Day #296–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

[Music] it is day number 296 of our daily study of rzv and in the three chapters ofday study track of mish We are continuing in Mala chapters four five and six mala means the one who gives alone and one who takes alone the Creditor and the borrower okay so to understand we have we just have one Mitzvah today but to understand this Mitzvah properly we need context uh the cont text is one of our Mitzvah from yesterday if you remember we had negative commandment 234 yesterday which was the Prohibition against acting like a creditor to person that you loaned money to and what does it mean acting like a creditor we explained it means uh pressuring them to pay the debt when they don't have it and we explained that pressuring could even mean showing your face in front of this person it might distress them it might cause them anxiety so of course you're allowed to collect a debt but if the person doesn't have it you basically have to steer clear so that they don't get nervous because they're going to feel bad they can't pay it right now all right so that was negative - 234 today's Mitzvah makes a distinction between Jew and non-jew which tells us that that Mitzvah of like literally running away from your debtor uh if they can't pay you that applies to a fellow Jew so positive commandment 142 is that you do collect a loan from a non-jew okay so first of all let me just say collecting a loan is a totally normal thing I loan you money obviously that's why it's called a loan it's not a gift it's a loan I expect to be paid back so the fact that we are told to collect the loan that's just a normal thing and the fact that yesterday we had the prohibition not to collect it from a fellow Jew when when they don't have the money that's an unusual thing that's a very strange thing like H how how is business supposed to run if if I can't even go collect from people who uh who owe me so it's not such a weird thing to say that you should collect from somebody uh if you if they owe you money and even if they say well I don't have it well I don't know I can't I don't know what to tell you but maybe borrow from somebody else and pay me back I mean people do that all the time right take a loan to pay a loan but at any rate it's it it's a normal thing to say I'm collecting the loan when it's due okay and of course we're talking about when it's due we're not talking about before it's due all right but still it needs to be explained why should it be a positive commandment meaning I understand the prohibition don't do that to a fellow Jew but why does the rum say it's a positive commandment do go and ATT attempt to collect the debt when it's due from a non-jew so I'll tell you a couple of explanations one is from the smog the saer Mitzvah godal who says that the context is this is a shmita thing now what's shmita do you remember way back in safer the book of agricultural laws we learned about the seventh year the sabatical year so that's when the crops lie fallow um and they become ownerless there's this concept also called schmus which we learned about but it was it was many months ago where loans are released okay but here's the thing loans are released only um by Jews because that's one of the 613 Commandments that a Jew has if he's if a Jewish person is a creditor they have to drop the loans that are owed to them but here's the thing let's say I borrowed money from a non-jew and then I tell him oh I don't have to pay you back shmita came and dropped the loans no no the non-jew doesn't have to lose out because of shmita shmita is a mitzvah for Jewish people shmita forces Jewish creditors to have to drop the the debts that are owed to them it's not binding on the non-jew so if I owe money to a non-jew and shmita comes along I still have to pay the non-jew so the smog explains just like I would still have to pay the non-jew if he is the Creditor so too if the position is reversed and I'm the Creditor so I collect from him okay so he explains it as a whole shmita thing it still doesn't really completely explain why it's a Mitzvah like you should do this Thou shalt go collect from the non-jew so the maged mishna which is one of the primary commentaries on the mishna TOA explains that it's not a positive commandment in that sense meaning it you're not forced to do it if you want to not approach if you know this guy this non-jew doesn't have the money and you're just you know what I don't want to bother him I'll just leave him alone whenever he has it he'll come he'll find me you're allowed to do that so then why does the rum phrase it that it's a positive commandment you should go collect from the non-jew so the maged M says it's not like that there's something called a negative Commandment that comes in the context of a positive commandment to make the observance of the Nega negative commandment be like a positive commandment and in fact I know that's very technical but in fact for that reason the ranis does not include this Mitzvah as one of his 6 613 Commandments because he says it's not even really a Mitzvah it's a corollary of the negative probation that we learned yesterday not to collect from a Jew when they're not able but it doesn't really mean there's an actual positive Commandment that you must go collect from a njw if they're not able to pay it's an optional thing and it's just a way of phrasing the negative prohibition as as a positive commandment so that you're performing a positive commandment when you're refraining from the negative commandment if you understand that very technical explanation okay at any rate that is our mitzvah for today and uh we will see you for more tomorrow God willing