A Lesson for Every Generation

In the section that deals with Yom Kippur, the Rambam seems to depart from the precision of Halacha to tell a story. Before the Cohen Hagadol, the High Priest, commenced the Yom Kippur service, the elders of the Sanhedrin would make him swear to do the service exactly as instructed. You see, in Talmudic times, there was a group called the Sadducees. And they denied the authority of the oral Torah. They claimed that the incense should first be placed on a burning fire pan outside the Holy of Holies. And only then should Hagadol carry it inside. So, the elders made the Cohen Hagadol swear not to perform the service in the manner of the Sadducees. And then both the Cohen Hagadol and the elders would turn aside from each other and weep. The Cohen Hagadol would weep because they suspected him of being a Sadducee. The elders would weep because there was reason to suspect him. Why did the Rambam choose to enshrine this tragically touching moment in a practical manual of Halacha, of law? The Rambam included the story of the Cohen Hagadol and the elders weeping as a Halacha, a law for all time. In every generation, the Jewish people will have their Sadducees. But in every generation the defenders of the Torah must weep at having to say no.