The Ramchal's Essay on Fundamentals - Part 23 - Rabbi Yirmiyahu Ullman

so basically the point here that the author was making is that the tour has laws in most cases the tour laws are clear although they're not very detailed we need the Oral Torah to come and explicate the details of those Allah has since God requires us to do the laws and warns of punishment if we transgress if there's no details about how to do it then the whole thing is a non-starter rather God must have included some detailed information about how to fulfill the mitzvot and how to avoid transgressing the prohibitions where's that information located in the old Torah that oral torah came to be written down eventually the world tour explains there for the tour laws and even though it was recorded by the rabbi's that doesn't make it Rebennack what the rabbi's were doing was they were recording the oral tradition which dated which dated back to moshe or banal and therefore it's the torres experts the explanation of what the tour means in any given place in particular mitzvah that is not to be confused with the fact that sometimes the sages exercised their authority to make up new legislation of a pure rabbinical origin and and that would be that would be rabbinic they did not hide in any scenario and in a case the fact that their legislature that it was they who were behind a particular let's say decree so that the rabbi's themselves made a clear distinction between what was theirs and what they were explaining from the Torah they were not making things up there for otherwise they would have said the whole thing came from the Torah right and therefore there is a distinction between what we call duro duro bonin from the rabbi's and derisive where the dolly means like from araiza the word or like light or Raisa okay across religious to the word of like like hoorah the path is teaching in case this is the ricin to abundant practically speaking in most cases there's no difference between jawbone and raisa that's the author's point here that we are as equally required to keep rabona as we are devices we can't say well this is going to Torah so I'll keep this for the rabbi's own keep no you can't do that you are equally responsible to keep their abundance and rises the Torah says you shall not depart from anything that they tell you right or left the sages have the authority to make up decrees and you got to keep them so from here he says it is God's will that the stages make these decrees and it is God's will that the Jewish people uphold these decrees however he points out that there are differences between the rice and robe on and not so much in terms of the requirement to keep it but the application of it so for example this is the first example that we got through if there is a doubt about what to do when it's at Oral Law you go what's called Lahoma you have to err on the stringent side which is generally not think is rather abundant when you have a doubt regarding all the other one and then you're allowed to be lenient glad to be lenient and civil example that we gave was regarding blessings blessings are generally drove on him when a person has a doubt about whether he made that blessing we say it's a suffolk draw bunin Tlakula he might have made the braja you might not have on the side that he didn't make the broker the rabbis would say make the broho on the other hand if you did make the braja making it again would possibly involve taking God's name unnecessarily which is a which is a prohibition from the Torah so we say right suffolk rahbani Tlakula exception would be burkas amazone where the Broca's actually derives its from the Torah when you have a Suffolk regarding brings a Muslim then you go the home run same thing with Griffiths a Torah by the way because the tour is also dry sir yeah so the person the blessing that we make over learning the tour in the morning aren't eraser and therefore winner per person has a doubt as to whether he made those bras or not he repeats them which is not the case regarding the other brothers oh yes that we just knew who was on Saudi one cat 11 distinction not in terms of the requirement to keep because required to uphold all devices and or abundance but in the case of a doubt there is such a distinction that brings us up to about halfway down page 190 the line starts with the word you Daneel akula and then you have a comma and then the word vihari laura's okoboji tomar this would be like saying shahe reyes de lleno de Jerez the missus based in hula vicious shot Nez bizarra the shahboz abajo love he a also bhajan or the hail of EA muta Shane ella ella ella ha ghulam goofy not so nice bar he's referring to the different punishments how did they translate any of this you have the English so this hour is very much like the dark for serious sexual misty this parchment punishment a city cut off or to be sentenced to death bullshot news is only forbidden by negative commandment similarly no use whatsoever may be made of milk with meat while forbidding fat maybe forbidden maybe maybe what oh maybe yeah and then let it use it for this isn't yeah it's used for non-food purposes right oh it may not be eating right okay here's the point that this we can go through