Rambam's Letters | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz | December 2nd 2025

uh you know I just want to point out apppropo of uh the announcement that was made regarding how widespread of the u Torah is I want to share with you a gammorus. The last Mishna Mphistinus discusses why the 15th of A was considered to be the happiest day of the Jewish year. And one of the reasons was that the last king of the 10 tribes, so Sha Ben took away the guards that prevented people from going to the Ba Mikdash, which Yra ben Novad had installed. And as a result, we were given according to tradition on the 15th of A, we were given free access or the 10 tribes were given free access to the bas. So the Garra asks the obvious question. If Hosa did such a wonderful thing by removing the guards, why was the 10 kingdom why were the 10 kingdoms destroyed? Why were they exiled at that point? The other way around, it ought to be a chuba. So the Gomorrah's answer is he removed the guards. Thank you. He removed the guards but people were not going anyway. Meaning all the time that there were guards, people had excuses. Now Hashem knows that the excuse is sincere or not, but at least externally there's an excuse. Once there's no excuse, there's a much greater responsibility. So the analogy I want to draw is that for so many many years people who were not in yeshiva or people didn't have Jewish education or they were located in a community that didn't have that many resources they always had an excuse why they didn't learn Torah you know may accept that excuse today with the proliferation of so much Torah online uh we don't have excuses anymore everybody can learn Torah everybody can access so in a sense is a tremendous tremendous tremendous simka but it also creates a tremendous responsibility. If Hashem makes opportunities available, we are obligated to try to rise to that occasion. So the U platform generally um is truly an outstanding uh source of Torah virtually. I'm quite amazed all the time when I look at it uh any subject you want. If you want to shear in to shi uh you can get it uh safer hamitzvos, ramb any any safer in in tanakh uh on many many levels. Uh so something we all ought to take take advantage of. Okay. Uh today I do have um a dedication uh once again it's dedicated anonymously for the raffle of Eveina Batcalina. Israel and again we are very very grateful as always for the Torah. Okay. Uh we are finishing up uh the interesting letter that the Rambam wrote uh to uh Iben Jabar. Yoseph Jabar and again Yoseph Iban Jabbar uh was self-described as an Az uh who read the Rambam in translation in Arabic. Actually it wasn't it was the Rambam's original language actually the Hebrew is the translation uh the parish of Mishnayas and uh there are three parts to the letter. Two of them we looked at we're now going to look at the brief third part. Uh the first part of the letter is very very beautiful. It's the Rambam giving to a person who feels that he's ignorant and he's unlearned. And the Rambam says that if you desire to learn Torah, you are not an amor uh you are my tom. You are my disciple and never despair about what you can accomplish. At the same time, the Rambam says, I really don't want to translate the Mishna Torah into Arabic because he says, I even regret writing the commentary to the Mishna in Arabic. and he tells them now listen um start with the Mishna Torah it's easy Hebrew and eventually you will uh pick up the language okay again very practical advice that we even give today uh the second part which we spent a bit of time on were specific questions on different sakim of the Rambam now remember Iben Jabar was concerned because he was in Baghdad and in Baghdad uh there was a lot of criticism of many rulings of the Rambam and it wasn't just matters of individual haka but they were using it to delegitimate the Rambam's standing uh there was also a theological attack on the Rambam by virtue of his position on resurrection of the dead so he was not only accused of erroneous hokic rulings he was also accused of being an apicorus and Iban Jabar wanted to fight back and as a result he asked the Rambam for brief explanations of a number of contro controversial areas and the Rambam did give uh relatively brief explanations in other letters to more learned people. Uh the Rambam's defenses were longer. In fact, you'll see as you go through the letters of the Rambam, a lot of themes get repeated. So, for example, one issue we talked about, are you allowed to if you go on a boat before Shabas, can you stay on the boat? even though it's going beyond the 2,000 amos. Uh there are at least like 10 letters where the Rambam defends his permissible position. Uh sometimes at great length when he's writing to a Roshiva, but to Iban Shabbar uh he's relatively mikatir. Now the third part of the letter so again we looked at I think virtually all of the halikic issues that were brought up in the letter. The third part of the letter is actually also very very interesting. Let me just get the uh get the page here and that is Iban Jabar wants to defend the Rambam. Iban Jabar wants to uh make public statements uh against the people that are criticizing the Rambam. Um, again, as I mentioned, uh, when I was growing up, we had a wonderful, wonderful rabbi who, for some reason, some of the, uh, more rich and powerful people in the Kahila didn't like him. I won't get into specifics. So, I remember kind of good, simple Jews. I remember Tay, they wanted to defend their rabbi at all costs, including uh, punching people out who insulted the rabbi and the like. And you get the impression that Iban Jabbar just loves the Rambam so much because the Rambam, he never met the Rambam. Remember, he never he's in Baghdad. He never met the Rambam. But the Rambam was his key to the