This Rambam begins all the Sefarim בשם השם קל עולם. He quotes the Pasuk more fully in Perek Aleph Hilchot Avoda Zara, midway through Halacha Gimmel. Avraham Avinu was once in Ur Kasdim. He gets away from from Nimrod. נעשה לו נס ויצא לחרן והתחיל לעמוד ולקרוא בקול גדול לכל העם ולהודיעם שיש אלוה אחד לכל העולם ולא ראוי לעבודו.
So whereas when he was in Ur Kasdim, they weren't receptive to Avraham Avinu's teaching. He was polemicizing with them. It was la'aroch dinim imahem. Ma she'ein ken, once he left and got to Charan, and certainly once he gets to Eretz Canaan, to Eretz Yisrael, so then there he doesn't have to polemicize. There's more openness, there's more receptivity. So Avraham Avinu והתחיל לעמוד ולקרוא בקול גדול. He was looking to announce, to broadcast, to disseminate as far and wide as possible, ולהודיעם שיש אלוה אחד לכל העולם ולא ראוי לעבודו. To teach emunah b'Hashem and and what it means to be oved Hashem. והיה מהלך וקורא ומקבץ העם מעיר לעיר ומממלכה לממלכה עד שהגיע לארץ כנען והוא קורא.
And he continued this as as he made his way to Eretz Yisrael, שנאמר ויקרא שם בשם השם קל עולם. So בשם השם קל עולם in means to to invoke Hashem, means the Rambam says here Hilchot Avoda Zara to to teach emunah b'Hashem and how to be oved Hashem. And that's what the Rambam, that was the Rambam's goal in everything he did. That was his goal in Mishneh Torah, that was his goal in the Moreh. And and hence everything opens with בשם השם קל עולם. אז לא אבוש בהביטי אל כל מצותיך.
The Rambam writes in a teshuvah that his chibur is the first since since Chazal that encompasses kol chelkei haTorah, all dinei Torah, kol chelkei haTorah. אז לא אבוש בהביטי, again, the word that the Rambam is really emphasizing here is the kol, right, the kol mitzvotecha. That this is the hakdamah to Mishneh Torah which which encompasses kol haTorah kullah. כל המצות שנתנו לו למשה מסיני בפירושן נתנו. שנאמר ואתנה לך את לחת האבן והתורה והמצוה. תורה זו תורה שבכתב
umitzvah zeh perushah. וצונו לעשות התורה על פי המצוה ומצוה זו היא הנקראת תורה שבעל פה.
So there's a basic question that that anyone and therefore the Chazal and the Gedolei Rishonim confronted it. How do you how do you understand, how do you explain the Pasuk? What is mitzvah as distinct from Torah? What's Torah as distinct from mitzvah? Torah consists of mitzvot. So what does it mean ואתנה לך עלה אלי ההרה? Hakadosh Baruch Hu of course an invitation or advice, whatever, somehow or another Hakadosh Baruch Hu conveys the invitation to to Moshe Rabbeinu that alei elai haHarah ואתנה לך את לחת האבן. Okay, so we know what the luchot ha'even are, that's clear. Haluchot, v'haTorah v'hamitzvah. So you see the Ramban in the Hakdamah to the Peirush al HaTorah, he gives his pshat in the pasuk, but the Rambam says no, the pshat is that Torah refers to Torah she-B'Ksav and the mitzvah refers to תורה שבעל פה. How does mitzvah, I mean again it's clear sort of how that resolves the difficulty in the pasuk, how does why does mitzvah sort of have that connotation of peirush? Because it's the peirush which enables the kiyum hamitzvah. So לא תעשה כל מלאכה. What's a melachah? What's a melachah? וקשרתם