CATEGORIZING THE MITSVOT

This chapter gives Rambam’s fourteen categories of mitsvot, categories he will then take up in the coming chapters at greater length. As we go through this chapter, therefore, we will be getting first impressions of these categories rather than a full understanding of his views. Nevertheless, there will be several interesting aspects to his presentation.

Perhaps the first worth noting, even before we begin to list the classes, is that Rambam also divided his Mishneh Torah into fourteen books. Surprisingly, despite the consistency of the number fourteen, the classes do not exactly match (although there is some overlap). At the end of the list, we will note some ways in which the two divisions differ. At some level, however, the consistency of the number fourteen in Rambam’s presentations is also worth pondering. In this shiur, we will focus primarily on Rambam’s explicit comments in the text.

FIRST CLASS--OPINIONS

The first group consists of those commandments that involve fundamental ideas, meaning the notions Rambam codified in Hilkhot Yesodei haTorah. Remember that those chapters discuss his view of God, the angels, the interaction between God and the world, the mitsvah of qiddush Hashem, sanctifying God’s name, prophecy, and false prophecy. Rambam also includes repentance and fasts in this class. Although he adds that he will explain their relevance to this category, it is worth noting here that Rambam sees repentance and fasts as involving ideas that are important for religiosity. That already suggests that the actions are not ends of their own, but ways of teaching some idea to people. We will have to investigate this further.

SECOND CLASS--IDOLATRY

While obviously idolatry includes the laws specifically encoded as the laws of idolatry, Rambam also adds the laws of shatnes (garments made of wool and flax), orlah (the prohibition against using the first three years’ produce from a tree), and kilayim (planting diverse seeds together). We will have to see how these are part of idolatry later. Rambam says this class of mitsvot is there to inculcate true opinions and to get the multitude to cling to the truth throughout the ages—meaning, I think, that all of these laws prevent people from getting involved in idolatry at any point in time. We will have to consider whether Rambam might believe that these laws also protect against practices that are not actually idolatry, but have many of the same aspects as idolatry (which might explain why they are relevant to societies where idolatry itself no longer exists).

THIRD CLASS—IMPROVING MORAL QUALITIES

Rambam says that these laws, which he taught in Hilkhot De`ot, help perfect human association and society, so as to provide good human circumstances. Although we will see more of this later, note that Rambam does not seem to find value in moral qualities per se—if I help an old lady across the street, Rambam seems to believe that I have helped society and, since I need society to survive, myself. I have not, however, helped my personal development all that significantly. We will obviously need to elaborate further.

FOURTH CLASS—ALMS, GIFTS, AND GIFTS TO THE TEMPLE

Rambam includes here the laws of loans, slaves, charity of various sorts, all the laws having to do with planting (that he includes in Sefer Zeraim), and gifts to the Temple, whether done by promising the value of something, or by making it herem. What combines these together is unclear, except that Rambam says it reminds us that those who are poor today may be rich tomorrow, and vice verse. Note that he does not simply say that these help society function well, although they presumably do that, too. Instead, it seems that he believes that they also teach a lesson to the person that is vitally important.

FIFTH CLASS—TORTS

Included in Sefer Nezikin, Rambam says these are for obvious reasons, presumably social.

SIXTH CLASS—PUNISHMENTS

This class, which Rambam says includes most of what he codified as Sefer Shofetim, includes court procedures, and all the ways of punishing wrongdoers. Without such punishment, he notes, people would not refrain from wrongdoing; rather than constituting mercy, the unwillingness to mete out justice as needed is a cruelty, since it leads to the breakdown of society.

SEVENTH CLASS—PROPERTY

Codified in Sefer Mishpatim and Qinyan, these deal with all the ways of transferring property and all sorts of mutual transactions—loans, hiring others, inheritance. These again are part of regulating human interactions appropriately.

EIGHTH CLASS—SPECIAL TIMES

The prime examples, obviously, are Shabbat and the festivals. Rambam notes that the Torah has given reasons for each of these, as he will elaborate. These are generally included in the book of Zemanim, although Rambam does not mention that. In addition, note that Rambam does not consider fast days in this group, although they do appear in Sefer Zemanim.

