Rambam’s Letters (Pt 7) | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz June 10th 2025

you're doing well and I just want to announce that today's share is dedicated anonymously for the Rafu Schma Vana Buma and Batgalina. May they have a rama Israel and as always we're very grateful for the support of Torah. Okay. So, uh we are in the middle of a Gret Tan which is the Rambam's second public letter and unlike the first public letter that dealt with Islamic persecutions as well where the Rambam was relatively less known by now he is a wellestablished figure uh the Mishna Torah has already been written. uh and you will recall we mentioned at the very end of uh last class that there's essentially a triple or quadruple threat that the Yemenite community is facing. Uh one is the persecution itself which seems to be much worse than the earlier one that the Ram referred to in that earlier persecution you just had to utter the words of Muhammad etc. And then they let you go. You can put on fillin on your way to minion, on your way to dafomi, say these words and you could do mitzvot. Here it seems to be much more extreme that you literally had to embrace uh Islamic faith and ritual. So the persecution itself uh was very coercive. But number two, there was a psychological debilitating effect in which as a result of these persecutions, many Jews began to think, maybe they're right. Maybe Hashem has superseded his covenant with the Jewish people. You know, maybe there's a reason why the um olam are always able to rule over us, control us, force us. Maybe they're right. which means independence of the coercive nature of the uh persecutions, the persecutions had a tremendous psychological debilitating effect on people's faith in the Torah. uh either people questioned Judaism to begin with or probably the way the Rambam formulates it is they were they accepted Judaism as a historical religion but they felt it may have been superseded by either Christianity in in Europe or or Islam uh in these in these in these particular countries. So that's kind of the persecution had two aspects to it. Uh the second or third depending on how you count count it involved a Jewish apostate who similar to what Christian missionaries did later the Jewish apostate tried to bring a number of proofs from the Torah itself that Muhammad will eventually be God's chosen prophet and replace Mosher Rabenu. And once again, although as the Rambam points out, a lot of his so-called proofs were frankly ridiculous and the Rambam makes the point that even the Muslims didn't believe in them and they considered it to be a joke. But apparently a number of Jews were gullible and they were susceptible uh to those types of claims and therefore the Rambam had to address that. Right? So we have the persecution, we have the psychological uh demoralization, we have the apostate bringing proofs from the Torah itself that this was going to happen. Uh and then from the opposite direction, there's a guy who claims to be Mashiach who is there to redeem the Jewish people and the Rambam has to deal with the signs of Mashiach and uh because again false Mashiach uh can wreck tremendous havoc. So the Rambam has a very big assignment uh in the Garrett Tman in which he has to address all of these uh different uh different themes. Now in terms of the persecution generally the and in and and and also in terms of its psychological demoralization the Rambam makes a very interesting point and it's a bit of a I mean once well first of all the one thing you see from Garrett Tman which maybe is is so obvious it doesn't have to be said is what a mastery of Tanakh the Rambam you know sometimes in the yeshiva world uh knowing Tanakh is almost considered to be a deficit uh you're a little suspicious. Maybe you're a member of the Haskcala or or or whatever whatever it would be. I know even in when I have to reach a Tanakh, it's like, you know, five shells up. I can't even reach it. Uh unless I get a taller person to pull down a Tanakh for me because no, no, no, whatever it is. Uh but the Rambam is an absolute master of it. He quotes verse after verse after verse. And indeed if you were to compile a little contress of paranut in eeran it would be very very interesting because a number of those verses the Rambam deraf actually offers new interpretations of those verses that you might not notice if you've just been if you just would have been reading the narrative. But what the Rambam develops is an interesting idea that the idea of Schmad, the idea of persecution, the idea that Jews are going to be oppressed and afflicted. At least in this letter, the Rambam does not correlate it to sin or divine punishment. The Rambam doesn't say this is happening like the TOK, this is happening because you've sinned and God is calling upon you to do Chuva. He specifically does not go in that direction. Now, obviously that is not a direction that can be totally ignored because the Torah talks about it repeatedly. I mean, you can't just say there's no such thing as punishment for sin even in this world because the whole toka is based on that idea. But the Rambam chose not to develop that idea here whatsoever. And I think I would suggest the omission itself is very significant because it's not matim to the needs of the audience that he's addressing because if you are dealing with a demoralized group of people who simply have lost hope and