the details of what he's saying in the laws it wasn't clear to me the general purpose why he's bringing all this and in the larger context what he's saying is that there is no difference between daraya and urban and he says in terms of our obligation to uphold those mitzvahs now that doesn't mean to say that there's no distinction between them practically speaking there is at least one distinction among many really which is that in a case of doubt when it story goes stringent and when it's done in your lenient is this is akin to the fact that we have many things within the tour themselves which are prohibited yeah and each one has its own punishment for example if one transgresses them but just because they have different punishments doesn't mean that some are more forbidden than the other they're all equally forbidden they just happen to have different punishments that's this point yeah so he's relating this back to the idea of as far as the Rice's the one is concerned there's no essential difference in terms of our responsibility to guard these laws even though there's clearly different since Trinity that these are prices and these are abundant and the proof is that when you have a doubt into ricer you go to home ray and Devon a little cooler but that doesn't matter the essential obligation is the same regarding the Rice's and draw buttons despite the fact that they have different levels of strings is just like with into our laws themselves the obligation to keep them is equal even though each one has its own separate that that's this point so nothing go over it more in more detail uncovered maybe some of the guy the things that you guys were discussing on yourselves highway is a kabocha toma that were tomar was throwing me off at the point here is vihari zoku Moshe tomar this would be akin to saying shahe Reyes TN Mijares for example Ohio's most of the sexual prohibitions have the punishment of cars which is being spiritually cut off feliz is based in some of them also have me is based in being put to death by by based in or leave a shot pneus for example bizarra wearing shot Nez which is wearing clothing or objects which are a mixture of wool and flax is bizarra which means a laugh and one who transgresses would get the lashes the shahboz abajo love he also by Noah most of the whole of even though busser itself is mature and call of milk itself is permitted but the mixture of the two results in a prohibition which is provided not only by eating it but it's also prohibited to cook it and it's also prohibited to derive any benefit from it that's why says here also gohana not only ha no of course also calculor visual as well can't you can't cook it but in addition to that it you can't drive any benefit from it so for example you can't feed it to your animals and that's why people buy kosher dog food not the Jewish not the dogs owned by Jewish people are Jewish and that's what they have to eat kosher and now that the owners have to give them kosher food that's not true but in specific instance of milk and meat mixtures right when it's not allowed to drive benefit from them meaning music to feed one's animals and therefore dog food for example has to be kosher goes often it's made out of wyndham kosher it's not kosher but the point is the kosher supervision on dog food assures that the the dog food is not does not involve any meat and milk mixture as dogs would normally does of course without the meat it's made of non kosher excuse me without the milk it's it's made out of non kosher meat yeah we just fine you can give down with me to animal it just can't be a mixture of meat and milk and then hey Liv he ain't mota what does it mean okay to his matar okay live it's not talking about stomm fats which are permitted he's talking about fats which are prohibited to eat but they're permitted voila so for example you can't have a Calif which is certain part of the fat of the animal you can't eat it you can't consume it but you can certainly use it for for fuel right that'll be okay so the point here is that you have many different tour laws and each mentor Vettori prohibitions and each prohibition has its own kind of punishment associated with it still Shane Ella or a nail a ella hug volim should configure authorities brah these punishments are only the parameters which were decided by God well none billion heal the mitzvahs however regarding the responsibility to keep these mitzvahs in the case of transgressions refrained from transgressing them book vole Shalhoub Moodle within the correct that the parameters that God created for them a net fresh banana the LA cloud there's no difference between on the other this is what it completes the thought okay so that even though there's a difference in level between two rice and robot in terms of Trinity that doesn't make a difference in terms of our obligation to to to keep either form of Mitzvah just like in a different case of tour mitzvahs they all have different prohibitions during transgressions for the responsibility keeps of all is the same mizane in shock she sylveth new called capital conestoga Boychuk zeroes rubbish FMS a non elemetary so trim it's this reason for this reason that the sages spent so much time going back