Day #329–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

bar it is day number 329 of our daily study of RA and in the three chapters of a study track of M we're starting a new section of m means Rebels and we're going to speak about a very specific type of Rebel a zakin mam a rebellious Elder a rebel Rabbi Rebel Sage uh in our first mitzva here God willing okay we have a number of Mitzvah today we have one positive commandment and three negative commandments so let's go positive commandment 174 is the Mitzvah to obey the high court the Bez aod the Supreme Court or what's known as the Sanhedrin which historically sat uh in the lishkas gois the Chamber of H Stone in the Bas of MDES the Holy Temple in yames the holy holy city of Jerusalem of Jerusalem um until they were displaced and then eventually disbanded the high court has the authority to make various types of rulings and and the ramam speaks about this in Miss they may tell you that we've received a tradition right in okay basic basic basic Jewish concept here but there's the which is known as the written law some people refer to it as scripture the Bible the Torah but then there's the oral law the interpretations because the document by itself is not a functional text it was given along with ACC companying elucidation okay so it could be that the high court tells you we received an oral tradition this is how we know it it's a was handed down by an unbroken chain from M from Moses they may say that okay or it could be they say listen this is not something we received but the methodology What's called the the 13 principles of expounding uh Torah law which is actually in the in the morning prayers we say it uh right before the morning prayers uh the Bry of rabm so they say we didn't explicitly receive this law but we were given the methodology how to expound laws from Torah from the text and this is what we've come up with or the third thing could be is that they make new legislations they say we didn't receive this as a tradition we didn't figure it out based on the methodology that was given uh we are making it up but we're admitting we're making it up and I'm going to explain that again God willing in a in a minute from now when we talk about the prohibitions against adding to Torah or taking away from Torah um they're not trying to pull a fast one on you they say we are making a a a a protective fence around the Torah so for instance classic example we are not claiming that chicken and milk is forbidden according to Torah we are forbidding chicken and milk as a safeguard to prevent people from doing that which is actually biblically prohibited okay so if the high court makes any one of these three types of proclamations they have to be followed now if a sage who is a Torah leader and a ruling Rabbi meaning he gives halic rulings uh and there are very particular parameters to this which I'm not going to get into because this is already go shaping up to a very to be a very long class today um if an elder a sage who is of the dissenting opinion and by the way there's always I mean I shouldn't say always some I mean could be unanimous but generally there are dissenting opinions in in Torah I mean that's a normal part of the process but then in the end we go according to the majority as you know we learned that Mitzvah about majority rule but this Z M this bious Sage he sticks with his dissenting opinion and tells his people who ask him as a rabbi what to do he tells them to do not like the majority of the sanin that's called a Zin MRA rebellious Elder and that's actually punishable by death negative commandment 312 is the prohibition against disobeying Torah authorities we are forbidden from disobeying the Torah authorities from those who are the transmitters of the oral law this is as binding as Torah law in fact it is Torah law built into the 613 Mitzvah is the Commandment to follow the rulings of the sages who transmit the oral law so it has the same level of authority Okay negative commandment 313 is the probation against adding to the Torah negative commandment 314 is the probation against subtracting from the Torah now let me clarify because this question always comes up adding subtracting okay I mentioned earlier but I'm going to say it again because it's a common point of confusion anytime the sages added a protective fence around the Torah they did so with the utmost transparency they never claimed that that is what the meaning of the original Mitzvah was what they did is they said we are adding by our rabinal Authority a protective fence it's called a rinic Prohibition or a rabbinic enactment and as long as it's very clearly distinguished what has what origin what is biblical and what is Rabbi then that is not only okay but that's actually part of the role of the rabbis okay what is adding to the Torah subtracting is when a Torah Authority would incorrectly claim that something is part of the actual Mitzvah which is not or take away an aspect of the Mitzvah okay those are our mitzvah for today we will see you for more tomorrow God willing