This is a corollary to Argument from Majority. We see clearly that while many people can offer different opinions, opinions have varying degrees of weight. While we can include the cleaning staff in a hospital in a vote with regard to worker's wages - their opinion matters a lot, because they will be directly affected by wage cuts, it would be imprudent to include their say about which medical treatments are best to be supplied by the hospital because their opinion has little weight compared with the experts. The experts in the field of Medicine have a better say when it comes to understanding medicine and the cures and the investment involved. They are the ones that know all the journals, the medical books, they have operated, researched and discovered. They are in a position of greater degree of understanding then the janitor, and therefore they have a greater weight in the decision making process. In fact, their say has so much weight, it causes the weight of the janitor's say to be inconsequential and therefore tends to be zero. We can therefore ignore his opinion.
We have to first understand who is making the opinion and on what grounds. If the janitor of a hospital says that he prefers surgery A over surgery B because surgery A has a red circle around the A, and he likes red circles, we pay little attention to him. If the expert in his field says it, because the circle means that surgery A has a high success rate then we can listen to him. If however he says that he also likes red circles, his opinion can be also ignored.
The correct line of argument is that opinion, and interpretation have to be correct. Our determination of that relies on what G-d said to Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses, our teacher) at Sinai. Since there can be many interpretations of a single text, the only possible way of determining the veracity of any interpretation is how it fits with the interpretation of what was given at Sinai.
At Sinai, Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses, our teacher) was given all the interpretations available, and the means of working them out - rules of exegesis. That means that until the closing of the Talmud (500 CE), the right of interpretation of the text, was handed down from teacher to student in a living chain. Today we rely on that interpretation as the back-bone and basis for any understanding of the text.
However, there are many interpretations that simply do not fit with the text at all. If they have no source or root in what G-d told Moses at Sinai, they are not valid. How can they be? They have no basis in the text - it has to be justified in the text. In addition there are rules inherent in the actual text, that show that certain interpretations cannot be correct. Any interpretation that ignores the punctuation of the text is incorrect. Any interpretation in which the meaning of the words changes to other meanings of the words that do not have a basis in Hebrew also are incorrect.
This stands to reason, we cannot simply allow any interpretation to be valid, anyone could justify his actions and negate the Torah simply with a different interpretation of the text - there has to be an accepted, clear reading of the text that everyone agrees to be the actual meaning. G-d's stamp of approval is the Oral Tradition of that interpretation that is valid and true.
To summarize the following:
1. Interpretation is given to the experts
2. We use relevant majorities, in relevant places - sometimes an expert overrides majority opinion.
3. Logic, rules of interpretation, and closeness to the text, justify interpretation.
4. Interpretations follow a pattern - there has to be congruence - punctuation, and meaning cannot be ignored.
5. Valid Interpretation has a chain to Sinai - it has to be part of the living Torah chain.
6. An expert is a person who is part of this living chain. Having a Phd isn't necessarily meaningful, you have to be connected to the source.
This understanding is delineated in three places in the Torah (for greater clarification of what is meant by the G-d's Word refer to "We Heard G-d Speak"):
Source 1
ח כִּי יִפָּלֵא מִמְּךָ דָבָר לַמִּשְׁפָּט, בֵּין-דָּם לְדָם בֵּין-דִּין לְדִין וּבֵין נֶגַע לָנֶגַע--דִּבְרֵי רִיבֹת, בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ: וְקַמְתָּ וְעָלִיתָ--אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם, אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר ה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ בּוֹ. ט וּבָאתָ, אֶל-הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם, וְאֶל-הַשֹּׁפֵט, אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם; וְדָרַשְׁתָּ וְהִגִּידוּ לְךָ, אֵת דְּבַר הַמִּשְׁפָּט. י וְעָשִׂיתָ, עַל-פִּי הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר יַגִּידוּ לְךָ, מִן-הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא, אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר ה'; וְשָׁמַרְתָּ לַעֲשׂוֹת, כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר יוֹרוּךָ. יא עַל-פִּי הַתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר יוֹרוּךָ, וְעַל-הַמִּשְׁפָּט אֲשֶׁר-יֹאמְרוּ לְךָ--תַּעֲשֶׂה: לֹא תָסוּר, מִן-הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר-יַגִּידוּ לְךָ--יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאל. יב וְהָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר-יַעֲשֶׂה בְזָדוֹן, לְבִלְתִּי שְׁמֹעַ אֶל-הַכֹּהֵן הָעֹמֵד לְשָׁרֶת שָׁם אֶת-ה' אֱלֹהֶיךָ, אוֹ, אֶל-הַשֹּׁפֵט--וּמֵת הָאִישׁ הַהוּא, וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל. יג וְכָל-הָעָם, יִשְׁמְעוּ וְיִרָאוּ; וְלֹא יְזִידוּן, עוֹד. (דברים יז.ח-יג)
Deuteronomy 17:8-13:8. If a matter eludes you in judgment, between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, or between lesion and lesion, words of dispute in your cities, then you shall rise and go up to the place the Lord, your God, chooses. 9. And you shall come to the Levitic kohanim and to the judge who will be in those days, and you shall inquire, and they will tell you the words of judgment. 10. And you shall do according to the word they tell you, from the place the Lord will choose, and you shall observe to do according to all they instruct you. 11. According to the law they instruct you and according to the judgment they say to you, you shall do; you shall not divert from the word they tell you, either right or left. 12. And the man who acts intentionally, not obeying the kohen who stands there to serve the Lord, your God, or to the judge that man shall die, and you shall abolish evil from Israel. 13. And all the people shall listen and fear, and they shall no longer act wantonly.