and forth discussing arguing clarifying the different types of decrees the main decrees which in fact are really only two opponent the yearbook am a protein the left locos and there were many details and divisions among the rabbinic laws cosas finish of ebene Maggiore melee the penis of heels behem Coco charm its visit or the reason why the sages put so much effort into the decrees into explaining the crease into defining the general parameters and the specific details of the rebel clauses because the rabbinic laws are to be taken just as seriously as the rabona is the dry sand ones yeah yeah I mean yeah cuz cuz right because the torrent douse them with that authority yeah and therefore has to be taken very seriously I just go and me being judged till yeah that's what it says I'm talk Cohan baby she doesn't like when they're being the judge yep Rob base consider the judge well yeah the conium in the times of the tour were the were the Torah scholars disseminating the tour to the people that's one of the reasons why they were freed from they were not given land and they were freed from agriculture responsibilities and they were supported by the community because they were they were the Torah scholars dispensing Torah but over time that was less and less the case so that it's really referring not specifically so much to the Cohen as a Cohen but a Cohen as a Torah scholar and therefore in anyone else was a Torah scholar and a judge for example you know he was not a CO and it still has this role as being the rabbis who set the decrees and give guidance for the people what to do it would see that it mattered day right the rabbi's sorry book the colony then the show theme would mean yy-you zirconium all right cuz there's the role I minus the vote of the baby Josh but because they're being supported by the community in some cement is that what you meant well more that they were swearing the community spiritually that very uh I see ya the you so it seems to be what you're saying is that nowadays the scholars sort of the role of both the scholar and the colon in terms of legally guiding the people but also spiritually being a source of inspiration for the people yeah um very good the what I suggested is also true that they're like Coney min so far as they they are because they're involved in promulgating the Torah to the Jewish people teaching and straightens toward the Jewish people they are alleviated by God of the need to support themselves and therefore they're supported by for example the tithing I like to expand a lot you're so the both aspects were true the rambam writes that Rama writes that that nowadays anybody whose spirit so moves him that he is willing to depart from all of the luxuries of the material world and then again himself entirely to the study of Torah ha rezaei kadosh kadosh him he's like the Holy of Holies and he is like a coin who serves the Shem in the base of my gosh and he is allowed to today and is allowed to to to liberate himself from the responsibilities that normally govern people's lives supporting themselves supporting the family and children in order to dedicate themselves entirely to God into the study of Torah that's not for everybody it's only for the few people who genuinely are willing and consistently able to do this but in which case the random just points out that even nowadays a Torah scholar can become like a Cohen yeah in that respect but in any case that there still is a distinction between derisive door button so let's say for example on Chavez you are allowed to transgress the shabbos for you're allowed to do things which would be considered transgressing the shabbos in ordinary circumstances when its force called peacock nefesh in order to save a life now suppose in order to save this person's life you can either transgress a Torah shabbos principal or IRA Biddick to our principal excuse me a rabbinic chavez principal clearly what you do is transgress the rabbinic an authorizer if it's right if it's enough it's enough to say the first life by just doing this to opponents you do this one an authorizer here if you need to do the ricer to say the person's life then you want to certainly have to do that however if it's something which is like immediately life-threatening and you don't have to start you're not the time to start thinking this that or the other is it riser abundant can I do it this way that we other know the Torah says call as always discount anybody who goes to transgress the Sabbath more quickly he is great more greatly rewarded meaning when it has it to a peacock nefesh you don't have time to start clarifying all of these points you just do what you got to do and say the person's life but it was a scenario where it's not immediately life-threatening but it could be but in other one in case it warrants desecrating the shop is doing things with Jordan are you forbidden on Chavez so certainly what we do is we we do with the derp buttons before the devices the same thing if let's say a person is sick non Chavez just sick and he needs food and the only food that's available is let's say non kosher meat like you know cow me whatever meat or a a chicken cooked in milk yeah what do you do know which is more abundant