One of the most fundamental Jewish dogmas is the belief in the Oral Torah: that vast body of unwritten knowledge that the Talmud and other ancient rabbinic works claim to record. In the traditional understanding, God imparted this knowledge to Moses along with the Pentateuch at Mount Sinai, although it is abundantly clear from the Talmud’s own testimony that the Oral Torah also includes rabbinic innovation, interpretation, and disputation. There is no clear consensus—not among haredi rabbis and not among academic scholars—about how these various parts fit together. Nor is this a problem solely for the Orthodox, as other denominations, whatever their positions on revelation, look to the rabbinic corpus for wisdom and inspiration.

Rabbi Shmuel Phillips, in his new book Talmud Reclaimed—which bears letters of approbation (or haskamot) from revered haredi sages as well as from two Mosaic contributors—looks at both rabbinic sources and the latest academic research to make sense of what the Oral Torah is. Yosef Lindell writes in his review:

Phillips propounds a novel approach that at once reaffirms traditional Orthodox beliefs and challenges some of what you might have learned in yeshiva.

[In his view], the divinely ordained system of d’rash [talmudic exegesis] gave the rabbis flexibility to interpret within its boundaries, and their conclusions became part of Torah. Still, for Phillips, the subjectivity, flexibility, and even arbitrariness of that system is not a bug, but a feature. It allows “the details of commandments [to] remain fluid, to be revisited by future courts which take into account additional considerations such as the social sensitivities and broader needs of the generation.”

In a momentous meeting with the Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh, President Trump announced that he is lifting sanctions on the beleaguered and war-torn country. On the one hand, Sharaa is an alumnus of Islamic State and al-Qaeda, who came to power as commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which itself began life as al-Qaeda’s Syrian offshoot; he also seems to enjoy the support of Qatar. On the other hand, he overthrew the Assad regime—a feat made possible by the battering Israel delivered to Hizballah—greatly improving Jerusalem’s strategic position, and ending one of the world’s most atrocious and brutal tyrannies. President Trump also announced that he hopes Syria will join the Abraham Accords.

This analysis by Eran Lerman was published a few days ago, and in some respects is already out of date, but more than anything else I’ve read it helps to make sense of Israel’s strategic position vis-à-vis Syria.

Israel’s primary security interest lies in defending against worst-case scenarios, particularly the potential collapse of the Syrian state or its transformation into an actively hostile force backed by a significant Turkish presence (considering that the Turkish military is the second largest in NATO) with all that this would imply. Hence the need to bolster the new buffer zone—not for territorial gain, but as a vital shield and guarantee against dangerous developments. Continued airstrikes aimed at diminishing the residual components of strategic military capabilities inherited from the Assad regime are essential.

At the same time, there is a need to create conditions that would enable those in Damascus who wish to reject the reduction of their once-proud country into a Turkish satrapy. Sharaa’s efforts to establish his legitimacy, including his visit to Paris and outreach to the U.S., other European nations, and key Gulf countries, may generate positive leverage in this regard. Israel’s role is to demonstrate through daily actions the severe costs of acceding to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions and accepting Turkish hegemony.

Israel should also assist those in Syria (and beyond: this may have an effect in Lebanon as well) who look to it as a strategic anchor in the region. The Druze in Syria—backed by their brethren in Israel—have openly expressed this expectation, breaking decades of loyalty to the central power in Damascus over their obligation to their kith and kin.