B"H
The Omek Peshuto of these scribes has given ammunition to the antisemites who use statements such as the words in the Oral Torah being more important than the Torah Har Sinai.
Then the goyim who have hated the Jews for centuries find Tanach statements which appears to have foretold of the scribes or wise men who would lead His people astray in the future.
Isaiah 29:13-15
"And the L-rd said: Forasmuch as this people draw near, and with their mouth and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment of men learned by rote;
Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid.
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the L-RD, and their works are in the dark, and they say: 'Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?'"
KOHELETH 12:11-14
"The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails well fastened are those that are composed in collections; they are given from one shepherd.
And furthermore, My son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear G-d, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man.
For G-d shall bring every work into the judgment concerning every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."
I would appreciate your opinion.
Arnold Wolf, Houston, USA
Antisemites do not need ammunition. They hate us because we are Jews. The so-called ammunition is nothing but an excuse to put their hatred into practice. They point at supposed flaws in our religion and in our holy texts (as if their own religion and 'holy texts' were flawless), and use whatever they find, as an excuse to put their hatred into practice. Even assuming their accusations to be correct, does that justify murder and genocide? And certainly a fault in Reuven cannot justify killing even Shimon, let alone the entire nation of Reuven, and all his descendants until the end of time.
Let me ask you, when you find a fault in a gentile, do you scan the entire New Testament to find a flaw? So why do they scan our holy books even when we have done nothing wrong!
So without even attempting to comment on the sources that you quote, know that they will continue to loathe us, whether they find this verse in the written Torah, or that statement in the oral Torah, or not.
Our sages tell us that Mount Sinai (from the word 'Sin'ah - hatred) is called by that name because, the moment we received the Torah, the nations of the world took to hating us. Will you perhaps suggest that we ought not to have received the Torah, in order not to give them ammunition?
Our sages teach us that when we are confronted by an ambiguous verse which gives ammunition to those who are seeking an excuse to deviate from the truth, we are obligated to expound the verse in the correct manner, and let those who want to deviate, deviate. They are not our responsibility! What is our responsibility is to search for the truth and practice it. And it is in the Torah that we will find it.
The Torah was given to us in two parts, part in writing and part orally. The one supplements the other. The former is inaccessible, or shall we say incomprehensible, without the latter. So if the oral interpretation was handed down to us at Sinai together with the written Torah, how can one even suggest that the verses criticizes the sages who compiled the oral Torah?
Before embarking on my final point, let me point out that the word 'Sofrim' to which you refer means sages (who are called by that name because they acquainted themselves with the numbers of words in each Parshah, in each Book, etc.), not scribes.
The sages who compiled the oral Torah, like their Rebbe, Moshe our teacher, were totally humble and utterly selfless, both in their private lives, and in their pursuit of teaching the oral Torah. Indeed, the Torah was given to us in order to purify us and help us reach the highest levels of self-perfection. That being the case, it goes without saying that, just as they reached the highest levels of knowledge through their diligent Torah-study, so too did they reach the highest levels of self-perfection.
To suggest therefore, either that their statements were based on self-aggrandizement or that they led Yisrael astray, is nothing short of absurd. In fact, our holy sages dedicated their lives to seeking the truth and teaching it to the people.
Having said the above, the verses that you cite, obviously refer, not to our sages, but to other 'wise men' who may have assumed themselves to be wise, but who in fact, were nothing but imposters (of whom there is no shortage in each and every generation).
I do not understand why you quoted the Pesukim in Koheles, which seem to have no bearing on the points that you made earlier.
Before concluding, let me stress what I intimated earlier. One cannot understand the written Torah without studying the commentaries (which are generally based on the oral Torah). That explains why, virtually all the verses cited by the anti-Semites in their attempts to victimize us are based on misconceptions and misunderstandings. And as such, they can be refuted with ease.
Wishing you all the best.
Yours sincerely,
Eliezer Chrysler