don't believe that God cares about them anymore. So what's going to be your message? Yeah, God has dropped you because you're sinful and because you're evil. Well, that would kind of rub salt in the wounds and that would make it even worse. So because of this the Rambam actually moves into a very different direction as to the origin of Schmad and persecution and all of these things and again he he quotes many manyukum to this effect and that is this is part of the Mashiach this is part of the birth pains of Mashiach just as human birth is preceded by pain and suffering so too the messianic process itself is going to be preceded by pain and suffering. uffering uh and out of that pain and suffering will come out new life, will come out hope, will come out light, will come out redemption. And therefore, he's not looking at this as an onesh at least in this point. He's looking at it as part of a birth process. And in particular, he draws very much on safer donor denil, which is actually technically not a book of prophecy. It's it's part of the kuim. But Denal has many many visions about what's called the kates. The very word kates end of days appears in the book of denil many many times. And Dil in the last chapter does talk about uh the persecutions, the confusions, the fact that many Jews are going to feel that God has abandoned us. Why are things so bad? If we're so close to Hashem and Hashem loves us, why are things so difficult? And the Rambam is telling them this was predicted. This is part of our history. Don't look at it as all of a sudden God is rejecting you. This is quite literally part of the process itself. And the Rambam says many many it is predicted that many Jews will lose faith as a result of these sufferings. But a few courageous people will hold on. And then the Rambam says, "And you know what's going to happen? things are then are then going to get worse as if to say God is constantly raising the ante in terms of how faithful are you going to be. Actually, Rashi brings in the book of Denal. The Rambam does not bring this at all. But Rashi brings an unknown medish in the book of Daniel that after Mashiach appears, he will then disappear for 45 years and no one's going to know was Messiah gone did God take him away etc. And that will be the ultimate test of faith. Again could do a lot with that uh particular teaching. uh Rashi does I don't want to get into that but Rashi does bring it and Rashi even quotes a pot a a you know poetry in the from the from Rabbi Lazar Hakalier the great great python who authored so many of the Putim and the kinos in our Rabbi Lazar alludes to the messianic disappearance of 45 years. Now the Rambam himself does not mention that although the Rambam does mention something very interesting a lot of people don't realize you know we know we talk about the wars of Gogg and Mog uh kind of the messianic the the the apocalyptic wars against the Rambam says specifically that in that those wars are going to happen after Msiah comes they are not pre- messianic wars they are post messianic wars, which means Mashiach's arrival is not going to end all of the suffering. There'll be, I guess, postpartum pains. Mashiach are not just pre-birth, but they'll somehow beim even in the afterbirth of of of Mashiach. Uh whether it's the wars of Gog and Mog or whether as Rashi brings it, 45 years of disappearance. And the Rambam says God is going to be testing the righteous over and over and over again. And if they pass one test, there'll be stricter tests and the like. Now, the Ram doesn't doesn't quite explain why Hashem needs to do all of this. And that's a good question. But what's interesting to me is that he is really going out of his way not to link this to aos and failures and deficiencies in the Jewish people. He is specifically not describing this as punishment for sin. He is describing this as a purification process to be able to receive Hashem's make sense with thousands of years of persecution. I mean it makes sense perhaps now we can talk about it but we do something is happening but when nothing is happening. Yeah. Well it's a lot well I mean that you know that's the problem. You know what they say? They say a joke that a person was praying to God and he says, you know, God, uh, you know, you own everything. You you own trillions and trillions and trillions of of of everything. Can't you give me a million dollars? It's like less than one penny. You know, to you it's less than one penny. Give me a million dollars. So God says, "Okay, just wait a minute." Uh, which means, you know, a penny is a billion dollars. A billion years is like one second, you know. So it turns out Mashiach, you know, is a long is a long birth. It's very very true. Uh and it gets a little complicated because could very very well be that Mashiach has many possible dates and therefore there's the Mashiach which could have resulted in Mashiach coming a thousand years ago had we been worthy but we didn't fully pass the test. So then it got it gets it reset. So you can look at it almost to use the pregnancy analogy as a series of miscarriages rather than a long pregnancy. It might be a series of still births uh could have been types of situations and and and the like. So this is very important. The Rambam is reassuring and if you remember the Rambam pointed out that the um Alam had two weapons against us. One was the weapon of persecution and the