The Yanuka Rav Shlomo Yehuda-הגאון הינוקא במעמד סיום הרמב＂ם העולמי באלעד The Yanuka

5:16 My masters, this night is a sanctification of Heaven's name. People from every circle of the public are here. It seems this is by Hashgachah pratis - I must say this - that we have the Rav, our friend the Rav, the Yanuka. It is only a few days since we met, and the Rav told me almost these very words, if I am not mistaken: "There is nothing greater than this - to spread halachah and halachic teaching among the Jewish people, and one needs to encourage this in a way...

5:59 and this will also bring the geulah." May it be His will that we merit to learn and to teach with ever greater dignity and ever greater strength, to sanctify Heaven's name in public until the coming of the righteous redeemer. - Thank you very much, and yasher koach.

6:25 We heard the siyum of the Rambam earlier from Rabbi Landau, and we join the end to the beginning. I have the honor and the privilege to invite the Rav of the Chabad community in Elad, the holy chassid Rabbi Shneur Zalman Yaroslavsky shlita, to begin the forty-third cycle of the study of the Rambam.

6:53 Rabbi Yaroslavsky shlita, please. - With the permission of the rabbis, the Rav, the Yanuka, the rabbis of the city and from outside the city, Ashkenazim, Sephardim, chassidim and those who are not chassidim, Chabad chassidim and chassidim in general, and last but most beloved, the young men, the bnei Torah.

7:40 We are at a Simchas Torah - it was mentioned earlier - we join the end to the beginning: we finish the Torah and immediately begin. Everyone who has made a siyum of a tractate, after finishing the tractate, says: "Just as You helped me finish this tractate, so may You help me begin other tractates and books, to begin and to finish."

8:04 And we hope and bless each and every one of us that through the study of Torah, and the study of the whole Torah, and especially the study of the Rambam - as is known, as was mentioned earlier, that it is a segulah, from our Rabbis, the great ones of Israel, for fear of Heaven - then the Torah has promised that in the end the Jewish people will do teshuvah at the end of their exile, and they are redeemed at once. - Thank you very much to Rabbi Yaroslavsky shlita.

8:36 We bless him on this occasion that he may have length of days over his kingdom and see nachas from the flock of his pasture, in good health and the best of light, until the coming of our righteous Mashiach, speedily in our days, amen. My masters and teachers, we are happy and moved to welcome to our holy city the Gaon of Israel, our Rabbi, the prince of Torah, Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Beeri shlita, the Yanuka, for we merited that he granted the request of the rabbis of the city and came to honor us all and grant us the merit of his presence on this exalted evening.

9:17 We ask the Rav shlita... - With the permission of our masters and teachers, the great ones of the generation, the great ones of the Torah, the rabbis of the city, the mayor, all the holy people, the whole holy and honored congregation, with the permission of each and every one of you.

10:36 This is a great day and a joy in honor of Hashem, blessed be He, to mention our master and teacher, the great eagle, our Rabbi the Rambam, for the completion of the book Mishneh Torah of our Rabbi the Rambam. Our Rabbi the Rambam gave Hashem, blessed be He, very great satisfaction, for the world was desolate and the Torah had been forgotten, and after the period of the Geonim, the book that was constantly on the lips of all the Jewish people, and the path by whose light they walked, was the halachos of Rabbi Alfasi, the halachos of the Rif, the halachos of the Rif, which is the right order and path for learning halachah and for learning Torah - to learn the Rif every single day.

11:29 And our Rabbi the Rambam, after the Rif, he is the one who composed his work, Mishneh Torah, to light up the world with knowledge, with outlook, and the work on the foundations of the entire Torah, so that they could take the Torah in concise form. And beyond his interpretation and his explanation, and the wisdom that Hashem, blessed be He, gave him, he also gave knowledge and outlook, and his whole life and all his knowledge he put and hid in every single halachah and in every statement; one can see his outlook and his knowledge, of our Rabbi the Rambam.

