HASDEI HASHEM KI LO TAMNU—THE LORD’S KINDNESSES NEVER CEASE

As I spent weeks and weeks on chapter 41, I just thought that it was a rich chapter that took a long time to justly explain and present. It also turns out, however, that it left us with Chapter 43 to begin during the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah. Depending on your view of the world, you can see that as providence or not, but I think it’s interesting at least. In addition, we will probably only have time for the first half this week, meaning that the lengthy discussion of Sukkot will come next week, at the holiday’s advent. How wonderful are His ways!

SHABBAT

The chapter, however does not begin with Yom Kippur. It starts by mentioning that the eighth class of mistvot are those involving holidays, the first of which is Shabbat. Rambam says that the point of Shabbat is so well known that he does not need to explain it, since it provides a very great rest from the fatigue that is otherwise inescapable (he points out that because of Shabbat we spend a seventh of our life resting). In addition, Shabbat reminds us of an important belief, that the world was created in time.

(Although I hope I don’t seem repetitive, I think it is worth noting each time Rambam makes a casual comment about a topic where his true thoughts are a topic of debate. I have mentioned before that Rambam is unclear, elsewhere in the Guide, as to whether he believes the world was created out of nothing. A comment like this—where he offers a second reason for Shabbat that assumes creation ex nihilo, when one reason would have been sufficient—seems strong evidence that he actually believed in that kind of creation of the world. )

In addition, it is worth noting that the two reasons Rambam gives correspond to zekher li-yetsiat mitsrayim and zekher le-ma`aseh bereshit. That is, the Torah refers to Shabbat as being a commemoration of both Creation and the Exodus. Rambam’s two reasons correspond to that, with the physical rest reminding us of not being slaves in Egypt and the ex nihilo issue being part of remembering Creation.

Of course, the Torah seems to say that the ma`aseh bereshit part is that God rested on the seventh day, whereas Rambam is saying that it’s that God created from nothing. Perhaps Rambam thought that the Torah’s stressing God’s resting from Creation at the very least combated Aristotle’s notion that God was simply the First Cause, but that His causing the world’s existence was eternal. It would not seem, however, combat the Platonic notion that there was a small amount of basic material that God used to create the whole world.

YOM KIPPUR, THE IN-BETWEEN HOLIDAY

After mentioning Shabbat, Rambam mentions Yom Kippur, after which he will discuss Pesah, Shavuot and Rosh haShanah. The placement of Yom Kippur is interesting, since it does not follow the calendar (as the discussion of the rest of the holidays does). It seems an additional example of a notion that I heard from mori ve-rabi R. Michael Rosensweig, the notion of Yom Kippur as a day that combines elements of Shabbat and Yom Tov. He noted that in Mishneh Torah, Rambam placed Yom Kippur between the laws of Shabbat and of Yom Tov; also, while Yom Tov has five people read the Torah, and Shabbat has seven, Yom Kippur has six. For the final example that I remember, violations of Yom Tov are a plain prohibition, of Shabbat incur an earthly death penalty, and of Yom Kippur, karet, a Heavenly death penalty that can be absolved with earthly flogging. Here, too, it serves an in-between purpose.

THE CONCEPT OF TESHUVAH

In a comment that has fueled discussions as to whether he believed in the efficacy of teshuvah, Rambam says that Yom Kippur was meant to inculcate the notion of teshuvah in people. Those who see him as philosophically oriented—and teshuvah as real absolution is not a philosophical concept, since the atonement for the sin in no way relates to the sin itself—took his phraseology seriously, claiming that Rambam did not actually believe in teshuvah, but thought it was a necessary notion for people’s religious health.

This, I believe, is utter hogwash. Rambam does not only say the day is to remind us of teshuvah, he says that it is a day that historically our teshuvah was accepted (after the sin of the Golden Calf). In addition, of course, his careful exposition of Hilkhot Teshuvah in the Mishneh Torah strongly suggests that he saw the topic as actual, not just a beneficial belief.

Rambam says that the afflictions of Yom Kippur—fasting, etc.—are meant to avoid our bodily needs and spend the day confessing. I would note that he does not say spend the day repenting, as we might have expected, but confessing. In recent editions of my Halakhah in Brief, I have had occasion to discuss Rambam’s references to confessing rather than to repenting. There, the Rov ztllh"h idea that confessing is the act of mitsvah, while repenting is the internal experience, worked perfectly well.

