Rambam The Poet | Rabbi Dr. Aaron Alder | January 7th 2026

program is dedicated in memory of Danilo Ben Davidid and Limudbat Abraham Strauss and Mikai Ben Moshe and Raelbat Ysef Mayor Marcusa parents of Judia Manak and Marcus and our share is throughout the year as was last year Alishima Bat Zman from the Fris family we thank Harley for the and husband for the contribution okay Today it's not going to be the sitter and it's not going to be the road. It's going to be something very close to my academic heart. The Rambam the Rambam was a poet. Where do we see that the Rambam wrote poetry? Rambam wrote the Rambam wrote in his lifetime about 40 books of which most of them were not part of his Torah library. You got that one? They were either medicine, medical digests. You want to know about um nutrition? Read the Rambam. He's going to tell you what to eat and what not to eat. And and it's pretty good even in terms of modern medicine. the um there was a very very well-known doctor Fred Rosner Zan Labra who were who published medical books together medical books on medical ethics with Rabbi Tendler they were great tag team um and Rabbi Dr. Rosner put out a book on the Rambam and his medical rising writings demonstrating that 50% of what the Rambam wrote was 100% medically accurate today and another 25% look good wasn't 100% will look good. That means 75% of what the Rambam wrote 850 years ago >> was medically sound today against modern medicine. That's unbelievable. when you think about it. So he wrote things about um about uh um you know um food and uh and diet and so on, digestion, >> sleep, >> sleep. He's all about sleep. And he didn't listen to his own message. He said you should sleep 8 hours a night. He slept four hours a night. And he had 20 effective hours, hours that were that he could account for. No waste of time there in his 20 hours of being awake. But he he says himself he slept only four hours but he recommended eight hours of sleep for a normal person. The Rama believed that preventive medicine is the best medicine. Some say he stole the idea from Aristotle but say so Aristotle said it also and and it's not you know out of sync that the Rabam has it from Aristotle but he believed that it was absolutely true. Um you know why why have a person get sick and then start worrying about you know curing him? let's try to prevent him from getting sick and he believed that nutrition was one of the keys to proper health. So Rama writes these books on on on science and on philosophy and so on. So the books are the minority of his uh the Torah oriented books are the minority of his um 40 books except that the Ram believed that studying philosophy was also Torah and the Ram believed that studying medicine was also Torah. So the Ram didn't think in terms of bin kesh between kesh and the secular. Ram didn't believe that any of the studies were secular. He believed in keshes. You know we say that on Shabbat when Sunday is so we say kesh kesh and I love that. So inashim so we have like all the schools uh you know Jewish studies in the morning you know Torah studies in the morning and the afternoon you have general studies. So a lot of places they call them secular we had lemude kodes in the afternoon that was math and that was science and history and geography and language in the morning it was lemude kesh keshim it was the holy of holies. So there we learned Mishna and Gomorrah and Israel and so on. So that was the that was the it says in the Mishkan that divided between the kesh one section of the Mishkan and the keshim. So that kind of in accordance with the Rambam we could tolerate. there was such a but there's nothing essentially because the Ram believed that the study of the sciences is an integral part of the mitzvah of knowing and and therefore it's not only is it not Torah waste of time but it's actually a mitzvah to to to study this and look I I was indoctrinated by Rabbi Tendler because I actually never had aut of being in a sheir in yeshiva but he was my biology rebby I have no other word no other word to describe my relationship to Rabla my biology rebi so much you had to make a Torah before you walked into that chair of biology I'm telling you it was like unbelievable and I'll just say in his memory that um he he once in a lab situation where we were under microscope we had to draw pictures of cells we were doing cellular biology and everybody had their pencils and drawing their what we call in this country kishkushaya was um we didn't know what we were drawing and he was coming around he said no you missed something and finally you look again you draw a few more lines a few more dots and finally at the end he goes and the you didn't see I mean you're looking at a microscope you're looking at the DNA the fundamentals of life and you didn't see you guys are blind did he yell at us he yelled at us I'm tell I'll never forget that lesson that was a great lesson my biology rev so the um So Rambam wrote poetry as well. Yeah. >> Rab was also a researcher. He worked very hard in very long >> in cancer research. I know that. I know that. >> I know that. In the can. Yeah. In the 60s. >> Yeah. In the 60s. >> He was actually going to finish it here in Baron University in 1969. But the rest is history. He didn't come. But um but the Rambam like all the other greats poetry to them was like writing pros. So you grow up you learn how to write. So you learn how to write. But in Spain in the middle ages you learned how to write poetry also. And um to write poetry uh to the on the levels of the Ebenezra and Udali and so on you had to be a total expert in Tanakh in the