A man met the teacher on the road and tried to split Sinai in half. Written Torah, yes. Mishnah, no. Scripture came from God, he said, but the oral teaching did not.
Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 2:1 answers with a king and two servants. The king loved them both and gave each one the same gifts: a measure of wheat and a bundle of flax. One servant understood the gift. He ground the wheat into fine flour, kneaded it, baked bread, wove the flax into a beautiful cloth, set the bread on a table, and covered it until the king returned.
The other servant did nothing. When the king came home, he brought back a pile of raw wheat with flax thrown on top. Same gift. No work. No honor.
That is the relationship between written Torah and oral Torah. God gave Israel wheat and flax at Sinai, not because raw grain was the final meal, but because Israel was meant to grind, sift, weave, bake, teach, argue, and make the gift livable.
Then the midrash turns from Sinai to the destroyed Temple. When the altar stood, it atoned for Israel. When it no longer stands, Torah scholars carry a piece of that work. The proof comes from offerings of first grain (Leviticus 2:14) and the bread brought to Elisha when there was no Temple nearby (2 Kings 4:42). Support the sages and their students, the midrash says, and it is as if you have brought first fruits before your Father in Heaven.
One time I was walking on the way. A man found me, and went with me on the way of mitzvot, and he had mikra (ie: written law) but no mishnah (ie: oral law). And he said to me, "Rabbi, mikra was given to us from Mount Sinai. Mishnah was not given to us from Mount Sinai." And I said to him, "My son, mikra and mishnah were both of them said from the mouth of God." And what is the difference between mikra and mishnah? Rather he told him a parable: To what is this matter similar? To a human king (lit: a king of flesh and blood) who had two servants, and he loved them with a great love. And he gave to one a kab (a measure) of wheat and to the other kab of wheat. And he also gave to each one of them a bundle of flax. The wise one of them took the flax and wove a beautiful cloth, and took the wheat and made it into fine flour, and sifted it, and ground it, and kneaded it, and baked it, and set it on the table, and spread the beautiful cloth over it, and left it there until the king should come. And the fool of them did nothing. After some time the king came into his house, and said to them, to his two servants, "My sons, bring to me what I gave you." One of them brought out the bread of fine flour, on the table, with the beautiful cloth spread over it. And the other of them brought out the wheat in a pile and the bundle of flax upon it. Woe for that shame! Woe for that disgrace! Which one is more favored? You must admit it is the one who brought out the bread on the table with the beautiful cloth spread over it... And I further said..."...Rather, when the Holy One Blessed Be He gave the Torah to Israel, it was only given to them as wheat from which to bring forth fine flour, and as flax from which to weave a garment..." Based on this, they said: The whole time that the Temple is standing, it is an altar of atonement for the Jewish people in all the places of their dwelling; and when the Temple is not standing, the Torah scholars are an atonement for the Jewish people in all the places of their dwelling. As it is stated (Leviticus 2:14), "When you bring a meal-offering of first grains to the Lord, of newly ripened crops, roasted over fire, ground [full and moist] kernels, you shall bring your first grain meal-offering"; and it states (II Kings 4:42), "A man came from Baal-shalishah and he brought the man of God some bread of the first grains, etc." But was Elisha a priest who eats the first fruits? Is it not that there was no Jerusalem there, nor Temple, nor altar, nor high priest. Rather there was only the prophet Elisha and his students who were sitting before him. However, based on this, they said: Anyone who attaches themselves to the sages and their students and supports them is considered by the verse as if he is offering first fruits and doing the will of his Father in the Heavens.