other was the weapon of theological argumentation that God rejects the Jewish people. Both of them will fail. And in this connection, he offers a very nice interpretation of a verse in Yeshua that is actually a well-known puk. It's recited in Tashlik. Again, it's not recited on a daily basis, but it comes up a lot. Every weapon that will be created against you will not be successful. And every statement, every tongue that will rise against you for judgment shall be confounded. And the Rambam says very beautifully just in terms of basic that this is a rem to the two types of persecutions is referring to the physical coercion. The sword that rises against you shall be defeated and the verbalizations that will go against you. The Rambam says refers to the PMICS coming both from apostate Jews and Christians and Muslims to try to convince the Jewish people that God has rejected them. That too will be defeated. Of course, uh if I would apply this in a modern sense, I could certainly apply the Kashon to the the UN statements and security council resolutions and all of that stuff where constant speeches are being made against the Jewish people, against Erit Israel. But as I say, you know, as I say, these these explanations are not exclusive. All of these things can be can be uh fold folded in. Okay. Now, the Rambam then writes going back to safer denil. And by the way, let me just uh mention a little aside. The safer denil has is full of apocalyptic visions. And indeed, even messianic calculations. Serenal actually gives you calculations for when Mashiach will come. But they're very very obscure. So one might ask a simple question. Why is safer daniel classified among the casuim instead of the naveim? And not only that, it's very clear in the garra itself that donel is not. Remember the Gmoran McGillah says there are 48 male prophets Naveim and there are seven prophetesses women who are mentioned in Tanakh and actually the Gumar then says in truth there were very more there were either 600,000 like the people who left Mitim or even double a million 200,000 so what's so special about the 48 and seven what's so special about the 55 so the Gomorrah lays down an important rule that only the Naveim whose prophecies had eternal value are recorded in Tanakh. There were many Naveim who were prophets. They were bonafideed prophets but their nuos were not considered to have an eternal value. Now you might ask well what type of prophecy would not have an eternal value? So this is interesting that when prophecy was common, it was a gift that Hashem gave us. People would consult prophets for individual problems. Uh for example, you find when Sha couldn't find his donkeys, let us go to the prophet, right? So you can't find your keys in the morning, you can actually go to a prophet. Uh or the villagon makes it a bit more significant. The villagon actually said if per people had a spiritual problem, they didn't know what their toughkit is in life. Right? People always ask what is my purpose in life? a novi could actually tell you an amazing thing. But these were personal messages. These were not necessarily national messages. They didn't find their way in Tanakh or Nak. Nonetheless, out of those um 48 men and seven women, Daniel is not counted as a prophet. And the question is in what way is he not a prophet? He saw the future. He had visions. Hashem spoke to him. Angels spoke to him. So the answer is that the definition of a naave is not someone that has visions. It is someone who is commanded to communicate those visions to other people. In fact, the word na'vi comes from nivasim is articulation. So if you are given all sorts of revelations, you see the future, you see a guy, God even speaks to you, but you are not given a commandment to tell other people about it. You are not a na'vi. Don was not commanded to communicate his navo or orally for sure not. Remember most nu are oral. Yeshaya spoke his prophecies and then only later wrote them down. And in fact it's a little complicated. It's not clear if what he wrote down is the same as what he said. That that that's an interesting question. Generally, just as a written transcript of a speech may not be an exact or a written rendition of a speech may not be a transcript exact. That's a fascinating question. But Dil for sure was not commanded to communicate his visions orally. And it's not even clear that he was commanded to write it down. He was given visions. He wrote it down. As a result, Dil is not a Nvy. And this accounts for the extraordinary obscurity of his words because this was not necessarily a prophecy that was intended to be shared. But since it was written down, we do learn from it. And uh and the Rambam points out that at least obliquely both the rise of Muhammad and the rise of Jesus of Nazareth, Yashka are predicted in Safer Da. Again, the point of the Rambam is this is all predicted ahead of time. It's not because of your sins. It's not because of your evil. Hashem built these false movements into the system as part of Mashiach. Now the reference to Yashka to Jesus I'll just give you the verse because again it's a little bit of a kdish of the Rambam is Donil Perk yodal puk yalit and in the middle because it's really out of context that's that's very difficult because dipsim seem to be talking about uh the persecutions of the yanim most mfort in fact most say that whole chapter is referring to antio