The Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvos, mitzvah hamishis שצונו לעבדו ישתבח שמו, it's repeated a few times in Chumash. Omar ועבדתם את השם אלקיכם, ve-omar ve-oso sa-avod, ve-omar ve-oso sa-avod, ve-omar u-le-ovdo. Ve-af al pi שזה הציווי גם כן מן הציוויים הכוללים, כמו שבארנו בשורש הרביעי.
In Shoresh HaRevi'i at the beginning of Sefer HaMitzvos, the Rambam explains that each of the Taryag mitzvos, which is included in the minyan Taryag, is there by virtue of the fact that it contains a distinct tzivui, as opposed to pesukim like u-shmartem es mitzvosai. U-shmartem es mitzvosai is certainly being said as a lashon tzivui, it's being said as an imperative, but it's not a distinct mitzvah. It's a mitzvah which is reinforcing or reviewing and encompassing all other mitzvos. So the Rambam says on one level, the various pesukim of ve-ovadetem are tzivuim kollelim. You serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu by being mikayem mitzvos, and on that level it doesn't constitute a distinct tzivui and wouldn't make its way into the minyan hamitzvos. However, הנה יש בו ייחוד. But it also contains a very specific and distinct tzivui, which is not presented elsewhere, שהוא ציווי בתפילה. Lashon Sifrei, le-ovdo zu tefillah. Ve-omru gam ken, le-ovdo zeh talmud. ובמשנתו של רבי אליעזר בנו של רבי יוסי הגלילי אמרו מניין לעיקר תפילה בתוך המצוות מהכא את השם אלקיך תירא ואותו תעבוד. ואמרו ממדרש הגדול,
ve-omru, excuse me, עבדוהו בתורתו עבדוהו במקדשו. כלומר ללכת שם להתפלל בו ונגדו כמו שהביא שלמה עליו השלום.
So the Sifrei says ולעבדו בכל לבבכם is that avodah she-ba-lev means tefillah. So the Rambam says by virtue of that, it's a distinct mitzvah and chiyuv tefillah is de-oraisa. That's what it means: ולעבדו בכל לבבכם means, contains, means the chiyuv tefillah. The Ramban is maseig. Maybe we'll come back and talk about some of the Rambam's rayas, but for now, the Ramban is maseig. He quotes different Gemaras which he feels indicate that tefillah even once a day is only derabanan. So if you take a look around eight-nine lines down, אלא ודאי כל עניין התפילה, in the middle of the line around eight or nine lines down, אלא ודאי כל עניין התפילה eino chovah klal. There is no chiyuv tefillah min ha-Torah. אבל הוא ממידות חסד הבורא יתברך עלינו ששומע ועונה בכל קוראינו אליו.
Avada there is a musag of tefillah min ha-Torah. Avada the Torah recognizes tefillah, but tefillah exists not as a chiyuv, tefillah exists as a chesed of HaKadosh Baruch Hu that he allows us to approach him bi-tefillah and that he shomei'a and that he shomei'a ve-oneh. But that exists as a chesed, it doesn't exist min ha-Torah as a mitzvah. So then what does the pasuk ולעבדו בכל לבבכם mean? Ve-ikar ha-kasuv, if it doesn't mean tefillah, so then what does it mean? Ve-ikar ha-kasuv ולעבדו בכל לבבכם מצוות עשה שתהיה כל עבודתנו לקל יתברך בכל לבבנו, כלומר בכוונה רצויה שלמה לשמו ובאין הרהור רע, לא שנעשה המצוות בלא כוונה.
