Rambam in the list of the yud dalet sefarim of Mishneh Torah and gives a description of what each of the yud dalet sefarim contains. So Sefer Hamada he writes: ספר ראשון אכלול בו כל המצוות שהן עיקר דת משה רבינו.
I'll include here all the mitzvot which are fundamental to das Moshe Rabbeinu. A funny way to refer to the Torah, das Moshe Rabbeinu. Doesn't refer to it as das Hakadosh Baruch Hu, refers to it as das Moshe Rabbeinu. His Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah is not concerned with the mitzvot derabbanan. Anochi Hashem Elokecha, Shema Yisrael, לא יהיה לך אלהים אחרים על פני, Venikdashti, ולא תחללו את שם קדשי, Elav tishme'un, not mitzvot derabbanan. Das Moshe Rabbeinu. Reminiscent of a Mishna. When a Mishna in Kesubos talks about women who are yotzos belo kesuba, so the Mishna says: אלו יוצאות שלא בכתובה העוברת על דת משה ויהודית. What are examples of das Moshe? Ma'achilato she'eino me'user, meshameshato nidda. Again, Deoraisas. It's a funny lashon shel Chazal. Where did Chazal get the idea? It's a pasuk in Malachi: זכרו תורת משה עבדי. So it's not the Rambam's funny lashon, it's not Chazal's funny lashon, it's the Ribbono Shel Olam's funny lashon. Hakadosh Baruch Hu refers to his Torah, he defines his Torah, capital H, as Toras Moshe Rabbeinu. We heard two of the dibros, we heard ten of the dibros. Okay, Ayin sham of the different views in Chazal and in the Rishonim. There is no Torah, there is no link to Hakadosh Baruch Hu which doesn't go initially through Moshe Rabbeinu. And that's what Ribbono Shel Olam says: My Torah is Toras Moshe Rabbeinu. Why do you eat matzah at the Seder? Because Moshe Rabbeinu told you to eat matzah at the Seder. And why do you, and why do you take a lulav? Moshe Rabbeinu told you ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון. זכרו תורת משה עבדי. The ger comes to Hillel and says, 'I'll be misgayer, but I only buy into Torah Shebiksav, I don't buy into Torah Sheba'al Peh.' He says, 'Fine.' Alef, beis, gimmel, dalet. Okay, it's enough for today. Comes back the next day, he tells him: tav, shin, reish, kuf. So the ger says, 'But yesterday you told me hafacht.' So he says, 'Oh, so you're relying on me? Ela didi kesamchas, עליי ועליי דידי קסמכת, דעל פה נמי סמוך עליי.' How do you know these are the words of the Torah? Bereishis Bara Elokim. Maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in nine days? Who said six days? Maybe he created the world in nine days? A person can't pledge his allegiance to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and disavow his allegiance to Chazal. There is no such thing. Because for Moshe Rabbeinu also, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave it to Moshe Rabbeinu, who did Moshe Rabbeinu give it to? He didn't send it FedEx to each of us. He gave it to Yehoshua, and Yehoshua lezekenim, and ve-zekenim lenevi'im. ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו. You can't, there is no meaningful emuna b'Hashem. There is no meaningful avodas Hashem. There is no Torah without, without Chazal. You can't, you can't have, you can't even have Torah she'b'ksav. The Rambam explains in in Perush Hamishnayos, it wasn't that Tzedokim and Baysusim believed that that the Torah she'b'ksav was min hashomayim, Torah she'ba'al peh wasn't. No, that was stam a fraud that they perpetrated on the hamon am because because the they couldn't come out and say what they really believed, that they didn't believe in anything. But it wasn't that they believed that because it's not a tenable position. You can't have allegiance to Hakadosh Baruch Hu without having... okay, so they pulled the wool over people's eyes. People didn't chap that. That's why you find in in the Gemara that in a couple of places, I think one of them is in Shabbos, that chachamim are referred to as Moshe. Find the lashon Moshe shapir ka'amart. What does that mean? That each of the chachmei hamasorah is a bechina of Moshe Rabbeinu in the sense that the same way there is no Torah, there is no Torah without Moshe Rabbeinu. