How can the Rambam's Eighth Principle of Jewish Faith be believed in light of Hazal?

Question

The Rambam's eighth Principle of Jewish Faith states that the entire Torah in our possession - every verse - was dictated to Mosheh Rabbenu and that it has not changed.

However, we have explicit passages in Hazal that tell us that the Torah had to be critically reconstructed from a multiplicity of scrolls, each with slightly different wording in certain passages (cf. y.Ta`anith 4:2) and that these were apparently used by Ezra HaSofer in his reconstruction (cf. Avoth De-Rabi Nathan 30b).

Additionally, we have an explicit text in the Gemara that says that the Amoraim were not experts in defective and plenary spellings in the words of the Torah (cf. b.Qidhushin 30a).

And in the Rambam's own day there were multiple versions of the Torah (differing only in a very few, slight ways), including the mesorah of Yemen which differs from Ashkenazi and Sefaradi mesorah in five places!

Not to mention the accurate placement of petuhoth and setumoth, which has enough halakhic weight to pasul a sefer Torah if made incorrectly.

My question is:

Surely the Rambam knew these passages from Hazal and the facts on the ground, so how could he write such a seemingly dogmatic statement regarding the Torah "in our possession"? Are we missing something? Was he?

NOTE: I am aware of the simplistic and non-Maimonidean wording of the popular "Ani Ma'amin" on this principle of faith and I reject it as not accurately representing the intent of the Rambam in his fuller, more original wording of the eighth principle.

Answer 1

R' Yaakov Weinberg, in an audio recording, addressed this issue (as an issue with the ani maamin, which R' Weinberg, like you, rejected), and he explained that the point of the Rambam is not to say that the specific texts which we have now are identical to the one transmitted to Moshe. Rather, the point of the Rambam is to say that Moshe was a faithful transmitter of the Torah, and did not err nor alter the Torah as it was told to him. Thus the Rambam writes:

כלומר שהגיע אליו כולה מאת ה' הגעה שקורין אותה על דרך השאלה דבור

Which means to say that the entire Torah reached Moshe from Hashem on a level which we call "speech"

and the Rambam's proof text for this Yesod is

בזאת תדעון כי ה' שלחני וכו ולא מלבי

With this (the earth swallowing Adas Korach) you shall know that Hashem has sent me ... and I did not make it up

In other words, the source text is a verse stating that Moshe did not make up the Torah. The point of this Yesod is the accuracy of Moshe's transmission.

Answer 2

I've asked this question to several talmidei chachamim, and all of them have given me the same general response: the Rambam shouldn't be taken too literally, as after all, he certainly knew the passages in Chazal which you've quoted. What he means is that, for all intents and purposes, we have the same Torah. The very slight differences of a plene spelling here or an extra ו there are not meaningful differences that would cause us to say that our Torah is 'a different Torah'. This point is also made in an aish.com article which claims that the words 'colour' to 'color' can still be considered to be the same word. (In reality, the differences in the Torah's text are more significant, but the idea is plausible enough). Even a difference that is halakhically significant (in terms of making the Torah pasul) it still may not be meaningfully significant for the purposes of calling it "the same Torah"

Answer 3

Like others have pointed out, Rambam's 8th principle speaks to Moshe's personal transmission of the Torah and nothing more.

However, the logic for why people thought this was a good question in the first place, which I'll briefly recite:

Premise: Rambam would never disagree on anything any Chazal member would say A) Chazal says the last 8 verses were written by Joshua, not Moshe B) Rambam says the whole torah was written by moshe (misunderstood)

Conclusion: There is a problem here, because rambam would never disagree with Chazal, much less call any of them a kofer.

I can think of two instances where Rambam called out chazal for stating a heretical idea, or a Rishon saying it for him.

In Moreh Nevuchim when discussing the concept of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing), he quotes 2 sages in Midrash Rabba that say time existed always. Rambam says this is heresy, plain and simple.

Also, at the beginning of R Yosef Albo's Sefer on Ikkarim, he begins it by saying Rambam is wrong about the 13th principle, Mashiach, because according to Rambam then Rebbe Hillel (Sanhedrin 99a) would be a heretic! Because he says there is no Messiah coming.

So clearly Rav Yosef Albo thought Rambam had the audacity to go against the sages and even call one of their ideas heretical. Of course, this is only against individual members of Chazal, not the "Chachamim", or the majority.

So, even though I agree that Rambam would have no problem when it comes to the 8th Ikar and reality, the premise of the question (at least as so far related to Chazal saying Moshe didn't write last 8 pesukim) is wrong.

I say this not to be technical, but to show an important point that we can all learn from.