Torah of Hashem. He wouldn't, he wouldn't have learned Torah without the Rambam's Arabic writings. So he had a great deal of affection for the Rambam. I think more than people who can read Hebrew whatever it is you can read Hebrew or today we have English translations. So the Rambam is one of many. We have Rashi you know etc. Uh but for Iban Jabar the Rambam was the only one and this was his rope. This was his connection to Hashem. So as a result he felt that he needed to stand up for the Rambam and defend the Ramb. Now in all probability uh Iban Jabar would not have been uh the best defender of the Rambam. I mean if if there are great Russas and Torah scholars that are arguing at the Rambam. So Iban Jabar has number one he has a letter from the Rambam but still uh the letter is brief. The letter does not address all of the Talmudic discussion. So Iban Jabar is clearly motivated much more out of emotion and feeling uh than pure rationality. And as you might expect from the Rambam, the Rambam discourages him from getting involved in any particular fight. And my guess is [clears throat] that because the Rambam probably felt it wouldn't have been effective anyway. But in the course of addressing why he should not get involved in this maklo, one second here, the Rambam makes some very very interesting general points that are worthwhile uh on focusing Let's find it here. Number one, this says the Rambam says he's very very grateful for the love that Iben Jabar has for him because he says it's not a love for me. It's a love of God and a love of the Torah. And Hashem will certainly reward people who love the Torah and want to connect to him. Um, but then he says, "I don't want you to get involved in the attacks against me." Let me just find the language here. [clears throat] Alas, I'll I'll read a few lines because the language is very nice. Again, the original was in Arabic, but this is the Hebrew translation. Do not do a thing about this. we certainly forgive. We're anyone that attacks me because of their foolishness, because of their lack of knowledge. And then he says, this is very fascinating. He says, "Some people are attacking me because they're building up their reputation." Now, you might think that's worse. The Reb says, "No, if the guy is getting a benefit by attacking me, then I'm mo even more because he's getting a benefit." You know, let him get his benefit. And then he says, and listen, these attacks are not going to hurt me. And the Rambam quotes an interesting which, you know, may or may not be be relevant here, but the Rambam uses it as an analogy. There is a principle in the Talmud called That means if somebody is getting a benefit and it's not costing me a benefit from my property and it's not costing me anything, so I can't really charge him. Uh, a very good example, although you might not be very comfortable with this, is let's say that you go away, you go on vacation for two weeks and you come home and somebody was just living in your house. Now, I imagine that's a little a little disconcerting. Um, and let's assume they did not the house is immaculate. They didn't do any damage to the house whatsoever, but they were in your house for two weeks. Now, let me point out they're not allowed to do that. that that's not the question. But the question is, can you say you were in my house for two weeks? Pay me rent. You used my property without my permission. Again, it is prohibited, but after the fact, do they have to pay rent? So, the Talmud actually says that this is an example of this guy gets the benefit of living in your house, but it didn't cost you any money. See, it's a little different. this home. It says like this, if you're holding out your apartment for rental, let's assume you have an apartment to rent and somebody lives in your house for 2 weeks, you can certainly charge them rent because the property was held for rental. But if the property was not going to be rented out anyway, so the person benefited from your property and it did not cause you any financial loss. So this is the suga. That's it's a complicated suga. I'm oversimplifying a little bit but this is the well-known sugakama called Zaneler it has a lot of applications rent is one example a squatter another example would be using somebody's internet now this this is uh an interesting issue uh let's say your internet uh access your wireless does not have a password so anybody within proximity can use it uh it's not costing you well well on one level it's not costing you anything because you're you're going to pay your monthly subscription one way or the other. Now it may cost you if if if through the overload your your your your Wi-Fi is slower that would be very relevant but assuming your speed and your access is not affected. So the guy who finds out he can get a password of course he can shut you out uh but he cannot say you got to pay me a fee for using my internet because that's an example of zana and the meta principle the the prior principle upon which zanaser is based is another principle called kofen that if a person behaves like a sodomite does not allow him to do that and that was the nature of the city of Saddam that they begrudged any to anybody even if it didn't cost them any any money. So this is a idea but look at how the Rambam creatively uses it. The Rambam says you know people who insult me and get pleasure out of it they're getting their pleasure it's not costing me anything he says. So it's the same rule. I'll mole them because they're getting what they think is a benefit. It's not costing me a thing. Now why is it not costing me a thing? So then the Rambam says, not only is it not costing me anything, but I'm getting a benefit. I am getting a benefit from their insult as well. Why is that so? uh because he basically says that the more I'm