לאות על ידך והיו לטטפת בין עיניך. So where on the hand? Where? What? So the peirush is what makes the mitzvah actionable, what makes the mitzvah something that can be fulfilled. And therefore, given that and given its juxtaposition to Torah, so mitzvah has the sense of peirush. That's what the Rambam is saying. So the Rambam apparently feels this is sufficiently compelling. He could have brought again further proof. He doesn't because he doesn't think it's necessary. But if you take a look at the beginning of Hilchos Shechita, based on a Gemara in the second perek of Chulin: זביחה זו האמורה בתורה סתם. Torah says that if you want to eat meat, v'zavachta. What does v'zavachta mean? זביחה זו האמורה בתורה סתם without any detail, צריך לפרשה ולדעת באיזה מקום מן הבהמה שוחטין וכמה שיעור השחיטה ובאיזה דבר שוחטין ומתי שוחטין והיכן שוחטין וכיצד שוחטין ומהן הדברים המפסידין את השחיטה ומי הוא השוחט ועל כל הדברים האלו צונו בתורה ואמר וזבחת מבקרך ומצאנך כאשר צויתיך ואכלת בשעריך. שכל הדברים האלו,
ay, but what do you mean ka'asher tzivisicha? We don't find any of this in the Chumash. V'zavachta ka'asher tzivisicha, you should carry out the shechita, you should implement the shechita ka'asher tzivisicha. But none of this is, none of this is in the Chumash. שכל הדברים האלו על פה צוה בהן כשאר תורה שבעל פה שהיא הנקראת מצוה כמו שביארנו בתחלת חיבור זה.
So here in this pasuk, it's basically mufurash that the ka'asher tzivisicha means ba'al peh. Because the Torah references v'zavachta ka'asher tzivisicha and it's referencing something which, there's a ka'asher tzivisicha, there's a reference to something which is not in the Torah she-B'Ksav. Right? The Torah is referencing v'zavachta ka'asher tzivisicha, it's referencing what doesn't appear, what doesn't exist in the Torah she-B'Ksav. So again, the Kesef Mishnah quotes the Gemara in Chulin, so al korcha the ka'asher tzivisicha is ba'al peh. Why didn't the Rambam sort of mention this in the hakdamah to bolster his pshat in ואתנה לך את לחת האבן והתורה והמצוה? Presumably the Rambam thinks that the pshat is compelling enough without this, that just minei u'vei, the again, the juxtaposition of mitzvah to Torah and the need to distinguish, that itself the Rambam thinks just minei u'vei is compelling. Okay. כל התורה כתב משה רבינו קודם שימות בכתב ידו ונתן ספר לכל שבט ושבט וספר אחד נתנו בארון לעד שנאמר. שנאמר לקוח את ספר התורה הזאת ושמתם אותו מצד ארון ברית ה' אלהיכם והיה שם בך לעד.
What does the Rambam add in with the phrase b'chsav yado? He didn't do the silk-screened Sefer Torah. No, actually, he wrote the whole thing. It wasn't, it wasn't the silk-screened Sefer Torah. I mean, it was, but presumably that's not what the Rambam has in mind. That he didn't, he didn't try to forge someone else's natural handwriting? He didn't make it look like Aaron HaKohen's sefer? It looked like his own sefer? What, what does the Rambam want with that phrase b'chsav yado? So let's leave that for a moment. והמצוה שהיא פירוש התורה לא כתבה אלא צוה בה לזקנים וליהושע ולשאר כל ישראל. שנאמר את כל הדבר אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם אותו תשמרו לעשות לא תוסף עליו ולא תגרע ממנו.
