Question:
The gemara says that we’re not bekiim in chasieros and yesieros.
How does this fit with the understanding that we have an unbroken mesora?
Maybe this makes the kasha even stronger: if in the written torah we don’t know the chasieros and yesieros then how much more so did the oral torah get confused?
Answer:
Let’s put this into context, what it means by chaseros v’yiseros, says the MIshna Berura 143-26 is that there are a number of letters that don’t change the meaning of the word, but sometimes it is spelled with an extra “vav” or missing a “vav” etc. such as the word אבותינו which can be read with or without the “vav”. The meaning of the verse and the word are exactly the same. however none the less if there is an extra letter there H-shem put it there for a reason. Yes it is true, in 3,000+ years with thousands of years of golus and persecution, there are things that have been blurred and are not clear, but that don’t mean that we don’t have a clear mesora. We have an unbroken mesora, and there are sifrei torah all over the world, in every continent, in communities that did not have any contact with each other for hundreds of years, with hundreds of thousands of letters in them, and yes over the thousands of years there were are few small letters that don’t change the meaning of the word, that have gotten blurred. Nevertheless, all of us have the mesora of the redemption from Egypt, the receiving of the torah, the ten commandments, and the 613 mitzvos. It is also true that in the oral torah, which is much harder to keep from getting forgotten, which contains 10’s of thousands of halachos, and is meant to be transmitted from teacher to student, father to son, and due to all that we have gone thru, there indeed was things that became unclear. This is precisely why Rabbeinu Hakadosh, decided that the oral torah must be written. Even in the oral torah, which is studied extensively, even question or point that is not clear, is recorded analyzed to make sure that it is clear. In fact there are rules exactly how we have to deal with any point that is not clear. Yes, a part of Torah Shebal Pe is the mesora of how we are to deal with tings that will eventually become unclear. This is not a broken mesora, but a mesora that included ways of fixing any scratches, bumps or nicks.
Best wishes
