When the Holy One Came to Give the Torah to Moshe

When the Holy One, blessed be He, came to give the Torah, He told Moses, in order, the Scripture, the Mishnah, the Aggadah, and the Talmud, as it is said, "And God spoke all these words" (Exodus 20:1), even what a seasoned student would in the future ask his teacher. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Go and teach it to the children of Israel. Moses said to Him: Master of the Universe, You write it for Your children. He said to him: I wish to give it to you in writing, but it is revealed before Me that the nations of the world are destined to rule over them and to take it from them, and My children would become like the nations of the world. Rather, the Scripture you shall give them in writing, and the Aggadah and the Mishnah and the Talmud by mouth. "And the LORD said to Moses, Write down these words" (Exodus 34:27), this is Scripture. "For according to (al pi)" the Mishnah and the Talmud, which separate Israel from the nations of the world. "Write down for yourself." The first tablets I wrote, as it is said (Exodus 31:18), "written by the finger of God," but the second ones, you write for yourself. To what may the matter be compared? To a king who married a wife and wrote her a marriage document from his own hand. She did not behave properly, but ruined and disrupted things. Her groomsman came and appeased her to the king. The king said to him: I have been appeased only on your account; go and make another document. "Write down for yourself." On your merit I give them the Torah.