The 6th Mishna of בבא מציעא resembles the subject of
פרק ד כתובות משנה ז.  לא כתב לה – בתולה גובה מאתים, ואלמנה מנה, מפני שהוא תנאי בית דין.
Another proof that the mitzva of קידושין actively involves a sworn oath which affects all seed produced by this woman to all generations in the future, the oath placed upon the suspected wife based upon the “jealousy” of her husband.  This rather odd chapter in the Book of במדבר, serves as a משל.  The נמשל – the Cohen nation and our oath brit with HaShem.  The sages in the Gemara of Sanhedrin attribute the first cause for the floods in the days of Noach to false oaths.

The Book of שופטים ז:ט – ח:כא teaches a powerful mussar.  The arrogance of the elders of Sukkot and Penuel regarding their betrayal, wherein they made alliance with the kings of Midyan against the Cohen nation.  The mussar here learns through a פרט\כלל.  The Cohen nation suffered military defeat before the kings of Midyan, because our people too, like as did the elders of Sukkot and Penuel, all to often betray our Cohen oath brit obligations.  The mitzva of placing tefillen has the k’vanna by which the generations of Israel renew our oath brit commitments made at the britot of Gilgal and Sh’Cem in the days of Yehoshua.  Contrast the mussar commanded in משנה תורה ו:טז,יז
לא תנסו את ה’ אלהיכם כאשר נסיתם במסה  שמור תשמרון את מצות ה’ אלהיכם ועדתיו וחקיו אשר צוך
With the mussar commanded by the prophet (ישעיה ל:א -כו).  Like as the Gemara learns the Mishna by means of דרוש precedents, in similar fashion the logic of פרדס learns the literature of the T’NaCH.  Israeli foreign policy stands and falls through the wisdom of cutting alliances.  Cutting alliances with other countries exists as either a blessing or a curse; life and death hangs in the balances.  To what does the wisdom of cutting a foreign alliance compare?  To the Order of the Shemone Esrei.

All ברכות within the language of the Amidah, they all depend upon the k’vanna within the first opening ברכה.  So to Israeli foreign policy throughout the Ages.  If the Cohen nation keeps and uphold our tohor status before HaShem, then the alliances which the Cohen Republic cuts with foreign nations shall bring blessings to the Middle East and North Africa.  But should the people of Israel behave like an unfaithful wife, our people assimilate and embrace the customs and cultures practiced by foreign nations, (Goyim who never accepted the chosen Cohen brit alliance, nor did Goyim ever swear an oath brit which obligated their unborn, future born seed to maintain the cultures and customs of the Cohen chosen people), just as HaShem plagued Par’o and Egypt with plagues till Egypt lay totally destroyed, so too and how much more so – the justice of HaShem vis a vis His oath brit Cohen chosen people.

The mussar commanded by the Prophets, these seers beheld the BIG PICTURE of the brit faith.  The Gemara – by contrast – makes a common law precedent “pilpul”, which therein establishes concrete visualization of rabbinic middot; this causes a chain reaction which reveals the k’vanna definition to any given Mishna. 

Once having made this “study”, then a student of the Talmud affixes that defined Mishna unto a specific ברכה within the Shemone Esrei, by means of learning the Aggadita, or Midrashim.  This type of learning which my pen describes right now qualifies as the דרוש\פשט aspect of the פרדס Torah Sh’Baal Peh.  This logic system format, and only this logic system format, which HaShem revealed unto the prophet Moshe on Horev, 40 days after Israel declared unto Aaron: “Moshe has died, who will teach us the rest of the Torah”?

Affixing a learned k’vanna of a specific Mishna to a ברכה within the Shemone Esrei often requires weighing the language of one blessing against the language of other blessings.  Case in point, the דרוש learning here compares:
השיבה שופטינו כבראשונה ויועצינו כבתחלה, והסר ממנו יגון ואנחה, ומלך עלינו אתה ה’ לבדך בחסד וברחמים, וצדקנו במשפט.  ברוך אתה ה’, מלך אוהב צדקה ומשפט.
WITH
רפאנו ה’ ונרפא, הושיענו ונושעה, כי תהלתנו אתה והעלה רפואה שלמה לכל מכותינו, כי אל מלך רופא נאמן ורחמן אתה.  ברוך אתה ה’, רופא חולי עמו ישראל.

The g’lut of the chosen Cohen people resembles a person afflicted with a terminal disease.  The sages teach, change a name or location, this act of t’shuva, can change the מזל of a person suffering affiction.  As mentioned previously, Jewish refugee populations made a mass population transfer from Western to Eastern Europe.  Alas our people failed to do t’shuva, my people did not condemn the assimilated Rambam halachic abomination.  פרדס scholarship on the Talmud, thereafter totally collapsed.  Jews ceased dedicating tohor rabbinic middot unto HaShem; they da’avened their tefilla by rote.  My people therein burned and destroyed the Temple of doing mitzvot לשמה. Tefilla from then onwards compared to the times of Herod’s Temple, when Cohonim made Barbeques to Heaven. We walked in the stubbornness of our hardened hearts till the korban of the Shoah opened the eyes of my teachers.

מדרש רבה נשא פרשה ט:  (קהלת א) מעוות, לא יוכל לתקון וגו’ …
This Midrash opens by comparing it to not saying ק”ש ותפילה בזמן.  But the explanation which most appeals to me:
ר”ש בן מנסיא אומר איזהו מעוות שאינו יוכל לתקון?  זה הבא על הערוה פנויה והוליד בן או בא על אשת איש אע’ג דלא הוליד.  כל עבירות הכתובים בתורה, יש להם תקנה.  גונב, אדם אפשר יחזיר גניבתו ויתקן.  גוזל אדם, אפשר יחזיר גזילתו ויתקן.  וכן השולח יד בפקדון.  וכן העושק שכר שביר.  אבל הבא על אשת איש, ואסרה על בעלה נטרד מן העולם והלך לו שאינו יכול לתקן.  שתהא אשתו מותרת לו כבתחלה, הוי מעוות לא יוכל לתקון.

The mitzva of קידושין and גט directly entails swearing an oath.  A man who makes his ex-wife an agunah, profanes the oath sworn before kosher witnesses and a minyan at קידושין.  A רשע cannot hold a בית דין hostage.  The בית דין has the obligation to confirm the validity of the ex-wife’s ketubah, and then place the רשע into נדוי. 

As metal sharpens metal, mitzvot learn from other mitzvot.  The din of נדוי learns by means of a דיוק made on ger tzeddik.  As the latter exists as a ‘new creation’ so too the former.  The רשע ceases being Jewish.  Torah teaches spirituality not racism.  Genetics do not determine if a person commits to obey the Torah.  If a person who seeks to become a ger tzedek states he agrees to keep all the mitzvot except this or that mitzva.  The בית דין rejects his conversion.  So too the רשע who renounces his קידושין obligations which he publicly validated at the time of his קידושין.

The mitzva of קידושין most essentially entails swearing a Torah oath.  A Torah oath impacts all future born generations, like as happened at the brit between the pieces.  נדוי expels the רשע from the brit of O’lam Ha’ba.  The רשע can no more make an aliya to read the Torah than can a Goy.  Adultery directly learns from Sotah.  Agunah too learns from Sotah.  The בית דין places the רשע בנדוי and makes a קידוש השם by assuming responsibility for her כתובה.  This קידוש השם learns from the mitzva of prozbul.  The בית דין thereafter issues the ex-wife her get.  The דין of נדוי calls upon the jealousy of HaShem, comparable to the לשון הרע made by the 10 spies in the days of Moshe and Aaron.  Rabbi Akiva teaches that the Wilderness generation has no portion in the world to come.

Rabbi Danny Nevins, on August 17, 2017,  wrote an interesting commentary to Doing Right and Good, Denouncing evil.  

“The early rabbis (Tannaim) sought to extract meaning from each of the words, good and right (טוב וישר).  In Tosefta Shekalim 2:2 they report the protocol for collecting funds from the Temple storehouse. The officiant’s pockets were searched as they entered and exited—that way they could not claim if found with a gold coin in their pocket that they had brought it in with them. Not only is actual theft forbidden, but even the appearance of immorality is to be shunned. This, say the Sages, is what it means to do that which is “right and good.” It is a matter of public virtue—a society in which moral values are on public display is a society in which personal practice will rise to meet high expectations, rather than sink into the mire of excuses and evasions.

Rabbi Akiva is reported to have said that “the good” refers to the sight of heaven, whereas “the right” is in the sight of other people. Rabbi Ishmael is said to have disagreed, claiming that all that matters is the sight of God. Saul Lieberman explains Rabbi Ishmael as thinking ומה שישר בעיני שמים ממילא טוב גם בעיני בני אדם, “that which is good in the sight of heaven is automatically good in the eyes of humanity.” Perhaps—the literary record of this debate is rather jumbled. Midrash Sifre simply shortens Rabbi Ishmael’s statement, whereas the later collection Yalkut Shimoni turns it into an argument of word order—R’ Ishmael thinks one ought to do that which is “right” in the sight of heaven, and “good” in the sight of humanity. These details are perhaps too technical, but it is important to note that the rabbis added a social component to the determination of morality. How do you know if something is right and good in the eyes of heaven? Look it up in the books, consult a prophet if you can, but then also check in with those around you. Unless they are caught up in an evil spirit, they will have the sense to steer you right. That which is right in the eyes of heaven should eventually also find support in the sight of humanity. Our task is to activate the moral impulse in society and to oppose any backsliding towards injustice and violence.”

The 6th Mishna of בבא מציעא, upon consideration, it seems to me that our Mishna more closely affixes itself to the blessing of רפאנו ה’ ונרפא.  Herein concludes the 1st part of the super commentary on the Rif’s halachic code.

During my first year at a Chabad yeshiva on the outskirts of Har Nof, recall a conversation with my chavruta Daniel Rumey from Canada.  We discussed what we wanted to achieve after learning how to learn.  Don’t recall Daniel’s expressed opinion, but well remember my response: Wanted to explore דרוש. That פשט research, the Reshonim scholars had pretty much exhausted.  At that time, expressed my dissatisfaction over the dismal scholarship upon on דרוש aspect of פרדס; especially considering the fact, that the whole of the Talmud pulsated around this very wisdom.

Rashi’s commentary on the Chumash, in the Yeshiva, constituted as required learning.  There exist several hundred commentaries on Rashi.  Rashi p’shat on the Chumash, truly unique.  Studied six or seven of these super commentaries, but not till the Rav Kook edition did I find a commentary which traced the Rashi drosh back to their original sources.  That scholarship truly impressed me – to this very day.  The Rashi drosh/p’shat on the Chumash radically differs with the Rashi p’shat on the Talmud.  The contrast between the 2 contrasting sh’ittot, combined with the fact that all the rabbis in the Yeshiva totally ignore this elephant in the china closet – truly bothered me.

