Rambam Mishneh Torah Q & A: Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah Chapter 6

the yeshiva.net [Music] let me take a few questions didn't destroy hashem's name yes you're referring to an amazing story a message i think it is the end of close to the end of sukkah malach began to lay the foundations for the basa mikdash and he dug what we call the shitten when you pour the wine or the the water on the altar the liquids would go down they would trickle down flow downward and the gemura tells us that david reached the abyss the tahaim and a flood surged upwards and it threatened to destroy the world and david malek was looking for a hatter to write hashem's name the shema of irish the explicit name of hashem to write it and throw it into the water to be able to calm it down and not destroy the world achisoiphil came forward and he made a calvary mother to make peace between a wife and a husband if the husband suspects her of adultery we're going to learn later the torah says you write up the parsha of saitama parchment with ink with hashem's name and you dissolve it in the water you're actively destroying hashem's name but this is a mitzvah of hashem it's not forbidden god says it's god says to do it in other words hashem says i want you to destroy my kedusha in order alas ashalam to make peace between a husband and a wife which of course in a more general sense teaches us never allow god to become that which interferes in the love and the relation within a husband and a wife because if you're introducing hashem hashem is the one who wants peace respect humility sensitivity where a husband can truly respect the wife and the wife can truly respect the husband then they can be there for each other so saiful said certainly to save the world we could do it and that's when david did that now it is a big question on this story are you allowed to erase hashem's name to save your life of course it's not one of the three sins of adultery idolatry or murder you're not serving adultery when you erase hashem's name the flood was flooding the world one of the explanations in this is very powerful what would help save the world in such a state is if you're doing something that the toyota says you should do the power here was that the toyota says that you should do it in other words it's not islam you throw in hashem's name and it saves the world so who cares if it's forbidden or not the power here that would save the world is that the terror says you should do it for this david needed a source in tita so that's the story of david another question is mashirabenu destroyed the first lucas and the first look has had hashem's name anoise hashem that's an interesting question no what's the answer you just got your answer tells us to save claudius to save the jewish people one of the explanations around she brings apartheid kisisa it was like a married a husband and a wife they had a marital contract and the wife betrayed the husband so the the best friend of the wife and the husband came and destroyed the marriage contract so there was no proof and that's how the queen was saved that's perhaps one of the explanations ooh i know about suva who has a tattoo with hashem's name can he go through the process of a tattoo removal procedure which is erasing hashem's name or leave it excellent excellent question this is a question that's discussed by contemporary halachic authorities and i would suggest this person consults with a rabbinical posicon expert in this area generally i believe that the consensus is that if it's done through a laser procedure which is not a direct act of erasing but it's more like when somebody goes to the mikvah like we described before and the water reaches it it's an indirect act of erasing and the person is doing it for the sake of a mitzvah because i think the native behavior writes that even if you're not doing it directly it's still disrespectful unless it's like the purpose of a mitzvah like by a mikveh and he's doing it for a mitzvah because with with a tattoo of hashem's name he's basically never allowed to stand in a place where there's filth and excrement because it's disrespectful right and every time he goes to the mikvah he has to cover it and so forth so he's doing it for the sake of a mitzvah so then there are halaq methods in which it is allowed to remove the tattoo but it's a fascinating question because we learned about hashem's name on the flesh because of course a story in gamora sanhedrin about one of the most vicious jewish kings his name was elijah one of the last judean kings if you want to understand who he was if you know roman history he was the jewish coliglia caliglia was not just a madman and a maniac but he appointed his horse to the roman senate his horse this was calliglia i guess i'll say allahabdel al-yakum was not just vicious and heinous but his crimes were beyond and the gemara says in sanhedrin one of the things he did was it's hard to say he engraved hashem's name in the place of his bris that's how much anger he was displaying to the reboiner shall islam talk about talk about a jew and his relationship with god as eli wiesel said we know how to love god we know how to hate god we don't know how to ignore god great questions great questions beautiful questions what about erasing hashem's name on the computer excellent question right you write hashem's name okay so we have let's say the custom we have the customer on letters right we want to mention hashem's name but you don't want to write hashem's name in a letter why because even though