Taryag Mitzvos

As I enter today into my Bar Mitzvah status I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the definition of what we call a Mitzvah.

In this weeks Parsha, Parshas Ekev, it says

זְכֹר אַל תִּשְׁכַּח אֵת אֲשֶׁר

הִקְצַפְתָּ אֶת יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בַּמִּדְבָּר לְמִן הַיּוֹם

The Toras Kohanim in the beginning of Parshas Bechukaysai mentions this Mitzva of remembering the story of the Egel and expressing it verbally. It is mentioned  together with a number of other Mitzvos “Zchira” including “Zachor es Yom Hashabbos”, “Zechiros Yetzios Mitzrayim”, “Zachor es asher usuh Hashem L’Miriam” and “Zchiros Amalek”. Interestingly the Rambam only counts Shabbos and Amalek in his Minyan Hamitzvos. The Ramban on the other hand argues on the Rambam and says that because these Mitzvos are mentioned in the Sifra explicitly they should all be counted as Mitzvos. The question is why did the Rambam choose only these two mitzvohs, Shabbos and Amelek,  rather than the mitzvohs of Zachor es asher ushuh hashem l’Miriam and Ma’aseh Haegel , and, what does the Ramban mean that the other “Zchiros” should be counted because they are mentioned in the Sifra?

In Parshas Va’eschanan it says:

לֹא תֹסִפוּ עַל הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם וְלֹא תִגְרְעוּ מִמֶּנּוּ לִשְׁמֹר אֶת מִצְוֹת יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם

The Sifri adds “ For example 5 Parshiyos in your T’filin”. The question is where does the Torah tell you that the Mitzva of Tfiling is to have only four  parshiyos that having five can be considered Bal Tosif?

The source to the fact that there are 613 Mitzvos is from the Gemara at the end of Makos which says as follows.

Does it really matter what the exact number of mitzvos are?      

Also, why did the rishonim spend so much time trying to figure out which mitzvah should be counted and which shouldn’t?

The Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvos, Mitzvas Lo Sa’aseh         says that  yayin nesech is one of the taryag mitzvos even though it is not mentioned explicitly in the Torah and his proof is from the fact that the Gemarah in Avodah Zarah calls yayin nesech an issur D”oraysa. This seems to show us that the Taryag Mitzvos are not necessarily what we would find explicitly in the Torah.

The explanation to this can be found in the Ramban in his Hakdamah to the Chumash. The Ramban explains the Machlokes  in Gittin 

Megiala megila etc.

Is only a Machlokes as to when Moshe Rabeinu wrote down the Torah Shebichsav that which we have but the pasuk in Mishpatim which states

וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֶל מֹשֶׁה עֲלֵה אֵלַי הָהָרָה וֶהְיֵה שָׁם וְאֶתְּנָה לְךָ אֶת לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן וְהַתּוֹרָה וְהַמִּצְוָה אֲשֶׁר כָּתַבְתִּי לְהוֹרֹתָם:

The Ramban says that there were three things given to Moshe on Hara Sinia

1.    The luchos…… which contained the aseres hadibros

2.    The Torah…… which was written down either later or then depending on the gemara in gittin

3.    The mitzvos…….  Meaning the  Taryag mitzvos which are the mitzvos that Rav Simlai was referring to which are the mitzvos De’oraysa which we have.

The Rambam in his Hakdama to Pirush Hamishnayos says this too. He says that all mitzvos were given with their peirushim to Moshe Rabeinu and he taught them and they would write down the mitzvah and would learn the peirush by heart and only after that did Moshe Rabeinu write the Sefer Torah.  Write the lashon here

We see that although all the mitzvos can be found in the Torah maybe not explicitly however not everything in the torah is necessarily counted as a Mitzvah.

The Rambam in Shoresh Sheini reinforces this and states that although the  yood gimel midos are Min Hatorah, The only mitzvohs that are learnt out through the yood gimel midos that the Gemara says are  Mid’oraysa can be counted as part of the Taryag mitzvos but the ones that were not mentioned in the Gemara as such would be considered Mitzvos Derabanan.

This would explain why the Rambam only counts Shabbos and Amalek as Zechiros which are Di’oraysa and considers the other zchiros not to be mitzvos Dioraysa because they were not mentioned explicitly in the Gemara. The Ramban argues and feels that the fact that they are mentioned in the Sifra should be enough to consider them to be part of the Taryag Mitzvohs.

Of course Bal Tosif would be on any mitzvah that was commanded to Moishe on Har Sinai not only what is written in the Sefer torah and that is why 4 batim in Tefilin is as much di’oraysa as other mitzvos.

What is a "Talmid"

The Targum transalates the pasuk in parshas Matos "Tarbus Anashim Chataim" (which by the way throughout Tanach means sinners rather than sins so its hard to understand what Bruriah said to R' Meir with regard to "Yitamu Chataim velo Chotim") "Talmidei Guvraya Chayavaya".

The word "Tarbut" means culture in hebrew and also so understood according to Rishonim here (see Eben Ezra). The Targum is saying that a "Talmid" is one who absorbs a culture, meaning, that it permeates throughout his being in a subconscious way. When one feels that he has become culturally imbued he can then be considered a "Talmid"