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The Mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisrael - Living in the Land of Israel (#1) By Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz
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Click to watch part 2: https://youtu.be/M5KLgiKbQfo www.ouisrael.org facebook.com/ouisrael #OUisrael #torah #judaism #torahlectures #aliyah #halacha Delivered 19 Sivan 5784 / June 25, 2024 Rabbi Breitowitz's Tuesday Shiur is sponsored for the 2024 academic year by Rabbi Refoel and Sharon Auman in memory of their parents, Edith and Reiner Auman, z”l, יונה בן צדוק ז״ל & אסתר ע״ה בת רפאל הי״ד and their son Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu Auman, z"l, הרב שמואל אליהו ז״ל בן הרב רפאל נ״י
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
good morning everyone I hope you're well
apologize for being a little bit a
little
late uh so uh once again we're kind of
discussing the various mitzvot that come
are connected either to the paraa or the
time of year uh today I'm going to
discuss something that is peripherally
connected to the para but it's really
not from the para
itself know we recently had uh
celebrated Y and then y sh and
um micop no I don't uh and uh there's no
microphone today uh and uh for whatever
reason uh I didn't talk about those well
I talked about I did not talk about uh
because we were doing something else we
were Mish in the middle of it but I want
to talk a little bit about the Mitzvah
of and this is important this is
obviously connected to par because after
all what happens in the para there are
12 Spies that are sent to check out Eric
Israel and they come back with the
conclusion 10 of them 10 out of the 12
come back with a very negative report we
can't do it we can't do it we can't make
it uh they not only lost their faith in
Hashem but they also unfortunately
caused many of the Jewish people to lose
their faith in aades baru and the only
holdouts were the righteous spies
yahushua and K W and as a result of
theim it was Nar on our forefathers that
they would wander in the desert for a
total of 40 years they would die out and
only those who were born in the desert
or those who were less than 20 at the
time of The Exodus were permitted to
enter Aris so one of the major lessons
not the only lesson of
theim is uh that one should not be
negative one should not be Moy
that one living in Israel certainly has
many many many challenges uh some of the
challenges simply involve you know
getting a job Aliah adjusting to a new
culture sometimes uh one puts themselves
into even a lifethreatening
situation um I got a letter this morning
I I I I I do get hate mail maybe I
should not uh maybe I shouldn't use my
classes as a way to event but more or
less I was kind of I was kind of accused
of being a murderer somebody sent me a
picture of a young American Boy uh who
made Al the with his family and joined
the army and was killed in Gaza I mean
and again Yin and uh he will certainly
have a big share inabah but the letter
he sent me pictures and then he sent me
something like uh he lost his life
because some fanatic told him he was
supposed to come to Israel he says do
you know any such people which is a
pretty clear which is a pretty clear
reference I think to
me and uh okay my basic response was
that it is always a tragedy and we pray
for Shalom and certainly this young man
will have a Sharon Haba but it's frankly
stupid to send me a letter of a person
getting I mean last year somebody moved
from Scranton Pennsylvania to
Baltimore and they got killed you know
in a street robbery so what someone
going to say oh some fanatic told him to
move to Baltimore you know and that
caused his life I mean unfortunately
tragedies do happen so life in erel can
be very very difficult but you know uh
we have enough problems with the we
don't need modern Orthodox character
there apparently is a little bit of a
development in the modern Orthodox World
which had always been very Zionist uh
and I've gotten I guess I and I received
Communications about this that it's
totally wrong to encourage Aliah it's
totally wrong to talk about people
moving to AR Isel because it's
irresponsible on the part of rabbis and
teachers to even encourage this uh
because they ruin lives so uh this is
the I call this the modern Orthodox Nur
car it's a relatively new newer
development uh within the modern
Orthodox World in which uh the whole
idea of mentioning Aliah is considered
to be irr responsible and the like so I
think it's appropriate in the par of the
morim theim to talk a little bit just
about the Mitzvah and I'm not here to be
political in any way uh my political
venting is finished so I finished that
and I'm just want I just want to give
what here just like as I say it's a
little hard when you're indirectly
accused of being a murderer uh not to uh
not to respond did you know this person
no it's Anonymous letter of course I
maybe I do know him I don't know but
you know Anonymous letter right right
right right so the great courage of of
anonymous attack the funny thing is
whenever I respond with a little bit of
bite they get real real offended it's an
amazing thing uh you know people can
dump on you they can say whatever they
want and the slightest little response
that's a little bit non- defferential to
you know how dare you know you attack me
type of thing and just just an amazing
amazing thing okay anyway I shouldn't I
shouldn't bother you with all of this
but okay but but it does happen uh and I
call it hate mail and I I often talk
about it at least I allude to anyway
okay let's talk about the
Mitzvah so as you know the rambam my
manes wrote a very good book it's a
short book and this is before the mishna
Torah and that short book is called
saz and uh in which the rambam
enumerates the
613 mitzvos of the Torah now I need to
explain why this is a bit of a
pathbreaking book it's pathbreaking