lingu linguistics of Tanakh because you're going to play with the words and not just and also style of course and Kazal you have to know how Kazal used some of these words and you play on that too and then you put it together as a poem. So we do not have poetry of the Rambam but here and there he writes a poem. So in his introduction to his first major work, it's not his first work but his first major work and he's 23 years old is Rambam's commentary to the Mishna. Perusha Mishna Pirishna sometimes known erroneously as Peru Mishna. That's how they'll say it in the yeshiva world. And that's only because in the villas they erroneously called it Mishna. And it's between the Russia and the Marshall in the back of the Gmorra. You need to squint or you have to have reading glasses. And it's in Rashi print. And there are many print errors. Don't even bother with that. Today we have Raf Kapak who is the great Yemenite Dan who published 1963 to 1967 a new translation of the Rambam's perishna. Why translation? Because he didn't write it in Hebrew. He wrote it in in his Yiddish. But his Yiddish was Judeo-Arabic. in Judeo Arabic which means it's Hebrew letters it's alfbet um but um it's Arabic it's literary Arabic matter of fact I even have a page this is the Rambam's handwriting ra's handwriting of Judea Arabic of a page from his perish on as opposed to the Mishnetra that he wrote in Hebrew so obviously writing Hebrew it's going to be a lot easier for us than to read something in translation but the poem that he wrote for the translation is in Hebrew. And that's what we're going to do right now. So you take a look on top. It's two poems. It's two poems. The first poem is the first uh 10 lines that we have here. Is it 10 lines? And then afterwards it says he writes another poem where in the poem itself he's going to um market the book. He's going to market the book. And I always wondered when does a person write an introduction? Do you write the introduction when you finish a book or you write the introduction when you're starting to write the book? U and it's interesting. I guess the answer is depends which book. But many many authors will write the introduction when they finish the book because in the introduction they're telling the readers what they did in the book, what they're planning to do, the program of the book. And and the reason they do it at the end because sometimes in in in the midst of one's writing you change course. So then you'd have to change the whole introduction. The introductions usually are written uh at the end of the book and u and and then you know you you put the book out and so on. Um it's very likely that the Rambam wrote these poems uh at least the second poem at the end of his writing of the book. But the first poem sounds like it's a very it's an introduction to the introduction. It's written pretty early. So he's now 23 years old. And he writes as follows. Aerubin Moshe. The book that was written in the halot of Moshe. Which book was written in theot of Moshe? The Tory. The Torah. The Torah. It's a nice way of saying the Torah. But he's actually referring to the Mishna because the Mishna talks about the dim of Moshe Rabenu. The dim theult of the Torah is now was compiled in the book called the Mishna. Mishna was compiled in the 3rd century edited by Rabud Hani the very end of the period of the Tanim. It it was wrong that we were taught that Rabudasi wrote the Mishna. Now he may have written physically but uh composed the Mishna. The word editor is much more accurate because Rabu Dani himself uses material that predates himself. So there's no question that he's got material on the table and he's putting it together and the editorial job is what makes the Mishna the the sacred Mishna that it is and that is what he leaves out is important because what is trying to put into the Mishna is those areas of that are relevant for the bottom line he's going to tell us sometimes what the haka should be in spite of the fact that he sometimes will bring variant opinions. And when he brings variant opinions, you somehow can figure out what his opinion really was. For example, if there's a dispute between and somebody, no matter who the somebody is, we'll say, one of the not somebody earlier. As we have saying this and arguing, you pretty much know the is in accordance with the because the majority rules the majority rules and and the only question is why did he put the variant opinion in the alternate opinion into the Mishna Rabi himself actually explains why he does it. Ram elaborates on this to teach us that the opinion that was not in accordance with Allah is also in a crisis moment which means sometimes a pose has to be armed with variant opinions because in a particular shila in a particular case he's going to have to rely on opinion on an opinion that has validity although it's not the mainstream but in an emergency case in a crisis moment the pose has the right theic right to say okay I'm going to rely on this opinion and tell you yes you can do such and such >> an example >> give an example >> the um >> the the the examples are actually so numerous that I'm going to have to they they just um one case where you would rely on an opinion that um that normally we would say don't do it but in a circum special circumstances look you might you might think in the world of kashut because in kashut um in kashut you have you have different opinions on so many different matters um and you might be in a situation where the mainstream says such and such but now a person is caught in a scenario where he's going to have to rely on a view that's generally not