This former Meretz baali t’shuva, finally the sun broke the early dawn, began to view my rabbinic authorities with a growing suspicion that they did not know how to learn for beans.  It seemed to me that the Baali T’shuva Yeshivot of Jerusalem only mass produced suits.  People who wore the same line of clothing, had a bit of learning under their belts, and immediately got married.  Thereafter these folk joined a shul whose rabbi enjoyed the status of a rock star.  Such a lifestyle – not my cup of tea.  The super-frum communities became a real embarrassment.  That an adult man could spit upon a child walking to school in Beit Shemesh – the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

After having reached the conclusion that post WWII, the Yishishkeit educational monopoly in Israel – not only wrong, but down right corrupt and dishonest – altogether stopped the charades of practicing religion.  My wife asked me why, and what caused me to stop placing tefillen and da’avening in shuls?  The practice of observing the rituals of Yiddishkeit, totally soured my heart.  Simply had no further desire to follow the flocks, and go through the motions of faith, while in fact being an empty vessel.  When D’vara’s son, D’vara – Karen’s first born child – expressed his total dissatisfaction with the Yeshiva educational “opportunities”, fully supported his desire to tell those rabbis where they could shove it.

This super commentary to the Rif serves as an outlet, an expression of complete and total dissatisfaction with the ways and manners of the rabbis and their monopoly over how to learn – how to learn; the silence on the chosen Cohen national Republic.  Worse, their ignorance that assimilation constitutes as the first face of avoda zara.  It truly offends me that this educational ‘cartel’, that their ignorance and incompetence has brought the nation to the brink of Civil War, on several occasions, since coming to Israel in 1991.  All Yidden in Israel travel upon the same ‘ship of State’.  The picture of political satire has become fixated within my mind.  A person drilling a hole in the boat under his specific seat.  The arrogance of religious frumm Yidden telling me ‘as a point of fact’, that ארץ ישראל – also g’lut!

If I complete this commentary to the Rif, hope to thereafter publish it in a book.  This word press blog permits me to assess if anyone will have an interest to consider my harsh, even acrimonious, disagreements with rabbinic Judaism today.  

Rashi p’shat on the Chumash, based upon this sh’itta of learning – reached the conclusion that דרוש ופשט learn as a pair; that רמז וסוד likewise learn as a pair.  The בעל הטורים השלם which makes “cute” comparisons by means of רמז, rejected this sh’itta even before the break of dawn, that the Rambam’s code qualified as the work of a רשע.  The Rambam did not openly advocate for chaos and confusion.  But his work shattered the “ethical containment force” of pre-Rambam Yiddishkeit.  When a person or event shatters the “ethical containment force” of a society – that civilization collapses. Developed this theory of revolutions while a history major at Texas A&M. Made the study of economics my minor.

The countries surrounding Israel, the Arab Spring, have contributed to exporting Civil War from country to country.  Great Power imperialism has likewise given its tuma contribution to this human disaster in the Middle East.  The Great Powers have interests in regions.  They seek  dominance and control, as an expression of those ‘interests’.  A strategic region of the world compares unto a tasty apple pie for criminal global megalomaniacs.  The military arms race, resembles the frenzy of homosexual sex, their tendency to invite multiple partners into a single night of hedonism. 

Generals in command of a huge war chest, cram packed full with their newest experimental toys. They lack the ‘desire’ to play with these nifty toys, and show off their military genius?  These pimped up Commanders, wearing their fancy uniforms and shiny medals and ribbons, have a history of considering humanity as nothing short of pawns.  Whose lives – by the millions – these Generals\protectors of the free world – willing sacrifice to satisfy their lusts ‘for the greater good’.

Insanity has yet to seduce Israeli leaders to this vile degree.  But the foreign Wars which the Hasmonean dynasty fought serves as a full press warning to the newly established Jewish State.  Better to rule our homelands with righteous, just, tohor-justice than to conquer empires.  The Ottoman empire and the Arab empires which preceded it, none of them could conquer the military mental addiction for war. 

The Sea of Salt, hundred of feet below sea-level, and close to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel possesses a prime resource to make deserts bloom.  To date Israeli leaders have failed to actualize this world changing potential.  Jerusalem should demand that the education of Arab refugee populations focus upon agricultural development.  Once the deserts bloom, North African countries will require experts in agricultural labor.  A win\win situation, Israel could export its problematic Arab refugee populations to other countries across Egypt and North Africa.

The exportation of “Armies” of agriculturally educated stateless Arab refugee populations to foreign Arab and Muslim countries, who never in their wildest dreams imagined that their desert infertile lands would turn green and grow crops and graze cattle.  Causing the countries of the Middle East and North Africa to become food producers rather than food consumers – a Prime first Order Foreign Policy objective of the Jewish state.  The Sea of Salt inherently possesses this great potential. 

Wealth presents endless possibilities for corruption and the concentration of wealth into the hands of the unworthy few.  This problem defines post Civil War America, unto the present day.  And causing the community of nations of the Middle East and North Africa to become food exporters compares to hopping from the pot into the fire.  Hence Israel should set a free banking example for the growing and developing economies in this region of the world.  Down with Keynesian economics with their Centralized Banks which determine the interest rates which all other banks in the country charge for loans.

Domestic issues always take priority over Foreign issues.  The Prime first Order Domestic Policy objectives of the Cohen Torah Republic begins with re-establishing the Torah as the Written Constitution of the Cohen Republic; imposing the lateral Sanhedrin Federal common law court system, and on the front of economics, making Israel the Hong Kong of the Middle East through the establishment of Free Banking; the breakup of the controlling families and cartel monopolies within the Jewish State.

Torah scholarship, not limited to black suits and furry hats.  Torah scholarship addresses the needs and interests of all peoples living within the borders of Torah based society!  Torah scholarship does not ignore the needs and interests of folk who do not practice or believe in the Torah.  Torah scholarship represents the wisdom of the Jewish people throughout the thousands and thousands of years that we have lived upon this Planet.  Torah scholarship comes down (think distilled whiskey) to a very simple idea: can the Cohonim people rule the oath sworn lands with just righteous tohor justice? 

This basic and most fundamental question defines the revelation of the Torah at Sinai and Horev.  A person cannot learn the rabbinic codes which base themselves upon the רמז\סוד axis without likewise learning the Aggadic\Midrash דרוש\פשט axis.  Simply forbidden to divorce halacha from aggadita.  This basic rule defines how to correctly learn the rabbinc Reshon codifications of halacha.

Concrete rabbinic halachic middot function as antonyms to abstract דאורייתא tohor middot synonyms. The concept ‘atheist praise HaShem’ serves as my interpretation of the Baal HaTanya’s concept of ‘bital’, wherein a person strives to make his LARGE I, as found in all belief systems, into a small i.

Before learning the 6th Mishna, based upon how the Rif halachic commentary learned the Talmud.  It appears necessary to introduce positive comments contemporaries have made on the Rambam.  The contrast to what they write with what this super commentary on the Rif brings as evidence.  In his introduction to the Mishna Torah, the Rambam never once mentions the kabbala of Rabbi Akiva and how it defines the Oral Torah – which the Mishna and Gemara works codify.  This fact represents a significant omission.

Who questions the “RULES” established by the Rambam and his peers, which determines which and which rabbis in the Talmud – from these restricted opinions comes present day halacha?  As a young student, acceptance of these rules became mandatory upon all Yeshiva students!  Why?  During the Dark Ages, where the condition to travel, both difficult and dangerous – in those times these rules permitted rabbis living in isolated communities to poskin halacha for their “Island” communities of Jewish refugees. These rules of how to poskin halacha, effectively maintained a consistent tradition for all g’lut Jewry.  But when travel became far less difficult and dangerous, why maintain a dictatorship of how to poskin halacha?

Remember scratching my head, wondering how the Tannaim and Amoraim scholars ever derived the concept of “Halacha” in the first place.  Halacha, existed as, at least to me, an undefined and troubling “given”.  As an atheist – praise HaShem, have always challenged the validity of rhetoric which Universally never defines its key terms upon which that same rhetoric thereafter hangs “mountains of theology” upon floating strings – never once ever defined.  Then Rav Aaron Nemuraskii came into my life.  He taught me that the Torah teaches mussar NOT theology.  Neither halacha nor the rules by which later scholars poskin halacha from rabbinic authorities within the Sha’s Talmud qualify as mussar.  This caused me to challenge the validity of the ever so popular, “mandatory rules” by which the famous halachic codes poskined “their” halacha. 

How does halacha define mussar?  This question caused me to likewise reject the rhetoric premises by which virtually all rabbinic authorities blindly accept halacha, as a dogmatic act of faith.  This put me on a head on collision course with Yiddishkeit.  Almost from day one in the Yeshiva, through a comparative study first of the Rif, Rosh, and Rambam codes, and later expanded my search to find a definition for halacha, studied the B’hag, Beit Yosef, and Tur\ Shulchan Aruch codifications as well.  None of these works truly wet my whistle.  After making a close study of them, still had no clarity just how the Tannaim and Amoraim developed the concept of “halacha”. 

Then came Rabbi Nemuraskii, his instruction made a study Midrashic sources. And suddenly out of the blue, it dawned upon me the meaning of Rabbi Akiva’s פרדס chariot mysticism!  How the פרדס format of logic defined the revelation of the Oral Torah at Horev; how through this logic system, how to derive and define “halacha” such that this definition learned hand in glove with mussar.  Rav Aaron then introduced me to the Yerushalmi which teaches that over 247 prophets occupied themselves in writing the Shemone Esrei … and at a stroke, like an apple falling upon my head, it all came together!

To da’avin with k’vanna requires mussar.  Because Torah teaches mussar NOT theology and definitely, emphatically NOT dogmatism.  It bothered me after reading Rambam’s introduction to the Mishna Torah wherein he declared that the Babylonian Talmud exists as an obligation upon all Israel.  He lumped the Gemara up together with the Mishna, and made no distinction between the two!  Furthermore, the Rambam makes not a single reference to the Siddur!  Halacha and the Siddur work hand in glove together – a most basic definition of terms.  When the Rambam introduction addressed the subject of the Gaonim scholarship, he fails to mention their works of Midrashim!  Rav Aaron’s sh’itta of learning centered around how Midrash interprets the Talmud.  It became clear to me, from thereon that the Rambam had not learned Midrash.  He did not grasp how Midrash interprets the Talmud.  Visited many Yeshivot in Jerusalem and Bene Beraq, not one of those institutions make a study of Midrash!

Rav Avigdor Miller on The Rambam and Aristotle

Q: 
You quoted from the Rambam that we should stay away from the gentiles and wicked people. But the Rambam himself was very much involved with gentiles, in particular with Aristotle. Why?

A:
I’ll explain it to you.  When you’re sitting now by that tape recorder recording this lecture, you’re taking something made maybe by goyim and thought up perhaps by goyim. You ride on buses driven by goyim. If you have a car, so the car and the gasoline are made and supplied by goyim. Before

The answer is, whatever useful things goyim have to give you, you take it; if it’s an implement, technology, you can use it. And Aristotle to the Rambam was just a useful mechanism.  He supplied him with information.  But the Rambam wouldn’t sit with him.  He wouldn’t sit with him!

Now the truth is that the Rambam wouldn’t advise us even to read Aristotle’s books. He was able to read the books and pick out of them the things that seemed to him useful. And the truth is, after all is said and done, the Rambam took from Aristotle things which he thought were completely true but they weren’t.  You know, today it’s a pity because we learn the Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah and everything there is perfect except for the few things that come from Greek philosophy. Today they’re meaningless.

