Day #143–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

is day number 143 of our daily study of ramam save ramitsus and in the three chapters of David we're finishing with chapter 12 and then we'll be starting is the sabbatical year the seventh year which we'll learn about God willing momentarily okay uh positive commandment 82 positive commitment 82 is the unredeemed first born donkey remember yesterday we said there's a Mitzvah that if a Jewish Rancher I guess the term is a Rancher person who owns livestock call a Rancher I don't know uh if he has donkeys and there is a donkey born in the donkey flock is it called A Flock I'm not sure heard heard probably heard um that he's supposed to redeem the Donkey by giving a sheep or the monetary value of the donkey to a koiheng to a priest um what if he doesn't what if this Jewish uh farmer Rancher doesn't do that then he has a different Mitzvah which is to break the neck of the donkey meaning he doesn't get to keep the Donkey if he doesn't want to redeem it meaning he's stingy for whatever reason and he doesn't want to redeem it he doesn't want to want to benefit the kohen so then he's commanded to break the neck of the donkey so that it goes to waste and that's kind of a shocking concept what did this innocent little donkey do but it's explained that basically the point is to shock this guy with how cruel he's being he's so cruel that he's he doesn't even want to do this Mitzvah because he doesn't want to benefit this kahin by giving this sheep so we're showing we're trying to show him his cruelty you want to be cruel okay break the donkey's neck that that's that's cruel basically trying to give him a little shock therapy okay uh positive commandment 135 okay so now this is corresponding to the laws of shemitah like I said the sabbatical year the seventh year positive command 135 abstaining from agricultural work during the sabbatical year negative commandment 220 not to do agricultural work during the sabbatical year negative 221 not to work Orchards that's different than Fields uh Orchards means um fruit trees during the sabbatical year negative commandment 222 not to harvest wild crops from the field stuff that grows on its own is forbidden to harvest in a normal fashion um meaning to say even though you didn't do agricultural work to plant it but you're not allowed to even if you if it grew on its own spontaneously wildly you're not allowed to harvest it in the conventional way meaning you can't do it in bulk and stock up on it you could just take from it and eat from it like everybody else is allowed to take from it and eat from it during the sabbatical year during the sabbatical year the the crops become ownerless or they're available to everyone equally um and you're not allowed to work the land so even the stuff that grows on its own you can't Harvest it as if it were well I guess you would call like commercial agriculture okay makes sense God willing we'll see you for more shmita related Mitzvahs tomorrow