because we do have a Rabin tradition in
the gamar in makos the gamar in makos
tells us that Hashem gave 613 mitzvos to
Moshe at
har uh and it even breaks it down into
248 positive Commandments Rak and that
corresponds to your bones you have 248
bones and every Mitzvah revives a bone
and then there are
365 negative Commandments Thou shalt not
do and uh they correspond thear gives
two interpretations either to the 365
Senus or ligaments in the body or the
365 days in a solar year it's
interesting that we use a solar year in
this
calculation and uh each Mitzvah belongs
to a certain day so the idea
of was very very makal
among because it has its source in the
gar now indeed the ramban actually
suggests as a speculation that perhaps
it's not an article of faith maybe it's
the only individual opinion of a certain
tana and if you didn't come up with 613
maybe you don't have a problem and the
ramban actually debates this but even
the Ran's Mas is that we go with the
number tag and there's a
from
theu M gave us a Torah the gatria of
Torah is
611 so the gamar says that's not 63 the
answer is ah Moshe communicated to us
611 but two
Commandments we heard directly from
Hashem
and what are the two Commandments of the
two the first two of
the I am the Lord your God you out of M
and number one and number two thou shalt
not have any other gods now as a little
aside although it's not my topic an
interesting question is you see from the
gar
that I am the Lord your God that took
you out of MIT is counted as one of the
mitv that's how you get to 613 question
is what is it commanding you know a
Mitzvah is either to do something if
it's a Mitzvah say or not to do
something if it's
a so so the second one Thou shalt not
have any other gods okay that's a
Commandments uh not to engage in idol
worship or polytheism but the first
statement I am the Lord your God who
took you out of MIM is simply a
declaration what is it commanding so
it's interesting that the rambam
explains that an is a Mitzvah called
amuna there is a
MIT to believe in
God now ramban asks that that's not
that's an incoherence Mitzvah because
either way you look at it if I believe
in God for whatever the reason then I
don't need to be commanded to believe in
God if I don't believe in God what is
the
source of the commander that will
obligate me to do so it's like an athe
an atheist says I don't believe in God
so I tell the atheist you must believe
in God the atheist says why must I
believe in Gods because God says
so right makes no sense so Raman
actually asks how can there be a Mitzvah
ofuna all Commandments flow once you're
a m once I believe there is a God then I
am obligated to keep his Commandments
but how can there be a commandment to
believe in God but the truth of the
matter is the rambam himself
explains that the Mitzvah of belief in
God is not directed to The Atheist
because it would be a meaningless
statement to him it's directed to the
believer but a person who believes
through tradition through upbringing
uh through childhood Etc is commanded to
investigate the philosophical
foundations of the existence of God and
therefore to turn it from Blind Faith
according to the rambam faith actually
means rational Faith take you who
believe in God As a matter of Blind
Faith investigate the rationality of
this position so it becomes as Vivid to
you as a firm intellectual truth now
this is an amazing thing because the
very thing that the rambam considers to
be a Mitzvah others consider to be an AA
as the rambam basically says a Jew is
obligated to investigate the
philosophical foundations of monotheism
now as you know there were many in Claus
in fact one might even say this is the
prevailing Trend today that we don't
want to open up the Pandora's Box
because after all when you command a
person to philosophically investigate
the truth of a proposition you don't
really know where they're going to come
out and therefore most have said better
not to open the Pandora's Box so it's
interesting what the rambam considered
to be a Mitzvah many would condemn as an
AA I'm just to give you a very simple
example the ramban wrote the mishna
Torah which is his great compendium of
Jewish law and the ramban wrote the guy
to the perplex now just a few weeks ago
I had a person from the outside wander
into the OR Med
and he asked me um he was looking at the
bookshelves where can I find a copy of
the morim
here well it's kind of an inside joke
but if you're familiar with Yesa Bas
medes the answer is you're not going to
find it the rambam's work of mishor is
in every Bas medish in the world in a
prominent place it is constantly used
and referred to the mor may be hidden
away in a back room somewhere yeah even
in our we have our Mor put in various
places but it's not on the Shelf in
other words that type of philosophical
uh Exposition is actually discouraged in
many many ways so it's very interesting
that according to the rambam that is
actually the essence of Amun bashem to
convert the Blind Faith into a
rationally philosophically coherent type
of amuna the same thing befell in some
ways theas which is earlier than the
Raba the Great Book of
Pak dealing with ethics morality one of
the great great mus for him duty of the
heart so it's divided into chapters and
the chapters are called shim sh so the
very first chapter is called
sh the book of the unity which
philosophically demonstrates the
existence of a
Creator and a typical statement is that
of the Von who says all
of is but you should only start from
chapter two uh which talks about and the
like do not do chapter one uh and indeed
even in modern translations of
the they'll prce chapter one they won't
censor the book but they will not even
translate it sometimes so this issue
which is not really my topic I I I I
don't want to address it today but this
issue of
philosophical Foundation versus
traditional faith is actually a very
very burning issue it's uh been an issue