12:12 Our Rabbi the Rambam was supported at his brother's table; his brother would take care of him, and he grieved with very great grief over his passing, and he gave of his Torah and his remembrance to his brother, who drowned in the Indian Ocean, thus, with great grief and great upheaval. And our Rabbi the Rambam was of the holy seed of Rabbi Ovadiah the Dayan in Cordoba, who was the first Dayan in Cordoba; he was the Av Beis Din in Cordoba, who fathered Rabbi Shlomo, the great Dayan that he was, who fathered Rabbi Ovadiah the second, after Rabbi Ovadiah the first, who fathered Rabbi Yosef the Dayan, who fathered Rabbi Yitzchak the Dayan, who fathered Rabbi Yosef the Dayan, who fathered Rabbi Maimon, who fathered our Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, our great Rabbi the Rambam, the great eagle,

13:04 who came and went and revealed his Torah and his wisdom to all the inhabitants of the world, and he was great and holy, so that in his time they would say in the Kaddish, in all kinds of Jewish communities in the dispersion, and some of them from Yemen, who walked by his light and ruled according to his ways, that they said: "in your lifetimes and in your days and in the lifetime of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon" in the Kaddish, out of the importance and the greatness, for none arose among the Jewish people like our Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, our great Rabbi the Rambam.

13:38 There is a responsum of our Rabbi the Rashba in part 1, siman 253; our Rabbi the Rashba writes a responsum, he cites Tractate Shabbos, page 130, about Rabbi Eliezer, where they would make charcoal - they would cut wood to make charcoal and to make a knife - and he cites Rabbi Yosef in Tzippori. There he was asked a question: whether one may be lenient and rely on one posek, whether for leniency or for stringency; one who wants to be lenient or to be stringent according to one posek.

14:06 And there he mentions those who go and conduct themselves... he cites, he cites a proof from Rabbi Eliezer, he cites Rabbi Yosef in Tzippori in the Galil, what Rabbi Yosi HaGelili in Tzippori, etc., and he explains and cites that those who conduct themselves according to the halachos of the Rif, our Rabbi Alfasi, of blessed memory, or according to our Rabbi the Rambam, of blessed memory - this is how he mentions our Rabbi the Rambam - he says that they have someone to rely on.

14:31 So this is not the opinion of our Rabbi the Maharival; in the responsa of our Rabbi the Maharival, part 1, siman 75, he makes a distinction. This is a pilpul that the Pri Chadash brought in siman 496; the Pri Chadash distinguishes and explains the distinction and the difference: that the Maharival says one should not be lenient; one goes only by a posek who rules stringently and not by a posek who rules leniently, as in the case of the Rambam, etc. Everyone must conduct himself according to what was ruled as halachah.

14:55 But the stringency and the importance that he brings - the intent is that our Rabbi the Rashba clarifies and explains that after our Rabbi Alfasi, the Rif, the ruling and the light by which one goes is our Rabbi the Rambam. And one must know that our Rabbi the Rashba is weighed as equal to most of the Rishonim in his opinion and his rulings, so that the Rashba's opinion is regarded as the opinion of many, many, many Rishonim - the genius of the Rashba.

15:21 And our Rabbi the Rashba regards our Rabbi the Rif and our Rabbi the Rambam as someone very great, whom one can rely on, even as a posek to follow. And this is what he comes to explain to us, about the greatness and about the immense halachic power, and the great and awesome power of our Rabbi the Rambam, in awe, in Divine service and in holiness.

15:47 Our Rabbi the Rambam - they tell that Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz learned the writings of our Rabbi the Rambam countless times. And it happened that there came to his town a poor man who came and knocked on his door and wanted charity, and the Rebbetzin had nothing to give, so she took the writings of the Rambam and said to him: "Here, go and sell some of them, and from this you will have the abundant livelihood you need."

16:12 And he took them, the writings of the Rambam. When Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz returned from davening, he asked: "Where is the Rambam?" So she told him what she had done. So he said to her: "One does not take a Rambam out of the house, for a house that has no Rambam has no fear of Heaven, and how can I stay even one night in a house without fear of Heaven?" And he ordered at once that a Rambam be brought to his home, and so it was: they brought a Rambam at once. And when they returned the Rambam to him, he said: "This poor man will not see blessing from this, from his having taken this Rambam from me."

