I've got the Davar she-ne'emar in Mishna of Perek Chelek, as you know, כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא, this Perek mentions certain exceptions, so the Rambam says that ממה שלא שעסקה כאן וזהו המקום היותר ראוי להזכירם בו
within Perush HaMishnayos, this is the most appropriate place to talk about it, that there are three—there are thirteen fundamental principles of our Torah. Now let's just talk for a minute, although we're only talking about one aspect of this question, there are more aspects than what we're going to discuss now. The very idea or the very undertaking of the Rambam in terms of the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, so the Rambam was criticized from both sides. The Sefer Ikkarim says the Rambam made things too complicated. That lemaiseh you can really reduce it to three. Right? The first group of the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, we know them from Ani Ma'amins, basically is about Metzias Hashem. Metzias Hashem. The second group is basically Torah Min HaShamayim. And the third is basically S'char V'Onesh. It's basically S'char V'Onesh. So the Rambam should have simplified his scheme a little bit. Instead of—instead of thirteen, he should have spoken about—about three. You get out of shul a minute earlier, right? The Ani Ma'amins would take that much less time. So the Rambam—the Rambam could have and should have simplified things. Now me'idach gisa the Abarbanel asks a very pointed question. The Abarbanel says, understand—are we allowed to deny anything in Torah? Anything in Torah. Let's say, can a person say Rachmana litzlan, "I'm convinced that Avraham Avinu was only 170 years old when he died"? So that's also kfira. So how can you—how can you identify Yud Gimmel Ikkarim? How can you identify Yud Gimmel Ikkarim? Or to paraphrase it, to—to ask the same question differently, given that—that one of the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim is to believe in what it says in the Torah, so then what's the point of—so that's the ikkar, right? The ikkar is that we believe everything in the Torah. So what—what's different about Anochi Hashem Elokecha, about שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד, than—than how old Avraham Avinu is when he dies? How old Avraham Avinu is when—when Yishmael is born, when Yitzchak is born? Those aren't—those aren't optional—those aren't optional beliefs either. It's in the Torah, it's in the Torah. So Rav Chaim explained as follows. He said, and again, and this answers both, but bakada machda, both what the Ikkarim asks as well as the Abarbanel, he said as follows. Let's say a person never learned Chumash. Never learned Chumash. And because of that he doesn't know how old Avraham Avinu was when he died. Okay. So is he—is he lacking in Talmud Torah? Yeah. He's lacking in Talmud Torah. He doesn't know psukim in Chumash. So he's lacking in Talmud Torah. Is he lacking in his emuna? Do we say that—that his emuna is inadequate because he doesn't know how old Avraham Avinu was when he died? No. His emuna is not inadequate. His emuna is not inadequate. He's lacking in terms of Talmud Torah. And if he doesn't know—he doesn't know that תפילין מרובעות הלכה למשה מסיני. Okay, so then he's going to—it's going to affect his ability to be mekayeim mitzvas Tfillin, but it's not—it's not me'akeiv in mitzvas emuna. The Rambam's Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, it's not that the Rambam says you have to accept these, and if you deny any of these you're an apikores, but if you deny other things in the Torah, well that's okay, we'll look the other way. No, Rachmana litzlan. What the Rambam is saying is this: That these Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, so there's an—the Rambam is telling us not what is heretical to deny, because the Abarbanel's absolutely correct, it's heretical to deny anything which is—which is in the Torah. The Rambam is telling us what proactively just mitzvas emuna demands that a person know. Mitzvas emuna proactively demands that a person know the Yud Gimmel Ikkarim. It doesn't demand that he know how old Avraham Avinu was when he died. That's not a chisaron in his mitzvas emuna. Eino hachi nami, the Abravanel is right if you're asking what is heresy to deny. Say anything. Anything which is in the Chumash, anything which the Torah tells us, it's heresy to deny. But if you want to know what proactively a person has to know in order to have the minimum level of proper emunah, so that the Rambam is saying that's what you have to know these Yud Gimmel Ikkarim for. And mimaila, that answers the the ikkar as well. Eino hachi nami, you takeh could have said there are three basic themes. There are three basic themes. There's a theme of of about in terms of metzias Hashem, there's a theme of Torah min ha-shamayim, there's a theme of schar v'onesh, but then then, okay, so how do I know that would that tell me that my emunah is deficient if I don't know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu אינו גוף ולא ישיגוהו משיגי גוף ואין לו שום דמיון כלל?
That wouldn't tell me that. So that's why the Rambam says, no, I can't just reduce it to three principles because the whole point is that everything for which the Rambam adds another ikkar, everything which constitutes an ikkar means that that detail within metzias Hashem, this detail within Torah, this detail within schar v'onesh is something which it's absolutely necessary that a person know as part of his basic emunah. Okay, maybe next time then we'll we'll get into the ikkarim themselves.