Eternal Torah in Modern Times

We Just read Parshat Mishpatim and I was wondering how is it possible that the laws of the Torah can still be applied to modern technology? Doesn't the Torah need to be updated?

Thank you for your question.

It is one of the thirteen beliefs that our Torah will never be changed, and this is the Torah like we received it at Mount Sinai. These are the laws that we abide by throughout the generations, and as you wrote, this needs to be explained: How is it possible to abide by laws that were received over three thousand years ago? Every country has a place where they introduce new laws, whether it's Congress in America or The Parliament in England. Since the laws always need to be updated with the advancement of technology and innovation, it would not be possible to live with laws that were even ten years old, let alone a hundred years old; some of them would be considered a joke with regard to today's advancements. So how is it possible that we still abide by a law-book that was introduced so long ago?

The answer is that non-Jewish civil laws only know what exists today; they don’t know what invention will be invented maybe even tomorrow. They just know what we know today, therefore they introduce laws according to what they know. If tomorrow there will be a new invention, then they will need to update the laws accordingly.

However, we know that Hashem created the world in the six days of creation with all the potential that will later be discovered. For example, electricity was always there, but it took humanity time to discover it, the same too that air can hold up an airplane; it was always there, just not yet discovered. Therefore, Hashem, who created the world with all its potential, also wrote the Torah, which is the law book. So Hashem knows all the discoveries that we will later discover, and so all the laws can be applied to all the inventions that will later be invented. So when we read the Torah about the ox and the donkey, the names may change to cars and buses, but the actual halacha stays the same: who is liable and who is responsible remains the same.

For example, a person the following question regarding modern technology: Can a person using VR participate in a minyan since he is virtually there, and can it be considered as participating in the minyan?

So one can ask, where is this written in the Torah? However, we are able to adapt the halacha of using VR to a story that is brought in the Talmud from the second Beis Hamikdosh era.

The Gemara writes that during the Second Temple, there was a synagogue in Alexandria in Egypt that had tens of thousands of congregants, and they were not able to hear the chazzan, and they couldn't know when to say Amen. So they used to raise flags, and that was a sign to the congregants that the chazzan just completed the bracha and they can now say amen. So we see from this Gemara that even if the congregants do not hear the bracha, they just need to know when it is the time to answer amen, then it is ok.

Similarly, we can say that when a person hears either on a telephone or VR the chazzan completing the bracha, even though he did not hear the real voice of the chazzan, nevertheless, he knows when the bracha is completed by the chazzan and can then answer amen.

Which le’halcha we say one may answer amen on a bracha said over the telephone but one cannot exempt oneself by the bracha being said or megillah that was read, since the for the halacha of shomea ke’oneh one has to be physically present.

So you see, the concept exists; and qualified rabbis are able to adapt it to modern-day technology.

Finally, we have to always remember that the civil laws we have are called mitzvot bein adam lechaveroh, and it is written that the Torah was the blueprint of the world, meaning Hashem looked at the mitzvot of the Torah and accordingly created the world in a way that we are able to keep all the mitzvot, so not only is the purpose of our civil laws to maintain the law and order, they are actually the purpose of the world.

Wishing you much success.