OS and the like. It's nova about that. But it mentions the sons of theim those who are lawless. The people of your own nation who are lawless, yeu shall be lifted upon to establish a prophecy. and they shall stumble. Now again, totally out of I have to admit totally out of the context of the peric. You know, if you look at the peric, you'll see it's totally out of context. The Rambam says this is not referring to the Hellenist Jews. This is referring to Jesus of Nazareth who claimed to be the Rambam says a false prophet who claimed that the Torah was no longer binding. Now again I understand that different historians take different positions about this. So but at least in the Rambam's account of Christianity the Rambam does make the point that Jesus did not invent a new religion that came later with his apostles and his followers. Jesus was operating within a Jewish millo if you would have asked Yashka you know who are you? He would have said he is a Jew. That's how he the Rambam says that that's how he would have identified himself. But he was a nishi sheer among other reasons a false prophet because he claimed to be a mashiach and he claimed that certain commandments of the Torah were no longer binding. And uh when it says he shall stumble, it refers to his execution. And in fact, the Rambam takes the position, which maybe we're not so comfortable with, that we executed him, that the Sanhedrin executed him because he was a false prophet. Uh now as you know that was exactly the claim of the Catholic Church for many many years until around Vatican 2 uh in the early 1960s where Pope John the 23rd uh did us a great tya by exonerating Jews of the claim of killing Jesus. But unfortunately the Rambam says that's exactly what did happen. In fact, we did do it uh and we do it again uh because he was a Nvishi and a Nvisher is Misa. Uh be it as it may again as I say uh for forgive my bad pun. You don't have to accept the Rambam's reconstruction of Christian history as gospel. Again, forgive the forgive uh for forgive the pun. And you know it may it may very well be that this is not a completely accurate description of it. Uh but in terms of uh the idea of pita a lawless one that is his description of a Jewish person who rises and tries to abregate uh the Torah. And the Rambam makes the very important theological point that even if the prophet does miracles he says this. says, "Okay, the Christians claim, fact, he has a little bit of a pun for the uh the the Christian Bible, uh uh the Evangelum or something." So he writes it a Gillion, which agile in Hebrew means the sinful scroll. So the evangelon is a gillion. So he I think that's an intentional bit of sarcasm. he says claims many many miracles that uh Jesus did um resurrecting the dead walking on water uh the fish and the loaves you know many many different miracles and the Rambam says number one we don't have to believe it but number two the Rambam says even if we give them credit even if we say he did miracles so what uh people can do miracles by magic people can do miracles by optical illusions people can do miracles by connecting to the Satan miracles don't prove anything and if a person makes claims that are contravening the Torah that the Torah is no longer binding uh and the like the Rambam says that person will be executed that person is Kay Misa when there's a Sanhedrin we don't have that today even if the miracles are 100%. So he says that as a matter of theology we don't have to disbelieve the possibility of miracles uh from the other side. Maybe yeah maybe not you know who knows uh but that does not change anything. The miracles do not change the uh invalidity the illegitimacy of that that belief. Now the Rambam then says that Islam is also the rise of Muhammad is also alluded to in the book of Denal and interestingly enough it's in a much earlier place meaning uh the reference to Yashka is in um what did I say a pericale this is a reference that the Rambam finds in Peric Zion again it's a little difficult if you read the in context it's a little difficult to find this. But in one of Denil's mystical visions, there is a ram that has three horns. And from the three horns or in the middle of the three horns, a larger horn rises and displaces, pushes away the other three horns. And this horn goes all the way up to the heavens and it pushes aside the sun and the moon and the stars and it wages war against God. This is in Denal. And it wants to change the times and the seasons. And the Rambam says that the three small horns that were displaced refer to Persia, Greece, and Rome. Babylonia has been gone already. Babylonia was was gone by the time Islam arose. And the fourth horn that rises up all the way to the to the heavens is the rise of Islam that will conquer parts of Persia, parts of the Bzantium Empire. Byzantium is considered to be although Bzantium technically is the Eastern Roman Empire but it was predominantly a Greek culture. So in fact even in Khazal uh Bzantium Constantinople is often considered to be a hemshik of Yavan and the like and then of course Rome which is Asov and uh Islam will dominate. there'll be a time a time where Islam will dominate all of those other cultures and the like and even today where maybe in terms of political sovereignty uh Islam does not rule over the western world but in terms of uh terrorism in terms of its strangle hold in terms of oil essentially it