So it's clear, right, that this pasuk expresses the idea that the Rambam said that he didn't write it, because אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם lashon tzivuy based on ha-Torah v'ha-mitzvah lashon tzivuy now has that connotation of Ba'al Peh. Right? What the Rambam is saying here, if you just, if you were to parachute into this part of the Rambam, so it would be nonsensical, right? What do you see in that pasuk that את כל הדבר אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם אותו תשמרו לעשות לא תוסף עליו ולא תגרע ממנו,
where do you see that he didn't write it down, that he just said it Ba'al Peh? No, maybe, maybe he wrote the tzivuy down. Tzivuy just means to command, right? No, so it's clear, no, the Rambam is following up, right? In light of the pasuk of ואתנה לך את לחות האבן והתורה והמצוה where mitzvah clearly connotes what's not written down, so then in light of that, so that's the pshat in, in this pasuk as well. Good. Fine. I mean, here comes lechora a, I don't know, an eisen kasha. Wait a minute. Let's re-read. והמצוה שהיא פירוש התורה לא כתבה אלא צוה בה לזקנים וליהושע ולשאר כל ישראל. שנאמר את כל הדבר אשר אנכי מצוה אתכם אותו תשמרו לעשות לא תוסף עליו ולא תגרע ממנו ומפני זה נקראת תורה שבעל פה.
This line in the Rambam lechora seems to be upside-down, inside-out. The Rambam says that Moshe Rabbeinu orally communicated the peirush HaTorah and that's why it's called Torah she'ba'al peh. No! It was supposed, it was intrinsically intended by Hakadosh Baruch Hu to be Torah she'ba'al peh and that's why Moshe Rabbeinu orally transmitted it. A peliah atzumah lechora. Lechora it's, it's just backwards. Some, something like this. Something like this, one second. כל המצות שניתנו לו למשה בסיני בפירושן ניתנו. שנאמר ואתנה לך את לחות האבן והתורה והמצוה. תורה זו תורה שבכתב, ומצוה זו פירושה. וצונו לעשות התורה על פי המצוה ומצוה זו היא הנקראת תורה שבעל פה.
Torah she'bichsav is Torah she'bichsav. Torah she'ba'al peh is nikreis Torah she'ba'al peh. Right, and this is where we should have really stopped in our tracks right there. There was a camera here, you get a letter with a seventy-five dollar ticket, we should have stopped in our tracks right then. What I mean, see here's the point. Torah Shebiksav, the phrase Torah Shebiksav, terms of Torah Shebiksav, מצוה זו היא פירושה. If one is looking to describe and define the cheftza, so there's Torah Shebiksav and there's perush. משל למה הדבר דומה? משל למה הדבר דומה? Let's say you're talking to someone who has no background and you take a printed Chumash, a Chumash with Rashi, open up the Chumash, and you show him here on the top in the regular, the regular font, the regular print is, this is the text, and underneath it in the funny squiggly font is the commentary, is the commentary. Text is by definition Torah Shebiksav. Commentary is neither Torah Shebiksav nor Torah Shebal Peh. It can be a Torah Shebal Peh, it can be a Torah Shebiksav. Mitzad hacheftza it's Torah Shebiksav and it's perush. Noch amol, mitzad hacheftza it's Torah Shebiksav and perush. And that's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to Moshe Rabbeinu, עלה אלי ההרה ואתנה לך את לחת האבן והתורה והמצוה.
I'm going to give you a text, zu Torah Shebiksav, I'm going to give you a text, and I'm going to give you a commentary. Mitzad hacheftza, if you think about it, and that's why this, the Rambam says, ומצוה זו היא הנקראת תורה שבעל פה because in terms of capturing what the cheftza is, so the phrase Torah Shebal Peh doesn't really do that. Perush does. What does Torah Shebal Peh express? And what is Torah Shebal Peh expresses the ofen hamesirah? It doesn't describe or define the cheftza. No, what describes or defines the cheftza is perush. ואתנה לך את לחת האבן והתורה והמצוה, תורה זו תורה שבכתב והמצוה זו פירושה.
