Transcript

Let's see the Ramban on

זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק, פרק כה פסוק יז.

kaf-hei yod-zayin.

זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק. כה הזכרתי המדרש שדרשו בו בספרי: יכול בלבך כשהוא אומר לא תשכח הרי שכחת הלב אמורה, הא מה אני מקיים זכור? שתהא שונה בפיך. וכן בספרי, זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק בפה, ולא תשכח בלב. ולא ידעתי מה היא הזכירה הזאת בפה.

So what's that question? ולא ידעתי מה היא הזכירה הזאת בפה. What doesn't the Ramban understand? I understand what that means. Say it out loud. So apparently like this. What was Chazal's question? There are cases where you have the same inyan which is commanded both as an asei and a lo ta'aseh. I don't know, certainly superficially shevisa mimilacha like that is both an asei as well as a lo ta'aseh. So zachor is an asei and lo tishkach is a lo ta'aseh. So apparently you see in Chazal that if it's explicit that's what the Torah is doing, so that's what the Torah is doing. There are such cases where something is mitzuve both b'toras asei and b'toras lo ta'aseh. But where it's not explicit and unequivocal that that's what the Torah is doing, so min hastam we assume that there's a difference. Min hastam we assume that it's not that it's עניין אחד המצווה הן בעשה הן בלא תעשה, but rather that shenei inyanim chalukim. Hashta d'asinu l'hachi, Ramban says, again, zachor, even if to distinguish it from the lo tishkach you add that it's bapeh, but lema'aseh if the kiyum is the remembering, it's not really distinguishing it from the lo tishkach. So what did Chazal really answer, how did they really answer the question? Again, zachor remembering, okay, so remembering, whether you say something out loud or not, but either way the remembering is something, I don't know, a cognitive, belongs to the cognitive realm. That's what the Ramban's saying. It doesn't in the context, given the question that Chazal are coming to answer, that they're coming to differentiate zachor from lo tishkach, stam to say it doesn't it's not an adequate answer.

אם לא מה שנקרא פרשת עמלק בציבור ונמצינו למדין מן התורה בשניית זכור ואסמכתא מקרא מגילה מן התורה.

See and you see again, I think, l'chora this corroborates what we just said, that the Ramban introduces the b'tzibur. That that bapeh again, bapeh has to mean something more than just saying out loud what lo tishkach already tells me to remember. There has to be a different thrust to it than the lo tishkach already says you have to remember, right? To not forget something you have to remember it. You have to remember it. So just saying out loud what I'm already mitzuve to remember is not a different thrust. Ah, if it means saying out loud means that there's a chovat tzibur associated with it, so then I understand. Lo tishkach is b'toras yachid and... Now if that's how you would say pshat in this Chazal, so then a, it means that when the Mishna in Megilla tells us about the daled parshiyos, so it means that only the timing of parshas zachor is miderabbanan, but the fact that there is a parshas zachor is min hatorah. Right? That's what the Ramban says, מניינו למדין מן התורה בשנייה זכור. And the Ramban doesn't mean the timing of it, the fact that it's the Shabbos before Purim, that's not min hatorah, but the fact that there is once a year a parshas zachor, that that would then be de'oraisa based on on this drasha. And then the Ramban says additionally, ויסמך למקרא מגילה מן התורה. Right? We'll we'll step back to this. Vehanachon be'einai, says the Ramban,

שהוא לומר שלא תשכח מה שעשה לנו עמלק, באל לא תשכח לבד, עד שנמחה שמו מתחת השמים.

Here comes the zachor part.

ונספר זה לבנינו ולדורותינו לומר להם כך עשה לנו הרשע ולכך נצטוינו למחות את שמו.

So when when Chazal say zachor bepeh, they mean zachor bepeh in the sense of communicating it, not just articulating it, but communicating. Every generation is mechuyav to transmit to the next generation,

ונספר זה לבנינו ולדורותינו לומר להם כך עשה לנו הרשע.

What does it mean נספר זה לבנינו ולדורותינו? So presumably it means that in telling our children, we tell them that they in turn have to tell their children. Because otherwise how does a person person he can tell his children, he can tell his grandchildren, maybe he can tell his great-grandchildren, but but how many how many doros can can a person tell? But נספר זה לבנינו ולדורותינו, again by in in in transmitting it livaneinu, that that it's made clear that this is something they're supposed to transmit, so then the person is acting

לספר לבנינו ולדורותינו לומר להם כך עשה לנו הרשע ולכך נצטוינו למחות את שמו.

Okay, so those are the Ramban's, again they're not really two suggestions, the first one he's not really not really invested in, but either way what the point is that zachor bepeh means something more than just articulating what a person a memory. Either it means kerias hatorah betzibur or it means to transmit livaneinu ulidorosainu. What does the Ramban mean ויסמך למקרא מגילה מן התורה? According to again again the first possibility that zachor means לקרוא בציבור פרשת עמלק, so that would provide a smach or it would serve as a smach למקרא מגילה מן התורה. So yitachen that that you see here a reflection, again I don't know that the Ramban ever articulates it, but yitachen that that the yesod is already one that the Ramban had. The the Ritva famously in Rosh Hashanah tez-zayin, commenting on the lashon hagemara where the gemara puts into the kaviyachol's in speaking in the voice of Hakadosh Baruch Hu says has Hakadosh Baruch Hu saying,

אמרו לפני מלכויות זכרונות ושופרות. מלכויות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם. זכרונות כדי שיעלה זכרונכם לפני לטובה ובמה בשופר.