does have major major control uh in the world and the notion of the horn rising to wage war against And to change the holidays and change the times is a reference to Muhammad claiming that the revelation to Mosher Rabenu was superseded and it is a war against God. And again though uh the story if you go continue reading in chapter 7 that ram will eventually be killed will be defeated etc. And that too is a remes for the fall of uh the fall of of of Islam. Um so that is the idea and then the rabb offers a very unique interpretation. You know everyone knows that when I going back to the Torah for a moment that uh the Jewish people are described in two ways. Uh they are described as the stars of the heaven and they are described as aarits the dust of the earth. And we typically look at it this way. When we're oppressed and trampled upon, we're the dust of the earth. And when uh we have gula, we are like the stars of the heaven. But the Rambam says even in the dust of the earth, there's a very hopeful metaphor because you have the ground and people trample on the ground over and over and over and over again. And yet the Rambam says the ground endures. the ground doesn't go away. All the people that trample on the ground, they eventually die, but the ground is always going to be there. So he says that's the Jewish people. He says we're going to be stepped upon, kicked around over and over and over and over again, but we're afraid. We're going to remain when all of the people, all of the entities that trampled upon us are going to be are going to be gone. So the Rambam says even in the mashall of there's a tremendous about the enduring of the Jewish people and um the Rambam brings also again he just brings from all over the place. One should literally compile a a booklet um in Shiraim and uh we know that Shirim has a controversial history. uh you know uh they say the best way to guarantee that a book will be read is when it's banned when it's censored. Uh once a book is censored everybody wants to read it. In fact I remember to digress for a moment uh the son of the the author of the Torahima uh wrote a very fascinating four volume Hebrew biography of his family called Makor Baruk. very very fascinating but the fourth volume was devoted totally to his uncle Denitiv of the legend that was his uncle because the married sister uh and uh part of the fourth volume was translated uh in a little book called my uncle Denitiv very very interesting so I remember around 30 years ago the lakewood one of sent out the book as a fundraiser and they said here's a beautiful book and send some money etc. Then around two or three weeks later, we got a letter from the lake with that said, uh, please return the book. We'll give you back your money. It's come to our attention that this is a book that does not reflect da Torah. So, we very much regret sending it to you. Now, you can bet that anybody that got that letter, you know, even if they put the book away, didn't even look at it, they're going to take out that book and they are going to read it. Uh now what was so controversial in the book that the lake of had to had to uh recall it? Well there are two things anybody's guess really actually there are three things they point out. One is the nits used to read newspapers on chabas. Okay that already you know maybe that's a minor thing. Another is the nits's wife uh used to complain why can't women learn gammora? She used to sit and learn all day whatever it is. And and they talked about some feminist things. And the third was the uh the Torahima's account of the closing of the yeshiva. The world famous yeshiva was closed by the Russian government in the 1890s. And the traditional understanding the msira in the yeshiva world was that was closed because the Russian government at the behest of mascul demanded that they institute some secular studies as part of the curriculum Russian language and math and the nits took the position better to lose a yeshiva then to falom introduce secular studies into it and that became kind of the rallying cry of let's say the yeshiva world in Israel etc where you know no no no secular studies now if you read the Torah tima who was a tal of the at the time and he was the nitiv's nephew and he was the nitiv secretary he worked with the nits you know office whatever they had to do gives a totally different story uh he says that the Russian government was demanding that all learning uh they only learn from 9 to 12 noon that from 1 to mix. They have secular studies and the yeshiva be closed at night ostensively for health reasons. And he says the nitiv had no problem with up to two hours of secular studies. Uh but then but but the was basically saying hey you know if you're giving me a curriculum where the holy yeshiva can only learn Torah for three hours a day they might as well go to a base medish they could learn learn much more that way. So the titima made the point that maybe Salv who was the co-ro was indeed very much against you know and interesting that the grandson had a different day on that uh but was very but was not apparently because that is so contradictory to the narrative in the yeshiva world that was treated as aus or kafira and they had to withdraw. Okay, that's a little aside about about censorship and and the like. If you know uh Rabbi JJ Shakar uh he wrote a whole big big article on the revisionist history of why the