Day #13–Rambam DAILY Sefer HaMitzvos

number 13 of our daily study of the ramam safe from it says and get ready get ready because today in our three chapters a day of mission of Toyota we're starting that's the laws of idol worship and uh okay so I'll just tell you like this worship contains 12 chapters so if you're studying three chapters a day 12 chapters takes four days there are 51 Mitzvahs 51 misses two positive Commandments and 49 prohibitions so just do the math over the next four days we have to cover 51 misses I think today we have 12 Mitzvahs so we're going to move a little bit more quickly than we have been and we're gonna try to do this in a timely fashion negative commandment number 10 all of these Mitzvahs all have to do with idol worship Okay negative command we're gonna go quickly negative commandment number ten the prohibition against studying idolatrous theologies don't study it don't even go study it I'm not even saying to practice it that's another prohibition don't even go and educate yourself about it um negative commandment 47 a little bit different and that is not to think thoughts that are idolatrous meaning your own line of thinking now it's interesting this Mitzvah this prohibition is related to a another prohibition that goes with it there's well they're really one prohibition uh you know what we say in the schmann the last paragraph of Shema that you should look at your titses and you should remember the the mittens of Hashem do not go straying wandering after your hearts and after your eyes after which you go astray so that's one prohibition but what does it mean to go straying after your heart that means idolatrous thoughts radical thoughts and to go straight after your eyes means being attracted and enticed by illicit immoral um images that would provoke a a carnal desire so those really go together in one Mitzvah one prohibition uh negative commitment number 47. okay uh negative commandment number 60 not to curse God whether by his actual names or even by any of his uh the names that we use to refer to him that are not official names negative commandment number six the prohibition against unique forms of idol worship that means there are peculiar ways of serving specific idols um a specific act that is only considered worship for a particular Idol so don't serve the idol in the particular mode in which it is served and the the classic example for instance uh the the Romans and the Greeks had a had an idol uh we call Mercury uh in English but they used to have statues of it at the crossroads and the people would throw stones at it so normally throwing stones in an idol isn't the normal way of serving it but for that for whatever reason that was the way they served it so that would be considered the the prohibition negative commandment number six now negative commitment number five is that there are certain modes of service there are four of them which are prohibited to engage in uh for any Idol and and these are sort of the universal forms of idol worship no matter what the peculiar form of idol worship for that specific Idol may be these four are always prohibited and they are bowing down slaughtering a sacrifice pouring a libation that's like wine and burning a sacrifice on an altar okay and then also uh in addition to that making a verbal proclamation of loyalty to the idol God forbid so that is always prohibited uh no matter which Idol we're talking about and that again that's negative commandment number five negative commandment number two not to manufacture Idols not to make idols negative commandment number three it's a separate prohibition not to make Idols for others even if it's not for your own use you don't believe in it you're not you're not going to worship it you it's just a business you just want to sell it to other people you're not allowed okay that was negative commandment number three negative commandment number four not to make images ornamentation um here's here's a here's a tricky one we don't have time to get into it but this is where there's not even idolatrous intent but we're just making graven images um that itself is a Prohibition now obviously there is a place for artistic expression going through the safe room it's just very quickly we're not going to be able to get into that but obviously there is a proper way for creating Visual Arts according to Torah but you have to be aware that creating images even without idolicious intent is a uh is something that has to be done very carefully in in within the parameters of what is permissible okay and that's negative commandment number four okay now we have negative commandment number 15 not to incite an entire populace to worship idols that's a person who rolls into town and he gets a whole city to start worshiping Idols even if he himself doesn't worship them but he entices others that's negative prohibition 15. uh positive commandment 186 if there is such a city like this it's called a iranidajas so positive commandment 186 is to burn this city down it should be noted that at least according to one opinion in the talmud this never happened that's similar to the Bensalem the stubborn and rebellious son it never happened it is a thought experiment or a theoretical concept we are supposed to know that it would be God's will that it would be done this way if in reality certain uh very extensive parameters were were met but in fact in historical fact it never happened because the the criteria are so exact acting okay so that's positive commandment it's one of our two positive Commandments that we have in Hillcrest is to burn down this the city that has gone astray negative commandment 23 not to rebuild this iranidad after it's been destroyed and finally negative commandment 24 not to get benefit not to derive benefit from the city which means that if you want to say it's a shame that it should all go to waste maybe take a couple things here and there I guess today we'd call it looting and it's it's going to get burnt anyways no you're not allowed to salvage anything from it it all has to be destroyed Without a Trace and those are our myths was today we're going to continue tomorrow with hashem's help continuing laws related to the prohibitions against idolatry we'll see you tomorrow