that's what they always say like people say I don't care if the publicity is positive or negative as long as you spell my name right. Uh the Rambam says number one, if people are talking about my ideas, if people are talking about my Torah, if people are talking about my sakim, then that's going to increase the demand to check it out. Right? In other words, maybe somebody never heard of Ra Mosha bin M. But all of a sudden, the great Rashivas are coming out. Oh, Raosha bin M is saying all of these controversial things. So people are going to say, gee, what does Ra Mosha bin Mimmon say? It reminds me a little bit as the Rambam says that controversy actually results in persum of his div Torah and then the Rambam is convinced that once they see what I wrote uh they will be convinced uh the Rambam was confident in that that way. It reminds me a lot. I'll give you an analogy. Um you know many of you may may have heard of the safer toima. Uh toima is a very very nice safer atome. uh it gathers together on every pock in the Kish and on the five mgillos all of these statements in the Gomorrah not in the medish that would be too many statements but every uh discussion in the Gomorrah that pertains to Pukim. So if you want to know what does the Gomorrah say about Yehuda Vatamar and you don't know off the top of your head where the passages are you can go to the Torah Tima and you can see the passages and in addition he wrote a a perish [snorts] on the Mamari as well to Torah Tima. Now the Torahima happened to be he was the son of the he was the son of the and he was the uncle of the nitiv because the married the nitiv sister. So in addition to the Torah to he wrote many other books as well. One very interesting book he wrote, it's four volumes, is called Makor Barak, the blessed source, but that's a bit of a pun because he's his name was Barak and it's really a history of his family with many many many interesting stories about of the time about literary writers. The Torah tima was a little controversial because he was a great but he was also a modern person. He was a banker. He actually wrote a book in Russian on banking and he was quite friendly with many of the mascul of the generation. So in the yeshiva world like you know in Lakewood or whatever uh they don't even put the toima on the on the shelves. Uh but I grew up in a less polarized time. So I grew up to was a great great safer to use. It's only later I discovered that there's a little bit of controversy. But the Mccor Barak is a very controversial saver because volume four of Mccor Barak is a discussion about his uncle who the head of the Bologian yeshiva for many many years. >> It's a book in English. >> My uncle that that's right that's that's a that's a partial translation of part 4. Now what is so controversial about part 4? Uh the yeshiva was closed in the 1890s. I think it was 1892. I'm not sure exactly but in the 1890s it was closed by the Russian government. The nish yeshiva was the greatest of the yeshivas founded by led by the nitiv and later salv for more than 50 years. It is called the aimhivot the mother of the yeshivates all of them came from was closed by the Russian government in 1892. The tradition in the yeshiva world was because the Russian government demanded the introduction of secular education to augment the yeshiva curriculum. That was their educational requirement. And the nits was reputed to have said it is better to close down a yeshiva than to introduce any element of secular studies. And that is invoked even today in Erit Israel college programs and the like. Now the Torah Tamima was 15 years old at the time the yeshiva was closed down. He was the nephew of the nits and he was also the nitiv secretary for a few hours in the afternoon. He helped the nitiv with correspondence and the like. And he gave a whole different account of the story. He said the Russian government he said that was not against some secular studies in moderation. He would have considered it to be legitimate but the Russian government was demanding that the yeshiva only learn Torah till 1:00 in the afternoon that from 2 to 6 they do secular studies and they close down in the evening for madeup health reasons. So that the nitiv says who needs a yeshiva let them learn in a base medish and they can they can learn more hours. So the nit so the the Torah tamima's point the mak barak's point was that the nitiv was not against some type of secular studies the nitiv was against the extreme excess of what the Russian government was demanding in which the niv says they could do better on their own than to function with this limited okay so it is it's a mccor borak [laughter] so as you mentioned there was an English translation of part four of the mccor borak called my uncle the nitiv that which just translates all this and the Lakewood sent it out uh as a fundraiser. This was probably 30 years ago. A week after it was sent out as a fundraiser, we got a return. We got another letter from the lake of saying it has come to our attention that there are statements in this book that are heretical and not according to da Torah. uh please send back the book and we will give you a full refund of whatever your uh contribution was. They didn't say what the problem was. Now rest assured that if you got a book and then you get a letter, there's something in that book that's heretical. Even if you had no interest in reading the book, you're going to go back and read it. And indeed there were two things in the book that were considered to be not politically correct within the yeshiva world. One was the account of the closing of the because again the Torah tim is telling us the nit was not adverse to some secular education as long as it was subordinated to Torah study. The second thing that was controversial interestingly