Veracity of the Oral Torah

Question

A Christian blogger commented:

Rabbinic Judaism also has some relatively unconvincing claims of oral transmission from the past. It claims that its interpretations of the Torah (which are compiled in the Talmud, the first layer of which was written down c. 200 AD) are based on an unwritten "oral torah" given by God to Moses himself, more than fifteen centuries earlier. Even though we have no records of anyone talking about the oral torah before about 150 BC, when the party of Pharisees began to exist! This is staggeringly implausible, not just because of the lack of references in the written Torah to this supposed secret tradition, but also because of the tumultuous history of the Jews described in the Bible, during which the written Torah barely survived intact.

What would be an appropriate response to such claims?

As an example, "You shall slaughter as I have commanded you" and many other examples in the Torah that show that what is written cannot be understood without the Oral Law. — sabbahillel, Sep 12 '19 at 00:28
@sabbahillel https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/96759/13438 — Alex, Sep 12 '19 at 01:11
@Alex even if one claims the oral tradition of how to slaughter dates back to Abraham, it is still oral. — sabbahillel, Sep 12 '19 at 01:20
@Alex I just gave one example, there are many others such as totafos. — sabbahillel, Sep 12 '19 at 01:22
@Alex That is, assuming that the first description of how to slaughter was the ram of the Akeidah. The link you pointed to mentioned it. — sabbahillel, Sep 12 '19 at 02:17
@sabbahillel The answer I linked didn’t discuss an oral tradition from Abraham. It discussed how those who reject the Oral Law deal with your argument. — Alex, Sep 12 '19 at 02:25
relevant: Is there a mention of the Oral Torah in the Written Torah? — mbloch, Sep 12 '19 at 03:31
see the Rambam's introduction to his commentary on the mishna, where he goes into great detail about the history of the oral law, including that it is self-evident that together with the written commandments and oral explanation was given as well. Without that oral explanation, the written is completely not understandable. — Menachem, Sep 12 '19 at 04:37
Possible duplicate of Is there a mention of the Oral Torah in the Written Torah? — Danny Schoemann, Sep 12 '19 at 08:53
To be exact, we received everything from Moses, not G-d, even the Written Torah. So the question is not whether there is an Oral Torah or not, but whether we believe Moses said something beyond the written Torah or not. Considering a confusing language of the Torah it is very plausible that Moses explained many many things orally. — Al Berko, Sep 12 '19 at 14:45
Keep in mind that only 30+ Halochos are unanimously ascribed to Moses by the Gemmorah, the source of the rest (thousands) is unclear. — Al Berko, Sep 12 '19 at 14:50
see here: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/38766/authenticity-of-halacha-lmoshe-misinai/38871#38871 — Al Berko, Sep 12 '19 at 22:37

Veracity of the Oral Torah

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