according to so to say yes um because if he doesn't say yes it's going to incur major major financial loss or major major nephesh um you know somebody's going to really blank out and and and and have a real problem with this um the local RV has authority occasionally to to use um you know whatever view that that he has at his disposal sometimes to um tailor make a that's going to work for a particular person. Yeah. What about the case of insarams putting the room and some rabbis say that the one who pascin that they should not sacrifice the one with the room and and uh >> okay so there the issue is actually the flip side that they were using the halaka and the halaka caused an absolute calamity so somebody should have thought differently at the time somebody should have thought differently I would say that our was a genius in um or uh in in in uh uh use the word or to to to to create to not just create but to um um put together to put together that that would that would incorporate whatever views that we may have in order to allow you want something I mean something that don't quote me now for said but I can tell you that 1940s the rope was faced with the issue of of um all kinds of makeup for women on Shabbat. And and he was faced with a situation that women were coming to shul made up with everything with a lipstick and this and that that that and that that that this was a reality and the RV had and he knew that some of them some of the applications of the was problematic. He knew that. But he what he had to do was um somehow soften the blow and and and somehow redefine some of the things that would be considered biblical violations on Shabbad and make them only rebbitic because of circumstance. If you do it with a shinu, you do it a little change and it reduces the charge and then to introduce uh all kinds of uh things like you know woman doesn't feel that she's you know looks proper coming to shul and and we put all this into the shisle and we come up with that he wasn't saying hey you know you can do this he was saying that if this is what's being done it's not the end of the world. So there's a there's a way that he would market those kind of pisa by by by doing it. I call it halakic engineering and he was a genius in doing that but he would be able to put together all different types of views and say well you can rely on this and you can rely on that and and and so on. There there was a that says that if I do something and something automatically happens but um I I'm not interested that that secondary thing happens. So everybody says it's a rabbitic prohibition you still can't do it but there are some but one of the risham says that you're allowed to do it and that's a shita that sometimes the puskim will rely on in a crisis moment. So it's good to know all the alternate views out there. So just because the Mishna has a view that's not doesn't mean it's in the Giza it's been tossed out. It's not tossed out at all. So and and that's the case for all the the world the history of. So let's get back to the poem the book that was written composed with the law of Mosherenu which means he's talking about the Mishna now and to explain the to explain the and the religious the the right way means the the correct way the correct way of He's not only talking about the Mishna he's talking about I am going to explain that book what I'm doing in this bookishna there is a book called the Mishna and I'm going to come and explain to you the correct way of understanding the kat the way the in modern Hebrew we say the religion but the way the was was brought down was was copied by Our zakenu my zakim who are my zakim who are they where did I get this from Rambam is saying I'm not starting from a vacuum I have background I have background now at the very end of the Mishna commentary the Rambam says ani mohe ben mimon ben ben ben ben ben ben ben gives us 10 generations 10 generations of uh of his own family who were illustrious people in their own right. I mean each one you know the Rambam outshined them at the end of the day but Rabeno in Spain was like regarded as top as absolutely top and and uh known in in in the city that he lived in in Spain and so on. But someone want to suggest that the Rambam is intimating that he's actually a descendant of Rab Yehuda Hani. Now this is going to be very hard to prove, very very hard to prove, but it's been suggested that um that he actually comes from that generation. I don't remember exactly how this was built at, but if you look at the word Zakenu, it's spelled wrong. There's a u after the kofing >> right and um it should that u shouldn't be there. uh Raf Kapak points out and another who wrote the who edited the poem Rafilat that in the manuscript that we have this poem the Ram wrote that Yud which means it's not an accident and it's there he's dropping a hint for something and someone want to suggest I don't remember exactly how that came about that he wants to suggest that it's not just his grandfather or great-grandfather but he's talking about somebody who really goes way back and maybe even to the days of Rebui maybe but he's definitely lording his forefathers who taught him. Rama was taught by his father. He was homeschooled by Rabeno. Bonav they bu they built something they built a structure which the phrase means it's used by the Rambam himself later on in life um where he um where he writes about Msiah he says I'm I'm quoting now from the 11th chapter of which is the very very end of the Mishna Torah where he talks about Mashiach and he says if somebody from the Davidic line arises is knowledgeable well knowledgeable in