So what the Rambam took from Torah is forever and ever.  But what the Rambam took by following the ways of Aristotle are useless today.  That’s why certain parts of Moreh Nevuchim are meaningless today.  And the Vilna Gaon, the Gra, says about the Rambam: הפילוסופיה הארורה הטתו ברוב לקחה, that the cursed philosophy deceived him.  The Gra says that; the accursed philosophy deceived the Rambam! So even when the Rambam tried to pick out the useful things, in some cases he was deceived.  

But that was the Rambam’s approach to Aristotle.  It’s like our approach, let’s say, to medicine.  If a gentile specialist tells you that this and this diet or this or this medicine is good for you, so it’s not associating with him.  It’s just like using his tape recorder.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Moses ben Maimon [known to English speaking audiences as Maimonides and Hebrew speaking as Rambam] (1138–1204) is the greatest Jewish philosopher of the medieval period and is still widely read today. The Mishneh Torah, his 14-volume compendium of Jewish law, established him as the leading rabbinic authority of his time and quite possibly of all time. His philosophic masterpiece, the Guide of the Perplexed, is a sustained treatment of Jewish thought and practice that seeks to resolve the conflict between religious knowledge and secular. Although heavily influenced by the Neo-Platonized Aristotelianism that had taken root in Islamic circles, it departs from prevailing modes of Aristotelian thought by emphasizing the limits of human knowledge and the questionable foundations of significant parts of astronomy and metaphysics. Maimonides also achieved fame as a physician and wrote medical treatises on a number of diseases and their cures. Succeeding generations of philosophers wrote extensive commentaries on his works, which influenced thinkers as diverse as Aquinas, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Newton.

Conclusion

How one assesses Maimonides’ philosophy depends on one’s own philosophic view. For a traditional theist like Aquinas, he is right to say that there are issues, e.g. creation, that cannot be resolved by demonstration and to insist that all attempts to anthropomorphize God are misguided. The problem is that in rejecting anthropomorphism, he may have gone too far. If God bears no likeness to the created order, and if terms like wise, powerful, or lives are completely ambiguous when applied to God and us, the conception of divinity we are left with is too thin for the average worshipper to appreciate.

For a naturalist like Spinoza, Maimonides is too willing to dismiss science and take refuge in traditional concepts like creation and divine volition. Granted that medieval astronomy did not have a good explanation of planetary motion; with the advent of the scientific revolution, it found one – at least in Spinoza’s opinion. If Maimonides were to remain true to his word and accept the strongest argument wherever it leads, as far as Spinoza’s is concerned, he would have to embrace the new science, the eternity of the world, and the necessity of every event that takes place in it. In order to do this, he would have to abandon the idea that the Bible is a source of philosophic and scientific truth and look to it only for the light it sheds on how to live. Needless to say, this would be a disaster for Maimonides.

Even if Maimonides were to make this move and read the Bible for its ethical content, problems would remain. Maimonides is an elitist. Closeness to God is measured by how much knowledge one acquires. The result is that people whose situations prevent them from pursuing advanced studies cannot be close to God or love God. Whether it is right or wrong, this view offends modern sensibilities, which are much more democratic.

Finally for an atheist, Maimonides’ philosophy shows us what happens if you remove all anthropomorphic content from your conception of God: you remove all content of any kind. In the end, you are left with a God whose essence is unknowable and indescribable. Of what possible value is such a conception either to philosophy or religion?

At his trial for impiety in 399 B.C., Socrates was asked how it is that the wisest person in Athens claims to be ignorant of the knowledge he seeks. His answer (Apology 23a-b) is that he is wise because unlike others, he recognizes that when measured against divine wisdom, human wisdom is of little or no value. Although it is doubtful that he read Socrates’ words, there is little question that this is the insight Maimonides is trying to preserve. That person is wisest who recoils in awe and humility in the face of something infinitely greater than he or she can fathom. This insight explains why, despite his best efforts, Maimonides was unable to find airtight demonstrations for many of his insights about God, creation, and revelation and is often content just to tip the scales in one direction or present an honest assessment of the problem. In a recent work, Alfred Ivry (2016, 4) contends that Maimonides himself is one of the perplexed for whom the Guide was written.

Viewed in a sympathetic light, Maimonides’ elitism stems from the recognition that few people will be satisfied with this. Although not everyone in the history of philosophy would agree, there is no question that Maimonides’ view has a long history and remains a powerful alternative.

Maimonides (Rambam) and His Texts | My Jewish Learning

Maimonides lived under Islamic rule for his entire life, and he both benefited and suffered greatly because of it. Maimonides spent his formative years in a society in which tolerant Muslim leadership catalyzed vibrant cultural exchange with its Jewish and Christian minorities. Islamic scholarship in particular influenced him, especially later in his life. Unfortunately, when Maimonides was 10 years old, a fundamentalist Berber tribe called the Almohads entered Córdoba and presented Jewish residents with three choices: conversion, exile or death. The Maimoni family chose exile, leaving Córdoba and eventually emigrating to Morocco in about 1160, when Maimonides was in his early 20s. Many scholars believe Maimonides may have outwardly practiced Islam during this period, not out of belief but in order to protect himself, and that he continued to practice Judaism secretly. In 1165, the Maimoni family set sail for Palestine. After a brief yet formative visit to the land of Israel, then under Crusader rule, they finally settled in Egypt in 1166 — first in Alexandria, and eventually in Fustat (part of present-day Cairo). Maimonides lived there until his death in 1204.

Mishneh Torah (written 1168-1178)

Maimonides composed the Mishneh Torah (literally, a “repetition” or “second” Torah) over a 10-year period, continuing to edit it until his death. Comprising 14 books and nearly 1,000 chapters, it was the first ever comprehensive code of halakha (Jewish law). In writing the MT, Maimonides drew from earlier source, such as the Mishnah, Tosefta, Midrash,

and Talmud, with an encyclopedic memory and considerable attention to both intertextuality and literary aesthetics. His admiration for these works notwithstanding, he designed the MT to be so exhaustive and accurate that it would make all but the Torah itself obsolete. In his introduction, he instructs, “One should read the written Torah and then read [the MT]. Then he will know the oral Torah in its entirety, without needing to read any other text beside.”

In order to make the Mishneh Torah accessible to the entire Jewish world, Maimonides organized it topically and composed it in clear, concise Hebrew. In a radical departure from tradition, Maimonides omitted from the MT both the names of earlier scholars and most of their opinions, preserving only those rulings he deemed correct. Critics attacked him for this decision, spawning an even greater literature that grows even to this day. Among his fiercest critics was Abraham ben David, the Ravad, (c. 1125-1198) a great Provençal Talmudist who criticized Maimonides for omitting his sources, among other things. Nonetheless, the Mishneh Torah inspired important scholars such as Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (c. 1269 – 1343) and Rabbi Joseph Caro (c. 1488 – 1575), two of the most important later codifiers, changing the landscape of Jewish thought forever.

Religious observance of ritual halachot stands diametrically opposed to Halachot – understood by Tannaim and Amoraim as rabbinic middot.  The kabbala of Rabbi Akiva teaches פרדס – the understanding of Torah Sh’Baal Peh.  דרוש of פרדס – the דאורייתא middot expressed through a systematic logic format.  All logic systems stand on the יסוד of Order.  As observance of ritual halachot stands diametrically opposed to rabbinic middot, so too logic stands diametrically opposed to anarchy and chaos.

The second p’suk of בראשית: והארץ היתה תהו ובהו, וחשך על פני תהום, roughly interpreted as “Dark times prevailed, Civil War and chaos triumphed in strength and ascendancy”.  Once the Torah narrative turns to the subject of MAN: interpreted as meaning: the relationship between nation states/Goyim. Torah immediately addresses this issue; the term האדם, inclusive of all nations of mankind.  The term גוי, means nation.  The specific nouns of קין והבל/Cain and Abel, these nouns serve as a metaphor which refers to international conflicts among nation states.

What causes War to explode?  Answer:  Civil War chaos anarchy.  The chaos and anarchy which the Rambam code produced, perhaps compares to Hitler’s decision to invade Poland. Did anarchy and chaos define Polish politics prior to the Nazi invasion of Poland?  Deep divisions disrupted Polish political independence all through the Post War partition which resulted in the re-emergence of Poland from some 130 years of foreign rule.  Polish political independence lasted from 1921 to 1939.  The three major dynastic empires of Eastern Europe, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, as a result of their own internal chaos and anarchy, all three shrunk the sovereignty of their empires.  All these nation states lost the first World War.

From day one, the Polish, and to a much smaller degree, the new Czech problem, dominated post War European politics.  The far larger issue of Poland dominated European international debates for over two centuries.  All major European peace conferences, from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the Yalta Conference and the Potsdam Conference in 1945, all debated the “Polish cause” likewise called the “Polish question”.  Hitler greatly erred when he confused the international priority of importance as equal, the Czech and Polish territorial divisions.  The Allied victors of WWI, would never validate the Soviet partition of Poland, at least not till Russian troops virtually defeated the Armies of Germany, single handed, at Stalingrad.

Poland’s erasure from Europe became a key to maintaining the European balance of power in the 19th Century.  Napoleon justified wars with Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia using Poland as a pretext.  The Polish-Russian war of 1830-1, and the 1848 revolutions which burned across Europe, made the Polish issue a top priority. The 1863 January Uprising, the longest lasting insurgency in post-partition Poland, the leaders of that revolt, modeled their political goals and aspirations after the Italian War of 1859, which played a crucial role in the process of Italian Unification.  But Tsar Alexander II pulled the rug out from under the feet of the Polish nobility – who longed for a return to a semi-autonomous status. The 1864 decision by Tsar Alexander II to terminate Russia’s feudal economy, and abolish serfdom of the Russian peasants. This key decision planted the seeds for the Kerensky Provisional Government, which replaced the 500 year rule of Czarist autocracy in 1917. But an immediate consequence of this decree, its effectively terminated the January Uprising.

For Prussia, the Polish question, always exerted a first priority fundamental issue.  Prussia’s continued existence hinged upon the erasure of the Polish state.   Piotr S. Wandycz, author of: The Polish Question, in chapter 13, wrote:  “Throughout the nineteenth century the Poles were to follow again and again the advice given to them by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Considerations sur le gouvernement de Pologne: If you cannot prevent being devoured, you must make sure that you will not be digested. The Poles rose up in insurrection in 1794, 1806, 1830, 1846, 1848, and 1863. Most of these uprisings had international repercussions. Indeed, the great powers found themselves repeatedly confronted with the Polish question, and although at times they tried to ignore it, at others they were forced to seek at least a partial solution.”

The supporters of the National Democrats vs. Pilsudski radicals, each side harbored particularly antagonistic and opposing viewpoints, even before the establishment of Poland as an Independent nation state.  The Polish-Soviet war of 1920 brought the two Parties into a head to head clash.  The bitter dispute between the National Democrats and the Pilsudski faction affected all aspects of Polish politics.  This conflict resulted in a stalemate which stymied the efforts to write a Constitution for the new State; it also directly impacted who controlled the army.

In 1921 the Poles finally drew up a liberal Constitution which favored democracy; meaning a dominant Lower House (the Sejm), at the expense of a weak Upper House and Presidency.  That Constitution compares to the weak Central Government which the Articles of Confederation established after America won its National Independence from Britain.  Both provoked a Constitutional crisis, a far reaching fragmentation of society.  This “political fissiparation”, made it virtually impossible to impose a stable and lasting Central government.  From November 1918 to Pilsudski’s coup in May 1926, there arose 14 different regimes!

