By Enedina Guerrero

When Christians hear the term “Oral Torah” (or “Oral Law”), they’re either unfamiliar with what it is, or they assume or were taught that it’s a collection of man-made rules that were added to Scripture. But in Jewish life, the Oral Torah is better understood as the tool that Israel received to help them live out the Written Torah in real, practical situations. It expresses how the nation of Israel applies G-d’s written commands in daily life, in courts, in kitchens, in worship, and in community. The distinction between the Written and the Oral Torah matters, especially when we read passages like Mark 7:7–23, where Yeshua confronted the misuse of “the Tradition of the Elders.”¹

The Torah Was Given to a People, Not Just to Individuals  

The Torah includes commands that simply can’t be carried out by a lone person. Many commandments or instructions (mitzvot) affect life on the national level, pertaining to judges, courts, priests, the calendar, communal worship, and shared standards. That’s why Scripture itself points to certain processes and to authorized decisions when hard cases arise. For this reason, Israel needed faithful leaders to weigh disputes and apply Torah wisdom to new circumstances—not to replace the Torah, but to help the people obey it together.²

The inception of this concept is found in Exodus 18, when Jethro urged Moses to appoint capable men to help judge the people so that G-d’s instructions could be applied with consistency and justice.³ Jethro’s counsel emphasizes this point: The Torah is holy, but it is also practical. Therefore, practical obedience requires interpretation, and interpretation requires accountable leadership.

The Written Torah often gives broad commands. The Oral Torah, in many cases, records how and, at times, why those commands were applied. A simple example of this is based on passages that were later interpreted together: The Torah teaches Israel not to mix meat and dairy. But communities still had to ask: What counts as meat? What counts as dairy? What about poultry? What about separate dishes? These questions aren’t indications of rebellion—they’re the normal work of walking in obedience in a complex world.

That’s why rabbinic literature contains debates that can be surprisingly detailed. In relation to the mixing of meat and dairy, the Mishnah, in Tractate Chullin 8, shows the Sages’ discussion of whether poultry may be placed on the same table with cheese, even if they’re not eaten together. The point isn’t to burden people; it’s to protect holy habits and clarify boundaries in communal life.⁴

Three Streams: Halakhah, Aggadah, and Midrash

The Oral Torah isn’t made up of a single facet. Jewish tradition preserves different kinds of source material, each serving a distinct purpose:

• Halakhah—Gives practical instruction on how to walk out the Torah in real life (i.e., what is permitted, forbidden, required, or otherwise).⁵
• Aggadah—A collection of narratives, moral teachings, theological reflection, and stories that shape the heart and imagination of the community.⁶
• Midrash—The interpretive exploration of the Tanakh that is often poetic and layered and is designed to help the community wrestle with the meaning, ethics, and character of G-d.⁷

You already understand the impulse behind halakhah if you’ve ever sat in a Bible study where someone asks, “But what does this look like in real life?” If you’ve ever been strengthened by a story that illustrates G-d’s faithfulness, you already understand why aggadah matters. In Matthew 13, Yeshua used the Midrash as he told parables, which caused his disciples to ask for an explanation of the parable’s meaning. This is the point of the Midrash: to have a person engage with the ulterior motive of the message and not just take it at face value. 

The Mishnah: Preserving Tradition in a Dangerous Moment

After the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE) and during periods of upheaval, Jewish leaders faced a real concern: What if the treasured teachings and legal traditions that guided Jewish life were lost? The Mishnah emerged as a solution. Traditionally associated with Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (“Judah, the Prince”), the Mishnah is a compilation of legal discussions and rulings that had been preserved from earlier generations and edited into a structured work around the early third century.⁸ It’s arranged into six orders (sedarim) and 63 tractates, covering everyday life: agriculture, festivals, marriage, damages, holy things, ritual purity, etc. One of its most famous traits is its extreme conciseness. It’s more of an outline than an explanation, because it assumes that students are actively learning within a community that expounds Jewish teachings.

The Tosefta and the Gemara: Filling in What Is “Between the Lines”

Because the Mishnah is so brief, related traditions that weren’t included in it were preserved in the Tosefta (“addition/supplement”).⁹ Think of it as a type of appendix, containing parallel material that often expands, clarifies, or preserves additional discussions.

Then came the Gemara, which contains generations of analysis, debate, and explanations on the Mishnah by later Sages. Together, the Mishnah and the Gemara constitute the Talmud.¹⁰ This is where you see the living process of interpretation: questions, objections, refinements, and careful reasoning—sometimes legal, sometimes pastoral, and sometimes deeply spiritual.

Two Talmuds: Babylonian and Jerusalem

There are two major Talmudic collections:

• Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud)—More concise in nature and shaped by the realities found within the Land of Israel, this version of the Talmud paid significant attention to the agricultural concerns relevant there. 
• Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud)—Completed later and more extensive in length and thought process than its Jerusalem-based counterpart, it became the most influential of the two Talmuds in much of Jewish history and halakhic development.¹¹

This should matter to Christians because it reminds us: Judaism is not static. Jewish communities lived out Torah commands under changing empires, languages, pressures, and geographies. Yet, they continued to preserve their covenant identity to the best of their abilities.

So What About Mark 7—Did Yeshua Reject the Oral Torah?

Here’s where we need to slow down and read carefully.

In Mark 7, Yeshua confronted a kind of tradition that attempted to nullify G-d’s command—specifically, the use of an offering to G-d (korban) as a loophole to avoid honoring and supporting one’s parents. The issue wasn’t that people discussed how to obey the Torah through the Traditions of the Elders; the issue was when a practice gains moral authority while directly undermining what G-d clearly commanded.

The book of Mark itself explains that the dispute included ritual handwashing traditions, which were not primarily about hygiene but about ritual purity practices that developed over time.¹² Yeshua’s rebuke was prophetic: Don’t hide disobedience behind religious language. And that prophetic critique is consistent with the Tanakh’s tradition, as Isaiah, Amos, and Jeremiah all confronted “worship” that masked injustice.

For disciples today, that’s both sobering and freeing. Sobering, because we can do the same thing—building “good Christian habits” that excuse lovelessness, pride, or neglect of responsibility. Freeing, because the solution isn’t cynicism toward tradition. Rather, it’s a return to G-d’s heart: justice, mercy, faithfulness, and integrity.

Why This Matters for Faith Clarity

Many believers are challenged when they discover that biblical interpretation has a history. For centuries, Jewish communities have argued, debated, and developed practices. But that reality doesn’t have to threaten your faith. It can actually strengthen it!

• G-d entrusted His Word to His people and sustained them throughout history.
• Interpretation is part of discipleship, not a betrayal of Scripture.
• Yeshua calls us to use discernment: to uphold G-d’s commands, while refusing to comply with certain man-made shortcuts that cancel them.

If you want to read the Gospels in their Jewish context and walk in a faith that feels solid and not fragile, learning what Oral Torah is (and what it isn’t) gives you context, humility, and clarity. And clarity is often the doorway back to peace.

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Footnotes