Torah and is involved in mitzvah performance like his poor father David both in the written law and the oral law and he's able influential an amuse to follow in this path. bitka. It was a phrase that I had a little difficulty trying to figure out what the raom actually meant. But um Rabeno Google helped me a little bit that in the in the context of a puk um in Yeshaya it actually meant observance that that that that the melamsiach is going to not only be somebody who's going to succeed in spreading Torah but he's also going to spread mitzvah observance by the people and and having seen that I came back to the poem here. Bonav bonav he he built they built something was it was fortified u that the observance of Torah is going to be accomplished by this book a a compilation who's writing it shim somebody who's weak and young in years he's talking about himself this is autobiographical Raam is 23 years old at the time and he says who am I? Who am I? You know against all the grades. Who am I? Moshe Benon. Moshe the son of my aer who calls out to God to straighten my path which means I'm sorry the Rambam is is is offering that I don't go off the derek now not in the modern sense they didn't become religious today you say that off the derek the derk of the exact way of understanding Torah. There is a path in say this is the where the word comes from. It's the road that we've traveled all the years and you can go off that road by misunderstanding something in the Rama says if you don't understand comprehend properly you're off the road and he's asking for divine help and guidance. Now we know that there is a there's a of it says when you go into you should say it's and among other things says shalom I shouldn't stumble I say the right thing in I once asked and I wrote this in my book if um if if a uh if a if every yeshiva in the morning has to say this said it's not meant for yeshiva so yeshiva if he has a head will understand the tooth, he'll understand the Rambam. You can say that a 100 times if he doesn't have a head, he's not going to understand anything. That's what he but he said was meant for people who are kala. They need special divine guidance to to to guide them to especially in these unique private questions where perhaps not all the personal information is given over to the pose but but that information is actually essential that should somehow guide the pose around. And here you see that the um the the Rambam as a young person 23 years old is asking to guide him on the path l to God means a type of ice cream to God to have his Torah not only stand by side his desire. He's got this tremendous desire, but also the desire is his. But what does he need God for? Bin here means bina understanding. He needs climbing the mountain of understanding is if you're a mountain climber. So you you attach ropes ropes ropes to help you pull yourself up the mountain. He's asking a kadoshu to pull out the ropes to allow him to climb the mountain of bina. He's saying this in poetic way. So the word bina is not there. It's been har the mountain of understanding. And I have a typo here. It's a hey instead of a bed at the end of the word. We actually had that phrase in the in the wrote means basic basic nourishment as opposed to supplementary right on Shabbat we have the and extras that's we was doing these wero so here Ram is using that not just the basics but I want to get everything I want the bi And I want and what's the difference between and so is the intelligence to to to retain material that in your mind you become an encyclopedia. Bina is analysis that you have all these different pieces of information and now you want to put it together and and and show what Kazal call to learn something from and to extrapolate it from something else. That's called bina. There's actually a third um level and that's called dea and da means practical application and that is to take the theoretical knowledge now apply it to Mr. Mrs. So and so the and so so you have here is asking for just as we do in our daily isma by the way it's just a synonym of and are the abbreviation of that's why the uh organization was called that because of the higher three concentric circles above the seven spirro which were and then we if I if I'm gifted ra I'm saying if I'm gifted with the ability of understanding and wisdom coupled with my great desire to do this to put together such a compendium to explain the Mishna so that everybody is going to know what to do which means the Rambam actually believe that there's going to be value by writing this parish even though he goes on later in life and he does something even more extra extravagant the Mishnet but at least at this stage he definitely feels that he wants to bring things to a bottom line what is the he's going to tell us in every single he's going to tell us what is the and there are those out there some scholars who thought that The Rambam in the Mishna commentary never concerned himself with halaka were outright wrong. They were pursuit wrong because the Rambam when he made changes in his own he went back to the Mishna commentary and made the changes not even so subtle changes but very very obvious changes and the Rama was honest. So now he says after all said and done then us then when this is going to be complete what's going to be apparent word vision everybody's going to be able to see it it's going to be obvious the greatness of God that's one and you're going to see what I put together here is it me or is it mosher Raenu he's talking about or both or both that comes from Ding on Shabas morning he cut and pasted it from chakras on Shabbat and so