President Truman placed a sign upon his desk: “The Buck Stops Here”.  Polish leaders never accepted the yoke, their responsibility to govern Poland.  The new country had a multinational character: Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, and Belarussians made up a third of the population, and all parties hated and despised each other.  The collapse of Russia, Germany, and Austria permitted the rise of Poland as an Independent Nation state.  But, just as important, no Polish leader inspired the people of Poland to establish their own national Independence!

Post WW I Poland compared to Russia after its Red-White Civil War.  By 1920, 55 percent of the bridges, 63 per cent of the railway stations, 48 percent of the locomotives and 18 percent of the buildings in the country, as a primary consequence of War  – suffered destruction.  Inflation destroyed Polish currency, like as happened to the German mark.  Whereas in December 1918 the exchange rate for the Polish mark, about 9.8 to the dollar; toward the end of 1922 it had reached 17,808. In 1923 the inflation assumed gigantic proportions, one dollar worth about 2,300,000 marks.
[https://peeps.unet.brandeis.edu/~nika/schoolwork/Poland%20Lectures/Lecture%252015.pdf].

The death of Józef Klemens Piłsudski, combined with the economic disaster of the Great Depression placed the political stability of Poland upon very shaky legs.  “The Marshal”, following his demise, no successors arose who could fill his political shoes.  In 1939 anarchy defined Polish politics.  Which made Poland ripe for foreign invasion.  Hence this brief history of Poland answers the question:  what causes War to explode?

This significant and important question likewise explains the horrible consequences of the Rambam Civil War, and the huge Jewish population transfer from Western to Eastern Europe.  The Rambam code of halacha changed the definition of Halacha away from rabbinic middot which give concrete definition to the abstract concepts of mercy – expressed through the דאורייתא 13 tohor middot revealed at Horev; the Rambam code modified halacha to that of a religious ritual observance comparable to Catholic dogmatism.  Halacha ceased to define the k’vanna of a given Mishna.  Mishnayot discontinued to define a specific middah דאורייתא affixed to one of the 13 middle blessings within the Shemone Esrei. 

Jews today often da’aven in minyan factories – where they quickly rattled off rote memorized prayers.  In short, the Rambam code of ritual laws radically changed the body politics of g’lut Yiddishkeit.   Observant Jewry simply went through the motions of keeping the Torah.  Therein causing Torah curses, comparable to the plagues which destroyed Egypt. Jews had no clue how to observe mitzvot לשמה, any more than Par’o grasped the need to obey HaShem.  This explanation attempts to explain why HaShem permitted the Shoah, the systematic destruction of European Jewry.   Post the Rambam Civil War, rabbinic Judaism strategically failed to lead and govern g’lut Jewry, comparable to the chaos and anarchy which prevailed in Poland prior to the Nazi invasion.

Post Shoah, with the political independence of the Jewish State, this generation once again stands at a cross-junction opportunity.  Either we behave like the Arabs, and never miss an opportunity – to miss an opportunity … or we establish the Torah as the Written Constitution of the bnai brit Cohen Republic; we stamp our Court legal system of justice with the Talmudic model of lateral Common Law Sanhedrin courtrooms – with an eye on the prophetic mussar prize: Justice Justice pursue.

It’s simply not enough to despise the European “inferior races“ – defined as “crude sub-human barbarians” – who filled the world with violence, oppression, and injustice.  No.   Upon our shoulders rests the yoke\the burden to compose a symphony of righteous just justice.  Achieved through lateral Sanhedrin like common law courtrooms.  Only when the government of Israel rules the oath sworn lands of Canaan, when righteous diplomatic justice prevails, which adjudicates disputes between bnai brit and bnai brit, within the Cohen Republic – then and only then can Jews look Europeans square into their dilated eyes – and rejoice in our revenge over their vile and despicable wickedness.  Then and only then can Israelis compare European cultures and customs to our void Minyan factories of Torah of observant Jewry, who base halacha upon the Yad Chazaka, the Arba’ah Turim, and the Shulchan Aruch.  Based upon the כלל: Jews – we’re just like Goyim, only more so.

Upon this generation now rests the burden of the kingdom of heaven – to pass an eternal inheritance unto all our future born generations a fundamental memory. Not upon our righteousness did HaShem bring Israel out of g’lut, but rather the wickedness of the Goyim.  HaShem judged the Gods whom the Goyim worship & Jews won our 1948 Independence War.  HaShem again judged the Gods whom the Goyim worship & Jews won our 1967 second Independence war. 

The imperialist European barbarian States demand that Jews first surrender the victory of our 1967 Independence War as a down payment for Jews to later surrender the victory of our 1948 Independence War.  Only when Jews roam the earth once more as stateless refugees, who have no nation of our own, only then shall the exile of Europe, who waits for the 2nd Coming of Jesus son of Zeus, come to an end.

For over 2000 years, Jews lived as stateless refugee people who had no rights.  Now Europeans wear the shoe of g’lut.  Third World Europe has no say, no voice, no opinion, in all matters and disputes which pits Israel opposed by our Arab and Muslim neighbors.  HaShem brings rain in its due season.  This blessing, Israel must strive to include the dry parched lands of both the Negev and Sahara deserts.  Climate change rains can transform these waste lands into flourishing crop producing heartlands.  With the fall of rain, Israel hopes to build a great North African trade route, which brings dignity, prosperity and wealth to all nations of the Middle East and North Africa.

מציאת חירש שוטה וקטן–יש בה גזל, מפני דרכי שלום.  לפיכך אם עבר אחר וגזלה מידן, אינה יוצאה בדיינים; ואם כפר בה ונשבע, אינו חייב בחומש. מציאת בנו ובתו הסמוכים על שולחנו, אף על פי שהן גדולים, ומציאת בתו הנערה, אף על פי שאינה סומכת על שולחנו ואפילו הייתה מכורה אמה, ומציאת עבדו ושפחתו הכנעניים, ומציאת אשתו–הרי אלו שלו

  והארבעה שזוכה בהן, כולם מדברי סופרים; ואלו הן–להיות מעשה ידיה שלו, ולהיות מציאתה שלו, ושיהיה אוכל פירות כל נכסיה בחייה, ואם מתה בחייו יירשנה; והוא קודם לכל אדם בירושה.  מציאת האישה ומעשה ידיה, לבעלה.  ומה היא עושה לו, הכול כמנהג המדינה:  מקום שדרכן לארוג אורגת, לרקום רוקמת, לטוות צמר או פשתים טווה.  ואם היה דרך נשי העיר לעשות כל המלאכות האלו, אינו כופה אלא לטוות את הצמר בלבד–שהפשתן מזיק את הפה ואת השפתיים, והטיווי היא המלאכה המיוחדת לנשים:  שנאמר “וכל אישה חכמת לב, בידיה טוו” (שמות לה,כה).  דחקה עצמה ועשתה יותר מן הראוי לה, המותר לבעל.   האישה שהיה לה ספק גירושין, ומת בעלה–אינה ניזונת מנכסיו, שאין מוציאין מיד היורש מספק; אבל בחיי בעלה, יש לה מזונות עד שתתגרש גירושין גמורין

לא ישכור אדם את הפועל, על מנת שילקט בנו אחריו; אבל האריסין והחכורות והמוכר קמתו לחברו לקצור, ילקט בנו אחריו.  ויש לפועל להביא את אשתו ובניו ללקט אחריו, ואפילו שכרו ליטול חצי הקציר או שלישו או רביעו בשכרו

מי שאינו מניח את העניים ללקט, או שהוא מניח את אחד ומונע את אחד, או שסייע את אחד מהן על חברו–הרי זה גוזל את העניים.  ואסור לאדם להרביץ ארי וכיוצא בו בתוך שדהו, כדי שייראו העניים ויברחו

מציאת הפועל לעצמו, אף על פי שאמר לו עשה עימי מלאכה היום, ואין צריך לומר אם אמר לו עדור עימי היום, נכש עימי היום; אבל אם שכרו ללקט מציאות, כגון שחסר הנהר ושכרו ללקט הדגים הנמצאין באגם–הרי מציאתו לבעל הבית, ואפילו מצא כיס מלא דינרין

The 5th Mishna of בבא מציעא stands upon the Torah commandment that requires in matters of damages that in the case where no witnesses saw the events of the “crime”, that the accuser can demand that the accused swear a Torah oath?
פרק ששי שבועות דף מ.  דתנן.  שבועת הדינין – הטענה שתי כסף, וההודאה בשוה פרוטה:  ואם אין ההודאה ממין הטענה – פטור.  כיצד?  שתי כסף לי בידך – אין לך בידי אלא פרוטה – פטור.  שתי כסף ופרוטה לי בידך – אין לך בידי אלא פרוטה – חיב.  אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק אמר שמואל לא שנו אלא בטענת מלוה והודאת לוה.  אבל טענת מלוה והעדאת עד אחד, אפילו לא טענו אלא בפרוטה, חייב.  מאי טעמא?  דכתיב (דברים יט) לא יקום עד אחד באיש לכל עון ולכל חטאת … לכל עון ולכל חטאת הוא דאינו קם, אבל קם הוא לשבועה.

To what does swearing a false oath compare?   Based upon the mussar of ירמיה יא:יד- יז, a false oath compares to offering incense unto Ba’al.  ירמיה לז:ט-יא compares the vanity that trusts in Par’o to save Jerusalem from Ur of the Chaldeans; the birthplace of Avraham, a kingdom near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq.  The language of the T’NaCH: הכשדים.  Swearing a false oath brings a curse rather than a blessing; g’lut, rather than peaceful prosperity living in the oath sworn lands.

The Midrash Rabba did not include a drosh that I could immediately associate with the mussar as commanded by the prophet ירמיה.  Therefore, have turned to the ילקוט שמיוני as my guide to search for the mussar drosh by which to attain understanding of the k’vanna expressed through the blessing of:
רפאנו ה’ ונרפא, הושיענו ונושעה, כי תהלתנו אתה, והעלה רפואה שלמה לכל מכותינו, כי אל מלך רופא נאמן ורחמן אתה.  ברוך אתה ה’, רופא חולי עמו ישראל
The ילקוט represents a Reshon collage of Midrashic Primary, and secondary sources.  The source which this commentary brings opens with the נזיר לה. 
כי יתן איש אל רעהו חמור או שור או שה – פרט, וכל בהמה לשמור חזר.  וכלל מה הפרט מפורש וכו’:  כי יתן איש אל רעהו חמור וגו’.  (מכילתא) רבי ישמעאל אומר עד שיפקיד אצלו ואומר לו הא לך שמור לי זה.  אבל אמר לו [תן] עיניך בו, הרי זה פטור.  חמור או שור או שה, אין לי אלא חמור ושור ושה, שאר כל בהמה מנין?  ת”ל כל בהמה, אני אקרא וכל בהמה ומה ת”ל חמור או שור או שה, שאם אני קורא כל בהמה שומע אני לא יהא חייב עד שיפקיד אצלו כל בהמה.  ת”ל כל בהמה אלא בא הכתוב ללמד שכל הכלל שהו מוסיף על הפרט הכל בכלל.  ומת שתהא מיתתו בידי שמים.
בבא מציעא צד  אם גנב יגנב מעמו – ארבעה שומרין הן: שומר חנם, והשואל, נושא שכר, והשוכר.  שומר חנם נשבע על הכל.  והשואל משלם את הכל.  נושא שכר והשוכר נשבעין על השבורה ועל השבויה ועל המתה ומשלמין את הגנבה ואת האבדה.