that goes back hundreds and hundreds of
years in the time of the rambam as you
know there were communities that banned
the study of the morim even communities
that might have burned the mor we're not
entirely clear uh and this does exist to
the present day now I just say a Yesa
like or uh where I my other job uh is a
little bit of a different situation
because when you're dealing with
cha they have been actively exposed to
Richard do Dawkins and Christopher
Hitchens and they're aware of the
atheistic ideas out there so as a result
the Yeshiva has more of an obligation to
address it but if you're talking about
people who are ffbs so to speak so
there's a live debate do we expose our
children to these arguments and try to
refute them or do we basically say don't
open up the Pandora's Box now you
understand
that I'm not here to be M on this at all
but you understand that either path is
fraught with a lot of danger because if
the ideas will simply say well let's not
open up the Pandora's Box let's not
address these issues let's just go with
M what's going to happen in a world of
internet and you know in a in a world
that's pretty open in which
eventually they will come across whether
it's Evolution or or whatever whatever
the challenge will be and they were not
given any type of response within the
misgar of their so they may very well
conclude that Judaism has no answer to
all of these arguments so it might be
better to engage in what you might call
preemptive strike in which we bring up
the issues and then we try to address
them of course you need teachers who are
capable of doing that that's another
issue not every teacher is is capable of
doing that uh on the other hand the
problem is if you expose kids to certain
ideas perhaps they have gone there and
who knows where it's going to take them
so this is one of those things in which
either decision you make is going to
have risks and one has to assume what is
the better course but I do want to point
out though that according to the rambam
this gets raised to a whole different
level because it's not simply a question
of pedagogical decision making according
to the ramban that is the essence of
amuna bashem is to establish the
rational and philosophically Justified
basis for Faith okay now as I say these
are interesting digressions this is
actually not my topic but I just want to
introduce this
yeah when does it count yeah when does
it count in other words I believed in
God the first uh 20 years of my life
then I became a heretic do I get 20
years of of of faith in God um it's hard
to know I I would say that every second
you believe in God is is a Mitzvah so
you don't so you don't necessarily lose
lose
although it is interesting the gar has a
concept
in that we might call negative CH the
same way Chua erases sin when I regret
my
sins the sins are erased fascinatingly
and very troubling there is a concept
that if I did mitzvos and then I do sins
I don't lose my but if I
regret the mitzvos that I've done I say
this was stupid I wish I didn't do it
the talud says you actually lose your
mitzah I call that negative chuba
because the same way you can do Chua on
bad and get it erased God forbid you can
do chuva on good in fact this is
actually very no by the way because if
we assume there's a Mitzvah of living in
erel let's assume I come to erel and I
did a Mitzvah and then I regret I feel I
wish I never came here
that's different than simply saying I
have to go back you know that that's one
thing but I wish I never came here you
know what that means according to kadan
you've lost all of the Mitzvah of so in
that sense if I became an atheist I
might lose my amuna in that in that way
okay this was a a long digression just
to talk about the idea of tag okay now
here's the problem even though the gamar
does give us the statement that there
are 613 and indicates two of the 613
there is no statement in Kaz listing
what the 613 Commandments are there is
no Mitzvah list in
K uh and the problem is if you went
through the Torah and you went through
every time God said to do
something you would get a lot more than
in fact um if I could draw an
analogy to the Christian Bibles you know
the Christian Bibles have a shtick which
is actually an interesting stick a
little bit that both in the Old
Testament and in the Christian Bible
they're called the New Testament
whenever God speaks they put it in red I
don't know if you ever ever saw this um
the text is black but when the Lord
speaks they put it in Red so it gets
highlighted so you know that's actually
not not such a bad idea in theory so you
see the words of Hashem so the thing is
if you look at every time in the Torah
God says to do
something you will get something like
5,000 statements I mean what are you
going to say and God said let there be
light is there a Mitzvah Thou shalt have
light so the problem is how do you
identify the
6113 from a much larger grouping of
imperative
Commandments that are in or imperative
statements that are in the Kum
so the rambam was not the first one who
attempted a list of the
613 and fact the ramam refers to his
predecessors and often criticizes them
that's why he wrote the sa Mitzvah uh
the earliest is in a safare called hilos
gdos uh and this is one of the earliest
Works after the gamarra itself uh it's
an anonymous work although there are at
least two people that are credited as
possible author
one is R Shimon kayara the other is
R but whoever it is the author is
referred to as the B
hilot the author of hilot and that's
abbreviated bah so when people say bahag
they are referring to the saer
hos and he is the first one who
attempted a listing of the
613 mitzvos of the Torah but his list is
is a bit odd and the rambam attacks it
quite a lot for example the bahag counts
lighting nroa that's one of the 613
Mitzvah of the Torah and obviously you
would imagine that the ramban has a bit
of a field day on those particular