NINTH CLASS—WORSHIP

As codified in Sefer Ahavah, these include all the forms of worship of God, such as recitation of Shema, prayer, and so on. The one exception is circumcision, which Rambam lists in the fourteenth class.

TENTH CLASS—SANCTUARY

This corresponds to Sefer Avodah, defining how the Temple worked. As Rambam had mentioned in Chapter 32, part of the purpose of the Temple was to restrict where people did their sacrificing, as part of weaning them from the practice (or at least its more pernicious aspects).

ELEVENTH CLASS—SACRIFICES

This corresponds to some of Avodah and all of Qorbanot, and we have already discussed some of what Rambam believed. Note that here he refers to having discussed its necessity "in those times." We will have to see whether he offers any hint of its possible utility in these times.

TWELFTH CLASS—RITUAL PURITY

Rambam interestingly says that the purpose of these laws was to generally discourage entry into the sanctuary, so as to make it a more feared and venerated place, a reason I had never heard before. In other words, Rambam seems to be saying, these laws protect the holiness of the place by making access difficult. He apparently believes that it is difficult if not impossible to maintain the veneration of a place that we see all the time. By creating complicated rules for entry (and I would hope Rambam does not think those rules entirely arbitrary), God could insure that people would not become so familiar with the Temple that it would breed laxity and overly increased comfort.

THIRTEENTH CLASS—RESTRICTIONS OF LUST AND LICENTIOUSNESS

This group, primarily consists of the Laws of Forbidden Foods, but also of vows (prohibiting certain things to oneself) and the state of being a Nazir (where the person cannot drink wine or become ritually impure, or cut his hair). To Rambam, it is meant to help people control their appetites, and to train us that our appetites are never meant to be an end of their own.

FOURTEENTH CLASS—LIMITING SEXUALITY

While this group obviously includes the laws regarding incest and marriage (since that regulates with whom we are allowed to have such relations), Rambam also includes the laws of interbreeding beasts (separating this law from shatnes and kilayim, the other examples of mixing pre-existing types or species) and of circumcision. The question of interbreeding is interesting, because we might easily have read it as simply another example of those two. Indeed, in both times that the Torah mentions shatnes, Vayiqra 19;19 and Devarim 22;10-11, the prohibition of interbreeding animals appears right next to these other two—suggesting that they are related prohibitions. We will have to watch why Rambam splits them from each other, and how he relates the first two to idolatry and this one to sexuality.

Circumcision is similarly problematic, since it seems so clearly connected to issues of Sefer Ahavah, since Hashem makes it clear that it creates (or is a symbol of) a covenant between the people and God. We will have to wait several weeks until we get up to it, but we will need to examine carefully Rambam’s view that a reason for circumcision is that it teaches us to limit our sexual activity.

DIFFERENCES FROM THE MISHNEH TORAH

Watching the classes that Rambam posits here, there are several interesting differences from the Mishneh Torah. First, note that the first three classes were all incorporated into Sefer haMadda, the first of the 14 books of the Mishneh Torah. That means that those issues only comprised approximately 1/14th of the Mishneh Torah, but are here expanded to be 3/14ths. In contrast, issues of acquisition of property, 1/7 of the Mishneh Torah, is only one category here. So that, while civil law loomed in importance in the Mishneh Torah, it has been reduced in importance here. And vice verse for philosophical issues—while they were included in Mishneh Torah, it is only here that we see their full import.

Second, note that some of Rambam’s classes are spread through a few books of the Mishneh Torah. Sacrifices, for example, are in both Avodah and Qorbanot; giving gifts appear in Sefer Zeraim, but also in several other places. Although it’s probably more important for a full understanding of the Mishneh Torah than of the Moreh, it would be worth pondering why Rambam didn’t simply codify the Mishneh Torah according to the classes he delineated here (assuming he didn’t simply change his views between the two works). Perhaps after we have seen all of the classes in full, we’ll have more of an opportunity to discuss this in full.

As a final point, note that Rambam apparently reduces the centrality of the topics dealt with in the books Ahavah and Zemanim. We might think of our observance of Shabbat, the holidays, saying Shema, and so on as the essence of religiosity, but Rambam does not mention them until the eighth and ninth class. I don’t wish to imply that Rambam does not value them, but he seems to see them as specific tools to the more overarching goals of the religion, another topic we’ll have to watch in the weeks to come.