on it's an unbelievable statement now just to be honest the word in this line all three and I mean and there's to say uh raenowitz but I'm not talking about no rainowitz I'm talking about professor do raenowitz who published for the um series called raam la the introductions of the raam so they all have comments that in the manuscript of the raam itself it's a little bit fudgy it's it's not clear what the word is but um Ravilat suggested something else kapak went with this and bopi matno but that's it's not terri ly critical. But what you do see is he's saying at the end is going to be very proud of me what I'm doing here >> or he >> or he or both. You're never going to know. Who did you mean by this? And and um I'm wondering if the Rambam prophetically sees himself as some type of spiritual extension to Mosher Obenu. Now, not long after the Ramom dies, it was already said about him. son-in-law in his um one of his articles writes that already in the in the 13th century Ram dies in 1204 and if you want to know why I'm doing this today because tomorrow night is the Ramom's yard site it's the 20th of uh vet and um in the uh and he died in 12 1204 so at the beginning beginning of 13th century in southern France where Rambam was extremely popular it was already said about him which meant for until today we've haven't had anyone as great >> other said the same thing. >> So you're stealing the show. Are you going to tell me that it was also said about Mosha Mendelson and it was also said about the Katam Sophair once it once it took it took off once it was there. So those who've been to Krakow behind the Ramosul in the cemetery where the Rama himself is buried. Um, so you it's there's a whole beautiful poem there and one of the lines is every line of that poem ends with be Israel be Israel because Ram the Ramos's father was Israel Israel Israelite. Yeah, that's why. Yeah. So it's a so the idea was from the Rambam until the Ramo Rabosha is no one was as great as the Ramo. So that's a secondary usage of mimosh mohe but the original was about the raam. Now the raam was called moisha. Why? So if you look at those 10 generations there's no moisha there. Rambam wasn't named after a zeda a grandfather. There were those who wanted to say that from Mosher Abenu until the Rambam, nobody even used the name Mosha as a name, as a first name. >> Not true. Not true. You see, you got to be careful. You have to be careful when you make those kind of statements. Yeah. >> Well, I know it might actually be maybe maybe a grandfather on his mother's side because the Ben Ben would be on his father's side. >> I thought of that. But um when the Ram talks about Yus, the mother's side doesn't come into play. Okay. So I didn't want to raise that sensitive issue there but uh okay but in the eerret Rafira Gon the father of Rafaon end of 9th century he's got a whole listing of all the gonim from the sixth to the 10th century. Gonim doesn't mean great lambdaim some were but it simply means he was the president of the yeshiva in Baghdad. President of the yeshiva university president he was the Russa. Now the rashiva could have been an outstanding and many were outstanding like sad like his father like you can name them who were the greats and some were administrators administrators right university it was a very fine president of university who was neither a rabbi nor a doctor Mr. Richard Joel and he did a nice job what he did and so on but traditionally there was ra you know dove revel he was a god an absolute great Dr. Belulkin was an unbelievable Rabbi Lamb was a serious serious serious Jewish scholar and so on and there was Mr. So besid that happened in the days of the gaim the term gaon was the title was the title. So it only was in the modern age that somebody who was an illuminary an outstanding luminary got the title goon and it was given to the goon from vna. Why they wanted to say that he's a historic misfit he's in the 18th cent end of the 18th century but he belongs 100 years a thousand years ago he belongs with the greats you know so he's the go and today you know as rav said the term has been eroded and watered down so that every moshim is a ravagin so it doesn't mean anything anymore doesn't mean anything ra okay you're also a rain I mean uh I was once at a wedding with the raal sitting there and every guy was getting up was going ra and ra mal said I didn't know we're back in the period of the go everybody's a go it's um so so the raam was what we know from a letter of his grandson that he was born on pes he was born of pes nissan and the family saw in him greatness. And it's not an accident that they gave him the name Mosha that this is the next Mosha born on the day that Amish Israel leaves Mitsay and he is in Egypt. I mean he was then in Spain but ultimately in Egypt and he sees himself as a redeemer of sorts just as it was said about Masharenu in this week's para that varu they saw he was good when he was born and Raji said male habay something happened in the house of Rabeno that they understood that something very very special is going to be in this boy and they called him Moshe And Ram grew up with that responsibility and so on. And you see here in this poem how he's not just phonetically connecting his name Mosha with Mosher Rabenu, but there's something about what he is doing here. He's doing Moshu Rabenu's work right here. And later on when in age 35 and he writes the Mishnatyra, he calls it Mishna Tyra. Why? Who's called Mishna Tyra? Sepharim that Mishra Rabenu writes he uses the same name and that's not an accident. And he says all you have to do is study and then study