16:38 That is how Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz expressed himself about it. They say that our Rabbi the Rogatchover, the Rogatchover, when he would learn Rambam, he had a library that held the Yerushalmi, Tanach and the Rambam, for he would learn the Rambam even before he learned the Tur. And in the past, in their time, with Rabbi Chaim of Brisk and with the Geonim, and in their time, when they would learn, they would learn the Rif before they learned the Rambam, until they knew the Rif thoroughly, and they would not allow learning Rambam, for the Rambam was like a helping book, and they wanted them to know the Rambam's opinion on their own, that they should try to understand and think, so as to know how to bring the discussion to its halachic conclusion on their own,

17:13 only from what they would understand from the words of the Rif; perhaps they would try to think with their own minds to see what the Rambam would hold in his opinion. And so they grew up with this approach, to such an extent that our Rabbi the Rogatchover learned the Rambam countless times, and he truly knew it by heart; he knew the whole Rambam, all the writings of the Rambam. We see that our Rabbi the Yaavetz said - after all, our Rabbi the Rambam, in the introduction in Sanhedrin, our Rabbi the Rambam listed there the thirteen principles of the Torah - and our Rabbi the Yaavetz says that the piyut "Yigdal Elokim Chai v'Yishtabach" is attributed to our Rabbi the Rambam.

17:49 But according to the opinion of our Rabbi the Arizal, in Pri Etz Chaim, in the first gate, where Rabbi Chaim Vital said that he heard from "my master, of blessed memory" - that is how he spoke of our Rabbi the Arizal - that it has no source, foundation or root in the words of the Rishonim, but it is from the Acharonim, and of course he did not have the custom to say it, for he said that these Acharonim do not know what they are saying, and so his custom was to leave it out. And our Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Yehuda Yechiel Safrin of Komarno, author of the Shulchan HaTahor, ordered that it be put away from all the siddurim; he ordered that it be left out and that this piyut not be said - so he said.

18:19 And he said that if our Rabbi the Arizal banned it, then it is certainly... But the opinion of our Rabbi, Rabbi Pinchas of Koritz, is that it should indeed be said, and the opinion of the holy Shelah is that it should be said, and so the custom is, before the soul departs, to say "Yigdal Elokim Chai v'Yishtabach," so that they hold on to and remember the principles of our Rabbi the Rambam, as the Yaavetz attributes it to him. But many, of course, disagreed and did not have the custom to say it, to such an extent that the Shulchan HaTahor brings that there was...

18:46 that he ordered that "Yigdal Elokim Chai v'Yishtabach" not be said in his town, and after he passed away, someone got up, stood and said it, and at the time they said it there was an earthquake, and the whole ground shook and there was a tremor, because they said it in that very place of that sage. To such an extent. And to understand and to explain how much our Rabbi the Rambam - his Torah and his opinion and his outlook he took care to give to each and every one, in all his views, whether in the commentaries on the Mishnah or in the Mishneh Torah, in everything, only so that they would come close to Hashem, blessed be He, which one can see in it at every turn and step, as he explains in the introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah

19:30 that if you see someone who does not follow the words of the Sages, it is because the light of Hashem, blessed be He, does not shine for him; the light of Hashem does not shine in the heart; the bright light does not shine in his heart; it is because he follows the desires of his body. And of course, what he said: that the destruction of the soul is in the building of the body, and whoever wants to build the soul - that is through the destruction of the body. But of course the meaning is not that the Rambam explains that one must afflict the body, Heaven forbid; rather he explains that one must always strengthen the will of Hashem, blessed be He, the desire for the Torah and its mitzvos, that it be above the physical desire,

20:03 above the desire a person has for the matters of this world. This is what the Rambam explains, for in Hilchos De'os he explains at length the care of the body, how much one must take care of the body; so how would he contradict himself in his words on the Mishnah, meaning to say that one must destroy the body, Heaven forbid? Rather, he means to explain that the main thing, the root and the foundation, should be the desire for the Torah and its mitzvos, the yearning for Hashem, blessed be He, the desire to love Hashem, blessed be He.

