(Heb. Torah she-bi-khetav). The Pentateuch, traditionally dictated by God to Moses; by extension, the entire Bible. Rabbinic tradition distinguishes between the Written Law and the Oral Law, though the two, taken together, constitute the source of all basic Jewish legislation. On Leviticus 26:46, "These are the statutes and ordinances and torahs, which the Lord made between Him and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses," the Sifra (54:11) comments: "The use of torah in the plural shows that two Torahs were given [by God to Moses], one written and one oral." The Oral Law consisted of verbal elucidations of the Written Law, traditionally transmitted together with it by God to Moses. Formally, only the Pentateuch may be considered Written Law, since the rest of the Bible, the Prophets and the Hagiographa, are considered to have been written under a less intense level of inspiration. Moreover, the legal material in the Prophets and Hagiographa were called by the rabbis "tradition" (divré kabbalah). Nevertheless, the term Written Law is sometimes used for the entire Bible.
In rabbinic tradition, the Written Law was never meant to stand alone and could be understood only through the authoritative interpretation of the Oral Law (Shab. 31a); Maimonides (Introduction to the Mishnah 1) wrote: "Every commandment was given with its explanation."