yeshiva closed down and it's a very very fascinating article. Yeah. My husband bought five copies of the making of the guttle. Mhm. It's another one. Making of the guttle is another example. Sure. Sure. Making of the guttle. I remember when it was on sale. I mean, it was sold in bookstores for $25 uh after it got banned. So, uh the uh so you can get copies on eBay for $500. Uh okay. But now I think I think uh they reprinted it now finally. It's a little under under the radar. Um yeah, but also that has all sorts of stories that are a little they're fascinating stories, but they're a little off the beaten track. Okay. Now I just digress for a moment because Shirim had a similar problem of u of this. Shirim is written in a very romantic way. Uh it's a passionate love song or a series actually it's a series of separate pieces uh about the love and relationship between a woman and her lover and the secret meetings that they have etc. And um it it uses sexual imagery, you know, god forbid even even in literal chat. It's very very sweet. It is not god forbid pornographic in that sense. But it is very open and explicit about that type of love. And as a result, there were rabbis that felt we could not regard it as a holy book because it's a romantic uh love literature. You know, it doesn't belong in Tanakh. And there were those who decided that it should be excluded from the cannon like banned in Boston as the expression goes. Uh so the great savior of Shiraim, the one who saved this book for eternity was none other than Rabbi Aakiba and Rabbi Aakiba taught if all of the songs are holy. Shirim is kesh kashim because it is a metaphor. It is a mashall of the passionate love that Hashem has for the Jewish people that Hashem is the shepherd, right? the shepherd who who's looking for his beloved. The Jewish people are the beloved. And the whole book is about the near misses or the where Hashem wants to unite with us and we're not ready. So for example, if you remember the scene, there's a scene there where the woman has gone to sleep for the night and cold doc the voice of my beloved is knocking at the door. Open up the door, my beloved, my perfect one. Open up the door. I want to be united. And the woman plays hard to get. The woman says, "Oh, I've taken off my slippers. How can I get my feet dirty? I'm in bed. What do you want me to do?" Because she's hoping he'll keep on asking. And then she hears no response. So, she gets up. She opens the door but he's not there anymore. This is all in in the sukim itself. I mean the sukim themselves are very beautiful. We sometimes don't pay don't pay attention to the vividness of the pictures that are being created and she's wandering around looking for him and people are beating her and they're saying what are you looking for that guy that nerdwell who simply abandoned you and left you? But you see what if when you understand it metaphorically how powerful it is. Hashem is ready to redeem us, but we're not ready. When we finally get our act together, it's not the time anymore. And we go around yearning for our kadesh. And what do the um say to us? Why are you bothering? You think he cares? He just left you. He's not interested in you. Why are you interested in him? You see the Rambam is saying all of this is in the narrative itself. This is what the UMO are going to be telling you that your beloved doesn't really care about you anymore. Why don't you see that? And then the Rambam point. So the Rambam says the Rambam again subscribes as Kazal do uniformly to Rabaka's idea of the mashall. Okay, that's that's the given. And once we have the idea of the mushall, we then look at these different as all of this is going to be is going to be is predicted. And then uh it says the nation you know say uh it says a shuvi come back the shulit literally reading the woman from connected to that return to us so we can look at you. And she answers, "What do you think you will see in the like the dancing of the camps?" Now, that's a bit of an enigmatic expression. But the Rambam says that this refers to the nations that try to entice us to come and join. And the Rambam points out that shui shuvi is mentioned four times. Shuvi, shui, shuvi, shuvi. Zabach because there were f there were four Muyot Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Edom augmented by Ishmael that will try to go after us. And what does the woman respond? What can you offer me? Can you offer me something that is as beautiful as the dancing of the camps? So the Rambam offers I think a unique interpretation. The dancing of the camps refers to matan tora when millions of angels from above came to join the Jewish people from below. The Mahanim are the Mah Israel and the Mahina that danced with each other and around each other when we received the Torah. And Cl is in the guise of the woman says back to the umamit, what do you think you can see in the lamit that will be equal to the to the dancing of the camps. By the way, uh we had uh we just had Shv last week and uh Ashkinazim read uh the very very beautiful, very difficult poem Akdamos uh before creaser. Okay, it's a little difficult if you're up all night. Agamos is one of those times where it's uh sleep is a very significant risk. So a lot of people miss Akdamus. Odamos is also written in a very very difficult Aramaic. So even someone that you know knows the Aramaic of the Gomorrah, Aktomos is a little hard