enough involves women learning Gomorrah. There's a chapter there about the nitiv's first wife. uh his second wife was actually the Torah to Mima's sister. But the Niv's first wife uh in which um she would sit and she would study Torah all day. She would learn Kish and Nak and Malim and all the Morim and there's conversations where she's bemoning the fact of why aren't women given the right to learn Gomorrah and this is right uh and what's wrong with that women are just you know as good as men etc. Uh so so he was he was he was just a kid. He was like 14 in that conversation and he was giving his answers and she was refuting his answers etc. And that was said that was thought uh later to be too feminist uh for a yeshiva population. Um okay. Um now in truth this maklocus what was in the position was actually a mlocus among two of his sons. Interestingly enough, the nitiv's oldest son from his first marriage was Rafaim Berlin, the one whose name is the New York Rafim Berlin actually came to Erit Israel and he was very very very well I mean is actually a modern word but we would call him very very today. uh he was with Raish leis he was like ultra ultra strict ultra ultra machmir and he said that the nitiv said in his dying day I closed the yeshiva not to have any secular studies but the nitiv had a younger son a ben sukunim from his second wife who is Rav Mayor Berlin who who is known as rav mayor bar Elan and that's second He's in Berlin's halfb brotherther mayor of Berlin was a big also but may Berlin obviously was a more modern person he was involved in the Zionist movement both with religious and non-religious Jews uh he was involved of course he was the founder of Barilan University Barlan University which they named after him I he didn't give it the name but they named it after him in his in his honor uh and he says exactly he says exactly the timma that the niv was not against secular studies. He just didn't want to give into that excess. So it's interesting the more son interprets the nitiv one way. The more modern son interprets the niv the other way and the totima who is ideologically very very similar to his cousin mayor bilan kind of goes goes with that way. Who knows who's right? You know I I don't know. I don't know. But once again uh the point I'm making this is just an interesting story. So forgive the gossip. I I I like telling the story when I have the chance. Um but it's exactly what the Rambam is saying. The Rambam is saying if they think they're going to silence me, if they think they're going to censor me by their criticism, it's exactly the opposite. More and more people are going to learn my writings as a result of this criticism and as a result they will be exposed to Torah uh thoughts and they will be elevated. And then the Rambam says in a more spiritual sense that truth does not get extinguished. Truth will always find a way to emerge out of the darkness. And therefore the Rambam says you don't need to defend me. You don't need to fight on my behalf. Uh I am mo the personal insults. And there were personal insults. I am Mohel the invective. And I am confident number one. Not only does it not hurt me and then it becomes zana but this is actually zana they get benefit of getting covered or whatever it is what they think and I'm getting the benefit that my writings are going to be uh disseminated uh to even a a greater greater extent. So again it's an interesting point by the way I want to mention go going back to for a second. Um so so far I gave you two opinions why was closed. One is because the nitiv was against any secular studies and the other opinion is uh the niv was against the extremely excessive demand but the common denominator is it had to do with a secular studies demand. more recent research and histori uh where where historians have actually gone into the Tsarist records of [snorts] school closures and the like say there was a totally different reason that was involved. Uh the the students of Elijah were very very independent people and if they didn't like a decision the yeshiva made they would often riot. They were geniuses. They were brilliant scholars but they didn't accept authority. They had a certain even within the yeshiva they had a certain tendency towards anarchy if things were not the way they wanted. Now when the nitiv had been rasha for 50 years the nitiv wanted to go to araj Israel now for the last 12 years his assistant was the greatim salvation who actually married the niv's granddaughter and rafim is really the founder of the deep analytical der kale the nitiv wanted rafim salvich to remain assistant rashiva and he wanted his son Rafai in Berlin to become on Roshiva. The students didn't like that because Rafim Berlin had been in business. He had not been in the yeshiva world and Rafim Salvatic was very very beloved. The students rioted. They protested in very very aggressive ways, ways that are actually fairly disgraceful from a perspective of a bentora. the the records in the Zarist archives indicate that they closed it down because they thought that these were potential future revolutionaries against the Zyus government. Of course, again, this is the 1890s. Rest assured that although the the Russian revolution was not until 1917, there were plenty of revolutionary currents that were going on and was closed down because it was a hotbed of revolutionary activity that had to be cut down and according to the archives that act that actually was the official reason not even to do with secular uh studies uh or the like. Um but again it is uh it is very very fascinating. that um they write in the archives about uh we don't know what it is but this Salvich guy seems to have this unusual charisma and we don't know why people are so we have no idea why what they see in him but no he's a dangerous