How do rabbinical Jews counter the arguments set forth by Karaite Jews?

Question

These are the arguments set forth by Karaite Jews, which I happen to agree with.

The Oral Law is not mentioned even once in the entire Tanach (Hebrew Bible).

When God told Moses to come up to Mount Sinai to receive the tablets He said: "Come up to me into the mountain, and be there: and I will give thee tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written;" (Ex 24,12). No mention is made of an Oral Law.

The Tanach reports that the written Torah was both lost and completely forgotten for over 50 years and only rediscovered by the Temple priests (2Ki 22,8; 2Chr 34,15). It is inconceivable that an Oral Law could have been remembered when even the written Law was forgotten.

The Rabbis claim that the "Oral Law" is the official interpretation of the Torah given on Mount Sinai. Yet if one actually looks at the Mishnah and Talmud they are full of the opinions of Rabbis who disagree with each other on almost every issue.

Answer 1

The olral is necessary to understand the Torah. Without the oral law, the Torah is impossible to follow.

Example: When it talks about killing animals in the kosher way- it says "The way I commanded you". And that sit! The only place where the way he commanded us is in the oral law.

Similarly with the wearing of tefillin (phylacteries), it says, "You will bind these words". Umm, which words would those be? The entire Torah (that woudl be difficult to wear on your arm and head!), the words in that line? That paragraph? That chapter? The answer is found in the oral law. Similarly for the laws relating to the mezuzah and in many other instances.

As for saying the written law was lost- it never was! The specific scroll kept in the Temple was found- but there were plenty of other copies! IN fact, every King was required to make his own copy when he ascended to the throne. Every village, town and city read from the scrolls on market days (Mondays and Thursdays) and on the Sabath and every festival so that people would learn the law.

Copies of the Torah were comon, the loss of the one in the Temple due to the idolatorous run of Yohash's father did not mean that every scroll in Israel was destroyed, just that the specific one penned by Moses and kept in the Temple was hidden (so it would not be destroyed) and in Yohash's time, since he was righteous and was restoring the temple and its service, it was found and reinstated to its proper place.

The same situation appertains in Chronicles- in fact, the verse before the one you reference explicitly states that they found the Scroll written by Moses in that case. In other words, they had other ones, but the specific one from Sinai, written by Moses had been hidden and then recovered.

In short, at no point since Sinai have the Jews been without copies of the written law, just the specific copy written by Moses. And that is the situation today, we have plenty of copies of thr Torah, but we do not have the one that was written by Moses at Sinai.

Answer 2

I agree. I think the jews have hurt themselves by not clinging first to their original texts and letting THAT far outweight the torah.
Much as Catholicism for example in priests all being celibate. They have lost generations of fathers that could have been raising godly children.

Answer 3

'Tis why Scripture interprets Scripture.

Answer 4

they use kung fu against the karate jews.