you're not going to destroy it you don't know what's going to happen to it and another person can destroy it it could be naive and even if it doesn't get destroyed it gets disposed it goes to the garbage it's still disrespectful you know the king the expressions of hashem's name jeremy says you're allowed to erase them but still it says you have to treat it with respect that's why at the end of the period he speaks about the idea that there are kinemas love to treat it with respect so therefore we write on top of a letter beijs hey baruch hashem or besayata deshmaya so we're alluding to hashem without hashem's name that's why by the way we use the word hashem hashem means the name it's not one of hashem's names it's talking about the name it alludes to ourselves but it doesn't have doesn't have that sanctity you're asking what about on a computer so on a computer on a computer this is a very important uh it's a very important question and here again you can discuss it with uh with a halachic authority but generally i believe there is a lot of literature contemporary literature about this and the consensus is that most halachic authorities deem a computer screen and its contents even the names of hashem words of toyota to have no sanctity and the reason is because as opposed to a hand writing or the printed word which are intended to be permanent there's no intention for words typed on a computer screen to be permanent so as soon as you finish your work you close the screen and everything there is erased it's written in a way that you don't want it to be permanent because the encrypted data on the hard drive has no halogen significance so it's not a medium intended to support anything of permanence as the pixels which make up the letters on the computer screen are constantly being refreshed and are considered to be more virtual than they are uh than they are real so therefore i think most halachic authorities agree that one can erase the name of hashem awards i've tried it from a computer a computer screen and as many also point out it's not really called exav it's not something that's called the written word it's basically pixels of of of light and coding that appear to us as words and therefore it doesn't have that sanctity that is i think the opinion of most talaq authorities next question why does the rambam add the word hakadosham hatahirim in the beginning of perikshishi i think my comments at the end of the payrick really answer that question why i still don't understand why is destroying the name is part of your say the hater it's an aveda why is it the foundation in today put it in hill when discussing when the names of hashem should be written in fact in shulkin where is it where is it if you'll take a look it's yay deya yorideya simmon reish i involve that's why i suggested what i suggested that for the rambam this is actually a continuation to kidnap the mitzvah of hashem into this world you will become an embodiment of kiddush hashem through your conduct through your behavior through your heroic choices the next pay right payra gov is a continuation of that expressed in a different mitzvah and that is when i write hashem's name the kedusha of hashem and this is it is in this world and for the rambam that seems to be a fundamental aspect of the capacity of the human being and the capacity of the jew to become a vessel for godliness in this world to become a conduit through which to kidus hashem the manifested presence of hashem is experienced in our world in a very real and tangible way next question why does the rambam say that is like one of these expressions the kinema that we used hashem's name or ant malcolm when the rambam says that you're allowed to erase them so who cares so the case of mishnah discusses it it's all discussed why is it so relevant it's also possible that maybe the rama means at least even if you're allowed to erase it but perhaps it has to be treated with respect which means to destroy it to burn it intentionally to intentionally to want to destroy it may be prohibited that may be one aspect of it another aspect of it um is brought in some of the russianum that when are you allowed to erase the kin when they're written not in their place but if they're written in their place meaning in the tanakh then you're now going to erase it discusses this thank you for the reference there's another explanation i saw that you could say this why because even though the rambam says you know that he raised kish right so some commentators explain that when it's for a benefit you're allowed to erase as opposed to the other seven names which can never be erased erasing of hashem's name is also in english yeah according to many yeah the the mishnah siakov somebody points out discusses why the rambo doesn't mention utk as one of the seven names even though he mentions it later so he brings from the villenegon the beer hagra in eurodaya that the rambam didn't say utk because utk is part of utkov so it's included in ut kevke like we see by amalek i'm adding this that utk is considered an incomplete name in other words it's part of yut kevkas why's it i'm after mention that it's part of yudkevke i deramba mentioned kale the number mentioned kale and kale is part of eli kim so he does mention names that are part of other names so the villenegon says fascinatingly that kale is a different shirish kale means means this powerful ones of the world of the land kale means strength ferociousness oh he brings the pasta kellyarts so it's a different shirish it's like its own church