guy and in fact when was closed um the every student and every rabbi was ordered to disperse the nitiv they had to leave they were expelled from the city went to brisk where his father was the revener of became the RV of Brisque and the Nitsv went to Minsk and the Nitiv only died a few months later and and it is said because of heartbreak the yeshiva had been his had been his life and he was already very old man he could no longer go to Israel at that point and he died a few months later um they're both buried in Warso if you've ever been to the Jewish cemetery in Barca uh next to Haramite It is the largest uh Jewish cemetery in the world. Uh and the thing about Vara though is it's so interesting because you have every type of Jew buried there. You have the greatest greatest gdole. Then you have secularists and artists and actors and singers and etc. And they're kind of in proximity to each other. U but both and salvage are buried next to each other. Now you may wonder why are they buried in Warsa? I mean they they didn't live in Warsaw. The answer is many many people died in Warso because Warsa was uh the best medical care in Poland. So when people were very ill they tended to go to Warsa and the Minug then was you were buried where you died meaning you didn't necessarily go back uh to your city. So that's where vagger many many who never lived in varia are in fact buried in the was called uh in vara. Okay. All righty. Now um the next unit I want to look at again probably briefly is another set of letters to another Talmet and many of the themes are going to be uh repeated but they're repeated and amplified with greater depth and greater length because the Rambam is writing to a learned tom and this tom is he goes by the name Yoseph Ben Yehuda also Yoseph so one is Yoseph Iben Jabar uh that's the so-called amorus that we looked at and the other is Yoseph Benjuda. Now here I need to clarify a misunderstanding that has only been uh corrected in recent years. Uh there is somebody called Yoseph Ibn and he happens to also be Yoseph Ben Yehuda Ibin Akn. And for many many years, most encyclopedias and most sources identify Yoseph Ben Yehuda that we're going to talk about with Yoseph Iben Aknid. In point of fact, they are two different people. Yoseph Akn was someone who was also a tool of the Rambam but from a much earlier stage. He met the Rambam when the Rambam and his father was in Morocco before he even came to Egypt. And he was influenced by the Rambam. Ysef Ben Yehuda knew the Rambam in Egypt and the like. The reason this is important is you'll see in a moment that the guide to the perplexed is dedicated in honor of Yoseph Ben Yehuda. There's actually the Rambam actually wrote a dedication in honor of this student and you'll commonly see in many older encyclopedias that the morim is dedicated to Yoseph Ibn. You will see that very very often. Uh most historians do not regard that as a true statement. Yosephakin is somebody else. Ysef Ben Yehuda is the one to whom the Rambam dedicated to Morin. Now Yseph Ben Yehuda the one that we're talking about now was also born in Morocco like Yoseph Ibanakn. But eventually he found his way to Alexandria and then to Egypt uh to Cairo. And he spent two years two years only two years under the direct instruction of the Rambam. So face to face they learned for two years and then Yseph Iban went on to I'm sorry Yosesephuda went on to uh Syria and from then to Baghdad where indeed he's also going to be involved. In fact this is a tight little group. He actually knows Yoseph Jabar and the Rambam refers in his correspondence to Yep and Yehuda to our mutual friend Yoseph Jabar. So they kind of was a group of people in Baghdad that were the Rambam's you might say the Rambam's defenders against the very eminent Roshiva Benelli Benelli is the Rambam's antagonist uh in all of these areas. Moanelli among other things besides dik observance uh criticisms wrote a huge contress about resurrection of the dead in which he took issue with the Rambam on resurrection and the Rambam Zaredim that we looked at was a responsor of Benelli's long uh anthology of all of the memorial kazal regarding hame okay so uh there are many many letters some of them are small. So I'm going to kind of summarize the content that the Rambam wrote to Yoseph Ben Yehuda. Uh just to mention a few points. Uh first as a as I as I indicated there is a very very beautiful dedication. The Rambam wrote the morim. Now again you have to understand the die to the perplexed was not originally written as a book. It was written as a series of letters to Ysef Ben Yehuda. And the Rambam says, "After I finish each chapter, after I finish each chapter, thank you. After I finish each chapter, I will send it to you to look at and keep the chapters and then eventually we'll disseminate them." So the war of was written in what was called to use a fancy word epistolary fashion meaning it was written as epistol. It was written as letters to be sent to Yep and Yehuda. And uh when the book was finally assembled uh the Rambam actually dedicates it to my dear and beloved Talmet uh who is one of the few people who will truly understand what it is that I wrote. The Rambam understood that the Marinim, the guide to the perplexed, was not a book for everybody, but only for people who are who had a very very deep grounding in philosophy. And what is Nvim? Perplexed, confused, people who could not reconcile Aristoilian rationalist philosophy with the revealed truths of Torah. And the morim is an attempt to either resolve those contradictions or if the contradictions are not resolvable to demonstrate the superiority of the truths of Torah. In other words, he would refute the philosophical arguments with philosophical tools. Okay? And that's what the morim is about. Uh, of course, there are