False oaths, meaning swearing a Torah oath, compare to לשון הרע, both open doors of the heart to diseases.  לשון הרע directly compares to צר עין, which the Torah in the case of Yosef, sold by his brothers into slavery, has its root from tuma jealousy.  Hence שמות כ:ה, refers to the metaphor: Jealous G-d”, that a person who swears a Torah oath, opens up his soul – all future born generations of his future born children, similar to the mitzva of קידושין acquires all the souls born into the future from this marital union – the jealousy of Torah curses, should a man or any of his future born seed swear a false oath.  A Torah oath obligates all future born generations.  Hence the k’vanna of the opening tefilla on Yom Kippur כל נדרי:  The ילקוט brings the rabbinic dispute which debates whether an oath obligates the inheritors.  This commentary favors the opinion that a Torah oath, compares to a brand which one burns the skin of a farm animal to show proof of ownership; a Torah oath brands both the heart and soul of a bnai brit Cohen man.  Herein explains the k’vanna, affixed to a specific ברכה within the kabbala of the prophets known as Shemone Esrei.

מציאת עבדו ושפחתו הכנענים, מציאת אשתו – הרי אלו שלו.  מציאת בנו ובתו הגדולים מציאת עבדו ושפחתו העברים מציאת אשתו שגירשה אע”פ שלא נתן כתובה — הרי אלו שלהן.

In Part II of this super commentary to the Rif’s halachic commentary to the Talmud, hope to bring the corrected halachot of the Rambam, to further amplify the k’vanna of this Mishna and as explained through the 5th blessing of the Shemone Esrei, mentioned above.  Had originally intended to complete the 2 parts of the Rif super-commentary this week.  But alas, from silly errors made in my youth, have had to contend with Arthritis pains in both my shoulders.  Am happy to report that, it appears to me that my physical therapy has produced excellent results.  It seems to me that Arthritis resembles crystal formations within the joints.  Breaking these crystal formations requires manipulating the joints in ways that improves the free movement of the ball/socket relationship. 

This type of therapy requires both meditation and physical therapy.  Living with pain, the key defense chiefly entails refusing to permit oneself to feel depressed over the current situation of my body.  At 62, am definitely feeling my age, but my body has operated quite well over the decades and I feel happy to live life to the full.  Obviously, in my youth – the time of athletes in their prime – during my late 20s and 30s – my understanding and appreciation of my Jewish inheritance – day and night – does not compare to my love for possessing a strong Jewish identity today.  I remember the pains endured in my personal struggle to release myself from the pits of the terrible Jewish identity crisis which endured throughout my athletic prime. 

This commentary has g’lut Jewry in my sights, as the target audience and purpose for this work. Clearly a lot of Torah observant Jewry both admire and revere king Shlomo and the Rambam, which this commentator shuns, and harshly berates, and even despises.  They had their day under the Sun, and now it’s the turn of our generation.  Can we embrace the identity of the chosen Cohen nation, with its cultural manners and ways which this identity requires?  These two men produced a lasting impact upon the direction our Jewish civilization has followed.   But fancy gothic like Temples and offering Bar BQ’s unto heaven – clearly a mistake.  We Yidden have returned from a long g’lut spanning over 2000 years. 

This commentary favors the Last Will and Testament of Moshe the prophet and teacher of Israel.  Justice, Justice pursue.  Building the Temple, the mitzva of the Moshiach, most essentially entails ruling the oath sworn lands with righteous and just justice.  Attained through the re-establishment of lateral Sanhedrin Common law Courtrooms.  Halacha serves to define the k’vanna of Mishnaot.  Mishnaot serve to define the k’vanna of specific blessings within the prophetic kabbala we know as the Shemone Esrei.  The study of the Talmud defines this unique Cohen avodat HaShem.

To stand before a Safer Torah and da’aven tefilla requires a concrete direction by which a Man defines how he intends to walk before HaShem.  HaShem does not answer tefillot, in a way comparable to how Goyim hope their Gods answer their prayers.  Because unlike non bnai brit prayers, the Cohen nation dedicates the middot דאורייתא which Moshe the prophet first Orally heard at Horev, through the rabbinic halachot which make a concrete definition of Torah middot.  Herein explains how the Talmud defines the Cohen nation and our Yiddishkeit.  Halachot understood in this vein can never become archaic, like the Reform rabbis declared enshrouded in the tallit of their total ignorance.

Shabbot Shalom.

Disaster destroys the Jewish people and Goyim, in like and equal measure.  During times when National leadership stands at a crossroad juncture and appointed leaders, like Par’o, choose bone headed stupidity.  The first such examples, as recorded in the pages of the Torah, Adam in the garden followed by the decision to sell Yosef unto slavery.  This obstinate pusillanimity, dastard poltroonery of tuma spirits, they dominate the hearts of appointed leaders at critical junctures in time.   This repeating despicable tragedy, it truly defines the history of the Jewish and Goyim peoples.  Recurring over and again in particular ignoble nebbech generation(s); who through decisions made, these leaders disgrace and dishonor faith in G-d. 

The Shoah, totally discredited Pope Pius XII in particular and all Xtianity in general.   In 1648, Shabbetai Zevi declared himself – Messiah.  The  Khmelnytsky pogroms took place between 1648-1657.  The Torah\Yosef story, attributes criminal tuma: the decision to sell Yosef as a slave, to jealousy – with its cause & effect – their evil eye.  The spies in the days of Moshe our Teacher caused the extermination of the first generation who accepted the revelation of the Torah at Sinai.  Chag Tisha B’av commemorates this disgraceful tuma history, in the shadow cast by the acceptance of the revelation of the Name of HaShem at Sinai.  The Sages of the Talmud strive to teach Yidden how to do tohor mitzvot לשמה.  The revelation of the 13 tohor middot at Horev specifically designates the measure by which brit Cohen Man can observe mitzvot לשמה.

Political Zionism under the leadership of assimilated Theodor Herzl, perhaps best defines the  Haskalah movement.  The Haskalah movement favored that Yechudim should abandon wearing the Shtreiml and Kapoteh, the cultural by-products of Ghetto mass Jewish imprisonment.  Haskalah despised the catholic church by embracing the post Napoleon secular State, together with its Goyim modernity, cultures, and customs – completely independent of the catholic abomination.

Alas, by this time the stain of “religion” had already tar and feathered Judaism with both contempt and disgrace, as it had Xtianity. Herzl, after the pollution of the Dreyfus Affair, argued that Europeans could never prevail over their primitive & barbaric Jew hatred.  He took European Jewry to a critical juncture, which the mussar of the Torah instructs, and aroused the tuma Yatzir within Yiddishkeit Jewrish “Orthodox” leadership – who denounced Zionism as wicked.

Chiam Weizmann, one of the five Zionist leaders (along with Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Shamir) most responsible for turning Zionism into reality.  In the early 1920s, Zionism failed to achieve mass popular support among European Jewish communities.  Much to the chagrin, and shattered hopes of Weizmann, who expressed his utter dismay.  In one particularly bitter moment, Weizmann cried: “Jews of the world, where are you?” 

The tepid response by world Jewry to make aliyah, most probably caused the British government to quickly sour on its initial Balfour Declaration support to establish a Jewish home.  Orthodox leaders who represented traditional Judaism declared over and again: “Zionism is not Judaism. Zionists cannot speak in the name of Jews.”  Jewish failure to rise up and settle the oath sworn lands, compares, at least to this author, to the response made by the spies in the days of Moshe; the Shoah obliterated European Jewry, like as happened to the Wilderness generation.

Abba Eban famously quipped: “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”  A disdain perhaps comparable to awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the recently elected Obama, because he replaced George Bush – the Johnson, Nixon like war criminals of the United States.  In the early 1920’s world Jewry stood at the juncture thresholds of ארץ ישראל and declared: “We prefer glut, to doing mitzvot לשמה inside the oath sworn lands”.  The Shoah exposed, before the eyes of all humanity, the anger of HaShem burning against His People.  Jews publicly desecrated and despised the oath brit faith, which HaShem and Avram cut at the brit between the pieces, and 75% of European Jewry became rotting corpses in less than 4 years.  The mussar of the Shoah, reveals the finger of HaShem in this world, comparable to the splitting of the Sea of Suf.

Jews oblivious to the mussar of the Shoah compare to the ignorance of British historian Arnald Toynbee, author of “A Study of History”.  In that revisionist history work of tripe, Toynbee declared:  “There remains the case where victims of religious discrimination represent an extinct society which only survives as a fossil. …. by far the most notable is one of the fossil remnants of the Syriac Society, the Jews.”   Toynbee’s history whitewashed the atrocities committed during the 30 years war.  He totally ignored the forced population transfer of Jews from Western to Eastern Europe.  That insignificant war crime, far overshadowed by the Renaissance and Reformation. 

If his history reviewed India rather than Europe, it would resemble the establishment of India and Pakistan, and yet omit the violent transfer of Indian and Muslim populations from their once united land.  Just another example of the failed 2 State solution, piously proposed by the Crown of Imperial Britain.

But the mussar of Tisha B’av addresses the Yatzir Ha’Rah of the generations of Jewry and the cowardice of our leaders to command our people to do mitzvot לשמה, meaning our Torah obligation to rule the oath sworn lands with righteous justice through the establishment of the Written Torah as the Constitution of the Cohen Republic, and establishment of lateral Sanhedrin common law courts – as the basis by which to impose just justice among disputing interests and parties within the Cohen bnai brit Republic.

What does it mean to stand at a Torah threshold?  The Temple of Shlomo, the Code of Rambam, the post WWI Zionist dream of mass Aliyah.  The current vision to make the Torah the written Constitution of the Cohen Republic, which includes the establishment of the Sanhedrin as the Talmudic model for lateral Common law courtrooms.  Most essentially, to cause a generation to stand upon a Torah threshold, means that our people sanctify our collective Will to do mitzvot לשמה based upon the example of our acceptance of the Torah at Sinai.

That the stuffed shirt British revisionist historian Toynbee, he ignored the cruel mass population transfer of Jews from Western to Eastern Europe, comparable to the ‘trail of tears’ during the Jackson Administration.  But it’s minimisation by Jewish historians, their failure to grasp the implications of the Rambam Civil War, this failure totally discredits and invalidates ‘historical Judaism’.   Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, his opinion of the value of historicism starkly contrasts with that of Heinrich Graetz.  Halachic Judaism teaches spirituality rather than history; a basic and fundamental distinction exists between the two terms.

The Kompert Affair drove a wedge between traditional and conservative Judaisms.  Yet neither side who debated the issue: all the people of Israel – as the Moshiach vs. a personal savior – as Moshiach, both parties to that dispute, both failed to learn the anointing of the vessels and garments of the Mishkan and the House of Aaron – that both this and that teach the identical mussar by which the Torah defines the mitzva of Moshiach לשמה.  This Torah mussar teaches the basic instruction: the obligation placed upon all generations of Jewry, to accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai לשמה.

