One of my favorite Talmud stories illustrates that the opinion of the community is more important than the voice of God - which, in my opinion, is one of the many things that make my religion great.
Going to badly paraphrase here, but a group of Jews were debating an obscure point of law, and a single person was in the minority. He said something like 'if I am correct, let this tree demonstrate it!' The tree was suddenly torn from its roots and flung far away. The rest of the people scoffed - 'a flung tree doesn't prove anything.' The solo dissenter cried out 'if I am correct, let this stream prove it!' And all of a sudden, the stream began running backwards. Everyone else said 'what does how water flows have to do with this issue?' Finally, the one guy said 'If I'm right, let the voice of God cry out!' And they all heard the voice of God, saying 'why do you keep disagreeing with this man, when all the forces of Heaven keep demonstrating his correctness?'
A rabbi spoke up - 'it's nice that you say so, but it's not for Heaven to decide - the Torah is not in Heaven, it's down here with us. You gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai, and from now on, it's up to us to interpret it.'
God was delighted, and burst out laughing, saying 'My children have defeated me, my children have defeated me!'
So yes, you might think of them as loopholes, but we prefer to think of them as the legitimate interpretations of the community. A good thing, too - have you ever read the Torah (aka the Old Testament)? Without the wisdom of the community, the religion would be unworkable - many of the laws within aren't remotely relevant for modern life.
Going to badly paraphrase here, but a group of Jews were debating an obscure point of law, and a single person was in the minority. He said something like 'if I am correct, let this tree demonstrate it!' The tree was suddenly torn from its roots and flung far away. The rest of the people scoffed - 'a flung tree doesn't prove anything.' The solo dissenter cried out 'if I am correct, let this stream prove it!' And all of a sudden, the stream began running backwards. Everyone else said 'what does how water flows have to do with this issue?' Finally, the one guy said 'If I'm right, let the voice of God cry out!' And they all heard the voice of God, saying 'why do you keep disagreeing with this man, when all the forces of Heaven keep demonstrating his correctness?'
A rabbi spoke up - 'it's nice that you say so, but it's not for Heaven to decide - the Torah is not in Heaven, it's down here with us. You gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai, and from now on, it's up to us to interpret it.'
God was delighted, and burst out laughing, saying 'My children have defeated me, my children have defeated me!'
So yes, you might think of them as loopholes, but we prefer to think of them as the legitimate interpretations of the community. A good thing, too - have you ever read the Torah (aka the Old Testament)? Without the wisdom of the community, the religion would be unworkable - many of the laws within aren't remotely relevant for modern life.