Rambam’s presentation here, however, suggests another possibility. In the Halakhah in Brief, I suggested that Rambam was in favor of detail in one’s repentance because detail allowed the penitent to delve more deeply into an understanding of his sin, its causes, the factors that promoted it, the ways to avoid it, one’s sense of regret for it, and so on. If that is true, Rambam may have believed that vidui really is the teshuvah, because until one can fully articulate one’s sin, one’s regret, and one’s sincere (and informed) intent not to return to that sin or its leading causes, one has not really repented.

That would be a hiddush, but it makes some sense. We think of repentance as the regret over sin, but it’s probably more accurate to think of it as the change from a person who commits a certain sin to a person who no longer does. That change needs more than just regret, it needs recognition (of a very full sort), and resolve. While those three can happen internally, it is only with their articulation (as the Rov said in a different context) that teshuvah has been fully effected.

PESAH AND THE MEANING OF A WEEK

In introducing the festivals, Rambam says they are necessary because people need times of rejoicing. In addition, they are times to create and/or cement friendships.

Pesah itself obviously celebrates the Exodus from Egypt; Rambam however decides to explain here why it lasts a week. Although he does not comment at length, he says that a week is the mean period between a day and a month. A day would not have been long enough, since then the eating of matsah would not have been as obvious—sometimes people change their diets for a couple of days for reasons of taste or inclination. The Torah therefore wanted a period longer than that, so that it would be clear that we are refraining from hamets and eating matsah in commemoration, rather than as an issue of taste.

There are two interesting parts to this comment. First, Rambam calls a week a mean period between a day and a month on the lunar calendar. What he means is that a day, week, and month are the three identifiable periods in the moon’s rotations. A day is one appearance of the moon (at night), a week is a phase of the moon (as it either has a quarter, a half, or none showing), and a month is an entire rotation of its appearance. Calling this a mean, though, is suggestive for another famous idea of his, the notion of adopting the mean in character traits. I had occasion, over Rosh haShanah, to mention Rambam’s notion that anger and humility are the two character traits where the mean is not appropriate, but that in all other traits one should strive to adopt the mean.

Although he does not specify, the mean always sounds like it’s in the middle—the mean between miserliness and thriftiness is generosity, between asceticism and gluttony (sorry, but I’m writing this on Tsom Gedalyah) is eating as necessary, and so on. If the mean between a day and a month can be a week, then mean for Rambam might mean that things go in discrete units, and can easily be closer to one extreme than the other—as long as it is the middle defined unit.

The other interesting thing is that Rambam says the Torah chose the week because it was a natural unit, and that the Law converts natural things into religious ones (it’s a harder paragraph than that, but that’s what the 1^st paragraph on 371 means). Although he does not elaborate, because it’s not the topic of the chapter, he pretty clearly means that the Torah didn’t make Pesah a ten-day holiday (for example) because there was a natural period of a week, and the Torah likes to take natural phenomena and convert them into areas of service.

SHAVUOT

As we might expect, Rambam stresses the giving of the Torah. He says that the counting of the Omer is precisely because we count up to things we are excited about. Since the event was only a day, we celebrate for only a day.

Note that Rambam doesn’t mention bikkurim or the agricultural aspect of the day at all, which is particularly odd since the Torah only mentions those aspects. Perhaps because he wanted to make the continued observance continuingly relevant, or because the Karaites denied Shavuot’s being the holiday of the Giving of the Law, Rambam focused on that.

ROSH HASHANAH

Rambam stresses teshuvah in Rosh haShanah as well—that is his understanding of the mitsvah of shofar, as he had already said in Mishneh Torah (and mentions here). In my Wednesday night class on Rambam and siddur, I had occasion to note that the shofar, at least in its public blows, seems to serve as a vehicle of announcing God’s Kingdom in the world. I heard today that Rabbi J. Bieler in Washington, D.C. also spoke about the notion of God as King. Nevertheless, Rambam stresses teshuvah, and therefore sees the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah as a real time period, connecting two holidays of repentance. Next week, be-`ezrat Hashem, we will complete 43 and 44 (44 is really short). With best wishes for a gemar hatimah tovah, a year filled with health and happiness.