 13 principals that the Rambam in his Hakdama to his Pirush on Perek Chelek in Mesechtas Sanhedrin mentions as the points of belief a Jew must have - states that there will be no changes to the Torah.

אני מאמין באמונה שלימה שזאת התורה לא תהא מוחלפת ולא תהא תורה אחרת מאת הבורא יתברך שמו.

http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=44388&st=&pgnum=117

Gershon Gold
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  • It states that the Torah won't be replaced. I don't see how that proves things can't change. – Double AA Feb 19 '13 at 18:49
  • There will be no changes to the torah but does that mean that there will be no changes to God's commandment? For example, torah prohibited homosexual relationship. Reconstructionist jews now blessed homosexual marriage. Is it possible that God did prohibit homosexual marriage but latter changed his mind. You know what, it's okay now. That sort of thing? – user4951 Jul 06 '15 at 14:30
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It appears that Rabbi Yehudah Halewi is of the opinion that Nevi'im and the Sanhedrin can add to / subtract from concepts of a Biblical nature as he discusses in Sefer Hakuzari 3:40-41.

Lee
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