Source 2
כה וַיִּבְחַר מֹשֶׁה אַנְשֵׁי-חַיִל מִכָּל-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם רָאשִׁים עַל-הָעָם--שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים שָׂרֵי מֵאוֹת, שָׂרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים וְשָׂרֵי עֲשָׂרֹת. כו וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת-הָעָם, בְּכָל-עֵת: אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַקָּשֶׁה יְבִיאוּן אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, וְכָל-הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפּוּטוּ הֵם. (שמות יח.כה-כו)
Exodus 18:25-26:25. Moses chose men of substance out of all Israel and appointed them as heads of the people, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens. 26. And they would judge the people at all times; the difficult case they would bring to Moses, but any minor case they themselves would judge.
Source 3
אֵלֶּה הַחֻקִּים וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִים, וְהַתּוֹרֹת, אֲשֶׁר נָתַן ה', בֵּינוֹ וּבֵין בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל--בְּהַר סִינַי, בְּיַד-מֹשֶׁה. (ויקרא כו.מו)
Leviticus 26:46:These are the statutes, the ordinances, and the Torahs that the Lord gave between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai, through Moses.
Source 4
תּוֹרָה צִוָּה-לָנוּ, מֹשֶׁה: מוֹרָשָׁה, קְהִלַּת יַעֲקֹב. (דברים לג.ד)
Deuteronomy 33:4The Torah that Moses commanded us, is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.
These four sources clearly delineate exactly how G-d wants His people to live and operate in the world of Torah. The Elders, heads of the community, the judges are the ones that are going to preside over cases, they are going to be the most accessible means for the people to relate to Moses, and by extension G-d. Source 3 shows us that there are two Torahs - a Written Torah and an Oral Torah - which was given by G-d to Moses.
Sources 1 & 2 show that the people require judges and educators in order to relate to G-d's laws. We see therefore that the right to interpret the laws, and apply them in the cases that are brought forth by the people to the judges and educators, is held by the judges and educators - they have to have some connection to the source - the Torah has given them a mandate to educate and judge cases, through Divine sanction. This is a perfectly logical proposition. In any legal system there is the statute laws and regulations, and the application and discussions of how each rule and statute is applied in each particular circumstance. But the right to interpret is not given to everyone, but rather the judges and educators who know and understand the laws and how to apply them effectively. The experts are the ones who are given the task. I have already outlined why we rely on experts to interpret the laws. We see it clearly spelled out in the Torah by G-d.
In this respect it stands to reason then, that in order to reach a clear understanding of what G-d wants we have to rely on the experts as the interpreters of G-d's laws. These experts are the judges that have passed on their judgments, interpretations and enactments for thousands of years from Moses until today. Their legal proceedings, interpretations and judgments are embodied in the Oral Torah and is codified in the Talmuds.
This is not a belief, it is not some subterfuge or ambiguous fuzzy means to understand G-d's word. It is logical and outlined in the Torah itself!
We see in Source 4, that G-d gave the nation of Israel, the Torah as a heritage to interpret and understand it.
It is important to understand that the Torah is not two components, or a Written and Oral Torah in which the Written Text is simply interpreted with the Oral Torah. While this might be the net effect, it is important to understand that was is meant by Torah is both the Written and Oral Torah combined, as a single, indivisible unit. One is incomplete without the other. They are two halves of a single whole.
You might argue and say: "Wait a second! I'm just reading the words, and some or other so-called 'expert' is interpreting it his way. Maybe he is wrong, maybe he hasn't a clue?"
To which I respond: Maybe you're right, but unless you provide positive evidence against the logic above you have no claim anymore than that there are pink invisible elephant aliens that are invading the underside of your shoes.
You might say: "Wait a second! I have positive evidence, its the broken telephone game, just like the game, is your Oral Tradition, I mean, whose to say its accurate, verifiable or actually true?"
To which I respond: Firstly, broken telephone games are designed to be fun. That means people have had a few to drink, the choice of phrases are stupid, with little content and with lots of aspirants (f, p, h-like letters), to make it hard to hear, you're only allowed to hear the content once, and there is little incentive.
Lets imagine that to transfer information Orally, there is a huge incentive - prestige or financial gain. Lets imagine that you can hear the information and content over and over, lets imagine that the Oral tradition is prized in the community and valued in-of-itself. Lets imagine that the content is worthwhile and meaningful. Lets imagine that the best scholars, and experts are trained to recall it. Lets imagine that the people lived out their lives according to its content? Do you think that the Oral Tradition is any manner like a 'broken telephone game'? Absolutely not. For more information listen to the following: The Divine Oral Tradition.
