Rambam Mishneh Torah: Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah Chapter 6

the yeshiva.net [Music] welcome everybody we begin rambam it's important to remember that the rambam's system and organization is always par excellence so before each halacha the rambam enumerates the mitzvahs that are going to be discussed in that halacha in the beginning of he said we're going to be exploring 10 mitzvahs of the 613 mitzvahs we still have a few to go the first four chapters he dealt with the mitzvah of ideas hashem knowing that there is a god not entertaining the thought that there is another god knowing god's unity love of hashem and or of hashem in chapter five he discussed the mitzvah of kiddush hashem to sanctify hashem and the prohibition of desecrating hashem's name the eighth mitzvah there's still three myths was to go the eighth mitzvah he said was shalollah abba dwarim shaniqua alayhim not to destroy things upon which his name is conferred on them this is the theme of chapter six patagov anyone who destroys a name of the holy the sacred and pure names with which hashem is called and defined like this is an absolute prohibition in turn and therefore under certain certain circumstances the penalty can be lashes what's the source because the toyota says about idolatry in parties is you should destroy their name from that particular place where the idols are located do not do the same thing to hashem your god so this is a clear mitzvas lysa says that a person is not allowed to destroy any of the names of the holy and pure names by which hashem is called base with shiva shema say there are seven names says the ramen that go into this category that one is biblically prohibited of destroying any of these names number one hashem that is the name that is written out as a yud anahae and which is known as the shame of irish the explicit name that so to speak defines hashem or also if it's written as alef dalid nunyut because they're both pronounced the same way when we see in the written text yud and hey and hey or we see al of dalai dunyud in both cases we pronounce them as olive dollar dunyud that is the first of the seven names that the rambam lists number two the name kale aleph lamid number three eloika al-aflamed hey number four eloi is the seventh so again we have youth cave of k or al of dalai dunyud then we have kale alayka kim somebody erases even one letter from these seven names there is a biblical prohibition against this and therefore the penalty can be lashes as i mentioned in other classes we do not yet we did not yet learn how penalties are given and under what circumstances there are many many conditions for somebody to actually get lashes it was not very easy to get lashes it was in fact extremely extremely difficult we will get there in rambam much later when he discusses that when he says about all of these negative prohibitions you receive lashes it's just a way of saying that this is an outright prohibition in toyota and therefore potentially it warrants a penalty of lashes like a lashes what's the to share not only if you erase the whole name you then hey erase the whole thing even one letter once the name is written the whole name is sacred and holy and therefore even if i erase one letter it is prohibited gimmel now we discuss prefix and suffixes all the letters that are adjacent to hashem's name preceding the name you're allowed to erase it for example hashem obeys me let's say you write the word hashem to hashem and that base don't profess don't possess the sanctity of the name therefore you're not erased but anything that's adjacent to hashem's name following the name subsequent to the name there's a difference between the prefix and the suffix for example when you write hashem the name is loike the name is you have hashem's name here as the rambam says you have alika but here you added your god that's the suffix or like we're saying krishmani hashem ellie hem your god in the plural what if i erase not hashem's name but i erased the suffix i raised the langerhof or the khafmem here the rambam says you now let her erase it why because the name sanctified it what does this mean the prefix was written before i wrote hashem's name so it's not holy the lamid la shem is not holy but the eloy that was written after about hashem's name so the sanctity of that name is now applied it extends it expands into the letter that serves as the suffix that letter became also sacred as he says now shame the name was makadesh also those letters that came following the name was first the name was written and then this is written subservient to the name as a suffix allah your god we wrote god and then you so therefore the you becomes an extension of hashem's name because it was written afterwards as an extension and therefore it's holy so you're not allowed to erase it is and even though these suffixes became holy and you know that erased them if you do there is absolutely no penalty of lashes however there's macho noise marcus madison means you give one rebellious lashes for rebelliousness which is basically the way of saying that this is a rabbinic prohibition and therefore the court decides what is the best way and most appropriate way to penalize this person it's not a biblical prohibition or even some who say it is a biblical prohibition but it's not something that deserves a biblical penalty it would be like if somebody