Day #24–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

Hashem it is day number 24 of our daily study of the rambam safer Mitzvahs and in our study of three chapters a day of mishna Toyota we are still in Helghast Villa the laws of Prayer so we still have the same Mitzvah that we're studying in safer mitsus and that is should be familiar to you by now positive commandment number five the Commandment to serve Hashem through prayer that's what it is okay so we've been learning this for a few days uh what else can we say about it well there's plenty to say about this Mitzvah I'll share with you something that comes straight from our daily study of three chapters a day of mishna Toyota where we are in chapters 8 9 and 10 of Hillcrest feel the laws of prayer so I'll take from the very beginning of today's uh three chapters the first halacha of the first chapter chapter eight one uh the rambam says I'll read to you from the rambam's own words from it communal prayer is always heard meaning heard by Hashem meaning favorably accepted even if there are sinners among that group Hashem will not despise the prayers of the group okay so how do we understand this idea that the prayers of the Sinners which are not desirable you wouldn't imagine they elicit such a great response from Hashem that those are to be included within the prayers of the many and that in fact that has an advantage praying with the many even if there are sinners among that group over praying by yourself I mean I guess if you're this you are the sinner then you understand why you want to get in on the good group but I'm saying what if you're righteous you're a righteous individual and you say well you know maybe it's better for me to go off and Pray by myself no the prayers of the many are always superior to the prayers of the individual and even if the many the group includes Sinners okay how do we understand that so there are a couple of ways of of understanding this one perspective I'll share with you is from The Madras from and he he gives the medish gives a martial a parable a group of guys were subjects of a king and they wanted to give a gift to the king so they made a little group arts and crafts project of a crown they wanted to make a crown and most of the guys they were Rich so they contributed things that are normally things you would use to make a crown jewels and precious metals and whatnot one guy was a pauper who was very poor and he didn't have anything nice not he didn't have crown like material but he whatever he had he pulled out of his pocket something he wouldn't normally put in put it in a crown but that's what he had and he contributed to that and they included it in the crown then the group gave the king the crown the king took the crown he put it on his head so the mother Shabba says same thing you have a group of people and they're all giving nice contributions they're all giving nice prayers so one guy he doesn't have a nice contribution to make but at this point it got included in the group so now it gets sort of a free pass and that's how the the medishaba explains it however I want to share with you another perspective and that is to be found in the gamada in managerstaff 27A where it brings out the idea that this uh the prayers of the Sinners is not just something okay we could Overlook it now it's part of the group it can can get a free pass but actually the it's something that's that's necessary it's not a bug it's a feature and the the gamot explains also with a parable but a different Parable a parable based on a mitzvah we're going to be studying about this uh soon because we are after all um going through all of the mixes of the entire title So eventually we will get to this myth for the midst of lulav so uh the midst of lulov includes four species the little of the essig so we'll say that in English the uh Palm the date palm the Citron the Myrtle and The Willow so the the gamada there and menacha says that two of these species two of the four are fruit bearing the date palm and the Citron and two of them are not fruit bearing the Myrtle and The Willow and these represent the righteous and the Wicked the righteous are like fruit bearing they produce good deeds and the wicked are like not fruit bearing they don't produce good deeds and nevertheless you don't do the Mitzvah with just the species which represent the righteous you need to use all of them and there's a certain interdependency where all of the species need each other in order to accomplish the Mitzvah if you don't have one of them you're not going to be able to do the Mitzvah so too the the gamada says that the community needs each other and even though you have people who are not righteous but we depend on them there's a certain inter-inclusion of all of the members of the community where our prayers are only really accepted when we include everybody so it's not just we Overlook the prayers of the wicked It's actually an essential component and there's a vort from the shalakadish where he brings this out with the word sibur which means congregation the word itself ish that's how it's spelled congregation so the shalah says that it's a it's an acronym the righteous base is the intermediates the in between and the races Russia the Wicked the sinners what's an intact whole Community one that includes all of these levels and I'll also mention to you because we're learning rambam that the rambam where he deals with questions practical questions that arose in his day regarding how to regard people who God forbid went away from Judaism how should the Jewish Community deal with them so the ramam says that somebody who distanced himself from the Jewish people but now he wants to come and pray with them they shouldn't chase him off they should include him they should allow him to pray with the community that's in the Ramones again so that's uh very useful insight this idea that when it comes to prayer but I suppose all aspects of Jewish life we need each other we need each other which is also why all of us need to be learning rambam every day because there's this group project Dynamic to it that we're all learning the same subjects every day all United so uh keep learning around them get your friends to learn Robin we'll see you tomorrow God willing