C&C 5777 - Vaetchanan - Philosophy or Prophecy?

The Office of Rabbi Sacks

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Va'etchanan. Rabbi Sacks enters into the ages old debate on whether the first of the ten commandments is truly the first of the 613 mitzvot, and by breaking down this question, he examines how we view the essence of commandments. Covenant and Conversation 5777 is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Philosophy or Prophecy.
0:04.0	What was the First Commandment?
0:07.0	The first, that is, of the Ten Commandments.
0:09.0	On this, there are two fascinating disagreements in Judaism.
0:13.0	One was between Moses Maimonides and the author of the Halachod Godolot,
0:19.0	written in the period of the Goonim, probably by R. Shimon Kayaara in the 8th
0:24.1	century, the book that for the first time enumerated in a systematic way, the 613 commands. The other was
0:32.3	between Maimonides and the poet and thinker Yehuda Halavi, and these were two different arguments,
0:38.9	and they touched, as we'll see, on fundamentals of faith.
0:42.8	The first is simply this.
0:45.3	Maimonides counts the opening line of the Ten Commandments,
0:49.2	Anarchy, Hashem al-Khehah, I am the Lord your God,
0:51.8	who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery as a positive
0:56.4	command to believe in God.
0:59.7	The Halakhot-Gadolot doesn't count it as a command at all.
1:04.4	Why not?
1:05.4	Nachmanides, in defense of the Halachod-Gidolot, speculates that its author counted among the 613 commands
1:14.7	only the specific laws in joining us to do this or avoid doing that. The commands are rules of
1:22.2	behavior, not items of faith. Faith in the existence of God or acceptance of the kingship of God is not
1:30.3	itself a command but a prelude to and a presupposition of the commands. He quotes a passage
1:37.6	from the Mechelta, You shall have no other gods beside me. Why is this said, said, asked the
1:43.2	Mechelta, because it says, I am the Lord your God.
	...

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