eats a hat sheer let's say somebody eats a a half of the sod the volume of an olive of something that's prohibited so according to the halal it's awesome but there's no penalty for it so this is also a discussion is it rabbinically prohibited or biblically prohibited but there's still no penalty of allah if somebody writes aleph lamed from the name la kim i want to write the name ali kim but i start writing al-aflam and i don't finish it whatever happens i didn't have a chance to finish it or i want to write youth and hey and i already so what's the issue the name was never written so i can erase it because there's no holiness in terms of they erase it certainly if you're writing uk as a separate name because it's one of hashem's name because the name utk is part of hashem's name so even if you're writing it as part of yut kevke even if you're writing it as part of youtube and you didn't finish writing the whole name or as the rambam says you wrote aleph lamich from l.a kim and you didn't finish writing the whole name but al of lamin itself is a name and utk itself is a name and therefore i cannot erase but if somebody writes a shin and a dalit from the name shindala dude i only write shin dal and i wanted to write the whole name but i didn't have a chance to finish it or i write sadiq based from its voice then you are allowed to erase it why because dalit is not hashem's name saddik vase is not hashem's name shin dalit is not hashem's name so these are this is not a holy name i don't care if you erase it and you destroy it in the other case i wrote alof lamin from eli kim even though i wanted to write a like him but the aleph lament itself possesses holiness because it's one of hashem's seven names the same is true with yud and hey from even though i wanted to write it as part of yudkevke but that itself is also a name of hashem and therefore the rambam says you're now allowed to you're not allowed you're not letting erase it there are some uh issues here with the text of the rambam and different versions in the rambam says something very interesting was one of the greatest rabbis of the 19th century the rover of novardec now vardik in lithuania writes that when rambam says he actually means if you write it out completely if you write aleph and lamid from la kim like you read alof lamid faye and then lamid mem dalit or the full ud and the full hey the rambam hold you in allah they erase it which explains why derivative argues with the rambam who are here because it seems like the arrival agrees with the ram but he says he argues because the rambam is this birth and derivative says that's not the case only if you write allah in allah erase it or you'd hey you're not letting erase it we have different expressions which we describe hashem through for example he's gracious compassionate great mighty awesome loyal zealous powerful etc he says these are like the other divre hakodesh sacred words and you're allowed to erase them rama says it's not a problem to erase this name it's only the shiva shame is the seven names that he enumerated before which are not erased it's interesting that in the seven names he did not mention the name utk even though later in allah he didn't mention the name you can i said one of the commentators says because the gemara says on the passage in parties bashar al-admin hashem's name is incomplete until amalek's name is not erased it doesn't allow the utk to be synthesized with avovka and make it a complete name so therefore the uk is considered a different category because it's considered in hashem shalom nonetheless it is part of the shame of furish and it is considered nonetheless hashem's name even though it's incomplete and therefore you're not allowed to erase the yud and the hey i know some texts say here at sifri hakai dash i'm quoting the manuscript of oxford and berlin of the rambam where it says not because this creates a real situation here because iran says it's like the other holy writings which you're not allowed which you're allowed to destroy a lot of erase and that would seem to contradict what he's going to say in allah but if it says it means it's like other holy words that were not written as part of a tanakh or toyota which the rambam holds apparently you're allowed to erase cliche kosovo fascinating allah if you have a vessel and the name of hashem was written on the vessel somebody wanted to give you a beautiful a beautiful gift so they gave you a quart to wash your hands and they write hashem's name right so you should be able to know the bracha that you write that you say when you when you wash your hands so they have hashem's name written on the kali you koichi to cut out the place of hashem's name and you have to conceal it you have to uh you have to hide it out of a sign of respect you can't even benefit from that part where hashem's name is written in other words it's not just you keith says you you cut it out what do you care if it's there you're not going to erase it but actually the rambam is teaching you forget about destroying it i can't even benefit from the part of the kali where hashem's name is on it use it for my personal benefit but and even if the name of hashem was engraved in a metal vessel or in a glass vessel and the person melts down the vessel this is considered destroying hashem's name because you actively destroyed hashem's name when you melt down a vessel hit it