I thought the 'oral torah' was written by the rabbis or 'sages'.
That is the extent of my rabbinical knowledge. :0)
The Oral Torah is said to have been handed down by God at Sinai with the written Torah. It was finally written down, as the Jews became too widely dispersed for oral tradition to be relied on.
"Oral" meaning, G-d, Blessed is He, taught certain laws to Moses versus writing them down. this is the same process we all went through in school, (those that went to school, not sure everyone in this thread did) that is text book and class instruction to understand a subject. the Bible would have been too large to handle had all the implementation been written down. Sjackson is quite correct to say kindling a flame is a Torah/Bible prohibition on Sabbath. The prohibitions themselves where not clearly delineated in the text are based upon the necessary activities needed to build the tabernacle. The lessons are primarily found in Exodus where the instructions for building the Tabernacle are found and where the constant refrain is also found, {paraphrasing} "but do not do this on Sabbath". Therefore, even the very act of building the dwelling for G-d to reside with the Jews in the wilderness and where He would meet with Moses to give instruction, as important as this task was, does not override Sabbath restrictions.
Sabbath restrictions are to remember that in 6 days G-d created the Heavens and the Earth. He stopped creating on the 7th day. We too are commanded to stop all "creative" activity on the 7th day (which also happens to be the day called Saturday thanks to the Romans and not Sunday). The basis of all these laws restricting actions on Sabbath is to keep Jews from doing creative acts like our G-d, the creator of the universe did on the Sabbath.
There is no oral torah. There is the torah and then there are commentaries on the torah, but the torah is the Old Testament and nothing else.
Moses taught 'oral Torah' for 40 years before writing scrolls shortly before his death.
Of oral Torah, the Bible says, "He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them..." (Psalm 147:19-20).
Since this is not a new oven feature, this is another post in the category of 'Mocking Religious Jews', which should be a separate FR Forum. /sarcasm
Not working on the Sabbath is in the Torah. It's pretty clear.