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Is there a Disconnect between Torah Learning and Torah Living? : 47
Rambam 51 says that holiness is attained by keeping all of the
מצוות בין אדם commandments in the Torah, presumably including the
‏.לחבירו
קדושים תהיו והתקדשתם והייתם קדושים הם צוויין לקיים כל התורה כאילו
יאמר היה קדוש בעשותך כל מה שצויתיך בו והזהר מכל מה שהזהרתיך ממנו.‏
Rambam then includes in his Halachik work, the החזקה ‏,יד an
entire section on middos, i.e. דעות ‏.הלכות He begins this section, as he
does all other sections, by listing the מצוות contained in it. As the first
“foundation mitzvah” for this section, he lists להדמות בדרכיו i.e., “to
model ourselves in accordance with His (Hashem’s) ways.” In the
body of the perek Rambam then writes:
ו)‏ כך למדו בפירוש מצוה זו מה הוא נקרא חנון אף אתה היה חנון מה הוא
נקרא רחום אף אתה היה רחום מה הוא נקרא קדוש אף אתה היה קדוש.‏
Thus did they (Chazal) teach when explaining this mitzvah. Just as
he is called Gracious, so should you be gracious, just as he is called
Compassionate, so should you be compassionate, just as he is called
Kadosh, so should you be kadosh.
even had they not been commanded. But in the final analysis he says
they are mitzvos! Are there mitzvos with no ‏?קדושה In fact, at the end of
the 8 th Perek of הלכות מלכים Rambam writes regarding the mitzvos given
to הראשון ‏,אדם and to ‏,נח i.e. the “universal moral principles” that
pertain to all of mankind, as follows:
(
יא כל המקבל שבע מצות ונזהר לעשותן
הרי זה מחסידי אומות העולם ויש לו חלק לעולם הבא והוא שיקבל אותן ויעשה
אותן מפני שצוה בהן הקב"ה בתורה והודיענו על ידי משה רבינו שבני נח
מקודם נצטוו בהן אבל אם עשאן מפני הכרע הדעת אין זה גר תושב ואינו
“Anyone who accepts upon himself 11) ‏.מחסידי אומות העולם ולא מחכמיהם
the fulfillment of these seven mitzvot and is precise in their observance is
considered one of the pious among the gentiles and will merit a share in the
world to come. This applies only when he accepts them and fulfills them
because the Holy One Blessed is He commanded them in the Torah and
informed us through Moses our teacher that Noah’s descendents had been
commanded to fulfill them previously. However if he fulfills them out of
intellectual conviction he is not a resident alien nor of the pious among the
gentiles nor of their wise men.” (Trans. Elyahu Touger, Moznaim, 2001).
Clearly, these universals are מצוות meant to be adhered to as mitzvos, and not as
self-evident intellectual or humanistic truths.
. ספר המצות להרמב ‏"ם השרש הרביעי 51
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