Yes, these are laws specifically for writing sacred texts such as Torah scrolls and mezuzot. For just plain communication, you can write however you want.
(Mezuzah: you've seen those little skinny "boxes" on people's doors? Well, inside there's a tiny little scroll that has certain text on it. It's derived from the part of Deuteronomy where it says "write these words upon your doorposts".)
The reasons for all the laws are complicated, but have to do with the fact that these objects are used to fulfill Torah commandments, so they'd better be "right". The specific area of requirements for writing these objects is something I don't know much about, but the general approach of specifying the parameters for doing mitzvot shows up all over the place. For a very basic example, consider the commandment of doing no work on Shabbat. Well, you need to know what "work" is, and you need to know who "you" means (everyone? adults? what about your servants? etc), and you need to know exactly when Shabbat is. (Sundown? Dark?) Now what about "dwell in booths for seven days" -- you have to specify what does and does not count as a sukkah (booth) -- dimensions, materials, number of walls, density of roof, and so on. So, apply this same kind of reasoning to "write these words", and a discussion of what counts as "writing" will surely ensue.
Tradition says that when Moses received the written Torah on Sinai, he also received the "oral Torah". The oral Torah consists of the implementation details; for example, the written Torah refers to slaughtering animals in a kosher fashion but doesn't say how to do it; the orah Torah does. The tradition is that God told Moses, Moses told Joshua, and it continued in an unbroken and accurate line to the men of the great assembly, the sages who codifed it and ruled on questions of interpretation. Eventually, when there was a danger that this body of knowledge would be lost (due to things like Roman persecution), someone wrote it down. That initial document is called the Mishna. Later, sages who still had ties to the oral tradition elaborated on the Mishna and filled in more details; that work is called the Gemara. (Gemara means "completion".) The Mishna and the Gemara together form the Talmud.
There are principles by which you can derive how these laws apply to new situations. For example, Moses didn't know anything about electricity, but we have law now on the use of electricity on Shabbat, and it's derived from laws about fire, among others. (I'm over-simplifying.) There are rules of derivation that are vaguely analogous to rules of logic in formal proofs. (I have seen them but don't understand them all.)
From the point of view of an Orthodox Jew, the law has never changed but it has been clarified over the centuries. I am not an Orthodox Jew and do not agree with that claim, FYI. I think some of the original law has been massively distorted and some of the current intepretations are erroneous. There are multiple interpretations of the whole situation, and some of this forms the basis for the different movements (what you might think of as denominations).
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(no subject)
Date: 2001-10-29 11:49 am (UTC)(Mezuzah: you've seen those little skinny "boxes" on people's doors? Well, inside there's a tiny little scroll that has certain text on it. It's derived from the part of Deuteronomy where it says "write these words upon your doorposts".)
The reasons for all the laws are complicated, but have to do with the fact that these objects are used to fulfill Torah commandments, so they'd better be "right". The specific area of requirements for writing these objects is something I don't know much about, but the general approach of specifying the parameters for doing mitzvot shows up all over the place. For a very basic example, consider the commandment of doing no work on Shabbat. Well, you need to know what "work" is, and you need to know who "you" means (everyone? adults? what about your servants? etc), and you need to know exactly when Shabbat is. (Sundown? Dark?) Now what about "dwell in booths for seven days" -- you have to specify what does and does not count as a sukkah (booth) -- dimensions, materials, number of walls, density of roof, and so on. So, apply this same kind of reasoning to "write these words", and a discussion of what counts as "writing" will surely ensue.
Did I make things better, or worse? :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2001-10-31 11:16 am (UTC)Who writes the definitions of what all these mean? How are they derived? Are they ever changed?
(no subject)
Date: 2001-10-31 11:30 am (UTC)There are principles by which you can derive how these laws apply to new situations. For example, Moses didn't know anything about electricity, but we have law now on the use of electricity on Shabbat, and it's derived from laws about fire, among others. (I'm over-simplifying.) There are rules of derivation that are vaguely analogous to rules of logic in formal proofs. (I have seen them but don't understand them all.)
From the point of view of an Orthodox Jew, the law has never changed but it has been clarified over the centuries. I am not an Orthodox Jew and do not agree with that claim, FYI. I think some of the original law has been massively distorted and some of the current intepretations are erroneous. There are multiple interpretations of the whole situation, and some of this forms the basis for the different movements (what you might think of as denominations).