you destroyed hashem's name and therefore they could be the penalty of lashes and here there's a big hidden because this name is not written on a manuscript it's not written in a sepha toyota it's just a name written on akeli it's not the place for it the rambam says no this is holy amna melt down the vessel so what do you do you cut out the place of gonzaga and you hide it what happens if somebody writes hashem's name on his flesh he writes it on his flesh can you imagine he writes what do you do now i resv the person should not wash this place or smear it with oil because basically what you're doing is you're erasing hashem's name nor can you stand in a place of excrement because it's disrespectful to the holiness of hashem that's manifested in the name that's written on my flesh fascinating islam shall mitzvah what a person has to go to the mikvah and it's a mitzvah to go to the mikveh then curacao of gammy vertoval then he wraps some reeds around it and he goes into the by matsugami if he has no reads miss he uh wraps it around with a cloak with with something from one of his garments don't make it too tight because you don't want to make a hat partition between your flesh and the water of the mikveh since this is a mikvah which is a mitzvah shallow um but then you have a problem if you're not going to make it tight then the water is going to penetrate and erase the name says the reason they wanted you to wrap something around the name is only for one reason because you're not allowed to stand in front of hashem when you're naked and when there's a name on of hashem on my flesh and i'm going down to the mikvah i'm basically present in front of hashem or hashem's energy hashem's holiness hashem says hashem when i'm naked so therefore i wrap it around and i can seal it so if i don't mind if there's still a little space it shouldn't be so uh it shouldn't be so tight because i need the water to go in i when the water goes in i am going to it's going to get erased and the rambam said you now let her wash it off and you now let us smear oil on it what's the difference the difference is when i smear oil on it or i wash it off let's say i take a a washcloth and i scrub it off i take soap and i scrub it over with my hand i take wood and i rub it off then i am directly destroying it the pasta that the rambam was lying but when i'm going to the mikvah i'm trying to do a mitzvah and because the water gets into it it gets erased that i am not liable for i'm not liable for it this is not a direct act of erasing it this is called aggrama it's a dovers ain't a miscavi my intention is not to erase hashem's name my intention was to go to the mikvah it's possible it's going to get erased this is called dover-shayna which is not secretion it's not inevitable and i didn't have intention and i'm not doing it directly of course i'm doing something else and therefore it is fine to do i why do you then have to cover it not because you don't want to erase it because you're allowed to allow the water to erase it only because you're not going to stand in front of hashem without claws when you're naked if somebody destroys even one rock in a way of destruction meaning what does it mean in the way of destruction not for the sake of renovation i'm not trying to repair i am trying to destroy even one rock from the mizbaya from the altar or from the hill from the sanctuary or from the shah hazard the other parts sections of the courtyards of the bay samiktush leica this is a biblical prohibition with the potential for lashes says by idolatry you should destroy their altars the custom and the passage continues don't do this to hashem destroy the altars the sanctuary of hashem if somebody burns the wood the beams of hectares of the sanctuary to in order to destroy it like again there's a penalty of lashes the pasta says the trees of idolatry you should burn and fire uk but don't do this to hashem your god and therefore we have here another prohibition till now we spoke about destroying hashem's names now we're talking about destroying a part of the mizbayach the hegel the azara the beams and wood of hectares this is all biblically prohibited all of the sacred writings which refers usually to the writings of tanach that are transcribed on parchment or pirushayam and their commentaries ubiurayam and their explanations us you're not allowed to burn them or destroy them with your hands in other words to directly destroy it by burning it with your hands is prohibited and if somebody does that again he receives the rebelliousness the lashes of rebelliousness which is the idea that the rabbis the court determines what is the appropriate penalty we're not talking about holy writings that have hashem's name if it has hashem's name and you burn it and you destroy it we already spoke that that's a biblical prohibition here we're talking about the holy writings of the tanakh but it's not it's verses that the or explanations that don't have hashem's name and this includes their commentaries and their explanations fascinating when is this said because it comes from israel if it was holy writings that were written by a jew in holiness the jew wrote it with a consciousness with a sense of kedus of severe but what happens if you have an epicurus israel meaning a jewish heretic a jew who doesn't believe that the terror is divine the turtle is from heaven and he writes a safety toyota