my book and you're all set and you're all set. In other words, if you bypass the Mishna and the He's not telling you to bypass, but if you do here, this is a digest of the whole Tyra. It's all here on a silver platter. Mishna and he sees himself as a type of not to almost going over the whole ceremony of mra from Sai and he's now giving the to and he's also Moshe he sees himself in in this vein just uh Monday past Monday I uh I gave a share somewhere else uh in your in Hebrew and there was a speaker before me and he was talking about Parat Shimote and he mentioned that the med says that Mosher Rabenu had 10 names. Okay, 10 names and I remembered that one of the name and he list them all. One of the nicknames of Machenu is Avdar. Avdigdar. And it clicked right that second. I said, "Wow, you know the the poet um Elazar Khalier who lives in the seventh century in Erit Isel who many of our kinote and were authored by Elazar Khal uses Rabenu's named when talking about the melik Yoshiu. There's a that we say on tish above me. There's an elegy that your mow gives for the melo that that's a pu can say for your meow except that the text of the of the pute we don't have we don't have yo's hespid for it just says that yao eulogized yeso so khal many years the yosha the king yosha not yoshi and and and this was a king who after many many years of aod Daza cleaned house, cleaned up the house and he was really one of the best kings. So Khalier takes upon himself to write the hespid. He writes the hespid as if yo obviously it's a fictitious hespid but if yo would have to write the husband here I'm I'm giving you a text this would be it's very similar to what the did once with the hpid that gave for spoke the kot what was the hespit the r wrote the hespit so it's a similar idea that you know okay what would it be said you know so what would your meow have said so that's the and in this he says a it's a great linear means here even the other kings the previous kings who try to put up a fence against Avodazar none was so successful like this one. So how does he say none was so successful like this one from the days of there was never a king like you know what he's saying he's saying he's saying that's what he's saying he's using that concept of with regard to he's saying it here as the First time I ever saw such an analogy to in his nickname a vikar here. This hit me this Monday, two days ago. But we're talking about the Rambam and Ram has this unbelievable poem and is introduces it. And now we get to and it's another poem. So yeah, >> I'm sorry. Just to take us back to the second line above, >> right? Well, I I I'm just wondering if the the original if the original source of this is actually it's in talks about put a right see it shows that I'm a product of yeshiva. I I brought a ram to to help me with the phrase, right? It's like, oh yeah, I know that in Sanin, right? Or better, it's a I say it with great embarrassment. With great embarrassment. Okay. What you have in this poem is two parts. And I'm actually going to get to the second paragraph soon because the first part is basically he's inviting us to a meal, a spiritual meal. And he's going to use Shiraim and other images of Tanakh which I put on the page uh from source number one all the way down to source number 15 16 even. Um where these sources come from. Let me just run through it. You'll see what I'm talking about. Let's sit down and and reading the poem means a gift. I'm going to I'm providing you with a gift. And he's saying please take heed. I've got something to offer you. A nice gift through this I'm going to teach my students here. students about eat well. This is going to be a garden that's going to be fertilized garden. It's going to be a lot of good stuff here. to understand what exactly that meant. Where do you have he said to you, right? That was drawn out of the water. But this line of if you just look at source number four from the is used by to explain that this is the Yates and what the Rambam is saying here. The Yates never got the better of me. I beat him. I beat him. He never caused me to go off track because he could have. Many things in life could have caused me to derail what I'm doing here, but I beat him. I didn't didn't happen. And that's where he says and then the next poem part is the did not undermine me. And everything he was trying to pull me away he didn't succeed. All the things that tried to detract me it didn't work. lifted straight out of the book of Daniel where Daniel and Mishael and Azar were invited basically drafted into the the service of the king and the king wanted to provide them with good food and everything and he refused to eat the tra food and the trafe wine that was being offered to him and so on. And the Rabab is saying, "I was offered so many different enticements in life and I rejected them all. Me and Danil could shake hands here." You know, there there was food and here it was all kinds of enticements in life to have him derailed. He could have just stayed in medical school and gone to become a nice doctor or a nice lawyer, right? You know the way the the grandmother's rolling the carriage of the twin boys and they say, "What's his name? What their names? Oh, he's the doctor. He's the lawyer. You know, like you try to gear them towards that. The Ram says, "I did not get derailed. >> Turn to my what >> number is this? Not yours. >> It's it's I'm reading the poem. >> I'm reading the poem. The the sources are following one by one." But the Brahma is saying come into my kitchen. Come into I'm inviting you into my kitchen means my come into my kitchen. I'm the chef