That's what I'm going to give you. The phrase Torah Shebal Peh expresses, it describes and defines not the cheftza, but rather the tsuras hamesirah, the tsuras hamasores. Now hear this for a second, mamash nifla'im had'varim, nifla'im had'varim. Hear this. Torah Shebiksav, the phrase Torah Shebiksav actually means two things. A, Torah Shebiksav means that the cheftza is Torah Shebiksav. It also means that it's nimsares k'Torah Shebiksav. Right? That's what the Rambam continues, וכל התורה כתבה משה רבנו קודם שימות בכתב ידו. That's what he's emphasizing. It's Moshe Rabbeinu was personally being moser the Torah Shebiksav. How is he personally being moser the Torah Shebiksav? He writes it. That's what the kesav yado's emphasizing, not that there's any hava amina that he could have done anything else. But the point is Moshe Rabbeinu was personally being moser the Torah Shebiksav, how? Biksav. So the phrase Torah Shebiksav means two things. A, it describes and defines what the cheftza shel Torah is. B, it describes and defines how it's nimsares. It's nimsares biksav. The phrase Torah Shebal Peh only. describes and defines the tzuras hamesora. The heftza is a heftza shel perush. Peirush doesn't mean ba'al peh more than bi-ksav. Perush Rashi's a perush Rashi. Rashi wrote his perush. What's like this? Avada avada, Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended all along that the Torah she-bi-ksav would be nimseres bi-ksav and the mitzvah zu perushah would be nimseres as Torah she-ba'al peh. That wasn't Moshe Rabbeinu's discretion, it wasn't Moshe Rabbeinu's decision. Avada avada. כתוב לך את הדברים האלה כי על פי הדברים האלה.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu, this is Hakadosh Baruch Hu's master plan. But that notwithstanding, the chalos Torah she-ba'al peh, its... its being distinguished and differentiated from Torah she-bi-ksav in terms of masora, only happens at the second stage. Because the initial stage of Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives Moshe Rabbeinu Torah she-bi-ksav, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives Moshe Rabbeinu Torah she-ba'al peh. There's no difference. The difference emerges in how Moshe Rabbeinu's moser to the next generation. And that's what the Rambam means when he says that משה רבינו לא כתבה אלא צוה לזקנים ומפני זה נקראת תורה שבעל פה.
Not that... not that Moshe Rabbeinu decided, oh, my wrist is so sore from writing whole Torah she-bi-ksav and I don't have the strength to write the whole Shisha Sidrei Mishna, so mimaila said it ba'al peh, mimaila it's called Torah she-ba'al peh. No, but the chalos... Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended it, but the chalos didn't happen... the chalos that distinguished in terms of masora Torah she-bi-ksav from Torah she-ba'al peh, that didn't happen in the first link of מפי השם אלקי ישראל, of Moshe מפי השם אלקי ישראל. There's no difference in the masora at that stage. Moshe Rabbeinu receives, Moshe Rabbeinu's told Bereishis bara Elokim, and Moshe Rabbeinu's told מאימתי קורין את שמע בערבין. There's no difference in the masora there. The difference in the masora is that כל התורה כתבה משה רבינו קודם שימות בכתב ידו ונתן ספר לכל שבט.
And this is how Moshe Rabbeinu was moser the Torah she-bi-ksav. Torah she-bi-ksav doesn't just tell you what the heftza is, it also tells you how it's nimsas, so Moshe Rabbeinu was moser bi-ksav. והמצוה, which defines what the heftza is, now we're going to find out what the tzuras hamesora is. But on the first stage of משה מפי השם אלקי ישראל, it's not different. Hakadosh Baruch Hu intended that, Hakadosh Baruch Hu... Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave him his marching orders, avada, it's not Moshe Rabbeinu's discretion or decision. But lema'aseh, the chalos of Torah she-ba'al peh, that this is what's nimsar, that this, that this is being nimsar ba'al peh, that... that differentiation happens when... when it's Moshe Rabbeinu to the next, to the next generation. Nifla me'od, it's just nifla. When Hashem gave Moshe the luchos, that Hashem... that Hashem wrote... He wrote the luchos. So that's... that's not all Torah... that's not all Torah she-bi-ksav, it's just the luchos? No, Hakadosh Baruch Hu mistama, in, whatever this means, באש לבנה על גבי אש שחורה, although lema'aseh He didn't hand that to Moshe Rabbeinu. What Moshe Rabbeinu was handed were לוחות ומכתב מכתב אלקים הוא. So yes, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wrote the Aseres Hadibros, but... in terms of giving the