things now uh later person who wrote A
sa mitzvot is raon the great Ron also
wrote a sa mitzvot that moves in
different directions and the like but
the rambam and also there were many many
poems
that were recited on sh recite these
poems to this very day there's a whole
genre called
thear and these are poetic
Renditions of the
6113 mitzvos that you know akot which is
our the ashkenazic poem now that's what
we recite don't have akot uh they have
other things and some of the other
things they have in I'm talking about uh
are what are called the uh one of the
most important tarat was written by also
a very famous person before the rambam r
schomo i
gab and you may know him as the author
of
Adon but he was also a very very great
philosopher he was considered to be a
great thinker he wrote very deep
philosophical works and one of the
things he did was he also wrote a poetic
rendition of the 613 mitv and the rambam
is critical of all three the rambam is
critical of bahag Ron R schob IB gabal
he even has statement there that he
doesn't blame poets because they're
trying to write poetry and they're not
necessarily going to be Hally accurate
and the rambam therefore wanted to
compile a definitive
list of the
613 and the saer mitzvot is in three
parts it's a small book but it's three
parts I'll I'll first mention part two
and three then I'll go back to one part
two is a listing of the 248 positive
Commandments part
three is a listing of the 365 negative
Commandments each MIT he identifies the
pasuk and he gives you a brief
description so he says I'm not going to
give you all of the of these mitv that's
in my Mish Torah but you'll have a
listing that it's not just it's a
listing with a brief explanation of what
the Mitzvah is so part two are the
mitv part three are the mitz now before
I get to part one you already see that
there may be some problems in the
rambam's organization because keep in
mind that often in the text of the Torah
itself the Torah has both the negative
and the positive let's take Shabbat as
an example in the fourth Commandment of
the aser Adas so so it
says let's say
in remember the day of shabas to be holy
and then it
says they're right next to each other
but in the ramban Z will be in part two
somewhere and
Sh or sham as well will be later in
other words because the rambam decided
to First give you all the positives and
then give you all the negatives by
definition mitzvot that are talking
about the same subject may be very very
separated another issue with the rambam
and this is still a mystery that has not
been totally addressed is the order of
presentation when the rambam lists the
positives and the rambam lists the
negatives he is not following the order
of the Torah
anyway the problem is what order is he
following
uh the brisar said that that's a bit of
a mystery apparently the ramban looked
at the saer mitv as his outline for the
mishna Torah so more or less but not
completely the order of presentation
will follow the order of the in his
massive Mish Torah but not exactly and
one would just have to assume that as
the rambam wrote the mishna Torah he
deviated from his outline without going
back to the outline but the most
plausible explanation is that before the
rambam wrote his massive halakic work
that deals with every detail of Jewish
law his outline was a listing of the
mitzvot and he wrote it based on his
conceptual structure which itself you
can talk about of the mishna Torah okay
now part two once again is
MIT part three are mitv what is part one
part one is by far the most
Innovative
unique part of the rambam's book and
that is he tried to set out 14
fundamental
principles to
explain how he got to his count because
he addresses head on the idea that there
are many many more Commandments in the
Torah than
63 so how do we determine what makes the
list what doesn't make the list
and therefore he basically says before I
give you my
listings I'm going to give you the
principles which determined how we make
these decisions that is very unique no
other safer had ever done that uh
whether it's the bahag he just gives you
a listing rone he just gives you a
listing the ramban wanted to make this a
scientific study so to speak now I'm not
going to go over all of them just
mentioned a few uh some of them are very
obvious you don't count Rabin laws draan
as the 613 like Hanukah and Milla that's
one thing I say you don't count the oral
laws that are derived from the 13
principles of interpretation because
they're not explicit in the Torah and
then he says you don't count laws that
were
temporary and not meant to be permanent
for example the rambam says there's a
Prohibition in the Torah not to leave
the man
overnight and this is written as a
negative commandment Thou shalt not
leave
man
overnight well it's a is it a
commandment of God it absolutely is a
commandment of God it's a is it a d you
say yeah it's a Torah commandment so why
don't I find on my Mitzvah list Thou
shalt not leave the on overnight the
answer is because this was by definition
a temporary
Commandment that was only designed to be
in existence as long as the Mana was
falling so therefore the 613 the rambam
says refers only to what you might call
permanent legislation it does not refer
to Temporary Commandments that were
given in the desert for example the book
of amidor is filled with these temporary
Commandments for example when the Jewish
people
travel uh M Yehuda should be in front of
the
line now that's a Divine commandment but
we don't count that mitah because that
was knowing in the midw now here you can
understand that it will be different m
in whether something is temporary or
permanent but this is the idea and then
the rambam goes further and
says that steps that are part of a
longer process we don't count each step
as a mitzvah for example when you bring
a corbon a sin offering so the Torah
says you it the Coen skins it the Coen
sprinkles the blood if you count each