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said it, זכרו תורת משה עבדי. זכרו תורת משה עבדי. What you have in your hands is Toras Moshe Avdi because it comes through him. And without it, you don't have my Torah. My Torah is Toras Moshe Avdi. Of course every word is mi'pi hagevurah, everything is ratzon Hashem, and nothing there is from Moshe Rabbeinu, but it comes to you as Toras Moshe Avdi. Moreover, why should we have such confidence in in Chazal and the chachamim? משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say you're applying for a position, say you're applying for a position, so you need letters of recommendation. So who do you try to get letters of recommendation from? Your little six-year-old brother gives you a little letter of recommendation: he's a really, really good guy and takes me to the park whenever I want to go to the park and he can throw, throw a football at least 30 yards and... okay, so maybe if you're applying for, you know, sports counselor, that letter may do it. So what do you look for in a letter of recommendation? Again, depending upon the position, you look for the most person with the most impressive credentials. You're applying to graduate school in chemistry, you had as an undergraduate, you had a Nobel laureate as one of your professors write your letter of recommendation. Well, that'll carry weight, that's a good letter of recommendation. And when your application is considered, so letters are weighed very heavily, especially if the person writing the letter is someone who's known not to exaggerate and not to speak in hyperbole. So then the letter, letter of recommendation carries a lot of weight. Chazal have a letter of recommendation from the Ribbono Shel Olam. Who are Chazal that we should trust them? Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave them a letter of recommendation. כי יפלא ממך דבר למשפט בין דם לדם בין דין לדין ובין נגע לנגע דברי ריבות בשעריך וקמת ועלית. ודרשת והגידו לך את דבר המשפט.
Are the rabbis God? No, but they have His endorsement. His Torah is channeled through them and he endorsed their interpretation of his Torah. I have a close friend who who made the following he'arah. It's common nowadays that that people talk about personal religious expression and personal religious fulfillment. That's what our generation talks about. Our grandparents' generation spoke about avodas Hashem. They didn't talk about personal religious expression and personal religious fulfillment. They spoke about avodas Hashem. Personal religious expression means I want to do this. This makes me feel good. This form or forum makes me feel good and this form or forum doesn't make me feel good. And therefore the test of your sensitivity is whether or not you rubber stamp what is my personal religious expression. Our bubbes and zeides spoke about avodas Hashem. They knew our Mishna in Pirkei Avos of aseh retzoncha kirtzono. Whether they learned the Mishna or even before they learned the Mishna, they understood that that's what avodas Hashem means. Avodas Hashem means that that a person conforms to ratzon Hashem. Not that one descends upon the chachmei hador with demands that they make the Torah and halacha conform to what people want. That's the difference between aspiring to avodas Hashem and aspiring to religious expression and religious fulfillment. Avodas Hashem means a person serves Hakadosh Baruch Hu and religious fulfillment means a person serves himself through Jewish rituals. But how can it be, how can it be that the Torah's going to stifle people's religious expression and tell people you can't do something? How can that be? Torah says you can't do something. No, the Torah wouldn't say that. Torah is dracheha darchei noam. It can't be that the Torah wouldn't let you do something you you want to do. It's a powerful argument. It's a powerful argument for whatever you want it to be an argument for. It's a powerful argument for gay marriage also. How can it be? How can it be? They want to get married. How can it be? Dracheha darchei noam. It can't be that the Torah opposes it. Where's the ne'imus? Where's the ne'imus? A marriage Where's the neimus? Such rigidity and such lack of empathy. How can it be? Darcheha darchei noam. It's a posuk, it's a gemara. Right. Darcheha darchei noam means what the Torah defines to be neimus, not what I define to be neimus. Not what I subjectively want becomes the definition of neimus to which the Torah now has to conform. The Torah provides the definition of neimus. And within the Torah's definition, avada, דרכיה דרכי נעם וכל נתיבותיה שלום. Ve'ahavta lere'acha kamocha. You have to be sensitive to people. That's also a Torah value. How can you say no to people? How is that consistent with ve'ahavta lere'acha kamocha? So lechora that should lead us to the conclusion if someone says please pass the chazir, they said