The Gemara of Shabbot teaches a powerful mussar aggadita.  HaShem raised Mount Sinai over the entire nation and told them to either accept the Torah and live, or abandon the Torah and die.  The spies led the Wilderness generation to cross over the threshold.  This commentary on the Rif halachic commentary to the Talmud, it argues that our generation, that we too stand at the threshold of life or death.  This Tisha B’av address seeks to inspire and give heart to this generation to follow the advice of Calev and Yehoshua and despise the cowardice of the spies who prefer g’lut to do mitzvot לשמה.

The Rambam Civil War witnessed a major degradation of g’lut Jewry across Europe and the Middle East and Northern Africa. Talmudic scholarship almost ceased to exist thereafter. Jewish scholarship tended to debate more with their peers, (think bilbulism), they limited Talmudic research to a טיפש פשט bird brain stupidity. No attempt, to my knowledge of learning Midrash with an eye to interpret the mussar k’vanna of halacha.

Why did the Rambam name his code of law, “Mishna Torah”? Answer: The chiddush of Rabbi Yechuda’s Mishna, in the Rambam’s opinion, Mishnaic Hebrew. This silly man thought to translate and organize halachot into halachic subject matters. It never occurred to him that the Sages of the Gemara, through a style of “difficulty/answer”, employed halachic sources gathered from all Primary Source authorities, as the chief and primary means whereby they sought to define the k’vanna of a given Mishna. Almost immediately after Rambam’s false assumption that translating the halacha of the Gemara into Mishnaic like Hebrew, his code effectively moved the goal posts and radically changed the game.

The Amoraim employed precisely selected halachot as their chief tool wherein they sought to define the multiple and various religious ritual forms of the k’vanna of a particular Mishna. The Rambam ‘Mishnaic Hebrew’ halachic code, [the ArtScroll stupidity of his day], views each and every halachic posok as something significant in and of itself, [comparable to ArtScroll which assumes that translating original Hebrew\Aramaic Primary sources into English – teaches how to correctly learn Talmudic Common Law], – independent from any its Mishna “mother”. This abysmal code of law, not only divorced halacha from aggadita, had absolutely no awareness of פרדס Torah Sh’baal Peh – the kabbala of Rabbi Akiva … but it totally abandoned the Primary/secondary relationship which the Mishna shares with the Gemara — dude 3 strikes and your OUT.

The Rambam code, perhaps its most grievous error, it fails to grasp the Big Picture vision from the Talmud; the obligation to rule the oath sworn lands through tohor righteous justice by means of lateral Sanhedrin Common Law Courtrooms. All Mishnaot within the Sha’s communicate this Big Picture concept of the Cohen Republic oath brit faith. As the dinning room table, our Talmud links and learns the brass altar within the Mishkan, so too and how much more so,,, the 3 man Torts Courts learn from the lateral Sanhedrin Common Law Courtrooms! When the Rambam argued that g’lut had deprived scholars and laymen alike of the ability to understand and assimilate the vast talmudic literature and the essential rulings of the geonim – he directly projected his own ignorance as a primary example, of the consequences of the need to conceal the פרדס kabbala away from the prying eyes of the detested Roman barbarian enemies. The Torah Sh’baal Peh\פרדס, understanding of Rabbi Akiva, lives as the eternal inheritance, to only the brit Cohen people who accepted the revelation of the Torah at Sinai.

As previously mentioned the kabbala of Rabbi Akiva fits hand in glove with the kabbala of over 247 prophets who wrote the Shemone Esri. The Rambam did not have a clue, not on this or that basic/fundamental kabbala. Jewish scholarship on the Siddur today, based upon the ArtScroll translation narishkeit – utterly pathetic. What Rambam’s code did to “Mishnaic Hebrew” in matters of Aramaic Halacha, the Zohor and Ari and mystic kabbalists (they too redefined the meaning of kabbala), they prized writing ideas using a cryptic language which concealed the meaning of what they wrote. This cryptic style of writing defines the mysticism of the Middle Ages; it communicates visions of hope through religious rhetoric. Rhetoric originally originates from Greek scholarship, NOT Tannaim and Amoraim scholarship. Assimilation = the first face of avoda zara.

An early example of g’lut Jewry and our eternal struggle not to assimilate to Goyim cultures and customs – the late T’NaCH works which give Names unto Angels. The early NaCH sources of שופטים, שמואל, ומלכים these sources report the power of assimilation which inspired the worship of foreign gods. The avoda zara of monotheism, like as expressed in Mohammad’s Unitarianism, argues that all people worship the same God…preached at the point of a sword. Jewish leaders failed to grasp that only by inspiring the Cohen nation to accept our Cohen oath sworn brit with HaShem, made at the revelation of the Torah at Sinai – this oath brit separates HaShem from all other Gods. In the days when Moshe confronted Par’o, and Yehoshua after the brit of Gilgal, conquered Canaan, once more Israel separated HaShem from the worship of other Gods. This model alone has the blessing to bring Israel out of g’lut. Alas brow beaten and cowed g’lut Jewry lacked this most essential fighting spirit. Rabbis teach to this day, the disgrace tuma, that monotheism most essentially defines the essential of the Jewish faith.

A fundamental rule instructed to my daughter at the earliest of ages: who ever makes the rules, wins all arguments. Western propaganda harps through all their organs of communications – about the Arab/Israeli conflict and that failure to resolve this “war” threatens world peace and might even trigger WWIII. Stateless Arab refugee populations could never trigger a world war. That the International Press emphatically declares otherwise, exposes a hidden agenda by imperialist state Capitals in Europe and the US and Asia. Nation state foreign policy stands upon the foundational Rule #1: deception, deception, and deception. One of the chief tools wherein these imperialist empires promote foreign intervention (think invasion) of foreign countries – they promote Civil War anarchy. The post war invasion of Korea and Vietnam as well as the Iran/Iraq war serve as obvious examples of Western/Eastern divide & conquer imperialism.

Left wing, and right wing, assimilated Jewry, they experience an anxiety attack of terror, when they “believe” West/East imperialist propaganda rhetoric; converting that nonsense rhetoric into an emotion based belief system/religion. All day the International noise-papers scream about Palestine; the UN condemns Israel again and again! Never once does anyone challenge this squak emotional gibberish jabber, by pointing out the obvious: never in the history of mankind has any Independent nation of Palestine – ever existed. All this press copy about Palestine, could just as well promote an emotional hissy fit concerning the lost city of Atlantis – that it’s discovery will cause a world war!

This super-commentary on the Rif halachic commentary to the Talmud learns from the Rambam Civil War, this simple codification of halacha has totally screwed up Jewish minds to this very day! None of the many commentaries to the Rambam’s code, not a single one, ever attempts to learn halacha as a precedent by which to understand the ritual k’vanna of a given Mishna. No Reshon commentator expressly communicated the intent of the Amoraim scholarship: to affix halachot to a given Mishna, and therein define the k’vanna of that designated Mishna! The reasons the B’hag, Rif, and Rosh remained silent of this key point, for them this truth, just so plainly obvious that they assumed that all students of the Talmud would immediately understand this most blatant apparent reality.

The Tur and the Shulchan Aruch halachic commentaries, like the Rambam code, these boorish am ha’aretzim utterly failed to learn the obvious; their codes compare to the ignorant masses who praised the garments of the naked king, as he strutted down main street. Contrast the B’hag, Rif, and Rosh halachic commentaries which incorporate the language of the Mishna – the original question which this commentary to the Rif raises! The Amoraim scholars, by sharp contrast to the Rambam narishkeit, halacha never exists separate and independent from a defined and specific Mishna. The Tosefta, serves as a strong proof: all baraitot base their order – upon the Order of the Mishna. The Rambam code of avoda zara caused Israel to abandon and to profane the halachic path sealed by the halacha of both Rav Ashi and Rav Ravina. This public Chillul HaShem sealed the g’lut destiny of the Cohen nation till Hitler and his Nazis exposed to all Mankind, the tuma avoda zara of Xtianity – together with Islam.

As Reshon commentaries to the Chumash and Talmud have no legs, so too, all the halachot learned from the Talmud – they too have no legs. All halachot learned from the Sha’s Yerushalmi and Bavli learn from the binding of Yitzak at the Akedah; Avram placed Yitzak upon an altar and the Amoraim linked halachot to a specific Mishna. That Mishna, in its turn stands upon a specific ברכה within the Shemone Esri kabbala, as wherein the study of Aggadita and Midrashim mussar links a Mishna to a specific ברכה within the Shemone Esri kabbala. Hence the Shemone Esri goes by the name Amida; only through linking halachot to a Mishna, and that Mishna to a specific blessing within the language of the Shemone Esri, can any Cohen brit person “stand” on the tefilla “feet”. Herein defines the correct way to study, and properly understand – the language of the Talmud.

כל מציאה שאמרנו בה שהיא של מוצאה–אינו זוכה בה, עד שתגיע לידו או לרשותו; אבל אם ראה את המציאה, אפילו נפל לו עליה, ובא אחר, והחזיק בה–זה שהחזיק בה, זכה בה

אין מודה במקצת חייב שבועה מן התורה, עד שיודה בפרוטה או יתר, ויכפור בשתי מעין כסף או יתר.  וכמה היא פרוטה, משקל חצי שעורה של כסף נקי.  וכמה הן שתי מעין, משקל שתיים ושלושים שעורות כסף מזוקק 

חצרו של אדם קונה לו, שלא מדעתו; ואם נפלה בה מציאה, הרי היא של בעל החצר.  במה דברים אמורים, בחצר המשתמרת.  אבל בשדה וגינה וכיוצא בהן–אם היה עומד בצד שדהו ואמר זכתה לי שדי, זכה בה; ואם אינו עומד שם, או שהיה עומד ולא אמר זכתה לי שדי–כל הקודם זכה במה דברים אמורים, בחצר המשתמרת.  אבל בחצר שאינה משתמרת, כגון שדהו וחורבתו–עד שיהיה עומד בצידה ויאמר זכת לי שדי.

חצרו של אדם קונה לו, שלא מדעתו; ואם נפלה בה מציאה, הרי היא של בעל החצר.  במה דברים אמורים, בחצר המשתמרת.  אבל בשדה וגינה וכיוצא בהן–אם היה עומד בצד שדהו ואמר זכתה לי שדי, זכה בה; ואם אינו עומד שם, או שהיה עומד ולא אמר זכתה לי שדי–כל הקודם זכה.  וכן ד’ אמות של אדם שהוא עומד בצידן, הרי אלו קונים לו:  ואם הגיעה המציאה לתוך ד’ אמות שלו, זכה בה.   חכמים תיקנו דבר זה, כדי שלא יינצו המוצאין זה עם זה.  במה דברים אמורים, בסימטה או בצידי רשות הרבים, שאין הרבים דוחקין בהן, או בשדה שאין לה בעלים.  אבל העומד ברשות הרבים, או בתוך שדה חברו–אין ארבע אמות קונות לו, ואינו קונה שם עד שתגיע מציאה לידו.  וכן ארבע אמות של אדם שהוא עומד בצידן קונין לו בסימטה, או בצידי רשות הרבים, או בחצר שאין לה בעלים.  אבל ברשות הרבים, או בשדה חברו–אינו זוכה, עד שתגיע מתנה לידו.  קטנה תזכה לה חצרה, וארבע אמות שלה; אבל הקטן אינו זוכה, עד שתגיע מתנה לידו או שיזכה לו אחר. המתנה כגט, שאין אדם יכול למסור דברים לשליח.  כיצד:  אמר לשלושה אמרו לפלוני ופלוני שיכתבו ויחתמו בשטר מתנה, וייתנוהו לפלוני–אין זה כלום; ואם אמרו לאותן העדים, וכתבו ונתנו למקבל–לא קנה. וכן אם אמר לשניים כתבו וחתמו בשטר מתנה, ותנוהו לפלוני–אינן יכולין לומר לסופר לכתוב, אלא הן עצמן כותבין כמו הגט. במה דברים אמורים, בסימטה או בצידי רשות הרבים, שאין הרבים דוחקין בהן, או בשדה שאין לה בעלים.  אבל העומד ברשות הרבים, או בתוך שדה חברו–אין ארבע אמות קונות לו, ואינו קונה שם עד שתגיע מציאה לידו.