to to follow. But if you look at Aktomos, look at the translate, you will see that one of the main themes of octtoos is exactly what the Rambam is talking about in Tan. how the nations of the world mock us and they say that God has abandoned you. God doesn't care about you. Uh you are no longer worthy in Hashem's eyes. Why don't you come over and embrace in in ADOS's case it was Christianity was the challenge the Rambam is dealing with Islam. And essentially what Abdamos is doing is Abdamos is talking about the glories of Matan Torah, the glories of Olaba, the glories of Mashiach, building it up in I'm not going to say hyperbolic fashion, but building up in very very detailed fashion. Uh exactly what the Ramba is interpreting in. And she responds Can you offer me anything like the celestial dance of the angels with the Jewish people? That's Matan Torah. By the way, this is an interesting interpretive twist because the Gmorra and Shabas seems to portray a different relationship with the angels, much more of an adverse relationship. Do you remember the Gmorrah that when Moshe during the 40 days went up to heaven and the angels were arguing with the Almighty, why are you giving your precious Torah to human beings who are going to break the Torah, who are going to violate the Torah, who are going to bismerch the Torah. Leave your Torah in Shamayim where it can be perfect and pristine. And Hashem said to Moshe, "Give a ter give an answer." And Moshe was so terrified he couldn't talk. And Hashem, this is the Shabas. And Hashem said to him, "Hold on to my heavenly throne, the will give you strength." And Moshe held on to the Moshe gave them an answer. And Mosha's basic answer is, "Hey, you want the Torah to remain in heaven? Well, let me ask you, what is it going to do in heaven? Honor your father and mother? You don't have parents. Don't eat meat and milk. you don't eat. Uh don't murder, don't steal. You don't murder, you don't steal. In other words, keeping the Torah in heaven would be the equivalent of, you know, keeping it under glass in a museum. It is precisely human beings who have Yates and who have tyas that need the direction of Akadesh Bar to make the argument, don't give the Torah to mankind because we're going to violate it. keep it up in heaven would render the Torah irrelevant and worthless. And indeed that was the answer. That is why Akadesh Baru gave the Torah to us. So the point I'm making is is is interesting that in the Gomorrah Shabas there's a description of kind of an adversarial relationship between the angels and uh Cl Israel. And yet here the Rambam describes The angels are dancing with us as we get the Torah. It could be that Moshe convinced them. It could be that once Moshe made his argument, the angels joined in the in the simka of Matan Torah. By the way, I once heard from Rav Bulman, some of you might might know Rob Bulman, a great great uh was a great rub in America and then he came to Israel. He founded a wonderful community up north, a wonderful wonderful community which unfortunately uh couldn't survive because of financial reasons. Then he came to and he was the mash inh for a number number of years. Uh so he once described you know uh on Torah after hakos when we're about to return the Torah to the a so there's kind of a pulling back people kind of block it to continue the hakafas right to try to put it back I used to say you know I was a shra for many years and I saw young people grow up into adults so I used to say that the dividing line between young people and grown-ups is do they try to stop our cuffas or do they try to prolong hakuffus? Uh meaning kids like to prolong and adults like to cut short. So I remember a kid I remember a guy who I knew as a kid who used to prolong and I was to see him trying to stop. So I said you have now you have now transitioned to adulthood. Uh but this idea that one of the ways that people try to prolong our kafas is as you try to put back the Torah they pull it back. So raman said that's actually a remnis to the fight between the malib and claw Israel that you know putting the Torah in the auron is like giving it back to the angels and the min of Torah was to pull it away from the auran is to say no no no we're claiming it. So in a sense it's kind of reenacting that cosmic struggle. We want the Torah here. We don't want it in there. We want it here. So that that's an interesting way of of seeing it at a much higher much higher level. Uh and then uh finally the Rambam brings uh So, for your sake, we have been slaughtered. Day after day, we have been like sheep. It's interesting, you know, some people use the metaphor like sheep to the slaughter as an insult, God forbid, to the Jewish people. Some in fact some early Zionist looked at it that way or not not early Zionist in the early years of the state of Israel that it was disgraceful that the Jews went like sheep to the slaughter and with very rare exceptions like the Warso ghetto they didn't fight their oppressors as if they had a lot of lot of options but I just want to point out that the phrase sheep to the slaughter is taken from Tahillim means sheep to the slaughter and it is recited in that pak as a great praise of the devotion of ami Israel their willingness to give their lives alashm so in context what is sometimes taken to be a bit of an insult or a put is actually considered to be a great great quality of miss nephesh