statement as a Mitzvah you're going to
get 25
mitzvos in the Sin offering itself the
rambam says no this is part of a process
there is a Mitzvah called bringing a sin
offering and bringing a sin offering
happens have 25 steps but we don't count
each step as a separate Miss now there's
R is trying to explain to you how you
classify things in terms of the 613
Shabbat there are
39 types of
M but we don't say oh there's an is to
harvest and to write that would give you
39 you'd run out of your 613 pretty
quickly if you want with that the answer
is there's only one Mitzvah Low T
do not
do on shabas one it happens to be there
are 39 different ways you can violate it
so this first part of the rambam is very
pathbreaking
because he turned the counting of
mitzvot into a real scientific Endeavor
in terms of rules and and the like and
the ramban who argues with the rambam
most of his arguments around the
formulation of those rules which will
obviously have practical implications
later right so this is part one 2 and
three part one are what are called theim
the roots of how mitzvas are counted
part two is the
Mitzvah part three is the Mitzvah now
there are later works on the Mitzvah
that are very very popular and in fact
the most popular work going through the
Mitzvah of the Torah is the saer H
beautiful beautiful work uh the author
of The saer for many years was thought
to be RAV Aron Hali from
Barcelona a reown after the rambam and
the ramban uh but I think uh most modern
identifiers uh think that that's not
true and we really don't know who who
who wrote it but is education and uh the
M does write in the introduction that he
wrote the in order to for his own child
in order to train his child in the mitv
of the Torah uh what is unique about the
is that in addition to describing the
Mitzvah and largely the SE bases his
description on ramban and he brings in
ramban a lot as well so the is based on
the ramban but the also adds an extra
dimension of trying to give you the
reason and the Phil opy of the Mitzvah
now the r himself does that in
the but in thez the r does not give you
reasons for Mitzvah at all and therefore
the tries to give you primarily the
moral
spiritual philosophical basis of a
Mitzvah and what is unique about the as
well is he departed from the
organizational structure of the rambam
that instead of listing all the
mitv and the mitzvot
the follows the order
of so
inid he will give you all of the MIT
ofid whether it's Ora that's why
in there's only
three and not eating
the so the is based on the ran
although he does add insights from
ramban uh but he changed the
organization now there is a makus
actually if the change of organization
is from the himself or a later person we
don't really know and some have
suggested that the originally wrote the
saer in the order of
the and somebody later had the idea
of but be as it may the as we have it is
a par has based Li so some par you have
very few mitv other par like he say say
you may have 72 mitzvot and the like uh
but it's something to think about uh if
you're looking for something to learn um
I see now that Arts scoll came out uh
with a with both in Hebrew with
commentary and in uh and in English so
it might be a very beautiful LOD
certainly if one were to take on a
project that I I'd like to learn the 613
mitv that would be a wonderful wonderful
project although that's pretty big now
uh let me point out that the itself
became a foundation for later which go
far far far far a field
the is an example but the which is 19th
century cannot be it is not a commentary
in
the's point is not to explain the
the point is to use the as an excuse to
go into
beautiful about whatever the Mitzvah is
so just uses the and then goes into
gazillions of very very interesting
questions but in no way could you call
the a commentary let me mention one more
book again this is a long segue to I'm
not sure we'll totally get to it but
we'll if we don't if we don't finish it
this week we're will be M so we will
very definitely cover the topic but you
need to have a little bit of
bibliographical understanding of the of
the sources
The Who 20th century uh died in
1933 wrote a safer that's
called the
abbreviated saer mitv which is available
in English as well and these are the
mitv that apply today when you don't
have a b Mikes so many many MIT are
connected to the bik to Theos so the
understood that not everybody would be
able to learn all of the 613 they may be
a little difficult or a little intricate
but at least they should be familiar
with the mitv that apply today so he
wrote an abbreviated say mitzvot which
is together both the negatives and the
positives is around 250 or so so out of
the 63 There are
250 that apply today so again if you're
looking for a project uh you might
consider the
saer okay so this is a book called saer
mitzvos It's a very very interesting a
book particularly the clim the shim the
roots of the r
enumerated and as I've indicated a few
times ran ra mosha benman who was in The
Generation after the ramban wrote
critiques of the sa Mitzvah at various
points the ramban argued and one should
know by the way that one of the meta
Tendencies of
ramban is ramban was a great great great
defender and protector of earlier
authorities that whenever a commentary
attacks earlier authorities the ramban
tries to come to their defense now since
the rambam shim are primarily attacks on
the bahag
andon the ramban tries to answer those
attacks and justify the earlier
positions sometimes he justifies the
earlier positions by saying that they're
right you know proving it and sometimes
he admits that the rambam is correct but
he at least wants you to understand that
there was some basis uh for what the
earlier Authority said that it wasn't as
foolish God forbid as you might assume
even though he's not actually endorsing
that position and these are called
hot ranot are the ramban's criticisms of
