The Oral Talmud with Benay Lappe and Dan Libenson Episode 52

(1) One time I was walking on the way. A man found me, and came to me on his way to heresy [minut]. And he had mikra (written torah) but no mishnah (oral torah). 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 both came from the mouth of the Greatness."

And what is the difference between mikra and mishnah? Rather he told him a parable:

To what is this matter similar? To 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 a 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 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.

Oy -- what an embarrassment! Oy -- what a shame! Which one is more favored? It is the one who brought out the bread on the table with the beautiful cloth spread over it.

And then I said to him, "My son, if I find you within the mishna of the Sages, would that put the lie to your words?" He told me yes. I said to him, "My son, when you go down before the ark on Shabbat, how many prayers do you say?" He told me seven. And I said to him, "And on other days, how many do you say?" And he told me eighteen. And I said, to him, "My son, how many blessings do you make for the morning Hear O Israel [Shema] prayer?" And he told me two before and one after. And I said to him, "And how many do you say in the evening?" And he told me two before and two after. And I said to him, "My son, how many people read from the Torah on Shabbat"" And he told me seven. And I said to him, "And on Mondays, Thursdays, and the afternoon prayer on Shabbat, how many?" And he told me three...

And I said to him, "My son -- and don't you have these [practices] from Mount Sinai? And isn't it the case that they are none other than the mishnah of the Sages? Rather, when the Holy Blessed One gave the Torah to Israel, he gave nothing but the wheat from which to make fine flour and the flax from which to weave clothing, through the [interpretive process].