זכין לקטן, אפילו בן יום אחד, ולגדול, בין בפניו בין שלא בפניו.   במה דברים אמורים, בחצר המשתמרת.  אבל בחצר שאינה משתמרת, כגון שדהו וחורבתו–עד שיהיה עומד בצידה ויאמר זכת לי שדי.   וחצרו של אדם קונה לו שלא מדעתו, אף על פי שאינו עומד שם:  כיון שהגיעה המתנה לחצרו, כאילו זכה לו בה אחר.  זכין לקטן, אפילו בן יום אחד, ולגדול, בין בפניו בין שלא בפניו.  וחצרו של אדם קונה לו שלא מדעתו, אף על פי שאינו עומד שם:  כיון שהגיעה המתנה לחצרו, כאילו זכה לו בה אחר.   קטנה–יש לה חצר, ויש לה ארבע אמות; וקטן–אין לו חצר, ואין לו ארבע אמות.  מפני שחצר של קטנה, מידה למדנוה:  שכדרך שהיא מתגרשת בגט המגיע לידה, כך מתגרשת בגט המגיע לחצרה; וכשם שיש לה חצר לעניין הגט, כך יש לה לעניין מציאה.  וארבע אמות של אדם, כחצרו לעניין מציאה; אבל האיש, למדנו שחצרו קונה לו משלוחו:  כדרך שקונה לו שלוחו, כך תקנה לו חצרו.  והקטן–הואיל ואינו עושה שליח, כך אין חצרו ולא ארבע אמות שלו קונין לו:  עד שתגיע מציאה לידו.  

עני שנטל מקצת הפיאה וזרק על השאר, או שנפל עליה, או שפירס טליתו עליה–קונסין אותו, ומעבירין אותו ממנה; ואפילו מה שנטל, לוקחין אותו מידו ויינתן לעני אחר

אמר לשלוחו תן לאורחיי חתיכה של בשר, הלך השליח ואמר להן טלו שתיים שתיים–בעל הבית מעל, שהרי נעשה דברו; והשליח פטור–מפני שהוא מוסיף על שליחות בעל הבית, ולא עקר את השליחות.  אבל אם אמר להם השליח, טלו שתיים שתיים מדעתי–שניהן מעלו.  נטלו האורחין שלוש שלוש–אף האורחין מעלו, מפני שכל אחד מהן עשה שליחות חברו והוסיף מדעתו:  נמצא חברו חייב–לפי שנעשו דבריו, ולא נעקרה השליחות; והוא חייב, על זה שהוסיף מדעתו. במה דברים אמורים, בשהיו החתיכות מקודשי בדק הבית.  אבל אם היו בשר עולה וכיוצא בו, לא מעל אלא האוכל בלבד:  שהרי הוא חייב באיסור אחר, יתר על המעילה; ובכל התורה כולה–אין שליח לדבר עבירה, אלא במעילה לבדה שלא יתערב עימה איסור אחר.

העבד והאישה, פגיעתן רעה; החובל בהן חייב.  והן שחבלו באחרים, פטורין; אבל משלמין לאחר זמן–אם נתגרשה האישה או מת בעלה, או נשתחרר העבד:  שהרי בני דעה הן, והרי הן כבעל חוב שאין לו מה יפרע–שאם העשיר, חייב לשלם.

  זה שנאמר בתורה “ונתן בידה” (דברים כד,א; דברים כד,ג)–אין עניין הכתוב, אלא שיגיע הגט לה:  ואחד ידה, או חיקה, או חצרה, או שלוחה שעשת ידו כידה–הכול אחד הוא.  ואחת חצרה הקנויה לה, או חצרה המושכרת לה או השאולה לה–הכול רשותה היא; ומשיגיע הגט לרשותה, נתגרשה.   הזורק גט לאשתו לתוך חצרה–אם הייתה עומדת שם בצד רשותה, נתגרשה; ואם לאו, לא נתגרשה:  עד שתעמוד בצד חצרה, ואף על פי שהיא חצר שישתמר הגט בתוכה–שחובה היא לה הגירושין, ואין חבין לאדם אלא בפניו.  ומניין שעשרה דברים אלו מן התורה, שנאמר “והיה אם לא תמצא חן בעיניו . . . וכתב לה ספר כריתות ונתן בידה, ושילחה מביתו” (דברים כד,א):  “אם לא תמצא חן בעיניו”–מלמד שאינו מגרש, אלא ברצונו; ואם נתגרשה שלא ברצונו, אינה מגורשת.  אבל האישה מתגרשת לרצונה, ושלא לרצונה.

מי שראה אחרים רצים אחר המציאה, והרי היא צבי שבור או גוזלות שלא פרחו–אם היה עומד בצד שדהו שהן בתוכה, ואילו היה רץ היה מגיען, ואמר זכתה לי שדי–זכתה לו שדהו.  ואם אינו יכול להגיען–הרי אלו כצבי שהוא רץ כדרכו וכגוזלות המפריחים, ולא אמר כלום; אלא כל הקודם בהן, זכה. ואם במתנה ניתנו לו–הואיל ואחר הקנה אותן לו והרי הן מתגלגלין בתוך שדהו, קנתה לו שדהו; ואם היה צבי רץ כדרכו וגוזלות מפריחין, לא קנתה לו שדהו.

והואיל וחצרו של אדם קונה לו שלא מדעתו כמו שיתבאר, למה לא יקנה בעל החצר זה המטמון שבתוך הכותל הישן, אף על פי שהוא של אמוריים, ותהיה מציאה זו לבעל החצר:  מפני שאינה ידועה לו ולא לאחרים, והרי זה המטמון אבוד ממנו ומכל אדם; ולפיכך הוא של מוצאו. ומה אבידה של אדם אמרה תורה “אשר תאבד ממנו, ומצאתה” (דברים כב,ג)–מי שאבודה ממנו, ומצויה אצל כל אדם; יצאת זו שנפלה לים, שאבודה ממנו ומכל אדם:  קל וחומר למטמון קדמוני שלא היה שלו מעולם, והוא אבוד ממנו ומכל אדם; לפיכך הוא של מוצאו.  הפורס מצודה בשדה חברו, וצד בה חיה או עוף–אף על פי שאין לו רשות לעשות דבר זה, קנה.  ואם היה בעל השדה עומד בצד שדהו, ואמר זכת לי שדי–קנה בעל השדה, ואין לבעל המצודה כלום. היה בעל השדה בעיר ואמר, יודע אני שהפועלים שכחין עומר בשדה שבמקום פלוני–שכחוהו, הרי זה שכחה; ואם היה בשדה ואמר כן, ושכחוהו–אינו שכחה:  שהשכוח מעיקרו בשדה, הוא השכחה, אבל בעיר אפילו זכור ולבסוף שכוח, הרי זה שכחה–שנאמר “ושכחת עומר בשדה” (דברים כד,יט), לא בעיר.  הקוצר שהתחיל לקצור, ושכח לפניו ולאחריו–שלאחריו שכחה, ושלפניו אינו שכחה:  שנאמר “לא תשוב לקחתו” (דברים כד,יט)–אינו שכחה עד שיעבור ממנו, ויניחו לאחריו.

המזכה לחברו במתנה על ידי אחר–כיון שהחזיק בה האחר, כגון שמשך המיטלטלין, או הגיע שטר קרקע לידו, או החזיק בקרקע–זכה חברו, אף על פי שלא הגיעה מתנה לידו; ואין הנותן יכול לחזור בו.

Shabbot Shalom

During the 9 days, observant Jewry avoids eating all forms of meat. The bringing of meat upon the altar of the Mishkan\Tabernacle of the Congregation\ in the days of Moshe and Aaron, forever links the eating of meats with the service of the Mishkan. Why does the Books of שמות, ויקרא, make such a focus and fuss over the vessels of the Mishkan and garments of the Cohen HaGadol, yet the building of the Temple in Jerusalem constitutes as a tuma error of avoda zara?

The Torah employs a basic teaching technique: called משל\נמשל. The נמשל to both Books שמות וויקרא, the dedication of the mitzva דאורייתא of Moshiach. Moshiach means anointing. Moshe the prophet “anointed” the Mishkan, including all its vessels of service, and the Cohen garments worn by both Aaron and his sons. The נמשל to korbanot, the rules of righteous just tohor Common Law Sanhedrin Courts. The נמשל defines the k’vanna of the משל. Something like the distinction between substance and form.

Young children possess the skills required to read words from Books. The Written Torah requires the Oral Torah wisdom which precisely interprets the k’vanna of the Framers who “wrote” the words within the Written Torah. Neither the Xtians who religiously read their Bibles nor the Karaite heretics who deny the existence of the Oral Torah logic system. Neither group – both deny and denounce the Oral Torah – has produced a Torah codification of law anywhere comparable to the Talmud. The dogmatism developed by priests of the Catholic church more closely compares to Muslim halal customs of slaughter. The Church never understood that justice has a direct connection with lateral Common Law Courtrooms which the Talmud establishes; any more than Mohammad understood the Torah laws of kashrut. Both this and that share only a superficial resemblance to A: Talmudic Lateral Common Law & B: the Talmudic linkage which binds (think Yitzak bound to the altar) the common slaughter of animals — to the Cohen slaughter of animals, whose flesh other Cohenim dedicate upon the bronze altar, as a holy dedication unto HaShem.

In similar vein a vast gulf which separates the Mishkan commanded by Moshe the prophet,,, from the Temples of both Shlomo and Herod. King Cyrus ordered the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, as recorded in the Book(s) of Ezra, [[the Sages subsumed, (they absorbed, the Tanya concept of bital), the Book of Nehemiah into the Book of Ezra because they rejected Nehemiah’s tendency to heap praises upon himself.]], for real realpolitik reasons. What permitted Babylonian armies the ability to quickly overrun territories which the Assyrian empire had conquered and incorporated into the Assyrian empire? The Assyrian monarchy broke the will of conquered and defeated kings to later rebel against Assyrian rule, through established policy: the kingdom of Assyria uprooted entire populations; they made forced population transfers of defeated kingdoms. The victorious Allies did this exact same Assyrian war crime, with the forced population transfer of German civilians populations living in Poland and Czechoslovakia, post WWII. The Allied victors made a forced transfer of some 15,000,000 Germans expelled from Poland and Czechoslovakia to defeated and divided Germany.