and uh and and and devotion. Okay. So that is uh again we we talked about the fact that um there were three or four ide problems that the Rambam was dealing with. One was the persecution and the demoralization. You can count that as one or two. And that is addressed by what we just concluded. Right? That concludes the discussion of part one. The first problem. Now we then come to part two and that is uh the issue of this apostate Jew. Right? The apostate Jew wrote a book that got circulated widely in tman that tries to show proofs from the Torah itself that Muhammad uh is God's chosen prophet and this will supersede the Nva of Mosher Rabenu and the Rambam felt because apparently this book did have wide circulation and people were falling for it and the Rambam felt a need to address uh the falsity of the arguments that were made. So let me just mention again it's almost like poor Torah but the Rambam did feel necessary to address it. So I will mention it. He mentions that this mishumat addresses four proofs. Uh one proof is from the blessing that God gave to Yeshel. You know he or he told remember that after he said your seed shall be from but I will also bless right I will also bless Ishmael. Of course um Muhammad Islam comes from Yes Ishmael. I I understand that. I do understand that not all Muslims are Arab and not all Arabs are Muslims. That that that that is true. But certainly Muhammad and that core are said to be descended from Yeshel. And it says aro I will increase ma I will increase very greatly. Very greatly ma ma. So listen to this pilp shal which I normally would not bring up except for the fact that the ram felt necessary to address it. This mashum said ma is the same gumatria as mad which is the Hebrew spelling of Muhammad. The Hebrew spelling of Muhammad mad meal is 92 right? Me is 48 and then 44 it gives you 92. Bim ma spells uh the same gamatri of 92 and therefore it's an indirect proof that there will be a descendant of Ishmael called Muhammad Muhammad. So the Rambam says uh this is a bunch of garbage. Uh number one he says the the Muslims themselves don't believe this and they treat it like a joke. Uh but the rabbing point even linguistically it makes no sense because if it would have said I will bless them with mo. So you could say I will bless them with a muhammad whose gumatri is mode. But the verb in the P is not the verb in the P is. So the Rambam says clearly just in terms of simple translation of the verse we are dealing with a population blessing. We are not dealing with a designated individual. And Arbos Mah says they shall be a numerous people which indeed they are right and a billion a billion Arabs in the world. So he says it's a dra and then he makes a little bit of an aside that by the way uh the the the I don't know but he says the Arabic designation for Muhammad is Ahmmed not Mahmad and Ahmmed happens not to be the gumatria of the Mahud Mahoud. So by the very name they refer to him, you don't have that grammatria anyway. So that's like the first Tina. The second Tina is from Zabra where it describes me. It describes God's revealing himself at Sai Hashem. God came to us from Hari. Hia Paran appeared from Mount Pon. Now, Mount Pon are is a mountain like just at Midbar Pan in the south of Erit Israel uh basically all the way south of the Dead Sea uh somewhat adjacent to Saudi Arabia uh where Muhammad comes from. So this guy wants to say hi is a reseo from the Pon area. So once again the Rambam says it is ridiculous. I mean these are not proofs by ideologic anyway. They're not proofs. They're just like reading something in. But the Rambam says in Mikra Hofia is not if it would have said. So maybe it's a prophecy about something that's going to happen. Hia is a past. So it can't refer to something that's going to happen in the future. And what it means the Rambam says although this is a very intriguing visual of Hareni that when the the Shina came down in Hareni it didn't start at Hareni it was like a sunrise you see this you see light in the distance and it goes from 0.1 to 2 to 3 to point 4 and the Jewish people perceive the light of Hashem coming from some areas till it finally comes to Hari and that's Sophia Maharin and then the Rambam brings the famous medish that Hashem did offer the Torah to all the nations of the world before he offered it to us and he offered it to Ishmael Hafia is Hashem appeared to Mount Par where the Ishelites lived and therefore that would not be uh that would not be a a a proof. Okay, so uh there are a few more proofs we'll we'll talk about quickly next week. Um but once again the Rambam's point is that even the Muslims do not believe it. And the proof is that the Muslims make a claim to this day that the Torah was falsified by the story of the Aeda and it switched with Ishmael. And the Rambam says if they truly believed that the Torah itself contained proof of Muhammad, why do they have to make the argument that the Torah was falsified? In other words, they're making two inconsistent arguments. They're saying, "Oh, all the references to Muhammad were deleted, were taken out." So the Rambam says that really shows you that they don't believe any claim that Muhammad is encoded in the Torah. And that's why the only thing they can say, their last ditch desperation is that there was a forgery, things were taken out, uh taken out, etc. Okay, we'll continue next week. Have a wonderful week.