and I'm telling you what I'm putting together here. I've got old wine here. I've got good stuff. I'm offering here good stuff. I've prepared the table. Everything is all in order. I think he wrote this after he finished the book. You know, eat from my bread and drink from my wine. I've got fresh fruits. I've got fruits that uh that that are probably um you know like not not not readily available. So here the Rama might be playing on a very interesting medish onim that when you repeat the Torah of previous generations their lips are moving in the grave and Ram is saying I'm not saying things for myself I'm going to be repeating what the great said in the last thousand years since rebui but what I'm offering now trumat yi this is the my first truma is the first thing you take off from the grain you give to the coen this is my truma whatever I wrote before books that I wrote they're inconsequential compared to what I'm offering now this safer is my first major contribution trumat yi I'm giving the fruits, the truma of my wine. The first of my um my grains my again it's a this is a poetically saying all my produce the my oils are from the finestim the bread is the bread of of of of nights It's like that came from a is the way the mun tasted. And he's saying my food here is from the table of the whon the commentary. Our fourths have learned which means uh and all the strictures that put up which means that the name that are found in the and they were guided by again this this puk comes from a puk not I have it here where was it in number 13 keroy edro where is telling I'm going to gather you in and give you direction means I'm the I'm the one who's going to give you direction here the the fundamentals which are the fundamentals of yad and of and the minim and the zerot and the tak the great the strong ones. He said it in the poem. I'm a weakling. But I'm going to bring you the Torah of the ones who were strong. They were really strong. And they were strong from when back from the that's a as well which means I'm going to teach you everything in this that you have to know from the days of it's like a tower of David there were there were shields on here. He's he's using imagery of war because speak about the the battle of Torah to understand it and I am prepared with all the weaponry that's necessary. I am fully armed fully armed to for this task because I as 23 years old have mastered the Torah. >> One second. One second. Let let me let me get to this next point. Who am I? Ani Moshe bin Hassari. I'm in Spain now. He writes this. He's left Spain Spain. He left Spain at age 13, fled with his family to Morocco. And he's in Fez, Morocco. from Fez. He takes the local, you know, the the the non-stop from Maracos, from Morocco to Tel Aiv didn't fly yet, right? LL wasn't flying that day. So he's taking a local a boat that's going to go on the North African coast and he's going to end up here and there and there but he ends up in Erit Israel at the end of this journey and he's there for a half year and then comes back to Alexandria and from Alexandria by donkey or wagon or whatever makes his way to old Cairo which is Fostat old Cairo in the area of Cairo today. So those are his travels from age 13 to age 30. Now if he starts writing this at age 23, where is he? He's on the boat partially on the ground cuz there was no non-stop. So they would, you know, dock here and get off. Dock here and get off maybe in Carowan in Tunisia where there was even a yeshiva. He may have been there for a short while. But he writes that part of this safer is written on the boat. Now he didn't have a laptop. He didn't have the discon key to put in project of Barilan University. What swarum do you think he had? None. He's writing from his head. I mean this is unbelievable. This is unbelievable. And it's not an accident that when he gets to Mitsayan and his access to so many different sources, he changes his mind on many many different things based on what he himself thought you know what I didn't get it right or I want to change it and so on. And he has access now to many of that came from the east which means it came from the yeshivot of Baghdad. The ishivot of the post amim theim. He says it in the Mishna. I've got two manuscripts I'm holding that are 500 years old. He says it and if you want to check me out it's inve. And he he's telling me I have two manuscripts that are 500 years old. And on the basis of that, I'm changing I'm telling you what the is against what others thought. And was he he was so careful to in Mitzim to triplech check things that he wrote. And he went back to his Mishna commentary and he makes adjustments. He made literary stylistic adjustments, hakic adjustments, explanation adjustments, many adjustments. But now he says, "Who I who am I? I come from Spain. I built this. I built this whole structure called the parish of Mishna. I've drawn it out of the sea of the Talmud. Both the Talmud and this is the word of Mosher Rabenu, right? Drew it out. We we're now going to talk about different beautiful stones and jewelry and ornaments. And he's referring to all his sources. I used the Talmudim theot I used to also different fine fine jewelry. The safra is tofta is the addendum to the Mishna that was put out after the Mishna and it's extra material auxiliary material to the Mishna called thefta yes we have it and the saf is the medra that's the mid on I counted on I relied on the words of And I refined it. I polished it like silver polish and my own mind is also a source. Now I know where the ruff got this from. We had this guy and from a a different yeshiva not from wu sat in