It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” (Deuteronomy 30:12)
Another matter, “Torah is not in the heavens (Deuteronomy 30:12)” – Moses said to them: ‘So you will not say: Another Moses will stand and bring us another Torah from Heaven, I am already informing you: “It is not in the heavens,” as nothing of it remained in Heaven.’ Another matter, Rabbi Ḥanina said: It and all the tools of its craft were given; its humility, its righteousness, its uprightness, and the giving of its reward. Another matter, what is “it is not in the heavens”? Shmuel said: The Torah cannot be found among the astrologers, whose craft is in the heavens. They said to Shmuel: ‘But you are an astrologer and a Torah giant.’ He said to them: ‘I would look into astrology only when I was unoccupied in Torah. When? It is when I would enter the bathhouse. (Devarim Rabba)
What is the meaning of that which is written: “It is not in heaven…nor is it beyond the sea” (Deuteronomy 30:12–13)? “It is not in heaven” indicates that if it were in heaven, you would have to ascend after it, and if it were beyond the sea, you would have to cross after it, as one must expend whatever effort is necessary in order to study Torah. (Eruvin 55a)
Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: Three thousand halakhot were forgotten during the days of mourning for Moses. The Jewish people said to Joshua: Ask for guidance from Heaven so that you can reacquire the forgotten halakhot. Joshua said to them: “It is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12)…The people said to Pinchas: Ask for guidance from Heaven so that you can relearn the forgotten halakhot. Pinchas said to them: “It is not in heaven” (Deuteronomy 30:12). (Temurah 16a-b)
The Chidushei Harim explained the verse (Devarim 30:12), “It (the Torah) is not in the Heaven, that you should say ‘Who will go up and get it for us...for it is close to you.’” A person who truly desires with all their heart to connect to the Torah would seek it out even if it were in Heaven. As Rashi explains, if it were up in Heaven, we would need to go and get it. For such a person, the Torah is indeed close. Everything depends on the person's effort. When one toils to seek out the Torah, they realize it was never far from them. However, without effort, it will always seem distant. (Sfat Emmet)
As he bids farewell, Moses tells the people that Torah is “not in heaven.” This remark is one of the most renowned in rabbinic literature. It is the crux of the famous story of Aknai’s oven, in which we learn that one cannot bring proof from miracles and that the law follows majority rule, not charismatic-prophetic authority . Presumably, if the Torah were in heaven, i.e., in the custody of heaven, one might be inclined to consult heaven or its representatives. But if Torah is on earth, then it is ours to interpret, irrespective of whether our interpretation is right. Were Moses himself to show up and tell us we are wrong in our interpretation, we would not be permitted to believe him.
You might think this conclusion odd—who wouldn’t want to be right, rather than in error? And yet a Midrash provides color to the point: The people summon Joshua and Pinchas to pray for the recovery of the 3,000 forgotten laws that vanished when Moses died. Their response can be read in two ways. The straightforward reading is that they are saying prayer won’t work. Those laws can’t be revealed by God, because they are not to be found in heaven; God is either not privy to them, or not an owner of them. Alternatively, the leaders can be read as saying that even if those laws could be recovered, consulting heaven would be inappropriate. The point isn’t to get the law right, but to cultivate good judgment. If we have to go back to God or a prophet every time we find ourselves baffled, we won’t develop. We’ll remain in a state of learned helplessness. “It is not in heaven” means God wants us to create a good society by consulting the Torah and its sages, triangulating with reason and tradition, not by going on vision quests, dropping ayahuasca, and returning with new laws. If a sixth book of Moses were to appear suddenly in a geniza, we might take a scholarly interest, but it would be irrelevant. Archaeology—a secular form of prophecy—isn’t directive. One cannot bring proof from carob trees or fossilized texts or claims of reincarnation.
But if Torah is not in heaven, is it not demotivating? Why strive for truth if truth can’t be known? Why attempt to get the right answer if you’re just going to be told to go away. If the world doesn’t want the 3,000 forgotten laws, why would you try to find them? Here, Sefat Emmet makes a powerful point that while the final answer is not in heaven, we ourselves need to be willing to go to heaven to get the Torah. Only then—by exerting great effort—do we find that the Torah was with us the whole time. Torah becomes a paradox, a gateless gate. The point is not to throw our hands up, saying “the truth is unknowable and thus not worth seeking.” Rather, we have to cultivate a desire to connect with Torah even when it feels far off and alienating; and in response the Torah will reveal itself to us as “not in heaven,” i.e., recognizable and understandable.
Shmuel teaches that Torah cannot be found among astrologers. Torah is not a science. If you want to understand the laws of physics, read Einstein, not Genesis. It’s not a tool for predicting the future; if you want to do that study super-forecasting. It’s not an algorithm; super-intelligence will not be able to tell us what the Torah wants us to do, because “It is not heaven.” It’s not a system, a graph-rag, that plots data. Astrology was thought in ancient Jewish times to be deeply rigorous, but also religiously questionable. The Talmud recognizes the validity of astrology, but also rails against it: “There is no fate/star sign (mazal) for Israel.” Shmuel was an astrologer, so clearly some had no qualms with it. They saw no contradiction between monotheism (and the idea that God runs the world) and the study of predictive patterns (which point to fatalism).
Shmuel sees the practical value of astrology; his point is that to learn Torah, you need to put aside your astrological pretension. The Torah requires a different type of lens, a different form of engagement, than that practiced by astrologers. If astrologers seek certainty and control, Torah scholars must embrace uncertainty and ambiguity. If astrologers seek to minimize human agency, Torah scholars must find opportunities to innovate. Astrologers typically only see the present through the lens of the past. But every model is right until it isn’t. Astrologers have no way to contend with outliers—those events are outside their capacity for pattern recognition. Torah scholars must attune themselves not just to standard deviations, but to edge cases. Astrologers don’t prepare for 10x changes in culture and technology. Torah scholars must be ready to turn crisis into opportunity, even if they can’t say when the crisis will hit. Astrologers seek to “time the market,” Torah scholars must find a way to manage when their thesis doesn’t play out the way they thought it would. Astrologers seek to answer answerable questions, Torah scholars seek to encounter unanswerable ones.
“Torah is not in heaven” signifies an argument for human empowerment, but only if we are willing to appreciate Torah as a radical gift, a unique discipline, distinct from any other mode of thought. When we recognize that Torah is not in heaven, and thus not a book requiring mere “subject matter expertise,” then we can experience it as a poem.
Shabbat Shalom,
Zohar Atkins
Nice! I find we can usefully replace ‘astrologers’ with ‘AI’ in these sentences for a meaningful corollary: “If astrologers seek to minimize human agency, Torah scholars must find opportunities to innovate. Astrologers typically only see the present through the lens of the past. But every model is right until it isn’t. Astrologers have no way to contend with outliers—those events are outside their capacity for pattern recognition.” Torah study becomes a bastion of humanity after the advent of AGI.