he writes kiswaka he writes a wholesafer toyota from beratious till the end what's the surfing you burn it together with the names of hashem inside of it what do you mean because this person does not believe in the holiness of hashem and therefore he did not write it for the sake of hashem in his mind it's just regular literature you have shakespearean plays and you have biblical texts and therefore because in his mind it is only literature so therefore vahayu vidaytay kane since this is his mindset when he's writing these words even ashram's name is kadesh hashem the name never became sanctified because for this person it's just literature and therefore there's no prohibition of destroying it on the contrary mitzvoth why would it be a mitzvah to burn it just say you could burn it he says in order not to leave over a name for the heretics or their actions fascinating this is all somebody who's a jew and he's a heretic he doesn't believe avalon he wrote hashem's name then going to say or if you have the holy writings which are just decomposed they ran it after a while i should cast from them or a gentile wrote them not hashem's name just kiss holy writings here again all of the names that are said in the story of avraham in bereshias and parshas vayara are all holy in other words they refer to hashem it's a fascinating halal in the beginning of parasha's vayera three guests come to visit avramovino avramavinu turns to the guests and he says it says refers to aleph nunyud please don't go away from my ma from your servant who is this al of dallas you're referring to on one level you could say he's referring to the three guests he calls them my master my master speaking to the one who was the most senior one of them i met please don't leave if that's the case if i write that word out of nunud you can erase it because it's not hashem's name it's just my master it's a human master the people who are visiting or the angels who are visiting says iran that's not the case the al of dhalid nuniyud here is referring to hashem and therefore you kiddish and therefore it's sacred unlike the opinion so this is a discussion in masaka hey is this al of dallas referring to the angels referring to hashem is referring to hashem and of course the consequences are enormous not only if you're allowed to erase it but some think eq if something's so significant if hashem was telling the angels please don't if um it was ton of angels please don't leave okay he was telling the guest please i want to be your host accept my invitation and allow me to be allow me to graciously give you my husband offer you my hospitality if he was telling this to hashem it means he was telling hashem please i have guests wait up until i finish with the guests he's telling hashem who came to visit him wait up till i finish which is of course from where our sages derived that welcoming guest is greater than welcoming the shrines hashem please stay here because the welcoming of the guest in a way is deeper than kabbalah hashem samuras all the names of allah nunu later in the parachute when light meets his guest and he also uses this word it's all highlights mundane besides at the end of the story when the light is being escorted out of z which is about to be destroyed he says please my master you have allowed me you have given me the grace and given me life here this one is referring to hashem as the gemara says the one who can give somebody life or death this al of dallas is already a name of hashem sheimasamura give us binyamin all of the names of hashem related in the story of give us bin now remember the rambam writes in the introduction that this saver follows the tanakh mishna torah in other words he assumes that you know the whole tanakh before you started to learn bishop all the names of hashem in givasbinyam and the story of gibbs beyond the story of the mound of binyamin at the end of the book of judges this is the famous horrific story known as pilleggish begiva when a jewish woman was was left to die and not just left to die she was murdered horrifically and the jewish people came to war against the tribe of benjamin who became accomplices to the murderers and would not give them up to be tried according to justice and the jews went to a war against benjamin and they were defeated horribly until they ultimately became victorious and you might think they were maybe turning not to the real god maybe to some deity so that's why the rambam says no all the names of that parsha in shaiftim are kaidors they're sacred you know they erase it all of the names of hashem in the story of michael judges chapter 17 and 18. mikhail was a grandson of moishirabenu and he was a servant for the pessimist was a servant for an idol over there all the names of hashem are mundane they are not sacred samurais kaidos all the names that are related in the story of navais in malachim aleph chapter 21 are kaidors that's of course the story with the king achav wants to abduct a vineyard of his relative novice and his wife the wicked izevel hires false witnesses and pays them to testify that what that he cursed ha shem over there the names of hashem arkadis is referring to god and that's why he was punished by the false testimony of the witness which allowed achaev to get his vineyard and that's when aliyawa novi said harat sacht of agamyarashta we will not allow you to murder and then inherit the voice