please and they want it, and ve'ahavta lere'acha kamocha. So the Torah defines how you love someone. It's not that I define it. Love me on my terms. No, love me on the Torah's terms, not love me on my terms. Rav Salanter said in a certain context, people see only what they're willing to see and what they want to see. What a person's not willing to see, a person doesn't see. Rav Salanter, in addition to all the other elements and aspects of his geonus and tzidkus, had a very profound understanding of human nature. We're tremendously blessed in our yeshiva to have someone of Rav Schachter's stature. It's hard for people to recognize and understand and appreciate what that means because he carries himself with such anava and such shiflus. So he does such a good job of acting like one of the crowd that people are taken in. For anyone who needs it, wants it, is interested in it, he has brought tremendous clarity to all the confusion about inyan yoma. Very clearly in a way that if a person has a clear lens can't be misunderstood. He doesn't make sociological arguments. He comments and tells you what the halacha thinks about incontrovertible social realities. That's not a sociological argument. There are social realities, there are medical realities, there are physical realities, there are social realities. And then the halacha speaks to what the din is in a certain social reality. The social reality that we live in a culture where equality is defined as uniformity. Where there's no such thing as being equal but different. It's got nothing to do with a sociological argument. It's got nothing to do with Daas Torah. All a person has to do is be willing to open his eyes. That's an incontrovertible reality of the society we live in. That equality is defined as uniformity. And if there isn't uniformity, so then by the standards of the society we live in that means there's no equality. When Rav Schachter writes that the answer to questions is not always on the same page in Shulchan Aruch, avada that's true. It's not because he's saying that there's some omniscience that poskim have. It's just that it may be on a different page in Shulchan Aruch. It may be on a different daf in Shas. Instead of being in Orach Chaim, it may be a mishna in Chullin. Everything is said so clearly and so unmistakably. And for those who are looking for clarity amidst the confusion and the confused world that we live in, so the clarity is right there. People, Reb Yisrael Salanter, people see what they're willing to see and don't see what they're not willing to see. And people hear what they're willing to hear and they don't hear what they're not willing to hear. The Rambam describes at the end of Hilchos Tumas Tzara'as a very very frightening progression, very very frightening escalation. He's talking there about lashon hara. First people talk lashon hara against colleagues, then they talk lashon hara against chachamim, then nevi'im, and then against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. How does that happen? So some other time maybe we'll talk about the first step in the progression, but hano'geia l'inyoneinu we'll begin at the second step. A person speaks against chachamim. Maybe only against contemporary chachamim. But at a certain point the realization sets in that you know all he said is what the Mishna says. He didn't say anything idiosyncratic. He didn't make up his own Shulchan Aruch, he didn't make up his own Shas, he didn't make up the last time we all checked the daf bais was there in Yoma with the Mishna in front. So that at a certain point the realization sets in that you know what? It wasn't lo alav tlunoseinu, lo alav tlunosom. So that's what the Rambam says. So first you speak against the chachamim, and then you realize what are the chachamim doing? They're quoting psukim in nevi'im. So okay, that doesn't conform to what I want either, so you speak against the nevi'im. But then at a certain point the Rambam says the realization sets in that the nevi'im were just repeating what HaKadosh Baruch Hu said. How long does that escalation take? It's frightening to see how fast it goes. Mamash, mamash. Mamash a pachad to see how fast that escalation goes. Looking forward towards Purim b'ezras Hashem and kabbalas haTorah, we should all, all, every one of us, every one of us, every one in Klal Yisrael. Layehudim haysa ora, we should all be enlightened, we should all understand the yesod of זכרו תורת משה עבדי.