the sa MIT just like the rid didot on
the mishna Torah that's a separate thing
the ramban wrote length a much more
lengthy on the sa mitz the brisar used
to say that what made him he felt was
intensively analyzing the MIM between R
and ran they're so analytically precise
and interesting that you really develop
an understanding of how we derive mitv
from various PIM in the Torah and he
said that that was something that
sharpens him a much earlier Authority ra
Shimon Ben who's known as the Tet wrote
that uh one who learns the sa mitv with
the ramban's uh commentary will find
that the Torah knowledge he possessed
before as compared to the Torah
knowledge he possesses after is like Kip
it is like the skin of garlic in other
words it was so thin in terms of the
before and after so this is a Lima
that's very very again it's an advanced
l i I wouldn't say unlike the or
the which is more accessible the actual
rambam and ramban is a bit of an
in-depth study but it is something on an
advanced level that's a very very
rewarding thing okay so here's the thing
so the rambam writes the sa mitv with
three parts part one part two part three
and the ramban is commenting and arguing
all along throughout the entire book
but at the end of the rambam's book The
ramban adds an
appendix he says there are some MIT say
that the rambam left
out and therefore the following mitv
should be
added and there are some
mitv that the rambam left out and they
should be added so in addition to all of
his comment AR the ramban says we have
to add Commandments to the rambam's list
now you understand that this immediately
creates a certain problem of counting
because if you are wedded to the
613 and the r rambam has given you
613 he gives you 613 and ramban is then
saying you have to add this and you have
to add that and you have to add that you
got a problem you're going to get more
than
613 and we're wedded to the number
613 so trust the ran he knows what he's
doing uh one has to know every it's a
zero some game every one that he added
he took something else away now the way
he takes it away though is not just by
deleting you don't delete a Mitzvah but
by subsuming it under other mean you
take a certain thing that's counted
separately and you consider it to be a
detail of a larger Mitzvah and the
ramban did this engineering so to speak
in which he felt that certain Mitzvah
would have to be add it and therefore
you have to collapse and join MIT that
the rambam treated as separate so it's a
whole it's like you got to cover your
bases in that way okay so a number of
the ramban's additions now now the truth
of the matter
is in a way they're just covering
different bases meaning to say the
rambam joins certain things that the
ramban said should be separated and
therefore the ramban had to join other
things that the ramban felt were
separated right so we kind of separate
this separate that classify this
classify that okay but in
substance one of the most important
additions that the Raman makes to the
rambam's list is the ramban adds as a
mitv called
and the ramban adds it in the middle of
a list remember this is not the only
thing the ran is not simply writing his
eye in this book The ramban has a long
list of mitv that have to be added but
in the middle there one of the things
that he adds is
yes so first of all where does the Torah
say that where does the Torah say
according to the ramban that there's a
commandment to live in a Israel so the
ramban deres it from a PK again it's not
in this week's para but the p
in at the end of the book of
Aid
V you shall inherit the
land and you shall dwell in the land now
I'll discuss how the rambam understands
that ping but let's put that aside today
we're just looking at ramban ramban
understands this as not a temporary
Mitzvah to the generation of yua
n because that you wouldn't you wouldn't
count that as a MIT right Commandments
given just to yua would not count but
rather this is a
mitvah a mitvah for all generations and
the ran underscores even when there's no
B
mikdash
called Isel a Mitzvah called living in
Israel a mitzvah
Ora that is no for both men and women
men and women and it's
no all
generations even when there is no B
mikash even without a mashia all of
those things now he then proceeds to
explain something very interesting that
we don't always talk about the Mitzvah
of yes
Isel comprises four
subcomponents there are four different
aspects of
yesel so it's not just living in Israel
although that's
included aspect number one which is very
fascinating there's a Mitzvah on CL
Israel that all
land that is within the biblical
boundaries of AR
Israel be conquered
and
placed under
Jewish
sovereignty now as you know the
boundaries of er
Israel as described in the
Torah are actually much large greater is
are much
larger than the boundaries of the state
of Israel putting aside even Gaza and
the like but but even in terms of north
parts of Syria parts of Jordan would be
included uh now it is true the other the
other the other way is also true there
are parts of the state of
Israel that may Hally not be ER Israel a
lot is
a well I don't want to say for sure but
a lot is a possible example of territory
that is within the state of Israel but
it's not necessarily within the
boundaries of AR Israel and that's why
many people in lot keep two days of Y of
course most people in lot don't don't
even keep one day of Y but
that's but that's a separate issue but
the religious Jews who live in a lot uh
many of them will keep two days because
technically a lot may have the status
of but by and large K is is
larger than Med Israel so according to
ramban ramban is saying that part of yes
Isel is to
conquer assimilate within Jewish
sovereignty all
territory that is within the H know the
Torah boundaries the boundaries of er
Israel now if this can be done without
War do it without War but but but if
that would require War you do so so this
people don't don't realize that
