Six Criteria that Inform a True Torah

The phrase was popularized by its inclusion in ibn Ezra’s Introduction to the Pentateuch, but it appears earlier in kabbalistic sources such as The Letters of Rabbi Akiva (Constantinople ed., p. 12) and The Hebrew Book of Enoch (see Eisenstein’s Otzar HaMidrashim, p. 184). It also appears in Num. Rab. “Nasso” 13:15.

For a scholarly discussion of this concept, and how it conflicts with the approach of Rabbi Akiva, see Azzan Yadin-Israel, Scripture as Logos: Rabbi Ishmael and the Origin of Midrash (Divinations: Rereading Ancient Religion; University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

For a more thorough discussion of Rambam’s views on revelation and reason, see my book, Maimonides, Spinoza and Us (Jewish Lights, 2009).