King Cyrus attributed the Babylonian success, how quickly their armies overrun the vast territories of Assyrian empire, to the Assyrian policy which replaced the conquered inhabitants of a kingdom. King Cyrus held that these replacement populations had no deep attachment to the land and therefore they did not possess the will to fight to death in order defend their new homelands. The realpolitik of King Cyrus, to permit the Jews under the leadership of Ezra, Daniel, and Nehemiah, to return to our ancient homelands and rebuild a modest Temple, which served as the Capital of the Judean banana republic of the Persian empire. The Book of Ezra records that elder survivors wept and cried, [[when they who in their youth remembered Shlomo’s Temple, these elders who survived the first g’lut of the kingdom of Yechuda]], when they saw the Temple which the Cyrus’s Jewish g’lut refugee returnees constructed. King Cyrus permitted peoples’ from destroyed kingdoms to return to their original homelands; he held that these returnees would fight like lions to prevent foreign invading armies to overrun their kingdom(s) again.

But Judea under the Persians did not enjoy autonomy, much less National Independence. When Alexander the Great defeated and conquered the Persian empire, Judea became a part of Alexanders’ Greek empire(s). The Cohonim under Persian rule, they served as an elite caretaker, employed in the service of the Persian empire. Under Greek rule, in similar fashion the Cohonim, then known as Sadducees, served as the wealthy elites, of their new Greek masters. Consequently, the Temple which Ezra built – primarily served the interests of Persepolis, the Capital, and seat of government of the Persian empire.

The דאורייתא Mishkan which Moshe the prophet built teaches a powerful mussar. Mussar defines nevuah\prophecy, because mussar equally applies to all living and future born generations of the chosen bnai brit Cohen nation. How then does this commentary explain the period of mourning known as ‘the 9 days’? The ‘9 days’ contrasts with the removal of chametz prior to Chag Pesach. During this time, Jews do not eat meat, as a rebuke for our failure to uphold and maintain the cultural identity of the Cohen nation. When Moshe took Israel out of Egypt, when the nation stood and accepted the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, when Moshe and Aaron cast the brit blood of dedication upon the people at Sinai,,, what oath did the Cohen nation swear as our eternal obligation of the brit alliance? The oath which the forefathers of the chosen brit Cohen nation swore, as the defined eternal obligation, wherein we accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai,,, both they & we swear to rule the oath sworn lands with tohor righteous justice,,, the definition of our avodat HaShem,,,our eternal brit Cohen alliance cut with HaShem for ever and to all eternity.

Therefore the “9 days” represents a time of disgraceful tuma for the Cohen brit nation. During this time, Jews mourn our failure to uphold and maintain the oath, which both we ourselves — together with our forefathers — swear as our eternal obligation, by which we accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. Hence the fact that Jews mourn for the destruction of tuma Temples, constructed by kings who worshiped avoda zara, this fact testifies to the stubbornness and stiff necks of the Jewish people unto this very day! Buildings constructed of wood and stone do not, and cannot — replace the oath sworn brit which we, together with our forefathers swear, to eternally accept and renew the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. Chag Tisha B’Av stands as a celebration of JOY when our chosen Cohen nation once more remembers and renews our sworn obligations by which we accept the Torah revelation at Sinai.

Israel came out of Egyptian bondage, committed to not rule our brit homelands in the manner and customs, meaning oppression, by which the kingdoms of Egypt and Canaan ruled those vile kingdoms. The Torah Books שמות,ויקרא teach the dedication of the chosen Cohen Moshiach nation, our commitment wherein we swear a formal Torah oath unto HaShem that we shall pursue tohor righteous justice; which Moshe our Teacher instructed us as the interpretation; the k’vanna of this sworn oath to HaShem – that through lateral Common Law Courtrooms of justice, the Sage guardians of the Torah, dedicate to HaShem, to make fair compensation for damages that our people might inflict upon our people in all times, and generations – as our eternal korban, holy unto HaShem.

The commitment to live and maintain tohor righteous justice defines the k’vanna of the dedication of Moshiach by all peoples of the chosen Cohen anointed nation. A korban that lacks the dedication of Will to walk in tohor righteous justice, such a korban compares to a worthless Bar BQ offered up unto Heaven. Herein concludes this commentary to the Rif code of Halacha’s explanation of the ‘9 days’. The construction of the Temple cannot and never has superseded, nor outranked the priority or importance: acceptance of the revelation of the Name of HaShem at Sinai. Jews mourn rather than rejoice on Chag Tisha B’Av, because they confuse tuma avoda zara with tohor avodat HaShem…doing mitzvot לשמה…in the name of tohor middot dedicated throughout all generations unto HaShem as holy, to pursue tohor righteous justice through lateral Common Law Courtrooms.

The Gemara of the forth Mishna omits the opening first clause of the Mishna.  The Rif commentary incorporates this omitted opening clause of the first Mishna.
ראה את המציאה ונפל עליה,ובא אחר והחזיק בה – זה שהחזיק בה זכה בה.  (שבועות פרק ששי)  שבועת הדינין – הטענה שתי כסף, וההודאה בשוה פרוטה, ואם אין ההודאה ממין הטענה – פטור.    כיצד?    שתי כסף לי בידך — אין לך בידי אלא פרוטה  —  פטור.    שתי כסף ופרוטה לי בידך  —  אין לך בידי אלא פרוטה  —  חיב.

To what do the prophets compare the case of false witnesses?  A person who lies under oath.  ישעיה ז:יח-כ.  The vision of Isaiah compares false witnesses to the din of g’lut decreed upon the entire nation of Israel. 

In current news today, the Biden Administration condemned the Israeli courts for their ruling which decreed that the Army should raze the house of a Balestinian terrorist who murdered one, and injured several others.  The Biden Administration justifies intervening in Israeli domestic affairs with the excuse that the house that the Israeli Army razed, that that house did not qualify as the primary living quarters of this American/Balestinian refugee terrorist.  The Biden Administration condemned the ruling of the Israeli Court as collective punishment which violates that sacred nonsense term which imperialist governments just love to throw about whenever convenient, “international law”.

The Biden Administration seems to think it proper that Washington has some imaginary right to criticize Israeli court rulings.  Perhaps Washington would agree if Jerusalem denounced American Supreme Court rulings, like Roe vs. Wade?  The terrorist who murdered one and injured several, these Jews did not likewise have family who suffered “collective punishment” by the violence of terrorism? 

Israel did not win its national independence, just so other foreign nations could presume that they have some right, “by international law”, to determine and validate, or invalidate, Israeli Courtrooms decisions on matters of justice within Israel.  The Biden Administration assumes that their imaginary international law permits Washington to instruct Israeli courts and/or  governments exactly how the State should implement justice within the borders of the Jewish state.

Israeli turns to the T’NaCH for guidance, just how to shape and determine Court rulings with stateless refugee persons.  A foreign Balestinian refugee terrorist comes from abroad to wreak havoc and anarchy within the borders of Israel, to what does this foreign alien Arab seed compare?  ישעיה כח:כג – כט, נד:ט -י.  Goyim governments did not impose “collective punishment” to Christ killers?  The incarceration of European Jewry into Catholic ghettoes without trial – not collective punishment?!  In the opinion of this commentator, the Western Democracies need to step down from their high horse of arrogant superiority.  Israel gave that Balestinian terrorist a trial, that’s a lot more than the Western democracies ever gave Jewish refugee populations.

מדרש רבה: ולמה לא בנו להן בהמ”ק
The construction of the Temple consisted of wood and stone?  Or righteous Federal Sanhedrin Courts of law?  The last mitzva which Moshe our Teacher occupied his energies, the establishment of the Small Sanhedrin Federal Courts within three of the 6 Cities of Refuge.  Moshe had to choose which mitzva he felt qualified as the greatest mitzva of accepting the revelation of the Torah at Sinai.  Moshe our Teacher chose “the construction” of the Federal Small Sanhedrin Courts of lateral Common Law, as the last mitzva he chose to invest his life doing before he passed from this world.  Herein defines the Last Will and Testament which Moshe our Teacher instructed to all the generations of the brit Cohen nation.

This Midrash Rabba on Parshat שופטים teaches a profound set of fundamentals.
א”ר יהודה ברבי אלעאי, על ג’ דברים נצטוו ישראל בכנניסתן לארץ, ואלו הן: למחות זכרו של עמלק
Rabbi Yechuda in ברכות taught the k’vanna of kre’a shma through the spelling of לבבך\לבבכם located within the opening first two paragraphs of the kre’a shma.  Avodat HaShem requires developing and maturing both Yatzirot within our hearts.  The two ideally operate constantly in balance, they make up the scales of justice.  If a man can mature his emotional mind, then such a man likewise matures and develops his rational mind.  The function between the two sets of mental powers, the emotional mind of man always behaves as the first born son.

The Torah opens with the two sons of Adam and their life and death struggle to inherit the chosen Cohen first born status.  Avraham likewise had two sons who struggled over the chosen Cohen first born status.  Yitzak too had two sons who struggled over the chosen first born status.  Hence Rabbi Yechuda, the Nasi, affixed the k’vanna of the mitzva of kre’a shma.  The משל metaphor of wiping out Amelek as an eternal mitzva has its נמשל interpretation as the acceptance of the yoke of Heaven ie the avoda of the chosen first born cohen status.
ולמנות להם מלך
This 2nd condition goes hand in glove with kre’a shma.  HaShem rules as מלך and HaShem – not a man.  When Israel requested from the prophet Shmuel to appoint a king, rains came during the dry season – a sign of a curse.
ולבנות להם בהמ”ק
The prophet Natan advised king David; Natan taught that HaShem never commanded any leader of Israel to build him a house of wood and stone.  Therefore the משל to build the בהמ”ק requires its נמשל interpretation.  The נמשל interpretation: to establish lateral Sanhedrin Common law Courtrooms by which to pursue the rule of justice within the oath sworn lands.
ולמה לא בנו להן בהמ”ק?  שהיו ביניהם דילטורין! (פ’: אנשי שדברו לשון הרע).  דא”ר שמואל בר נחמן דורו של אחאב עובדי עבודת כוכבים היו, והיו יוצאין למלחמה ונוצחין!!!!!  ולמה כן???  שלא היה בניהן דילטורין.  לפיכך היו יוצאין למלחמה ונוצחין!

What ברכה does a man dedicate his life unto HaShem, not to speak לשון הרע?
השיבה שופטינו כבראשונה ויועצינו כבתחלה, והסר ממנו יגון ואנחה, ומלך עלינו אתב ה’ לבדך בחסד וברחמים, וצדקנו במשפט.  ברוך אתה ה’, מלך אוהב צדקה ומשפט.

This blessing calls upon HaShem as our King.  It likewise validates the k’vanna of acceptance of the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven: to live our lives as the chosen Cohen nation, the k’vanna of kre’a shma.  Its erev Shabbat, just prior to the 9 days of mourning which culminates in the fast of Tish’a B’Av.  It truly grieves me to visit the beit knesset on Tish’a B’Av and hear the rabbis moan and groan about the destruction(s) of the two Temples avoda zara!  The Romans said of Herod: Better to live as a dog in Herod’s house rather than as a family member!  Herod knew nothing of righteous justice.  The construction of that House, which the Romans later burned, a blessing upon the Romans for removing avoda zara from the midst of Israel!  Shabbot Shalom.