according to
ramban um Not only would
territorial
giveaways be prohibited like ramban
again this is only one half of the coin
but we would actually have to go out and
Conquer in fact the ramban says that
conquering ER
Isel even aggressively would be called a
Mitzvah meaning Mitzvah according to ran
is not only a war of Defense such as
we're fighting now against an aggressor
it would actually justify what
international law would call a war of
aggression if it is to conquer the
territory now again I'll discuss why
according to ramban we still would not
advise this there there are reasons but
we're just doing you know theoretical I
don't want to get arrested or called in
for questioning uh or whatever what
whatever it is so that's component
number one now that also means the
following that also means according to
ramban you know the idea of NRI which we
will talk about extensively
that you're not allowed to have a
Medina until the coming of mashia and I
I will discuss that that Source
extensively we're not going to get to it
today but it would seem that ramban
definitionally must reject that idea
because according to the ramban it would
appear
that is not only
permitted but it is part of the Mitzvah
of yes is to establish je I'm not even
talking Messianic I'm talking about that
the mitvah
of is not just living in
Palestine but it's the
establishment of Jewish sovereignty
that's exactly what he's saying that all
of the land has to be under Jewish rule
so that's an interesting point that the
ramban finds in the
Mitzvah an obligation to establish a m
now we can debate and again maybe we'll
touch upon this you know is Israel a
Jewish State there's Arab participation
okay we we'll leave that for later but
but to Simply
say is
against is absolutely contradicted by
the ramban's assertion that Jewish
Mah is part of is so that's component
number one of four component number two
is interesting even when the land is
under Jewish
sovereignty there is a Mitzvah that it
should be m m means it should be settled
meaning do not leave the land
sh do not leave the land desolate or
empty use it for residential use
agricultural use industrial use even
aesthetic use in other words if it's
Parks or whatever it would be that's not
Shama but don't simply abandon it
meaning there's actually a Mitzvah to
build up the land that I don't
necessarily mean by building but but to
you know make the land productive and
useful in various ways now this Mitzvah
by the way can be fulfilled even without
living here so when you give when you
plant a tree in Israel you give to
Jewish National Funds whatever it is
that's a when you pick up garbage when
you walk by and you pick up a gum
wrapper whatever it would be
you are fulfilling a certain aspect of
yes by making the land more beautiful
more that is the second component that
do not let the land become
sh but try to make it
meev now the third component this is all
the ramban is a psychological component
and you wouldn't even know what the
ramban is talking about unless you know
much later history in which the ramban
is seem to be a prophet he says that no
matter where a Jew lives a Jew is not
allowed to regard any other country in
the world as the Jewish National
home other than ER
Israel meaning even if I don't live in
Israel I live in America and I'm an
American citizen and you know I
contribute to American society which I
properly should do indeed but I have to
in my heart at least believe understand
that Eric is
is the homeland of the Jewish people and
anyone whose attitude is that we don't
need ER is is violating the Mitzvah
of uh now this is interesting the Shah
Kadesh sh Hertz lived in the 1500s he
was the r of Frankfurt and he came toim
in the 1500s and he became the ashkanazi
Rev he wrote a huge huge magnificent
work
called brid which
combines so he's called the
sh so obviously when he came to arel in
the 1500s it wasn't like today it was a
very very very very difficult fact
somebody sent me you know just to show
you how the Crim thing somebody sent me
a uh comment of the
pelites it's a great great mus saer
written in like the
the 1400s in which he said uh people
shouldn't move to AR Israel because of
the poverty because they will not have a
pinasa because their children will
starve uh because so so he's right he's
sending me the Pates to say why a person
shouldn't go to Israel today now I have
total respect for the pelo he was a very
great man but what what what you're
bringing me Ras from from what somebody
wrote in the 1400s about not coming I
mean you know the world changes a little
bit different world different society
different conditions so I said you know
I have full respect for the proof for
the text you're sending me but this is
an ID this is an idiotic Riot you see
I'm kind of in a bad mood today
uh I said what are you proving to me
it's like saying you know uh one
shouldn't move to New York because the
Horseman you're in the street is so over
is so overwhelming and I'll show you
this that Benjamin Franklin complained
about it you know uh when he visit you
know does what does one have to do with
anything you know said different no
there are issues I'm not saying there
aren't issues but don't bring the issues
that that were hundreds of years ago but
but the Shah Kadesh was MOS neish and he
came to
erra and he writes in the Shah that
those people who build Big Stone houses
in the diaspora that are going to last
for hundreds and hundreds of years
they're doing a big AA because they're
basically making the statements my stay
in the galut is
permanent a Jew should be again a Jew
should be productive fact find right the
Jew should even be patriotic Visa the
United States in many many ways you know
if you're living living there but you
still have to understand the ran says
that ER Israel is your home Rabbi wine
he should be well tells the story had
the Yeshiva in M the Yeshiva still going
on and when he was building the Yeshiva
