Day #15–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

day 15 of our daily study of the ramam Safara Mitzvahs we are still in hilgras avedazar the laws of idol worship in our study of three chapters today of mishna Torah and as mentioned there are 51 Mitzvahs in that section and we have four days to go through those 51 Mitzvahs this is the third day that we're doing that we have 13 minutes today um 12 of them are negative Commandments and we have one positive commandment all right let's go through them quickly negative commandment number 11 is the prohibition against a matseiva that's a monument it's a structure that was erected to uh be like a landmark where people would gather to worship idols and it is forbidden to make one even as with the intent as a place to worship the one God we don't do that structure uh now you're going to say hold on a second didn't I remember that yankovino are forefather Jacob made such a monument and the answer is yeah he did but then the Canaanites ruined it and Hashem doesn't like it anymore we don't do that anymore okay haven't done it in thousands of years we don't do it okay that's negative commandment 11. negative commandment number 12. um the prohibition of stones that are placed on the ground for kneeling for prostrating upon that's an idolatrous practice so we don't have those stones and we don't kneel we don't bow on Stones you may notice Where is the modern application of this um we don't bow very often in our daily prayers but on the high holidays we're shown in Yom Kippur we do Bow uh during eleno and also during the uh the Aveda and Yom Kipper so you might notice people putting something down on the floor if if the floor is a stone floor to make sure that they're not bowing on Stones the exception where this is allowed is in the base of mcdush one is allowed to bow on stones in the base hamekdush that's negative commitment 12. negative commitment 13 is the prohibition against planting trees in the temple uh there was an idolatrous practice called the anashera and Ashera was a tree that was planted as sort of a marker or a monument for idol worship you're not allowed to plant one of those anywhere near the altar in the Holy Temple that's uh prohibition 13. all right now we have a positive commandment our one positive commandment today positive commandment 185 positive commitment to destroy all places of idol worship in the Holy Land to burn and Destroy and use any method to get rid of the idols and the places of idol worship in the houses of idol worship in the Holy Land okay that's positive 185 negative 25. prohibition against benefiting from Idols that means that for instance what does benefit mean um if somebody would have taken a shadow and he's not worshiping it doesn't believe in it but now he's got some wood oh firewood and he burns the the firewood and he gets some warmth from the wood no you're not allowed to do that that's getting benefit from an idol and that is prohibited that's negative commandment 25. then we have negative commandment 22 which is benefiting from the silver and gold coating the decorative coding of Idols it's a separate Mitzvah you're going to say well why is that a separate Mitzvah what's what's distinct about that well I'll give you an example on this you would know if you're studying mishna Toyota because uh it explains it over there that for instance there could be a case where the idol worshipers are worshiping something that can't become prohibited um for instance they worship a mountain so they're worshiping a mountain doesn't make the mountain prohibited to us to get benefit from it however let's say they put uh ornaments on the mountain gold coating or something on a piece of the mountain on a rock or whatever so that coding becomes prohibited to derive any benefit from that and that you would find in mission chapter eight uh law number seven okay uh negative commandment number 48 not to make treaties with the seven Canaanite Nations they were extremely corrupt and uh they had to be driven out of the land where not to make treaties with them now you might ask a smart question sure a very smart question you might ask is I remember before we even started the Mitzvahs we did the introduction and we learned those 14 rules that the rambam uses to determine which statements in Torah are actually Bonafide 613 Commandments biblical Commandments and one of his 14 rules was anything that was uh that was historically it had its context but it's not eternal so I think that was principle number three if I remember correctly um so not allowing the seven Canaanite Nations to uh to dwell in the land who are the seven Canadian Nations today they don't exist to tell me who they are that sounds like an anachronism sounds like it doesn't exist today so here's the explanation it's true we don't have these nations today but the obligation itself is eternal so if they were to exist and we knew who they were then the myths would apply to them I hope that distinction makes sense Okay negative commandment number 50 not two I'm going to translate this as be enamored with idolatry the the word in the verse is um name is often translated as don't be gracious to them but it really means don't be enamored with them don't be impressed with them don't say for instance this is the example they say just give look how handsome that Idol worshiper is we're not supposed to be impressed with them okay that's negative commandment number 50. negative commandment number 51 is to not allow the idol worshipers to reside in the holy land now you should know that at the time when this Mitzvah would actually be applicable um there was a way that non-jews could live in the land provided they were not Idol worshipers you see it's not just there's Jews and then there's Idol worshipers there's something called aguer taishov a resident alien and that's a person who is not Jewish doesn't have to become Jewish he keeps the seven laws that are binding for all descendants of Noah and which includes renouncing idols and he can dwell in the land but an idol worshiper no they cannot not dwell in the Holy Land that's negative commandment 51. negative commandment 30. and this is uh not to follow in the practices of idol worshipers and we're not speaking about their idolatrous practices that's already covered but we're talking about other practices that they have that are unique to them that aren't um directly related to idol worship but because those practices are related to the way of life of idol worshipers so we don't emulate their Styles and their mode of dress and their haircuts that's all included in negative commandment 30. okay now the last three today are some interesting some interesting prohibitions you remember yesterday we had the uh the oiv and the yudani so I remember the evening I'm not going to describe them again but they were kind of interesting uh practices so I have for you now three more uh practices that might sound like you don't relate to them very much but these are distinct prohibitions because they are singled out in uh verses in the Torah okay so we have prohibition 33 uh against the the action called to be menahish now they have translations for all these sorcery and sooth saying and I don't even know what those those are words I I don't play Dungeons and Dragons so I don't know what those words mean I'm sorry but means sort of like um a superstitious type of thing a person will say um that uh because because my bread fell out of my mouth or my staff fell out of my hand or because a snake passed me on the right or Fox passed me on the left that's a sign that it's not a good day to go out I'm gonna I'm gonna turn around and go back inside okay so like Superstition um like that okay uh then we have prohibition 31 and that is not to do something we call being a Kai same what's a Kai same is like uh fortune telling type of thing um they they go into a trance and they do different things the rambam says that he actually saw some people like this in Spain where they do different rituals to like go into a deep state of a trance and then they predict stuff they tell you I guess like fortune telling type of stuff about uh whether you're going to be successful with this or with that and they do different rituals to like go into that state he says like they you throw a stick on the ground or they scream weird screaming or they throw stones on a piece of leather and then they stare at it for a long time you know like reading the tea leaves so to speak um so that's called being a kaisim that's a specific prohibition then we have finally uh the prohibition to be a name that's from the word Aina which means units of time those are people who um predict based on auspicious dates often uh with astrological significance and they'll say oh we're looking here this day that's not a good date this is an unlucky time don't do this don't try to do this on this date it's not going to be good because we see it's a you know it'll be uh it's not in the stars for you to do such and such on on that date so we are prohibited from following that type of uh astrology and uh those are our Mitzvahs today we have one more day of prohibitions related to the practices of idol worship and uh then we'll be we'll be moving on to a whole new subject okay we'll see you tomorrow