many other things in the book. Obviously, the Rambam deals with the proofs for the existence of God. The Rambam deals with divine providence. Does God micromanage us or does God create a natural order in which things just happen? That's the issue of Ashkahus. Uh the Rambam discusses the book of Eio and how does a just God allow suffering in the world. And the Rambam talks about biblical uh biblical expressions because there are many biblical expressions that uh give God a physical form. The hand of God, the eyes of God, the ears of God, God is hama. God is a man of war. So the Rambam goes through and explains the metaphorical significance of those expressions. And finally in part three of the morim the Rambam gives what you might call rational philosophical explanations for mitzvot. Uh one famous example it's one out of many many examples is the Rambam's explanation of corbanos right because people ask the question uh why would God care about burnt meat? Does God like barbecues? Right? What is the point of sheing or slaughtering animals and burning them [snorts] on an altar? And the Rambam gives a very famous explanation that the purpose of doing so is that originally when the Jewish people were attached to idolatry, this was an idolatrous ritual that very very much connect uh where they were attracted to and indeed it even turned into human sacrifice which was an abomination. So if God were to simply say go cold turkey, forget about carbonote, serve me through meditation and prayer and virtue, they wouldn't have been able to turn themselves away from idolatry. So God gave them a legitimation for a pagan form of worship within the framework of serving God. And therefore, corbanos is a concession to the idolatrous impulse within man. It is not something inherently desirable. Now this itself is an enormously controversial explanation. The Ramban in his commentary to Vayikra says well if that's the case why do we pray for the restoration of corbanote now that we don't have it and how do you explain that all the way back to cayenne and hea when there was no aot there was a notion of corbanote to hashem and abrath and yakov built altars and they brought corbanos to hashem and how do you explain the phrase means a pleasing pleasant fragrance to the Almighty. God gets joy from the corbanas. According to the Rambam's explanation, none of that makes sense. And rest assured that the Rambam davened the same Musaf that we davin. And what does Musaf do but pray for the restoration of Corbanos? So again this is not our topic but because of this the Ramban does argue with the Rambam and the Ramban says that it's true that God doesn't necessarily care for meat that's not the issue but the notion of kind of identifying myself with the animal as the animal goes through all of these different actions and I put my hands on the animal. I recognize that there but for the grace of God go I the worshipper the worshipper becomes trans uh transformed with humility and submission and what is pleasant about the corbin is not the meat but it's the transformative effect on the worshipper by bringing the corbin be it as it may uh this is a huge makloas raam raan but this is what the morim is about again an attempt to reconcile rational philosophy with received tradition uh to understand uh the proofs for the existence of God, the nature of divine providence, the nature of evil, the meaning of anthropomorphic terms. Anthrophic just means terms that ascribe to God physical or human characteristics. And finally, a type of rational understanding of the mitzvot of the Torah. Uh, and the Rambam is frankly very very pragmatic. He talks about how they build better societies, stronger families, a more just world. The Rambam kind of takes even ritual mitzvah and tries to give some type of rationale for them. Uh, did the Rambam admit that there were deeper meanings? Well, again, there there's a whole within that. Some say the Rambam is giving reasons that would be appreciated by the intended audience of the guide and therefore he did not give nonrational mystical ideas but that doesn't mean that he denied their existence. They were simply not something that would appeal to the audience that he wrote it for. be as it may that's the Mim and um you know should well it's I mean it's it's an obvious well-known I wouldn't even call it an open secret it's not a secret at all that in spite of the fact that the Moa was written by the Rambam it is not a safer that is widely studied in the world of the yeshivas absolutely not in fact I smile I remember that uh you know you go to any yeshiva in the world And you will see the Rambam swarm very prominent Mishna Torah. The commentary on the Mishna is in every Gomorrah. Uh the Rambam's commentary on the Mishna. Uh but if you ask, well, where do you keep the Morinims? If they have a Morinim, uh they'll give you a subbase. Oh, basement sub, you know, subb 2, you know, we have it. We have it there. I mean I remember in AR itself u somebody's like looking around for a safer where the Rambams are kept and he he asked me where where do you keep the marin okay what can I tell you now why that's so part of that is as a backlash that already existed in the time of the Rambam itself where some people again the mor besides everything else we were discussing the mor of was a source of great great controversy because of the attempt to kind of legitimate Aristotilianismism if it doesn't conflict with the Torah. And it was thought that you're opening up a Pandora's box that could take people away from Torah. Uh the Morinim was put in was excommunicated so to speak in some communities. Uh there were even book burnings, although not the Jews did not organize the book burnings. The Catholic Church did, but they did it in response. they saw the Jewish opposition as