eli kim is one name al-aflam it happens to be part of al-aqim but it has its own meaning its own theme but utk says the villenegon is the same theme like means hashem is he was he is he will be he's the source of creation the word everything comes in to be baroque existence and that's also utk you don't have uk in a different context so that's why the ramen doesn't mention utk another explanation is the ursa mayak uk is part of ut kevke and alef lamet is part of alakim but it has a different pronunciation kale and eloy and therefore he mentions both because it's a different nikko the way it's pronounced kale and l.a kim but utk and ut kevok you can't say that because we don't even have a way it's pronounced that's the ursa mex explanation another proof to all of this is by amalek it says the name is not complete and the throne is not complete so it says qiyad al-qais utk case is part of kisei khafsam is part of kisei it's not separate a throne is and utk is part of yut kevky it's part of it it's not separate so this is a beautiful explanation of why the rambam doesn't mention utk separately beautiful beautiful explanation so that's what the rambam says if you write alof lamin from eli kim or you write utk from utkev okay you now let erase it certainly if you wrote utk on its own in other words not just as part of shaymam of footage but on its own certainly you're not going to erase it because it's a shame before it's a name which is separate because this name is part of shame the priesthood is hashem is him now that he's saying two things when you write utk on its own it's both an independent name but in addition to that it's also part of shay mammoth so certainly you now let erase it because it's part of shame i'm a fighter but it's also a separate name and i shin dalit is part of shindala dude but it looks like the rambam is saying that because it's part of sheima mafirsh it's it has it has its own kedusha now some struggle with this yeah the degree that basis that if you write kale family kim and vufke from shame havaya it's not erased and certainly utk because utk is a name in and of itself and wafkee is part of shame i'm a fighter so you're not letting erase it even though shindal at your lottery race that's true it's it's complicated because of the because of the text i also mentioned what are khashogh says here i'm just thinking maybe the rambam is also referring to and alluding to this idea that we just discussed the rambam is saying if you write an aleph lamin from alakim or you write a uk from youth kevka you'll already erase it and certainly if you write utk on its own just you want to write hashem's name hussein bifnayatsumai it's a name in and of itself and then it says because this name is part of shame of irish what's the meepanesha's uh so the the priesthood says you have to put in the word in addition to that it's also part of the fetish the advance said he's talking about wolf k not uk nowadays interesting interesting explanations maybe maybe i don't know and could be it's completely off but maybe the rambam says youth keshu shame before is a name in and of itself so if i write youth k i'm not letting erase it because i just wrote hashem's name so now when i'm reading this i should ask wait wait wait uk is a name why didn't you mention aloha base should it be an eighth name you just said it's a name you're contradicting yourself between bayes and dalit so the rambam says because this name is part of the shema fighters in other words it's an extension of the but it has its own kedusha you can have a mix of shay mama fighters that's not a shame before it's part of yut kevke here it's mixed to shame i'm a fairish that's why i didn't mention it before because it's part of shay mama mammoth and yet it has its own sanctity as part of the shema ferris as the first two letters your next question what did the rama mean in allah hey the divre hakoidus you're a lot of your race what does it mean well as i told you i used the text that says divre hakaidush there's a difference in kiswah dash means holy words so let's say i write a posik in a letter to somebody am i allowed to erase that i'm not one hashem's name not hashem's name just words from torah so the dumb says you're allowed to erase them you'll erase them are holy writings the writing is holy like when they would write you write a say for torah to say for today is holy and they used to write the whole tanakh on mcgillis on scrolls those are called kiswayakaidesh holy writings or today we have sfarim in which the hamish is printed and we're very careful we're very respectful to them and even divreyak you have to be respectful but the rambam says come you're a lot erased in the terms of kiss now what about kinoyim the kinuyum are the descriptive names of hashem not hashem's essential names kala li kayu kavafke ali kim but like so the rambam says you're allowed to erase them right but if it's part of kiss vehicles then you're not erase them you're only allowed to erase them if they're written somewhere else if somebody has the word even if he's referring to him a lot of you but if it's part of the kiss then i'll erase it so that's why at the end of the rambam when he says that is kaidish or anto malcolm is kiddish it means it's part of the kinguin so therefore when it's part of kiswa akaidesh i'm not erase it it's one of the kinuyum so now this is what's explained by the safer avoid us this is how he understands how he understands the rambam this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at www.theyoshiva.net donate