Torah she-bi-ksav, He didn't give the Torah she-bi-ksav to Moshe Rabbeinu bi-ksav. He didn't hand Moshe Rabbeinu, he didn't, Moshe Rabbeinu didn't get gift-wrapped an Artscroll Chumash. Can't have everything exactly. He wasn't gift-wrapped, he wasn't gifted with wrapping paper. No, Hakadosh Baruch Hu dictated it, so there's no difference in the masora. Again, yitachen, whatever it means, yitachen that Hakadosh Baruch Hu had written it down, whatever that means, באש לבנה על גבי אש שחורה, whatever that means, but in terms of how it was given to Moshe Rabbeinu, He wrote the luchos. He gave Moshe Rabbeinu written luchos. He didn't give Moshe Rabbeinu written Sefer Torah. Is it only called Torah she-ba'al peh once it has the potential to reach a place of machlokes? Meaning, once... when Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave Moshe Rabbeinu the perush, so it's coming מפי הקדוש ברוך הוא kivyachol and then Moshe Rabbeinu hears it but as soon as Moshe Rabbeinu... says it to Yehoshua and Pinchas and Elazar and whoever else was around, so then it has the—it's almost like a game of broken telephone. And like that entire continuation of Torah Shebe'al Peh, then that can split off into Machlokes. And is that also the difference between Peirush and Ba'al Peh? 'Cause once it's Ba'al Peh, then it's given to your own—you could understand the facts, but the way in which you express it comes up differently from person to person. The lechatchilah—it's sort of lechatchilah and bedieved here. The lechatchilah potential for difference of opinion—the reason that is correctly associated with Torah Shebe'al Peh, not Torah Shebiksav, is because the Torah Shebe'al Peh is the חכמי תורה שבעל פה charged with dealing with devarim she'einam meforashim. So there isn't a pasuk in Chumash that says an incandescent bulb on Shabbos is considered havarah. There is no such pasuk in Chumash, nor for that matter was there such a, as part of mitzvah zeh peirushah. So when the חכמי תורה שבעל פה tackle that, so therefore there is room to have a difference of opinion even lechatchilah. But that's only because—only because the Torah Shebiksav doesn't expand. The Torah Shebiksav are the words. Mah she'ein kein, again, not in the sense that the Rambam uses the term Torah Shebe'al Peh, in the sense that we use the term. The Rambam wouldn't—Torah Shebe'al Peh doesn't expand either. Torah Shebe'al Peh for the Rambam, as we've discussed, just means peirush hamikubal. So that doesn't expand either. So the machlokes is in the third areas, in Gemara, in Talmud, because that third area of Torah deals with devarim she'einam meforashim. So that's where you lechatchilah have the—but again, for the Rambam that's not even Torah Shebe'al Peh either. Torah Shebe'al Peh for the Rambam just means peirush hamikubal. It means v'katzosa es kapah means don't cut off her hand, and pri etz hadar means means an esrog, etc. ואיש כי ישכב את אשה לזנות means not that she's a pnuya. She's—she's at some degree of eishes ish, etc. So for the Rambam there's no more potential for machlokes in—again, for Torah Shebe'al Peh the Rambam uses it narrowly, not the way we do. The Rambam uses it just for peirush hamikubal, so there's no more potential. In order to have machlokes there, you would have to have shich-chah. But the Rambam says peirush hamikubal were not forgotten. In order to have machlokes in Torah Shebiksav, you'd also have to have shich-chah. You'd have to lose all the Sifrei Torah and not remember how it was written. Again, we use Torah Shebe'al Peh differently than the Rambam. We use it to include not only peirush hamikubal but Gemara, and there yes, there you have room for difference of opinion even lechatchilah because you're dealing with devarim she'einam meforashim. Just to clarify, does that mean that the way the Rambam learns that first Mishnah in Berachos, that isn't that just a machlokes down metzius of what Klal Yisrael do in the midbar about zman krias shema? The Rambam says that all mitzvos were given befirusham, but on the other hand, he talks about it more in the Hakdama le'Peirush haMishnayos. I don't think he has it here. I don't think so. I don't think he has it here. But yeah, he does have it here, sorry. If you take a look, if you're looking— אחד ואחד. You find the words וכן כל אחד ואחד. You have it over there? וכן כל אחד ואחד. וכן כל אחד ואחד כתב לעצמו כפי כוחו מביאור התורה ומהלכותיה כמו ששמע ומדברים שנתחדשו בכל דור ודור בדינים שלא למדו מפי השמועה אלא במידה משלוש עשרה מידות והסכימו עליהם בית דין הגדול.