Or al hasafek ulai yesh bahem to'eles. u'mah shedarshu skipping a line and a half at least for now, ומה שדרשו בספרי ולעבדו זה התלמוד o k'tzora tfillah asmachta hi. The Ramban says that the peshuto shel mikra of u'le'avdo b'chol levavchem is that the Torah says that we have to be oved Hashem wholeheartedly. That's what it means b'chol levavchem. u'le'avdo b'chol levavchem means that when we're oved Hashem, and oved Hashem means, as it does for the Rambam, on the level of a mitzvah hakolel, to do mitzvos, to do so b'chol levavchem, to do so b'chol... what does it mean to do so wholeheartedly? So it means to do so again, sort of not just mindlessly, belo kavanah, and B, it means to do so with conviction. That a person shouldn't, well, I don't know, I don't know whether the mitzvos really accomplish anything rachmana litzlan, the person should think to himself, whether they do, they don't. No, a person fulfills mitzvos, A, he's invested in what he's doing, he's not doing it mindlessly, and B, it's with a sense of conviction, with a sense of conviction that this is Hakadosh Baruch Hu's Torah, these are His mitzvos, it's emes, this is ritzon Hashem, and this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And a person fulfills mitzvos with conviction, wholeheartedly. And when Chazal associated tfillah with u'le'avdo b'chol levavchem, they did so betoras asmachta. Okay, there are many, many things here which the Ramban himself will elaborate on, but just briefly for today. This is a theme which recurs in the Ramban. So if you take a look, for instance, when the Ramban comments in Parshas Va'eschanan, it's on the second page of the sources, when the Ramban comments on in Va'eschanan, שמור תשמרון את מצות ה' אלקיכם ועדותיו וחקיו אשר צוך, ועשית הישר והטוב בעיני ה' למען ייטב לך ובאת וירשת את הארץ הטובה אשר נשבע ה' לאבותיך.
So the Ramban commented ועשית הישר והטוב, what we usually focus on here is the sheini peshat that the Ramban gives in ועשית הישר והטוב. But the first peshat, what does it mean ועשית הישר והטוב? How is that not sort of just, is that just repetitious? I mean, isn't yashar v'hatov, doesn't that refer to the mitzvos? So how is that sort of distinct from what pasuk yud-zayin says? The Ramban says al derech hapeshat, the simple peshat in the pesukim is as follows. al derech hapeshat as distinct from what Chazal say, which is what the Ramban elaborates on in his second approach to v'asisa v'hayashar v'hatov. על דרך הפשט יאמר תשמרו מצות ה' ועדותיו וחקותיו, pasuk yud-zayin, right? Fulfill all mitzvos, comply, fulfill all mitzvos, and then what is pasuk yud-ches adding? ותכוין בעשייתן לעשות הטוב והישר בעיניו בלבד. That what should frame your kiyum hamitzvos? It's not enough, the Torah says it's not enough that we're mikayeim mitzvos. It's not enough that we comply, it's not enough that we do. No, we have to frame, we have to contextualize our kiyum hamitzvos, u'sichaven ba'asiyasan, the way the kiyum hamitzvos should be framed is לעשות הטוב והישר בעיניו בלבד. Why am I eating matzah? Because that's what's tov v'hayashar on Pesach, that's what's טוב והישר בעיני ה'. Why am I putting on tefillin? Because that's what's טוב והישר בעיני ה'. The same motif as the Ramban says in the u'le'avdo b'chol levavchem. The Torah commands not only what to do, but how to do it, right? Not only the what, but the how as well. You have this yet a third time in the Ramban in the beginning of Parshas Kedoshim. So here again the sequence of pesukim is אל תפנו אל האלילים ואלהי מסכה לא תעשו לכם אני ה' אלקיכם.
That's followed by the pasuk of וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים לה' לרצנכם תזבחהו. Says the Ramban, ואמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים כי אחרי שאסר הזביחה לכל עבודה. ולאלהי מסכה וריקן כל העבודה כולה לשם המיוחד.
And then after Hakadosh Baruch Hu categorically forbids being oved avodah zarah and says that all avodah, all worship has to be directed to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, אמר כי כאשר תזבחו לה' לא תזבחו לו אלא לרצונכם שתהיה עבודתכם לרצון לפניו וירצה בכם כעבד יתרצה אל אדוניו בעשותו כל אשר יצונו.
Leratzonechem, the Ramban translates as for you to find favor, right? That for you to find favor before Hakadosh Baruch Hu in carrying out His will, in doing His ratzon. והטעם שלא תחשבו, look at these next two lines, they're very, very cryptic, והטעם שלא תחשבו שיהיה בעבודה זרה שום תועלת ולא תעשו עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס אלא לעשות רצונו כי רצונו הפשוט הוא הראוי והמחייב.
