Parashat Re’eh contains dozens of mitzvot governing Jewish life, from tzedakah and kosher food to the festivals and the laws that would apply once the Jewish people settled in Eretz Yisrael. In the middle of these laws, Rabbi Yitzchak Zilber noticed something that led to a memorable discussion.
The Torah permits the Jewish people to slaughter their cattle and sheep “as I have commanded you” (Devarim 12:21).
But where, Rabbi Zilber asks, are those instructions?
The Written Torah never explains how an animal is to be slaughtered.
Rabbi Zilber once discussed this question with a group of Jews who were debating whether the Oral Torah had truly been given together with the Written Torah. He suggested a simple test.
If a doctor writes a prescription or an engineer provides instructions for operating a machine, the directions must be clear enough to follow. Certainly, instructions given by G-d would not omit information necessary to carry them out.
So they opened the Torah.
The first verse they examined concerned the Jewish calendar: “This month shall be for you the beginning of the months” (Shemot 12:2).
Which calendar? How long is the month? How does one ensure that Pesach always occurs in the spring?
The Written Torah does not say.
They tried another verse, instructing a Jew to place a “sign” upon his hand and a “reminder between his eyes” in memory of the Exodus.
What is the sign? What does it contain? Where exactly is it placed?
Again, the verse alone does not explain.
Then they reached the commandment in Re’eh concerning shechitah: slaughter the animals “as I have commanded you.”
Rabbi Zilber made an offer.
He would pay $1,000 to anyone who could find, anywhere in the Written Torah, the instructions explaining how shechitah must be performed.
A month passed.
No one collected the money.
Rabbi Zilber’s conclusion was straightforward. If we accept that the Torah was given by G-d, it makes no sense to believe that He commanded mitzvot while withholding the information necessary to observe them. The details were not missing. They were transmitted orally alongside the Written Torah and later preserved in the Mishnah and Talmud.
The Jewish calendar provides another example. Rabbi Zilber was fascinated by the ancient calculation of the lunar month preserved by Rabban Gamliel: approximately 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and a little more than three seconds. Centuries later, increasingly precise astronomical calculations produced essentially the same average.
For Rabbi Zilber, this was not merely an interesting mathematical coincidence. It demonstrated how carefully Jewish knowledge had been transmitted from generation to generation.
The lesson of Re’eh is therefore larger than any single law.
Torah is not a collection of isolated verses to be interpreted however each person wishes. It is a living tradition—the Written Torah together with the explanations by which Jews have understood and practiced it for thousands of years.
Sometimes what appears to be missing is not missing at all.
We simply have to know where to look.
Parashat Re’eh is sponsored by Daniel & Aliza Borukhov
Rabbi Yitzchok Zilber, zt”l, dedicated his life to teaching Torah, and his impactful writings continue to inspire Jews worldwide. Copyright 2023 by The LaMaalot Foundation. Conversations on the Torah is catalogued at The Library of Congress. All rights reserved. www.LaMaalot.org
Parashat Re’eh - The Instructions That Were Never Missing
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