because the tour prohibition of meat and milk does not apply to poultry considering poultry meat for the purposes of meat and milk is only dura bunin and therefore clearly you justice person's health and needs by giving him possible Hall of meat milk to urbana poultry look and not Trey fur which is dry sir okay so we called it a nation should have a name it voting my edit between us huge BAM cool coach our midst of Shiva Torah unum with Tony's bahia shiev oh I'll zaehat sad but God wanted these prohibitions to come about meaning the rabbinic prohibitions come about pill she evolved eternal that they should come from us so they have god's seal of approval but he wanted us to come up with it vinay odhav arshad a shi'ite survey no she not seem too tough voice Benny Nino oh she survey no cigs or they know because there was the shmira straße Zoey Mitzvah should serve as a COC boyfriend's a visitor las cosas bhavan a the gauge on the HUD show us see us at Sony's waffles or so he says this is like Mazinger dovish of a this would be like the fact that God commanded us that we should put total false meaning the trillion between her eyes or she survey no shinigami Lane who exhibits the terrazzo or that he decreed upon us that we should make decrees to guard the tour to safeguard the Torah so mitzvah should serve as a co Sullivan's a the one Mitzvah has its parameters of performing it in one way results or sassy O'Sullivan's a and the other in this way the get really hot but the protective quality of the of the two are the same sure see also Tony's box also is the doing of God's will right so when you put on trillian or when you keep some rabid Mitzvah whose purpose is to safeguard the Torah you're really doing the same thing right which is doing God's will in one case you're doing what God wants as expressed in the Torah the other you're doing God's will because he wants people to be safeguarded from transgressing the Torah and so it's the same whether it's dry citro bonin we magic key blues account of the rock of the parish a mitzvah Zoe's and that which the rabbi's received as the explanation for this particular Mitzvah gun can who she a koi FB are based in the VAT held over minute aura it also includes that Baisden was given the authority to nullify Allah from the Torah keisha gala tankless schmira cetera ottsville when nullifying the law of the Torah should be for the purpose of safeguarding the tour itself we discuss the scenario right where the sages for example to create that when Rosh Hashanah falls on shabbos you don't blow the shofar even though God says Rosh Hashanah falls on Chavez you do blow the shofar say to say no yeah yeah all due respect to God we're putting your mid suicide we are not going to allow the Jewish people to fulfill the midst of shofar when motion is on Chavez because people they come to carry in the public domain the shofar which would be transgressing the Torah therefore God we're concerned that even though you weren't we are the people going to come and carry on shabbos rosh hashanah the shofar and therefore we don't know yeah we're not going to anybody blow understand it's not so much the arrow because the eruv is really is durabolin but it's referring to taking out from russia tlk to lucious or a beam from a private domain to a public domain which is prohibited from the Torah or alternatively carrying it what's called for ammos in the public domain there's also a transgression of the Torah so the status said if we let people go the shofar understand which is obvious they might come to carry or take out the shofar which would transgress the shop is therefore we are suspending the Torah no show we're blowing this year dad no that's also in their authority they have any special procedure they need to go through to go fight for Allah that was not necessary just to make and do the law no they just had to make the decree really strong supposed to be more special more special than Madonna yeah I mean there's the truth is I mean there's there's really nothing wrong with blowing the shofar on Shabbat there's no there's no prohibition of bullion on Shabbat it's not like God suspends a prohibition for rosh hashanah on Shabbat no it's just there's really nothing wrong with blowing the show French wat and God was not concerned about the fact that we might come to carry the rabbi's were concerned about that and if one said no blowing did you realize prohibited should I just remove the requirement perimeter it's safeguarding another trend yes exactly safeguarding from yeah safeguarding so that's what he's saying it that also included in the rabbi's divinely ordained Authority was the ability to nullify a law in the Torah boo boo goo ga but shevata say however it's only in the context of like we mentioned b'shevat a say what does that mean sitting don't do meaning the sages uprooted a laws in the Torah for the purpose of preserving the Torah specifically through the dynamic of refraining from doing God says do we tell you don't do passive resistance yeah but act of rebellion not something else shevata say means sit and don't do refrain from fulfilling by remaining inactive but biloba kuba say but not god forbid that the sages would come and say transgress