20:31 Now we are close to and approaching the holy days of Elul, for some time now it has been approaching, and the time keeps coming, and we draw near, and await and long for Hashem, blessed be He, that He redeem His people Israel, that Hashem, blessed be He, hasten our redemption, that the geulah come, that the Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple, be built, and we so await and long for all the words of our Rabbis the Rishonim, for all the words of our Rabbi the Rambam.

20:56 And the custom is to say Selichos; they say in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak ibn Giyas, in the name of Rav Hai Gaon, that he is the source for saying Selichos and for arousing mercy and saying Selichos in these days, at this time, to arouse the attribute of mercy before Hashem, blessed be He, to arouse everyone to return to Hashem, that everyone be aroused in the attribute of mercy, to arouse with Selichos and with mercy and with compassion before Hashem, blessed be He, for it is specifically at this time, as they learned in Tractate Yoma, page 4b, and in Tosafos on Bava Kamma, page 82a, according to the words of Tosafos, that it was specifically at this time that Moshe Rabbeinu went up on high, and this time is linked to a time of favor for all generations,

21:35 for every time we want to pray and to raise a prayer before Hashem, blessed be He; and this time is a time of favor, this time when they pray, and of course at the time of the last watch of the night, as the Sages taught in Tractate Avodah Zarah, page 3b, that the Holy One, blessed be He, roams through eighteen thousand worlds, in all the eighteen thousand worlds, that Hashem, blessed be He, roams. And so ruled the Mateh Efraim in siman 581, se'if 11, that this time when the Holy One, blessed be He, roams the world is specifically at this time, and therefore it is the time to say it, at the last watch of the night.

22:03 Only, of course, those who are accustomed to say it before midnight - it is not proper to act that way, because Rabbeinu the Ramaz, in the Responsa of the Ramaz, siman 30, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, may his merit protect us, he writes in siman 30 that it is not proper to say it before midnight. The time for saying Selichos is at midnight. When one wants to say Selichos and to pray before Hashem, the proper time to pray is at the point of midnight, when one prays. And one who prays before midnight, Heaven forbid, can arouse harsh judgments and strife and accusations.

22:33 And of course it is known that whenever there is a dispute between the plain meaning and halachah, we follow the plain meaning, and we do not go by the words of Kabbalah - only, of course, in words of prayer, as written in the Responsa Sho'el VeNishal, siman 1, according to the words of Rabbeinu the Radbaz, part 1, siman 36, in Shalmei Tzibbur, page 53a, the Mahari Algazi, who wrote that whenever we have a dispute between the words of halachah and the words of Kabbalah, we go by the words of the plain meaning, we go by the words of halachah, the words of the plain meaning, and we do not go by the words of the Kabbalists.

23:06 But when it is a matter of prayer, for prayer is the most exalted and highest thing, we go by the words of our masters the Kabbalists in matters of prayer. And therefore, at a time of prayer, which is a time of favor, it is proper to pray at midnight, to pray before Hashem, blessed be He, to arouse Hashem's mercy at this time, that He should already desire to redeem us, that the hatred, the jealousy and the rivalry should already cease from the Jewish people, that mercy and forgiveness should be aroused, that everyone should be aroused together, praying in unity.

23:39 There is a responsum of Rabbeinu the Radbaz, he writes in part 3, siman 912, he writes there that there is a great virtue in praying and saying everything together with the many. And from here one should also know: when saying Tehillim, it is good to gather together to say it; saying a prayer, or a Tikkun, or anything, also Pesukei DeZimrah - it is good for the whole congregation to say it together; the Ketores, the korbanos - for everyone to say them together.

24:06 For this time when we pray - he explains it so: whether in words of prayer and supplications and Selichos, or anything that is said in unity, the power of this prayer cancels out the whole kelipah, all the airs, and rises and ascends higher and higher, upward, before the Holy One, blessed be He. And this is the virtue of prayer when we pray together and say Selichos together. This is also the virtue of communal prayer, which the Sages taught in Tractate Berachos, page 6b, page 7, page 8a, that Hashem, blessed be He, loves communal prayer, when we pray before Hashem, blessed be He, together.