So for the Rambam, there was some dinim that Moshe Rabbeinu came down from Har Sinai and told us, some of the basic dinim of each mitzvah, but not necessarily all the dinim. Some other dinim that there was, were nischadshu through the מידות שהתורה נדרשת בהן. So therefore the answer is lav davka. Maybe Moshe Rabbeinu came down from Har Sinai and said you know that beshochbecha doesn't mean when you're taking a nap in the middle of the day. You know beshochbecha means you know the nighttime sleep. That's what it's associated with. Did he say you know it's only when people are going to sleep or it's when people are sleeping? Maybe he didn't. Maybe he didn't. That's why for instance when you look in the Hakdamah to Peirush Hamishnayos, the Rambam there illustrates what it means פירושים שניתנו עם המצווה with the mitzvah of yeshivas sukkah. He says Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe Rabbeinu the pasuk בסוכות תשבו שבעת ימים and then he told Moshe Rabbeinu what materials you use for sechach etc. And you look, so for instance he doesn't mention one of the hilchos sukkah the Rambam doesn't mention there is תעשה ולא מן העשוי. So apparently תעשה ולא מן העשוי was something that and inach nami. So until the תעשה ולא מן העשוי would be an example of the דברים שנתחדשו בכל דור ודור בדינים שלא למדו מפי השמועה אלא במידה משלוש עשרה מידות.
So for that reason the answer is lav davka. Sefer Echad the Rambam says נתנוהו בארון לעד שנאמר לקוח את ספר התורה הזה ושמתם אותו מצד ארון ברית ה' אלהיכם והיה שם בך לעד.
The very last halacha in Hilchos Sefer Torah, Rambam writes: כל מי שישב לפני ספר תורה ישב בכובד ראש ובאימה ופחד שהוא העד הנאמן על כל באי עולם שנאמר והיה שם בך לעד.
So this he-arah I heard from my brother Hashem yikom damo, so whereas the Rambam in the Hakdamah. says that והיה שם בך לעד refers specifically to that sefer torah which Moshe Rabbeinu wrote and placed in the aron; the Rambam here in Hilchos Sefer Torah says והיה שם בך לעד refers to every sefer torah. That's true of every sefer torah, it's not true only of the ספר תורה שכתב משה רבינו, it's true of every sefer torah, because that's what the Rambam is saying, that כל מי שיש לפניו ספר תורה, lav davka Moshe Rabbeinu's sefer torah, but every sefer torah, שישב בכבוד רב ובאימה ובפחד שהוא העד הנאמן על כל באי עולם,
shene'emar והיה שם בך לעד. Ad kan devarav. Aval lemaiseh, ad kan devarav. Aval lemaiseh, lichora, the perspective on that is that there are kama vechama examples where the Rambam gives multiple pshatim in psukim. So it's not a question of the Rambam being soiser himself, it's that the Rambam says psukim again are to be interpreted on multiple levels. So for instance, just to give one example, in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah in Perek Hey, the Rambam says there are three types of Chillul Hashem. One Chillul Hashem is when the din is yehareg ve'al ya'avor and the person is over and lo neherag, so then that's a Chillul Hashem. The second type of Chillul Hashem: כל העובר מדעתו בלא אונס על אחת מכל מצוות האמורות בתורה בשאט בנפש להכעיס הרי זה מחלל את השם.
