Day #336–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

bash it is day number 336 of our daily study of RA mitzvas and in the three chapters of day study track of mish we're starting a new section which is the last section in the entire M it's called the laws of kings and their Wars the wars that these Kings fight there are 23 Mitzvah total in this section and uh we've got four days to cover it today is day 336 of the yearly cycle and then there's 337 338 and then the last day is 339 so we got 23 Mitzvah over the next 4 days including today you do the math you figure out the average today we have I think five Mitzvah a positive commitment and four negatives and it all has to do with Kings well I told you it's called Kings and their Wars so this is laws of Kings so we're going to talk about Kings all right let's jump in positive commit 173 is the Mitzvah to appoint a king to appoint a king um what does that mean on a personal level I mean who are you to appoint the King right it's a whole system that has to be done but on a personal level that amam says it means how you feel about the king that when there is a king that you rever him I'm talking about a Jewish king a king of the Jewish people that you rever him greater even than the reverence that we have for the prophets and you do anything he says unless it's against Torah law and anyone who Rebels against him is worthy of death pretty big big stuff okay now the rest of the Mitzvah today we have four more Mitzvah and they're all negative Commandments and they all have to do with Kings negative commandment 362 is the probation against appointing a foreigner as a king now I want to explain something we've spoken about the concept of a g sadic of a righteous convert in the as we've been studying sa for Mitzvah this year whenever it's come up it's come up regarding Mitzvah that provide special Extra Protection for the convert that he not be disenfranchised so I just want to make sure everyone understands there's extra protection and extra care and sensitivity given to the righteous convert having said that the righteous convert cannot be a king the king has to be from a born Jewish Family furthermore um although originally Kings could come from from any born Jewish family uh then later historically it became narrowed down even more and now a king can only come from the line of King David and even more specifically David threw his son Solomon so Messiah who we'll talk about uh in the last class the whole Mish culminates in Messiah uh Messiah has to be a descendant of of King David through Solomon Okay negative commandment 364 is the prob against a king marrying too many wives this is described in the verse Deuteronomy 17:17 where it says he should not increase for himself wives well that's a vague term what does it mean increase so the oral tradition explains that there's a formula how they arrive at it but it means 18 wives and you're going to say well that's a that is that's a lot well Everything's Relative and uh Kings of old had many many more than that wives so the limit here is 18 wives obviously he could have less all right um negative commandment 363 is actually from the same uh paral like the same paragraph uh it's one verse earlier Deuteronomy 17:16 where it says he shouldn't increase for himself horses he should not increase for himself horses and what does that mean that means that he can have his own personal horse he can have as many horses as he needs to maintain the military it's very important essential but other than that he can't have extra horses what does it mean extra horses you know Kings of old they would have horses just extra just for show just to to be opulent just as a show of abundance to have horses running in their Entourage that were not needed he can't have that he has the horse that he needs and then as many horses as the military requires all right negative commandment 365 is again from y Deuteronomy 17:17 all all these prohibitions are from the same uh two two verses and there it says gold and silver he shouldn't amass for himself too much in abundance he needs what he needs to run the country that is to pay the government employees the civil servants to pay for the solders wages obviously he needs to maintain an army the king is there to protect the country there has to be Army whatever it is for communal purposes that's required and there's no limit he could to the contrary you want to aass money for the coffers of the government go ahead but personal wealth he's not allowed to make himself personally wealthy and it's interesting that amam says here that the these three prohibitions actually where it's written it gives a reason for it it basically says so his heart should not go astray and theam gives like a little editorial here which doesn't happen so often in sa Mitzvah but he says you know it's interesting most Mitzvah we don't know the reasons or the at least the reasons are not given explicitly and over here it says the reason and the says you know that can be a very dangerous thing and historically the says there were Kings who stumbled in this area why because they thought well if I know the reason I don't have to be careful about the Mitzvah I just have to be careful about the reason meaning as long as I make sure not to allow it to affect me then it's okay I can be liberal with my interpretation of actually following the law the says don't do that even when there are Mitzvah where Torah gives us a reason you have to follow it as if you had no idea what the reason is because ultimately the wisdom of Torah law is beyond our finite mortal understanding of things and we have to just accept the infinite wisdom of Hashem that is embodied in the Commandments okay those are our mitzvah for today we will see you for more tomorrow God willing