5 MINUTES PER WEEK.
Dear Family
Hope everyone is well.
It is with great joy, in the Parsha of Yisro where we received the Torah on Har Sinai, that I would like to start to share with the Family my project on Rambam which I have been working on since 23/12/03.
This was the date that I sat down with Hirshy and Zalmy to learn 1 Chap. per day from Rambams Mishneh Torah.
It was at this stage that I also decided to summarise the Mishneh Torah.
The first version was very short and I realised that it was ok for me, but it would not be very useful for someone else trying to understand, and as the years went on the project developed into a multi level summary, because I saw that each level would have its own advantages in different ways for different people..
The project is now in 'the cloud' and is being checked and edited by a number of people mainly to make sure it is accurate, and at the same time I am refining it further there.
However for the purpose of practicality, I believe it can start to be used.
I am sure that everyone recognises the beauty of Torah in some way or another. Or the Intellect and amazing accuracy and depth, Or the Communal aspect, Or the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly patterns and framework of Shabbos and Yom tov etc, Or the beauty of close-knit families where there is kindness and peace, or the vast Infinity etc, etc.
But the question is how do we connect with all this beauty and comfortably feel a part of it?
So I saw in this weeks Sedra as follows: Hashem says ' And now if you will listen diligently to My Voice, and preserve My covenant, you shall be My special treasure among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.'
And Hashem through Torah then lays out for us PHYSICAL ACTS for us to perform, which is within the capability of all human beings, to enable us to link to this beauty and infinity.
So we received:
1. The Ten Commandments direct from Hashem at Har Sinai - a historical fact
2. The Written Torah from Moshe Rabeinu ie 5 Books of Moses
3. The Oral Torah - the vast volumes of discussions of the Law by the Sages ie Gemorra/ Talmud.
4. The Neviim - Prophets, The Trei assar - Twelve Prophets, The Ksuvim including Psalms, and The 5 Megillos.
Yet at the stage all we had was highly coded information which we could only understand on a very superficial level, and vast volumes of backward and forward arguments among the Sages, also heavily coded.
And so it was still very difficult for us to understand the Halacha ie 'What is it that we have to do?!'
AND THEN CAME THE RAMBAM, (1135-1204) AND IN A MOST MAGNIFICENT WAY, IN HIS WORK THE MISHNEH TORAH, HE CRYSTALISED THE VAST SEA OF TORAH INTO PRACTICAL HALACHA. IE WE NOW HAD A GOOD IDEA WHAT WE NEED TO DO.
He did this by first working out how to derive the 613 SCRIPTURAL MITZVOT.
He then organised ALL of The Oral Law, in Halacha form, around the 613 Mitzvot and categorised this all into 14 Seforim in a most remarkable organised logic and format.
In truth his work is beyond description!
The Rebbe very much encouraged us to learn Mishneh Torah on a daily basis. (I think this was in the 90's)
If one learns 1 Chap a day this takes 3 years to complete.
3 Chaps a day takes 1 year to complete.
And he suggested that children could learn the Book where the Mitzvos are just listed (sefer Hamitzvos) in the same order as the 3 Chap a day Group.
And today 1000's of people are learning Rambam together, the same Chaps, every day.
So at this stage I have chosen to share with our Family my Short Summary of Rambam.
It is very brief, but it has the following advantages:
1. It will show the very ordered logical drift and progression of Rambam.
2. The Mitzvos are bold and underlined and we can slowly learn all 613. We can also see how they form the framework of his Work, and give us an idea of what we need to do.
3. IT WILL ONLY TAKE 5 MINUTES PER WEEK TO SEE THE SUMMARY OF 7 CHAPS, AND I CAN REFER YOU THERE EACH WEEK BN.
4. This means we will be moving with the stream of people doing 1 Chap per week worldwide.
5. We will get a small sprinkling of halachos in addition to all the Mitzvos.
6. We will get a sense of the breadth of subject matter covered by Torah.
I will follow up this email with a link in to my Short Summaries. On Google Drive.
This last weeks 7 Chaps are in Book 7, the Laws of Maaser Sheni (Second Tithe) Chaps 1-7, p 10 and 11.
If anyone would be interested to probe deeper into the Full Summaries, I would be happy to link in further.
Below is a copy of the Key / Legend
Key
Bold Underline1 - Mitzva -Scriptural Law
Italic - Hebrew - Transliteration
Red - Numerics
Green - Derabanan / Rabbinic Law
Blue - Mipi Hashmua / Moshe Misinai
- Reminders, inter-linking different parts of Rambam, usually through tables
Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos and happy exploration of our Torah