rationalfrummie,
LAB- if its really that black and white as you say, what happens to eilu v’eilu?
This is just my opinion. Torah was given to the Jewish people to be followed as an eternal system. A framework is established, but many of the details are left for the Jewish people to delve into, and more than one possibility can arise within the framework. In this way, Torah can be just as relevant to an agrarian, bronze age culture as it is to an urbanized, “internet-of-things” culture. Our mesora provides us with the tools to authentically mine the Torah for wisdom, and protects us from going down paths that may take us outside of the eternal framework.