Page:משנה תורה דפוס ווארשא-ווילנא כרך ראשון 1.pdf/4

 In conclusion, Ravina and Rav Ashi and their colleagues are the conclusion of the greatest of the Sages of Israel who transmit the Oral Torah and who decreed decrees and enacted the enactments and set up customs, and their decree and their enactment and their customs were spread in all of Israel, in all places of their settlements. And after the Court of Rav Ashi who compiled the Gemara and finished it in the days of his son, Israel was scattered an additional scattering in all the lands, and they reached the ends and the faraway islands, and quarrels multiplied in the world, and the ways were raided with troops, and Torah learning was minimized, and Israel didn't enter to study in their yeshivoth thousands and tens of thousands as the were previously. But individuals gather themselves, the remnants whom God calls, in each and every city and in each and every country, and they engage in Torah and understand with all of the compilations of the Sages, and they know from them how is the way of the judgment. And each court that stood up after the Gemara in each and every country and decreed or enacted or set up a custom for the people of his country or for the people of many countries – his acts were not spread in all of Israel because of the distance of their settlements and the raiding of the ways, and since the court of that country are individuals, and the Great Court of Seventy-One ceased since some years prior to the compilation of the Gemara. Therefore, the people of this country are not forced to behave as the custom of another country; and this court is not told to decree a decree which another court decreed in its country. And likewise, if one of the Geonim taught that the way of the judgment is such and it was clarified to another court which stood afterwards that this is not the way of the judgment that is written in the Gemara – we don't listen to the first, but to whichever one the mind leans toward his words, whether it may be the first or the latter.

And these things pertain to laws, decrees and enactments and customs that were newly developed after the compilation of the Gemara. But all of the things contained in the Babylonian Gemara – all of Israel are obligated to go with them. And each and every city and each and every country are forced to behave with all of the customs how Sages of the Gemara behaved, and to decree their decrees, and to go with their enactments. Since all those things that are in the Gemara – all of Israel agreed upon them. And those Sages who enacted or who decreed or who set down customs or who ruled a ruling and taught that the judgment is such – they are all of the sages of Israel or their majority and they are those who heard the transmission in the principles of the whole Torah, generation after generation, until our teacher Moses, peace be upon him. All of the sages who stood up after the compilation of the Gemara, and built with it, and a name went out for them in their wisdom, they are those who are called "Geonim". And all of these Geonim who stood up in the Land of Israel and in the Land of Shinar and in Spain and in France taught the way of the Gemara, and brought out its obscurities to light, and explained its subjects, because its way is an extremely deep one, and also for it's in the Aramaic language mixed with other languages, because that language was clear to all people of Shinar at the time that the Gemara was compiled. But in other places, and also in Shinar in the days of the Geonim – a man doesn't recognize that language until it is taught to him. And the people of each and every city ask many questions to every Gaon that was in their days, to explain to them difficult things that are in the Gemara. And they reply to them according to their wisdom. And those questioners gather the responses and compile from them books to understand from them. The Geonim that were in each and every generation also compiled compilations to explain the Gemara: Among them are those who explained individual laws. And among them are those who explained individual chapters with which they had difficulties in his days. And among them are those who explained Tractates and Orders. And they also compiled decisive rulings in the subject of prohibition and permission and obligation and exemption, in things that the time needs them, in order that they should be close to the understanding of he who can't descend to the depth of Gemara. And this is the Godly work in which all of the Geonim of Israel engaged since the day that the Gemara was compiled and until this time, which is the eighth year after 1,100 to the Destruction of the Temple; and that is the 4,937th year to the Creation of the World.

And in this time, additional tragedies strengthened and the hour expelled everything and the wisdom of our wise men was lost and the understanding of our understanding men was hidden. Therefore, those commentaries and laws and responsa that the Geonim compiled and they saw that they are clear words – became difficult in our days. And only few in number understand its subjects as it should be. And it need not be said the Gemara itself, the Babylonian and the Jerusalemite, and Sifra and Sifre and the Tosefta, which require a wide mind and wise soul and a long time; and afterwards he knows from them the right way in the things that are forbidden and that are permitted and the rest of the laws of the Torah, how it is. And because of this, I, Moses son of Rabbi Maimon the Sephardi, shook out my lap, and I leaned on the Rock, blessed is He, and I meditated in all of these books and I saw fit to compile things that are clarified from all of these compilations, in the subject of the forbidden and the permitted, the defiled and the clean, with the rest of the laws of the Torah, all of them in a clear language and a short way, until the whole Oral Torah shall be organised in the mouth of all, without a question and without an answer; not this one says in this manner and this one says in that manner, but clear, close, correct words according to the judgment that will be clarified from all of these compilations and commentaries that exist since the days of Rabbenu HaQadosh and until now. Until all of the laws shall be revealed to small and to great in the law of each and every commandment and in the law of all of the things that Sages and Prophets enacted. The rule of the matter: In order that a man should not need another compilation in the world in a law of the laws of Israel, but this compilation should gather the whole Oral Torah with the enactments and the customs and the decrees that were made since the the days of our teacher Moses and until the compilation of the Gemara and like the Geonim explained to us in all of their compilations which they compiled after the Gemara. Therefore I named this compilation "Mishneh Torah", because a man reads the Written Torah first, and afterwards he reads this, *and knows from it the entire Oral Torah and does not need to read a different book between them. And I saw fit to divide this compilation into individual laws in each and every subject; and I will divide the laws into chapters that pertain to that subject; and I will divide each and every chapter into small segments in order that they should be organised by heart. These laws that pertain to each and every subject – some of those laws are the laws of one commandment alone; and that is the commandment that has a lot of words of tradition, and is a subject by itself. And some of them are laws that include the laws of many commandments, if all of those commandments will be in one subject. Because the division of this compilation is according to the subjects, not according to the number of the commandments, like it will be clear to he who reads in it. And the number of the commandments of the Torah that pertain to the generations: six-hundred-and-thirteen commandments. Two-hundred-and-forty-eight of them are positive commandments. A sign to them: the number of the limbs of man. And three-hundred-and-sixty-five of them are negative commandments. A sign to them: the number of the days of the solar year.



And knows from it the entire Oral Torah etc. Wrote Rabbi Abraham ben David: "He hoped to fix but did not fix" etc. "This is only because a surpassing spirit was in him." Until here is his language.

And I say that the reason of our teacher is that if he would have wanted to go in the way of the compilers that preceded him, what profit would he have to add to the words of Rabbi Isaac Alfasi, for in most of the places he decides like him. And thus he came to innovate a ruling of halacha in a pure and short language like the Mishnah and each wise-hearted from those that come after him can rely on the choice of our teacher. And if a great wise one will be found who will not want to rely on his choice until he, too, will weigh it with the scales of his mind, who hinders him from looking in the books of the Gemara and the compilers? In conclusion, this way that our teacher treaded is an improvement for the whole world except for one in a generation in that time. And also for him, it is an improvement; if he will be in a rush to decide, he shall rely on the opinion of our teacher. And even when he will not be in a rush, it is not a small thing to know the discernment of our teacher. 