Day #5–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

we are on day five of our daily safer Mitzvah study and that means we're finally getting into the first of the 613 Commandments in fact we're going to study three Mitzvahs today now I mentioned before we're not going in the order of safe right Mitzvahs we're going in the order that the myths was from safer amitzvah's correspond to whatever's being studied in the three chapters a day study track of mishna Torah it happens to be however that today in the three chapters a day study of mission Toyota we're going into the laws of the foundations of the Torah and so it happens to be that the first myths was there are the same as the first Mitzvahs in Safra Mitzvahs so our first myth for today is the POS the first positive commandment and uh that is to believe in the existence of God but hold on a second hold on a second why does the ramam say to believe to believe in the existence of God uh if you look in today's three chapters of mishna Taylor the rambam starts off and he says that it's you say that you say this the foundation of Foundations and the pillar of wisdoms means to know that there is a first primary being not to believe to know and in fact later on in this same chapter chapter one of hilkashi said he says the knowledge of this matter is a positive commandment as it says does it say mean to believe okay I didn't come up with this question there is a commentary and say foreign written by RAF Heim Heller was a great scholar and a genius he was a contemporary and dear friend Heller was in Berlin at the same time as the rabbit he was very close with and the two of them ravyasith would actually learn with Heller in his home in Berlin later on after the histalcos the passing of Heim Heller came to the Shiva of the fried accompanied with his talmud RAV yes of bear so there's a relationship there between and RAV now what I've heard wrote as I mentioned an incredible commentary on safer mitzvus and he had a knowledge of Arabic which is very important in understanding the nuances of Safra mitzvahs so I'd have Heller points out that the word that the rambam originally used not the even tibun translation to believe the original Arabic word is I actually discussed this with an Arabic scholar and uh you know what that word means it's related to the word in Russian with the shoulders the etymological root you might recognize that from the word akeda like okay this is The Binding of Isaac that root means to bind or to tie up so it means to be bound up to something you could translate it as to believe in it strongly but you could just as well translate to mean to know something to have intimate knowledge of it which is very similar to the way that we use the word Das Idis explains it as being profound deep focus concentration and connection new Eve so at any rate that is what that I'm actually right so the first Mitzvah is to be bound up mentally with certainty in Intimate knowledge of the fact that God exists not just to believe as an abstract notion but to know it to know that Hashem exists and that that is the foundation of all reality so that is our first mitzvah all right what is our second Mitzvah the second Mitzvah of today is the corresponding prohibition was Hara the warning or the prohibition not to believe in any other gods now it's interesting we mentioned that the whole purpose why essay for a Mitzvahs was needed is because we have a tradition that there are 613 Commandments but we don't know what they are the truth is though we do know what two of them are remember the Gamora and Marcus we mentioned the one that teaches us that there are 613 commandments so over there it says the word is the Gematria 611 right tough is 400 above is six ratio is 200 and hey is five so you get six eleven well why is Toyota 611 it should be 6 13. up but the answer is because Torah means what Maisha taught us he taught us 611 Mitzvahs why did he only teach us 611 why didn't he teach us two others because he didn't have to because those two Mitzvahs we heard directly from Hashem which were the first two of The Ten Commandments I'm the Lord your God which is the mitsu we just mentioned and you should have no other gods so those two Mitzvahs are sort of the two sides of the same coin so the first Mitzvah today is the positive commandment to know and I'm going to translate it as to no with intimate personal knowledge that there is a God and the corresponding prohibition not to have or to entertain such Notions about another entity okay and now this brings us to the third Mitzvah today which is another positive commandment and that is Hashem what is the Oneness of the unity of Hashem that's different than the first Mitzvah the first Mitzvah is you have to know that God exists and he is the ultimate existence this mitzvah is to believe in God's Oneness and the basis for this is the scriptural verse which we all know and as Jews we say multiple times a day Hashem is and that means not only monotheism that there is one God and no other gods but that God's existence is Ultimate Oneness it's not God forbid a composite of different things that are put together in an amalgamation but it is absolute pure simple Oneness and that is the third mitzvah we will continue tomorrow God willing with more mitzvahs