the shir and the ruff said a big big no novel idea and the guy raises his hand. He says, "What's the rough source?" And the ruff said, "A glata cup, a straight head." That's a source also. That's also a source. And here the ra is saying after all the sources I have the gamarra and I have the topha and I have the safra and I have the cphree and I have the gonim and I also have myself. I have myself. It's just a wonderful vineyard. day and night I'm work I'm planting here I'm working on this and and and every moment I gave thought to this I see the fruits coming out it's now ripening these are phrases straight out and his fragrance and his fruits. I've opened the doors of and I have not shut them. Everything is clearly straight and guided. And I'm sending this as a as a gift to my students. It's a puss straight out of out of Yesha saying that in the third beta mikdash everything is going to be on the table on the table. Um readied and and and this is what I'm offering to you. What do you think the rabb thought of himself? >> I was going to say his parents instilled such self-confidence. >> Yeah, fair. His parents did a good job with instilling self-confidence, right? So does this mean he's a shakan? Shakan means he just um >> show off >> arrogant. Is that is that what he's saying here? >> D taught us that when it says about Rabenu Mosheav that doesn't mean Rabenu who is the greatest humblest person doesn't mean he thought of himself as a piece of nothing. Because if you are great and think of yourself as a piece of nothing, you are totally irresponsible. Because there are going to be challenges in life that ash granted you the ability, the talents and to do to perun to function and perform and you're just stepping aside and letting somebody else do it. That is irresponsible. Gave you things to do to work with. And the rub explained once that the Yates are those drives that unfortunately can drive a person off the road, but if you use galvanize those drives properly, they're going to add up to your personality and to your responsibility. And the Rab once said, Mosher Rabenu knew who Mosher Rabeno was. He knew exactly who he was and Rabaka knew who Rabaka was. And the Rambam knew who the Rambam was and I know who I am. That was the end of that sentence. By the way, the RV's self-evaluation was who the RV was. He knew how great he was. The Rambam knew exactly how great he was. And because of that, he assumed the responsibility of doing something that he felt Cla urgently needed. and that akadosh put him into that position with his abilities, with his acquired knowledge, with his literary talents and his ability to impact on people. And he goes for it and he goes for it and he says, "And I've done my job. I've done my job." And this is just the first book that he's writing. And and the Mishna ultimately outclasses the Pirisha Mishna. So whatever you think about the Ram in his Mishna commentary, he himself outclasses himself in the subsequent book, the Mishna Torah. Get an idea of who am lost on the 20th of Tvate in the year 1204. Rabim Mosha bin very special. No, very special. >> Did the others all write about themselves? All these great people that you mentioned. >> Not always have something like this. >> Not always. Not always. Raasha Feinstein took the other line. Fine writes in this first volume of Igro Moshe he says I'm not a I mean this is like the understatement of the millennia right saying I'm not a poet I'm you know listen and he used to sign nobody but he says there's an interesting if somebody sees you as a authority and ask you a question, you have an obligation to give the person an answer. Now, if you don't know the answer, you don't tell the person, "All right, go to somebody else." No, you have to go do the leg work. If you have to look it up, talk to somebody, inquire, whatever. It's your responsibility to get the answer to that person because the person saw you as the Torah authority. So, Raasha says, "It's my fault that 10,000 people saw me as answer your question." That's what he writes. It sounds very funny. >> Thanks, London. And his name was Misha also. >> Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. So there Misha takes the more obviously humble uh you know he's not writing who how great he is at all at all. I mean today that's not Yeah. A >> take Jewish law recogniz when the Rama was alive they knew it already. They were already copying his book. The Rambam's book of 14 books. He issues it after the halfway mark, the 50 odd line. When people are knocking on the door, they hear that he's writing this and he's doing it in order and he allows copious to copy the first seven books already. That absolutely causes problems for him later when he make changes in it and people don't have the changes. Okay. But it shows that the Rambam was already the Rambam when he was still alive. When he was still alive. >> That one was 23. >> So 23. Not yet. Not yet. But when he's 35, 40, when he's 40 years old, they know who he is already. >> They know he is. >> He dies. He's that's a in the end of the Mishna Mishna writes, he writes that um I'm writing this now. I'm finishing it and I'm 30 years. I started when I was 23 and now I'm 30 years old. Now, we know he dies in 1204. We also know that he writes he gives a date of when he finishes the Mishna commentary and it's 1168. Take 30 years before that it's 11:38 except that in most old history books it says the Ram was born in 1135. So there's a little bit of a contention here but today it's pretty much assumed to 1138. He lived till age 66. Age 66 and he did so much. Okay, we did something in the Rambam.