what the tour tells you not to do that no well PJ a shortish go to montego's with the shofar of elul avi I'm shabbos in exactly the case we gave removal of omission which our sins for this reason the sages decreed what they did on the show for the lulav on Chavez as it explains in the Mishnah inchasa nurse ishara kafi acapella joses Shani salvia done according to the Kabbalah that they had in their hands like that they had the authority to do such things to nullify laws in the Torah in the context of shevata say for the purpose of preserving the term qualifications have the mainland baby so that's a very good question yeah that's a very good question this the law which in the torah giving the authority of the sages to make these decrees only applied to the stages of Tom unit times but no later and why that the mission at times like not being on the end yeah so that those are talking two kinds yeah mission is their only time at a time and Gomorrah is the latter Talmudic time but there are automatic times so only sages of the Talmud could make meaning of the mr. period or the quarry can make decrease but after that there's no such thing as rabbinic laws you need laws that come about through through the yes through based in what does that say that we already have and have had for what a thousand years for all the laws we could ever need but that means that we have all the laws that we could ever need so you're saying yeah yeah there was some hard we have more than we need yeah but that's right yeah that that all the tort laws are in place and they're binding and whatever rabbinic legislation was see it was deemed necessary was was decreed by the by the Talmudic sages but knows no rabbi after the time of the Talmud has the authority to to initiate decrees new laws what rabbis have been doing since that time yeah so so so so long was not making up law what he was doing was presenting the law or maybe deciding between two opinions about what the hollow should be but he was not making up any new laws and was researching yeah yeah but he's you know you didn't originate any new laws but what's what rabbis are involved in doing is maybe originating new hollow cos but but it's but but they're not making up new laws what they're doing is they are extending the preexisting hollow queda rice order bonin to new scenarios but the legal principles are the same what's new what's novel is the application to two mercenaries yes I understand groves of how great hall meeting sages were and their great understanding with Dora if God says I'm not worrying about something what gives a human the right to say oh well we're going to worry about it even though god you're not worried about it we're gonna worry about it and not do something you tell us to do just doesn't make sense so God that's the point that God made provision for this in the Torah God said right God said I this is my law but I'm also in Downing rabbis of certain stature the ability to add on to that law 00 so including you know adding on to the law i mean the authority to to be law makers is that they can actually suspend the torah law as well when they felt that doing so would safeguard the torah so got it that's that was you that was that's the point that it was making it right that the lawmakers not only make laws but they can actually suspend torah law for the purpose of maintaining the torah law that's part of the authority that they were endowed with so God ah God was not concerned about it and the sages were but God says that's okay that's comparable to the US Constitution which makes its own provision for its self to be changed Tony you don't even compare the two bits we're talking about the Constitution on the Toro there's like we're in two different ways it's say that's not so implausible to say that I am specifying that you can't change my law if if I don't need ya again they're not changing the law what they're doing is suspending the law let's don't do don't like they care they can't they can't nullify or negate a law and they can't change a law what they can do is again they can suspend the performance of a law when that's for the purpose of according to the restoration preserving the tour the only way they could have made that calculation is it is if to say that breaking shabbos is worse than not blowing the shortcut so where did they get that from so that that's obvious you know that's obvious I mean a person who transgressive shabbos willingly for example is liable the death penalty right even if it's by accident it's still an accidental transgression of a very severe severe transition no it's not it's not know but I'm just saying that the law itself is very stringent if a person does it intentionally he's liable to death penalty which means even if he does it by accident he's still accidentally transgressing a very severe transgression as far as a chauffeur is concerned there was no transgression involved he's there what they're doing is they're are they are lacking a mitzvah right so there's a lot more serious to transgress the shop is even by mistake than it is to refrain from fulfilling a mitzvah in one case you're transgressing and the other you're just not keeping and that's why i said here that