giving them an excuse uh to do it. The baramim was burnt. The bulkim was banned. Uh and this tension um between philosophy and religion is a tension that exists to this very very very day in which there are those that look at philosophy as an enemy of religion. Religion should be based on faith and faith does not have to be proven. uh it should just be accepted and if you have to try to prove that there's a god or prove whatever that god gave the Torah then by definition you're on thin ice and your faith is not strong. Others including the Rambam himself say that faith must be grounded in reason. It must be grounded in logic and uh if something is true then it should be demonstraably true right and therefore the Rambam felt this was good. So this maklo still exists to this very very day. Philosophy versus faith. Can philosophy augment and strengthen faith or is philosophy the enemy of faith and the like? But be as it may, Ysef and Yehuda was a person who was thoroughly grounded in philosophy and he was very perplexed by how to reconcile his philosophical knowledge with different teachings of the Torah. He asked the Rambam to to explain it. Uh and this is after they had spent their two years together and the Rambam began writing the Morabim as a letter a very long series of letters uh to his beloved Talmet. Now it's interesting we actually have a letter that's that's not written by the Rambam. It's a letter by allegedly by Yaisf Ben Yehuda which is said to have prompted the writing of the Murim and the letter is frankly a fascinating letter but historians say it is a forgery. It's it's not an authentic letter and that is Yep Ben Yehuda in this letter which I say many many historians say is a fraud actually writes to the Rambam with allegorical poetry. He basically says, "I took a beautiful wife," meaning the Torah. And the Adam, the the witnesses to my marriage to this beautiful wife were, and he uses the Rambam's Arabic name. By the way, that's kind of a hint that he can't be writing around. He says, uh, Iben some whatever the Rambam's Arabic name was, I don't remember what it was. And Iben Rashid, who was actually an Islamic philosopher, but who defended monotheism with within within Islam. He says, "I took a wife with these faithful witnesses, you and Iben Rashud, who is an Islamic philosopher, and my wife became unfaithful and she strayed and she no longer has a relationship with me." Says, "I want to take her back. I want to take her back. Can you help me get reunited to my wife?" Um, again, a little odd way of writing to the Rambam, a very, very colorful type of letter. And as I say, especially using the Rambam's Arabic name was regarded then as extremely disrespectful. So, as I say, most historians say that it is Mizuyaf, but uh in some accounts, you'll actually see an account of they'll make two mistakes. They'll say letter of Yoseph Iben Akn to the Rambam which prompted which prompted the writing of Morinim. So that that has two mistakes. Number one, it's not Yoseph Iban Aakn, it's Yoseph Yehuda. And number two, he didn't write the letter either. Uh but it is a fascinating kind of metaphorical letter. And in fact, forgery upon forgery, there is actually an alleged letter written by the Rambam continuing the poetry imagery. He says, "Your wife loves you, your wife is faithful, your wife is good." You know, like he now one thing about the Rambam, the Rambam actually did not like poetry that much. Uh, you know, the Rambam felt poetry was too emotional and uh it wasn't specific enough. It wasn't logical enough. So to say that the Rambam responded to poetry with poetry, you know, who know who who knows? We just don't know. But they say most historians say that both uh Yoseph Beyuda's letter and the Rambam's response are are forgeries. But the one thing that is absolutely true is the Rambam dedicated the Morinim to Yoseph Beyuda. And in fact, uh take a Morinim. You will look at the first page. It is a short dedication to his beloved Talmud, a Talmet who is beset with confusion and uncertainty and this is a way to help you find the light of divinity and wisdom and walk in the ways of Hashem. >> My question is um I know that they burn but did they burn other books of the Rambam? Um no no they never burnt any other books of the Rambam but but let me point out that there is part of the Mishna Torah that was also condemned. Uh you know the Mishna Torah is supposed to be a work. Now, of course, particular people argued with, but you did they didn't they didn't burn a book because of disagreements, but the first four chapters of the Mishna Torah in called the laws of the foundations of the Torah are really a summary of Aristotilian structure of the universe. [laughter] In fact, you know, if you look at the commentaries of the Rambam, Kmishna and like, they always give tomudic sources for the Rambam. They'll say, "Oh, this ruling is based on this." You look at the first four first four chapters, uh there is no source that's given. And the reason is obvious. The only source for what the Rambam writes uh is Aristotle and the Arabic works on Aristotle that the Rambam studied. The Rambam did not uh probably did not know Greek. The Rambam did not study uh Aristotle uh in the original. In fact, it may not have been available. But the Rambam did study great Arabic commentators. Iban Rashud is an example on Aristotle. Uh and the whole four chapters in fact it's a it's a pretty pretty much of a Pella. What do those four chapters what do they have to do with a a work on you know the doesn't doesn't start that way does not give you a view of the universe. It starts with the rules. The answer is the Ram himself says in this to the Mishnayas that whenever he has a chance to sneak in philosophy he will always do it. He actually says he says you know even if it's