Day #1–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

today is a very exciting day because Jews all over the world are starting the daily study of rambam again for another cycle what we're going to try to do with God's help is a little bit of the safer mitzvah's track every day before we jump in I want to explain what the tracks are there are three tracks the ideal track is to study three chapters every day of the Mishra otherwise known as the yadakhazaka is a 14 volume compendium of probably the most exhaustive and thorough treatment of Mitzvah observance ever recorded basically that I'm goes through all Jewish practices whether biblical or rabbinic origin and whether they apply to the times when the temple stood whether in the times of Exile or or in the times of mashiach and literally goes through every detail of every Mitzvah and every practice within Jewish life in in very very explicit detail with all different scenarios and event eventualities outlined and that's uh yeah that's the ideal track to study that three chapters a day and you'll finish in a year actually a little bit less than a year the that entire study then there's another track which is one chapter a day of the mishna Torah and you do the math if in if in a year you can finish the entire mission of Toyota by doing three chapters a day so if you do a third of that if you do one chapter a day then you finish the entire mission of Toyota in three years then there's another track which is not mishna Toyota it's a different safer but also from the rambam which is the study of safer Mitzvahs say for amits was interestingly sort of um coincides with the highest track with the study of the three chapters a day and I'll explain why when we go through the safer Mitzvahs we don't go in the order of the actual book what we do is this the study cycle is set up that you study the Mitzvahs in safer Mitzvahs which correspond to what's being studied in the three chapters of mishna Toyota that day and God willing what we'll try to do is also sprinkle sprinkle in a little bit of insight from the mishna Torah in order to maybe excite people to level up and start studying either one chapter or or even ideally three chapters but we're going to do the say for emitzus because that is I guess uh more uh all embracing accessible to the most amount of people but I very much see this as an entry point that people can use God willing to uh like I said level up and go to higher uh levels of commitment to daily study of rambam um I'll just say that the daily study of rambam is unique in that you're studying the entire Torah it is unifying all Jews together because it's something that every Jew man woman and child is capable of studying and in that way it unifies the entire Jewish people with the entire Torah let's jump into safer amitzvahs today and this this is going to be an overview style if you want something that goes through the actual text there are many many presentations of safer Mitzvahs out there today we're living Baruch Hashem in an era where the information is out there you just need to need a computer and you just go online and there are so many beautiful shoot them out there this is going to be a certain style if this is your style great I welcome you um and we're gonna with God's help we're gonna we're gonna study the safer Mitzvahs you know in an overview fashion in a concise fashion in fact I'm hoping that today's class is the longest that we're ever gonna gonna be a little longer because I had to introduce what we're doing and why we're doing it today say for a mixes okay so save room it says you have to understand is different than mishna Toyota it's not going into the actual practical application of how the Mitzvahs are observed it's just describing what the Mitzvah is in the most basic form and the purpose of say firmits was as that explains is to enumerate what are the 613 biblical Commandments you see we have a rabbinic tradition that there are 613 biblical Commandments this we know it's says that there are tayagamits of 630 mixes but it doesn't say what they are now throughout history there were different versions of enumerating what are the 613 mitzvahs um the rambam is one of those attempts to enumerate with the 613 meters are rambam happens to be probably the most authoritative and well accepted of those versions and um the rambam sets forth his rules how he arrives at which Mitzvahs are actual official Mitzvahs of the 613. and that's what we're going to talk about today there are 14 principles that the rambam said he used in guiding him how to choose what Mitzvahs are actual Mitzvah Mitzvahs because for instance you could have something where Hashem gives a command it's record it's recorded in commission the five books of Moses but it was a it was a it was temporary it was just for that time like I'll give you an example Hashem tells uh Abraham leave your birthplace okay well that's a command but is that Eternal is that for everyone right no obviously that that one is not um so how do we know when a command that's recorded in the Bible is for everyone or if it's just for that time or for that person so that's one of the principles that Adam says he only chose Mitzvahs that are Eternal and Universal and binding um another principle is some Mitzvahs are sort of details of other Mitzvahs so he tried to choose the all-embracing category that uh that includes within it the sub mitzvahs that go within that category um also that I'm says he didn't include Mitzvahs that are only extrapolated through the use of the 13 principles of exegesis there is a tool that the rabbis were given for unpacking or decoding hidden uh Mitzvahs but that is not what the is counting as one of the 613 only Mitzvahs that are explicit um then the diamond says regarding like positive and negative Commandments what about that does he count let's say there's a Mitzvah that has a positive and a negative version like don't do work on Shabbos but rest on Shabbos are those two separate Mitzvahs that almost says yes a positive and a negative each count separately as their own Mitzvah and we have other such principles such as this 14 in total how the ramam arrives at what the Mitzvahs are and totals the traditional number of 613 and specifically 613 breaks down further into and this is also a a universal tradition among Jews 365 prohibitions 248 positive commandments so basically that I'm says I know that they're 6 13. I know it breaks down to 365 and 248. now I'm going through the five books of Moses using the 14 principles of how I'm going to qualify what a Mitzvah is and I'm going to tell you what are the 613 Commandments and with God's help we're going to go through all the 613 grants again not in the order that the rambam lists them but as they correspond to whatever subjects are being studied in the three chapters daily track of mishna Taylor okay it's going to be an adventure thanks for joining me God willing we'll get through this and we will complete the entire Torah joining with the entire Claud ISRO and if you have a friend in the spirit of joining with the entire Cloud Israel if you have a friend who you think might be interested in this study please pass it on