The
tanna Hillel the Elder cited the verse to call fellow Jews to study the Torah when it is neglected. (
Ephraim Urbach interprets Hillel as calling for fuller observance of the Torah commandments in general,
The Sages pp. 341f.) Rabbi Nathan makes a related gesture, for Jewish efforts against heresy, at the end of
Mishnah Berakhot. Nathan transposes the two halves of the verse thus: "They have made void your law, it is time to work for the Lord." (See Urbach, 836n.93) In the
Talmudic period, the verse is thus called upon to justify the radical shift in rabbinic belief after the destruction of the Temple. Due to the conditions of exilic Jewry, the rabbinic leadership decided to permit the
Oral Torah to be transcribed in writing and disseminated. The verse means that "It is better that one letter of the Torah [the verse forbidding the writing down of the Oral Torah] should be uprooted than that the whole of the Torah be forgotten." (
Temurah 14b, Elon
Jewish Law 5:1, Louis Jacobs, p. 133 trans.) In the
modern era, the dramatic character of the verse again enters the stage. The verse is used to justify rabbinic innovations in
halakha. In the
Age of Enlightenment, both
Reform and their
Orthodox rabbis cited the verse to justify the urgent nature of their actions ("It is time to act for the Lord"). The two conflicting positions see quite different referents for the verse's "they have voided the law"—the Reformers felt the need to accommodate the growing disinterest in Jewish law. In contrast, the Orthodox felt that the Reformers were voiding the law. ==References==