So the Tosafot asks ai, but the Gemara in lamed dalet in Rosh Hashanah says that the pesukim of malkhut, zikhronot, and shofrot are only miderabbanan. So what does it mean to say that אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא? So the pshat is like this. He says by mitzvot mekhudashot miderabbanan, meaning not gezerot, not a gezera of don't do this or do that, but mitzvot mekhudashot, saying pesukim of malkhut, zikhronot, and shofrot. It's not a gezera or to do something, right? When Chazal taught us that we're mechuyav to say pesukim of malkhut, zikhronot, and shofrot, it's not because if we don't do that, we're gonna be over on some issur. It's not it's not mishmeret lemishmarti in that sense. Mikra Megilla, Ner Chanukah, each of these so what's the basis, what's the justification for Chazal being mesaken mitzvot mekhudashot miderabbanan? Why isn't it Bal Tosif? So the Radbaz says because in each case the Torah provides an asmakhta, and the pshat in an asmakhta, the Radbaz says, it's not a mnemonic device. An asmakhta means that the Torah hinted to Chazal that they should introduce such a mitzvah miderabbanan. For whatever reason, Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't want to include this as a mitzvah de'oraita for whatever reason, but he'ira Torah, the Torah hints to the chakhamim that they should do it. Which is why timtza bekhol makom, the Radbaz says, that the chakhamim are notnim semakh ledivreihem. Which is why whenever you have a mitzvah miderabbanan, there's gonna be an asmakhta. So this is the Radbaz's understanding, again, for how you can have mitzvot mekhudashot miderabbanan, why it doesn't violate Bal Tosif. Bal Tosif is what we do mida'atenu. But if the Torah itself indicates to Chazal that they should be mesaken such and such a mitzvah, so obviously that isn't Bal Tosif. Now when the Rambam deals with the same question, so the Rambam, the Rambam thinks in the hakdama leperush hamishnayot that an asmakhta is a mnemonic device. It's not anything more than that. When Torah shebe'al peh was all oral, so it was a helpful mnemonic for remembering. So how does the Rambam understand mitzvot derabbanan? So the Rambam says that mitzvot derabbanan, like gezerot, are coming to uphold the Torah. Gezerot come to uphold the Torah in preventing a violation. A mitzvah derabbanan can come to uphold the Torah in the sense that it's coming to reinforce, that it's coming to fortify a basic belief in the Torah. And the Rambam illustrates this by talking about Kriat haMegilla:

אלא כך אנו אומרים שהנביאים ובית דין תיקנו וציוו לקרוא המגילה בעונתה כדי להזכיר שבחיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא ותשועות שעשה לנו והיה קרוב לשווענו כדי לברכו ולהללו כדי להודיע לדורות הבאים שאמת מה שהבטיחנו בתורה כי מי גוי גדול אשר לו אלוהים קרובים אליו כה' אלוהינו בכל קראנו אליו.

So the Rambam says that Kriat haMegilla comes to reinforce, to bolster our belief in koach hatefilla. The Torah gives us a havtacha of מי כה' אלוהינו בכל קראנו אליו. That havtacha the Torah provides is what was operative and evident in the story of the Megilla. And Chazal would then be mesaken Kriat haMegilla to uphold this and reinforce and to foster this emuna in what the Torah teaches us. Nothing to do with asmakhta in terms of the Torah hinting that you should add a new mitzvah. No, it's not a new mitzvah any more than shniyot le'arayot. Shniyot le'arayot protect issurei de'oraita. reinforces and fosters the the belief in what the Torah tells us כי מי גוי גדול אשר לו אלהים קרובים אליו. So that's a very fundamental difference in approach in terms of how you understand מצוות מחודשות מדרבנן. In terms of gezeiros, it's the same. Everyone agrees what the gezeira is. It's mishmeres l'mishmarti and and they're not they don't that's what they are and that's what their justification is. What are the mitzvos mechudashos? So for the Ramban, they taka are mitzvos mechudashos and the justification is that when there's an asmachta it means that the Torah hinted to Chazal that they should do it. For the Rambam no, they're not mitzvos mechudashos in conceptual conceptually. Like gezeiros, they're there to foster, to uphold, to strengthen, to protect something min ha'Torah. Not to protect from an aveira, but that our belief in כי מי גוי גדול אשר לו אלהים קרובים אליו should be should be strong, so mikra megilla comes to to foster that. Itachen when the Ramban says ואסמך למקרא מגילה מן התורה, so again what we're seeing is the tip of the iceberg, meaning the Ramban already has this yesod that the justification for מצוות מחודשות מדרבנן is an asmachta. And he says, so where's the asmachta for mikra megilla? Oh, so if you say that the pshat in the drashos Chazal of zachor b'peh is that we're supposed to read about ma'aseh Amalek be'tzibbur, so then that would be that would provide an asmachta for mikra megilla. And and this should then be correlated with the Ramban in the beginning of Behaaloscha where he sees in the drashos Chazal an asmach for neros Chanukah. It's the same the same the same approach. The Rambam's makor for what he says here, that mikra megilla is כדי להודיע לדורות הבאים שאמת מה שהבטיחנו בתורה is the baraisa from the Gemara in Megilla. The Gemara in Megilla has in yud amud beis going all the way to י"א עמוד א' how the Amoraim before they began their shiur where they would they would darshan Megillas Esther, they would give a little bit of a hakdama. So the Gemara says that Rav Masna on י"א עמוד א', Rav Masna's hakdama to his to darshan Megillas Esther was

רב מתנא אמר מהכא כי מי גוי גדול אשר לו אלהים קרובים אליו.

And that lichora is what the Rambam... that's his makor for framing mikra megilla and the mitzvah of mikra megilla as להודיע לדורות הבאים שאמת מה שהבטיחנו בתורה.