the rabbis authority was only extended as far as saying shevel toss a passively refraining from fulfilling as opposed to actually kumbaya say act proactively transgressing sages never told you to never told you to practically transgress the torah there are some few examples where we gave a solution but by and large those I just couldn't do that so you would you say that this is the same idea if you're sleeping in a ciabatta making you stay in your room I'm breaking Shabbat but also you didn't fulfill the mitzvot listen to the toy like this me so yeah so what yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean it was like sleeping in and refraining from fulfilling the midst fault yes yes that's right that's right yeah okay second question and why would God make two laws saying okay blow the show for him to what yeah and don't egg whatever was always was don't carry caring he made to to us do that both or why would I make two Laden there are many laws the many laws and sometimes more often they're independent one or the other but sometimes there's a confluence of them and this is exactly the point to that because you know that's why you need to have been applause or sometimes the rabbis are coming to explain what the Torah lives so for example you're not allowed to like fire on Shabbat even if you have a fire that's lit you're not allowed to put food on that fire to cook it but you are allowed to burn the sacrifices on shabbos so and these are both tour laws these are both tour laws yeah and in the art operate simultaneously so God's like in my house right you're allowed to cook food but in your house you're not cooking shabbos is private but for the purpose of the component it's permitted why because the Torah tells us the sages explained to us how the Torah tells us yeah yeah the toys the sage explained to us how the Torah tells us that car bonus are permitted to be burned on you're not allowed to light a fire for the purpose of bringing the car bonus but if you have a fire which is lit that was done it was used to to burn the sacrifices in Chaves okay okay good check very good the other is the idea that uh that there cannot come again more rabbis that are qualified no authorized to their can but they have to be deemed as authoritative in order to make the change well first of all the there can be a reestablishment of sanhedhran a rien stitute of sneha and the reason Sanhedrin and what's that yes and hundred full Senate yeah yeah you have senator I think so yeah yeah yeah so um but until that happens then you really do not have it based in which is qualified and authoritative enough to change any of the decrees but despite the fact that there is generally what we call Yuri to sador oh so spiritual digression throughout the years so that according to natural flow of things every professor is going to be further away in a lower spiritual level than early ones and could not change those decrees that never lets theoretically can change there will be a time when there will be a temp shin and redemption and mushiya he'll come and the spiritual level the Jewish people will be elevated back to a level that it was in earlier times and even greater and those in which case um the base Tim could undo legislation for you is based in yeah but like why would you undo it unless there was some problem so you know generally speaking uh the the decrees were decreed by my great sages and they proven to be to maintain wisdom throughout the generations as it was put into the middle of a movie very jewy yeah for all times keep you yes they had in mind for all times unless uh you know unless some strange thing happened so there are exceptions which we mentioned for example all the the decree that people should not learn Torah if they've had a similar mission was uprooted however it wasn't a booty because a feature-based in a brutal but it never took root because the Jewish people never accept it upon themselves you know and then an example of where the sages nevertheless did make a decree which transgressed the Torah even though normally we said it's not the case they say suspend the tour law by passively refraining from fulfilling it but not to change the law by be actively transgressing it one exception to that is the writing down of the roll tour which you mentioned that God provided for Hibbitts in the Torah riding down the Oral Torah the stages came along and said God to think you know the things are now in a state where if it's not written down it's likely to be seriously forgotten so all due respects God in all due respect to your prohibition against writing it down we are going to write it down nonetheless yeah because because if not it means the whole yeah the whole thing could be lost and therefore the right the committing to writing of the Oral Torah itself involved transgressing a prohibition yes in the Torah so I don't remember exact place to the Torah where we derive the fact that you are cheval pay has to remain bout pay and can't be written down but eventually the decision that the sages did extend their authority to actually transgress this prohibition and write down the Torah again for the purpose of preserving it so it shouldn't get lost okay let's stop here you