a digression even if it's not directly what I'm talking about if there's any excuse for me to elaborate on these philosophical ideas I will exploit the opportunity to do so. So the the the ban was both on morim and in some places on the first four chapters of uh Mishna Torah. Uh fascinating chapters again it's it's Aristotilian and one of the problems you have when you learn a book like that is that the Aristotilian description of the physical universe does not correspond with modern astronomy. He talks about spheres etc. So sometimes in the yeshiva world you know where you try to be mash of the ra they they they try to you know answer the rambom spheres with modern astronomy but the truth is the Rambam is working with Aristotle so uh you know so that's a different you know it's not Torah per se it's it's it's the Rambam's understanding of the universe based on Aristotle which can certainly be superseded by later scientific knowledge in other words it's not like the Rambam I'm contradicting the Gomorrah. There you have to come up with some resolution. In matters like this, you don't really need a resolution simply because the Rambam was functioning within the science of the time and that could be superseded. In fact, the Rambam himself went with that idea. You know, uh in Hilos, uh the Rambam has two praim about health advice. The Rambam of course was a very very well-known doctor, physician, one of the great physicians of the Middle Ages. And the Rambam talks about diet and exercise and everything else. There's even diet books today that are written based on the Rambam's prescription. Now, the interesting point is that the Talmud itself has several pages of medicines and things that you take for this and that. And the Rambam does not quote the refu of the tommet. Now the Rambam held that the Talmud babi is an authoritative source of so why does the Rambam ignore the Rafu of the Talmud in favor of his own medical advice? The answer is and the Rambam's only son Raen Rambam said this that the Rambam understood that when Khazal were giving medical advice they were not speaking as the transmitters of the Torah Sha they were speaking as people who were conversant with the best science of the time to be sure but that science could be superseded by later understandings. In other words, not everything that Khazal said is necessarily definitive Torah Balpa. They they had reflections on science, astronomy and the like. So the argument goes the same way that the Rambam held that the Tmudic statements are not binding on him. So his scientific statements are not binding on us. is exactly the same symmetrical knowledge. So the first four chapters again are are an aristatilian structure of the universe dealing with fixed spheres and the like. Uh and of course this is all precapernicus. So it's a dra pashut in the Rambam's uh cosmology that the sun uh goes around earth. I mean that's how average title described it and that's how the Rambam follows it. Okay. Um but as far as I know there was not a book burning of the Mishna Torah itself. Okay. So beo uh it is a very very affectionate dedication and in a letter not not this not the dedication he actually writes to Yseph if you were the only student I had in my life it would be worthwhile. He says you are so beloved to me and he repeatedly refers to him as my son. In fact, when Yoseph bin Yehuda like Yoseph Jabbar, you know, wants to defend the Rambam and he has the he has the tools to do so because he's a more learned person. The Rambam says, and we next week we'll go over this in more more depth because it's beautiful language. The Rambam says,"I know I am like your father and you are like my son and I know that a son cannot have patience when his father is being denigrated. But I want you to know same idea. Your father is doing fine. Don't worry about it." an he says I understand that a son cannot contain himself but it'll be okay. You can get the impression like he's holding his hand from afar and saying it's going to be okay. Don't worry about it. And then fascinatingly the Rambam says when I was your age and even older I used to fight all of the people that criticized me too. The Ram says and we don't exactly have records. It says I used to somebody attacked me I attacked them and I gave you know as good as they gave me probably more. But the Rambam said with age comes wisdom with age comes patience. And at some point you realize you can't spend your life fighting. You spend your life doing what's good and the MS is going to be nital and don't spend your time fighting. Rav Cook said very beautifully a beautiful quote from Rav Cook that the way of a is not to fight darkness. The way of a is to generate light. You can't spend all your time attacking attacking attacking attacking. But you build light. You do goodness. You teach Torah and the light pushes away the darkness. Right? How do you you can't take a baseball bat and attack darkness, but you generate light and the darkness goes away by itself. And this is what the Rambam is saying, but it's it's so nice in a way that the Rambam is telling him, I used to be like you too. I used to be pugnacious. I used to be aggressive. I used to fight back. I was indignant, righteous indignation. But he said in the long run the Rambam says that's not how you build a life. So I want you to build a life. I want you to build a meaningful life and don't get involved in these types of fights and these types of pmics. Okay. So again words I mean words of wisdom that are you know [sighs and gasps] the Ram is like our our great greatgrandfather kind of telling us about what's important to in life. And uh this is something that I think is very very relevant to the world that we live in that we can still learn a lot a lot from. So you all have a wonderful week and you take care.