as well call shalom every time the name shloima is mentioned in the song of songs it's sacred it's really representing the name of hashem various it's like the other king the other kinuyama the other names by which we express hashem's name they are like the other kingdom the other expressions of hashem even though it's not one of the seven names that are not erasable at the end of them every time it says in the book of daniel it's mundane it's not referring to hashem in chapter two of the kneel this too is like one of the not nicknames but one of the kinuyun one of the expressions by which we express ourselves to convey hashem's presence even though it's not one of the names the shiva shameless this concludes the sixth chapter of rambam i do want to point out one fundamental point here someone asked why does this fit into you say the haters as you said it literally means the fundamentals of torah the fundamentals of and we have seen the pattern of the rambam the first chapter was about god's presence the second chapter was about god's knowledge and and the world that hashem created and the unity of hashem and the malachim the ten levels of malachim that exist and peri gimmel discussed the story of our cosmos just like peter gimel and dalit my summer cover my separations and this is all to know something about hashem and know his creation and reach love to reach a state of love and awe and then the next chapter chapter five is the midst of kidding sanctifying hashem's name that which we're allowed to do and now let it do that which we have to die for which we have to live for and finally at the end of parikh how through daily conduct a jew can create god forbid later rama is going to get into prophecy and to toyota from heaven that's going to be the subsequent chapters very very fascinating i'm almost fundamental to you guys something they should be learning in every single yeshiva but paired with seems like like isolated you know hashem's name is written on akali and i'm not going to melt the kaley hashem's name is written on the on the blackboard or on a piece of paper and i'm not going to erase it this tiramba puts it right here in hill but perhaps the rambam is here saying something very powerful and you could deduce it from one line in the realm and that is he says when you have your name written on your flesh you're not going to go to the mikvah without concealing wrapping some reed or a cloak around the name because you're not going to stand in front of hashem when you're naked what i mean allah stand in front of hashem he's standing in front of us i mean hashem is everywhere but nonetheless a person is allowed to go to the mikvah what do we see here from the rama the rama is telling us something very powerful hashem is infinite hashem is undefined we cannot define his reality as the rambam told us numerous times and yet hashem gave us certain names that capture or so to speak convey or our conduits for divine sanctity for kedusha's hashem for the presence of hashem in a uniquely manifested and conspicuous way it's not just a certain consciousness or awareness even the physical ink the physical ink transcribed on a piece of parchment or a piece of paper or the person's flesh or engraved in a vessel those physical shapes and letters become a real manifestation of hashem's kedusha in the physical world and therefore a person when he erases them or she erases them or destroys them you're not destroying letters who cares if you destroy letters what's the big deal we're always erasing letters no this is really it's like it's like a stab at the reality of divinity which is of course a fundamental idea in hell that hashem in all of his absolute undefined infinity being omniscient and being omnipresent and transcending matter and space and time nonetheless chose and gave an opportunity for his presence for his infinite reality to be manifested to become expressed and revealed to some degree in the very physical world in the physical reality in the name that we have the name the name that we use to define hashem the shiva shema those actually are sacred which is of course one of the essential ideas of the blueprint that hashem gave through which we live our lives and we repeat the world to become a place that is a manifestation of the divine reality it becomes the canvas if you wish upon which we draw and we introduce the radiance the truth the wisdom the authenticity of the core of reality which is divine and that's why the evan begins the pain if somebody destroys the name of the holy and pure names with which hashem is called because these are the names between hashem is called these names are holy and pure and even their physical manifestation has that kedusha and tyra it's not just the name alludes to something transcendent to give the person you know a mnemonic a simmon i see you then hey and i remember there's something called transcendent no it actually relates to the letters themselves when i destroy one of those names with which hashem is called it really it perforates the world it destroys something in the world it takes a stab at at the gedusa at the katusa of the world that at the truth at the true reality of the person and the true reality of of uh of the whole universe this concludes the sixth chapter of el kasi said let me take a few questions this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot the yeshiva.net donate