If a person doesn't experience a tayvah, a yetzer hara to do an aveira, ואף על פי כן and he does the aveira anyway, no one's being ma'anis him, he doesn't have any natural tayvah. It's not like he sees a piece of meat and he's very hungry and it looks succulent, it is succulent, and so he gives into the tayvah. No, the absent tayvah, a person does an aveira absent tayvah and absent ones, a person does an aveira, so by default that's lehachis, הרי זה מחלל את השם. לפיכך נאמר בשבועת שקר וחיללת את שם אלוהיך אני השם.
And that's why לא תשבעו בשמי לשקר וחיללת את שם אלוהיך, that's why וחיללת את שם אלוהיך, that's why shvu'as shaker is associated with Chillul Hashem because shvu'as shaker is an example of an aveira where if a person isn't ne'enas to do it, there's no tayvah, there's no tayvah to be נשבע לשקר בשם השם. There's no tayvah to do it. Right. So that's the pshat. The Rambam writes in Perek Yud Aleph of Hilchos Shvuos: כשם ששבועת שווא ושקר בלא תעשה כך מצוות עשה שישבע מי שנתחייב שבועת בית דין בשם שנאמר ובשמו תשבע זו מצוות עשה.
So even before the Rambam elaborates, which he's about to do, you see from the keshem that the Rambam says there's a symmetry between the issur of shvu'as shav veshaker on the one hand and the mitzvas asei of being nishba truthfully when a person's nis'chayev shvu'ah of uvishemo tishavei'a. So what's the keshem? So the Rambam elaborates: השבועה בשמו הגדול והקדוש מדרכי העבודה היא והידור וקידוש גדול הוא להישבע בשמו.
It's a Kiddush Hashem if a person's נתחייב שבועה בבית דין and it's a Kiddush Hashem to be nishba bashem. What's the Kiddush Hashem? What does it mean? What's the difference between saying something and swearing something? What's the difference between saying I don't owe you fifty dollars and swearing that I don't owe you fifty dollars? So shvu'ah means to say something in the most absolute sense possible. That's what it means, right? That's what colloquially, that's what it means also. The difference between saying I'm telling you this or I swear to it is that when a person says I swear to it, it means I'm telling you this in the most absolute sense. I can't tell it to you more absolutely than this, than by swearing. So when a person is So then I invoke shem hashem. So that's why it's a kiddush hashem because the invoking shem hashem as a way of affirming or denying something with maximum absoluteness shows that hakadosh baruch hu is the absolute. Now, the clear implication here is that the reason a shvuas shav, a shvuas sheker is a chilul hashem is because you take hakadosh baruch hu who is the absolute and associate his name with a sheker. So the same way, I'm doing the Rambam's logic backwards now. Right? So the same way taking the shvuas emes is a kiddush hashem because you correctly invoke hakadosh baruch hu as the, you invoke his name in context of stating something which is absolutely true, so that same logic dictates that to invoke shem hashem with something which is false is a chilul hashem. So why does the Torah speak about chilul hashem by shvuas sheker? Not because it's an example of an aveira which a person does le'te'avon. No, because of this logic. So which is it? Well, the pasuk means both. Psukim were intended to mean more than one thing at times. Psukim are intended to mean more than one thing. So l'chora that's the perspective one should have on this he'ara, that the Rambam quotes the pasuk of והיו שם בכל העת here in the hakdama as referring bedafka to the ספר תורה שכתב משה רבינו and later in Hilchos Sefer Torah as referring to any Sefer Torah. So what's the pshat? The pshat is it means both. It's not a stira. If it can only mean one thing, so then it's a stira. But you have kama ve'kama examples where the Rambam says different, just in Mishneh Torah alone, where the Rambam says different pshatim in psukim. The psukim are intended to mean more than one thing. So in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah he tells you the meaning which is relevant in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah. In Hilchos Shvuos he tells us the meaning which is relevant in Hilchos Shvuos.