So what are those last two lines? The Ramban says leratzonechem tizbachuhu again, this same motif. Why are you bringing a korban? To do retzon hashem, to carry, to fulfill His mitzvot, בעשותו כל אשר יצונו. Again, the Torah is commenting not only on what we do, but the motivation, the how, the how and the why. But then he sort of goes back to the previous pasuk about avodah zarah, but he links that to not being עובד על מנת לקבל פרס, right? Leratzonechem tizbachuhu means I'm not bringing this korban to score points, I'm not trying to get something out of it, I just want to be a faithful eved to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's it. There's no agenda, no motive other than that. Okay, good. But what's that got to do with שלא תחשבו שיהיה בעבודה זרה שום תועלת? Do you see the question, see the difficulty there? It's glaring. Do you see it? So the p'shat is like this. Ramban is saying something extraordinary. Ramban is saying don't think that the mistake of avodah zarah is that ovdei avodah zarah have, don't think that the mistake only consists of the fact that ovdei avodah zarah have the wrong address. They're being oved but the wrong address. Instead of being oved to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they're being oved to the sun, they're being oved to a davar hanivra, they're being oved to whatever. Don't think that that's the only mistake of ovdei avodah zarah, but otherwise no, maybe there's a lot or something to be learned from them, albeit we'll redirect it. So we won't rachmana litzlan make that mistake of having the wrong address for our avodah, but once we have the correct address, so maybe there's insight in terms of darkei avodah to be gleaned from ovdei avodah zarah. Notice the Ramban says אל תפנו אל האלילים means more than just don't worship the elilim. אל תפנו אל האלילים. Don't even, without worshipping them, don't even look in that direction and think that there's something to be gleaned. Why? Because the Ramban says ovdei avodah zarah, it's of course they're wrong in whom or what they're being oved. Of course they're wrong in that. But ovdei avodah zarah also have a distorted conception of what constitutes avodah, of what avodah is all about. It's not only that they have the wrong address, it's that they have the wrong conception of avodah. By avodah zarah, everything is transactional. Everything's transactional. That a person is oved because he wants to get something out of it. There's a rain god and a person wants rain, okay, so it's transactional. So we do this and in return this happens. this is what we're trying to get. That that's it's by Avoda Zara, of course it's the wrong address, of course it's the wrong focus of the avoda, but it's also a distorted, totally distorted and totally wrong conception of what avoda means. And that's what the ta'am in the Ramban is. V'hata'am when the Torah says, again ta'am in the Ramban doesn't mean reason, it usually means the like the substance of what's being said, the thrust, the substance of what's being said. V'hata'am shelo tachshvu, don't think שיהא בעבודה זרה שום תועלת. Don't think you can take something, you can lift a page out of the Avoda Zara manual and transpose it and say, but we'll redirect it to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. No. לא תחשבו שיהא בעבודה זרה שום תועלת. V'lo sa'asu and v'lo sa'asu means don't imitate them, don't transpose their distorted conception of avoda, rachmana litzlan, onto avodas Hashem. לא תעשו עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס because that's what the Avoda Zara-dikke conception of avoda is. It's transactional. It's transactional. You go into the grocery store, you want a quart of milk, you give a dollar. You want something from a deity so then you you give a korban. It's the same, it's transactional. והטעם שלא תחשבו שיהא בעבודה זרה שום תועלת. ולא תעשו עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס.
Ella, no, what's avoda? La'asos retzono. That's what should frame, that's what what the essence of avoda is. כי רצונו הפשוט הוא הבורא והמחיה without looking for anything. Avada does HaKadosh Baruch Hu give sechar? He gives sechar. But that's, you know, that's as it were, that's that's his cheshbon. But our cheshbon is supposed to be, no, כי רצונו הפשוט הוא הבורא והמחיה, which is the again it's the same idea from ul'avdo bechol levavchem that the Torah is commanding not only the what, that's what the shamo tishmu is the what. But then the bechol levavchem, the ve'asisah hayashar ve'hatov, the lirtzonchem tizbachuhu is the is the how, is the mindset which should frame the the kiyum hamitzvos. Okay so maybe we'll pick up a bit more with this tomorrow so be'ezras Hashem.