so somebody offered him Timber wood from
Finland special Finnish wood that has a
life a non-warping life of 300 years I
guess most wood is 50 to 70 years then
it begins to warp and you got to repair
it this is wood that's non warpable for
300 years J wies said he refused to
accept it because he was not going to
build an institution in the galot
intending to last for 300 years that
would have been now my Kasha and rabi
wine is I a r lne myha is ah but that
shouldn't apply to Yesa R because the
gar Milla says that all theot and the
shs of are going to be uprooted and come
to so you can build the Yesa that's
permanent because it's going to come
here anyway okay from
yeah well uh the ramban would basically
say this uh he says that obviously uh
because of our sins uh we are exiled and
this is
this is a
punishment uh but that doesn't mean that
that has to be our permanent State he
says like anything else uh if it's be U
to do something and Hashem is not
stopping us in a sense that means Hashem
is giving us a green light that that's
what he's he's actually saying it's a
punishment and indeed the punishment can
happen again God forbid the punishment
can happen again but that doesn't stop
us from from engaging in the Endeavor
we'll we'll talk about that so I
mentioned three components now if you
think about this uh this goes back to
Theodore Herzel if you remember um in
the uh the various Zionist congresses at
some point Herzel was toying with the
idea of Uganda now again I'm not going
to knock Herzel because once again
Herzel was gen and he was not a
religious man obviously but Herzel was
deeply deeply concerned for the European
anti-Semitism that was very poisonous he
had experienced it as a journalist in
the drive
trial so you know herz's motives were
good motives and and they were you know
sh in or at least the shame am Israel in
a sense so when he saw all the
difficulties in trying to negotiate with
the Ottoman Empire and Uganda was there
he thought it might be a safe haven uh
for the Jewish people so he was willing
to consider Uganda as a possible home uh
there was also a brief project in the
United States uh Galvis Island Galviston
Texas at at that point was an island it
was not connected to the mainland I
don't know how many Jews you could fit
on Galviston Island but there was a
Galvis then resettlement project uh
Stalin in his great uh generosity
offered the province of Georgia as a
Jewish State instead we got Siberia kind
of to the a little bit uh to the to the
to the east of of Georgia and the like
but the ramban is basically saying that
Jews are not allowed to look at any
other place as the Jewish National home
except for ER Israel so that's the third
one now the fourth component the fourth
component is the one that everybody
knows live here meaning it's not enough
to support the conquest of the land and
giving to jnf is good and picking up
garbage is good but it's not enough and
it's not enough to emotionally identify
with Eric although you have to do that
too but ultimately God wants your body
and not only your soul God wants you to
physically live here this is called the
Mitzvah of yesel and the ramban brings
many many Ras that there is such a thing
as a Mitzvah I'll just mention two Ras
now again we'll see now please please be
sure as I'm talking please be sure you
understand I today I'm only
painting one half of a picture because
we're then going to discuss what is the
rambam's view
okay so be sure you have to keep in mind
that all of the AR here is focusing on
theas
har then I'll move later to the she of
the ramban and how we Pas it but just a
few of the RAS of the ran the ran makes
a point that the mishna says
in that if husband and wife are in
disagreement where to
live whichever party wants to live in ER
Israel has the right to Force the other
party to come now I'm not I'm not saying
these rights should be exercised there
is a Shalom bias issue but
Al if the man wants to go and the woman
doesn't the woman is obligated but the
other way too if the woman wants to go
and the man doesn't the man is obligated
so ramban argues if there wouldn't be a
Mitzvah to live here what would give
either party the right to make such a
demand another example normally you know
you're not allowed to tell a non-jew to
do work on Shabbat any work I'm not
allowed to do but I can't tell the go
turn on a light again the whole thing of
shabas is
unfortunately very very
misunderstood and uh it's often people
are often doing things that are not
proper but as a general rule without
getting into all of the ins and outs you
don't tell a to do M Shas but there
are some exception a few exceptions and
one of the exceptions is if you want to
buy property in arus
that's in the hands of a
non-jew and the non-jew is only willing
to sell it to you today and if you I say
chabas and if you wait till tomorrow
you're not going to be able to redeem
that property uh the gamor says you are
allowed to sign a deed even on chabas in
order to redeem the property in Eric
Israel from the hands of a non-jew which
again highlights the notion of Jewish
sovereignty over the property of erel
that's called the Mitzvah so this is the
Ran's opinion that is MIT now even in
the ran there are some questions which
I'll discuss next week and that is well
how absolute is that Mitzvah is the
ramban saying no matter what I got to
come the first question that you it's
going to occur to you is hey wait a
second here where did ramban live
most of his life the ramban lived in
Spain most of his life he spent the last
five years of his life in erell and
that's only because he was kicked out of
Spain so we're going to discuss it so
next week we we'll try we'll try to do
two things we'll try to flesh out how
absolute is Ran's position and then
we'll also want to look at what is the
rambam's position about this okay so
that emission will be next week you have
a good that good week everybody