24:37 For the whole virtue of communal prayer is so that our prayer will be accepted. So wrote Rabbeinu Yonah, on page 4, and Rabbeinu the Rosh, in klal 4, se'if 11; in siman 11 Rabbeinu the Rosh wrote: 'And it is good to pray with the congregation.' And so ruled our master the great eagle, Rabbeinu the Rambam, in the Laws of Prayer, chapter 8, halachah 1 and halachah 3. Rabbeinu the Rambam ruled that one must pray in unity, together, with ten. And so ruled Maran the Shulchan Aruch in siman 90, and so it is written in the Zohar, Pekudei, page 245b.

25:05 There are many, many places on this that taught the preciousness and the value and the importance of prayer, the importance of prayer before Hashem together, in unity, so that our prayer will be accepted. The enactment and the importance of communal prayer is so that the Jewish people meet one another. If we did not have communal prayer, we would not meet, there would be no gratitude between one person and another, we could not complete one another, we could not love one another.

25:36 The whole meaning, and the prayer - Rabbeinu the Rambam says an astonishing thing. It is in the Laws of the Sanhedrin, in Rabbeinu the Rambam, in chapter 24, halachah 10, Rabbeinu the Rambam says - this is also in halachah 2, he writes it twice in almost the same wording, he varies the wording - Rabbeinu the Rambam says, this is a warning to the judges. Look at what Rabbeinu the Rambam says, this is a terrible, awesome fear.

26:01 After all, we all know that a judge who judges, or any judge, someone who has to rule and to judge, then he has haughtiness or authority, or he can come to treat their honor lightly, because he hears some story, and he can come to disgrace him, Heaven forbid. And Rabbeinu the Rambam, in the Laws of the Sanhedrin, chapter 24, halachah 10, explains that it is forbidden, and one must be careful not to treat their honor lightly, for they are the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and Heaven forbid, far be it - one must be careful not to treat lightly the honor of the Jewish people, whom the Holy One, blessed be He...

26:34 And also in halachah 2 he writes this way: 'And let him not stride over the heads of the holy people, for Hashem of Hosts, blessed be He, He brought them out of Egypt and performed miracles for them...' And even if they were ignorant, common people, or lowly and ignorant, still one must not belittle them, Heaven forbid, for it is always common that people belittle. So the Rambam explains to the judge: be careful and guard yourself when you judge and you rule that same person who came to you to be judged - you must judge him with awe and with fear, and be careful of his honor, for he is a son of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and far be it from you to treat his honor lightly, Heaven forbid.

27:10 This is how Rabbeinu the Rambam explains it, for the sake of this awe, to understand how important it is to him, and how much contemplation he has about every value and every thing. This appears many times in the Rambam. There is also in the Rambam, in the Laws of Me'ilah, chapter 8, halachah 8, the Rambam explains there: come and see the giving of the reward of mitzvos - that a person wants to fulfill some mitzvah and he does not know its reason, so he could, Heaven forbid, come to treat the mitzvah lightly, Heaven forbid. He says: come and learn from me'ilah, misusing sacred things: 'If wood and stones, earth and ashes, upon which the name of the Master of the world is called' - we see that a person who misuses them, even unintentionally, needs atonement -

27:46 then a mitzvah upon which the name of Hashem, blessed be He, is called - how much more so, how much must one treasure and value each and every mitzvah. This is how Rabbeinu the Rambam explains it. And this is found all along, several times, in the Rambam: how the Rambam assigns preciousness and value to the importance of a mitzvah, how the Rambam teaches us how to come close to Hashem, how to care for the honor of the other. It is also in the Laws of Gifts to the Poor, chapter 10, halachah 1.

28:11 The Rambam says that the mitzvah of tzedakah is a positive mitzvah greater than all the positive mitzvos, and one must be careful with it, for it is the seed of Avraham Avinu. When a person gives tzedakah, he reveals the seed of Avraham Avinu, he reveals his mercy, he reveals the compassion he has, and he cancels his trait of cruelty. And if we did not pray together with the congregation, if we did not pray in unity, if we did not meet, and Hashem, blessed be He, did not gather us, we could not have mercy on one another, we could not have compassion on one another.

28:42 As (the Rambam) explains in the Laws of One Who Injures and Damages, chapter 5, halachah 10: the Rambam warns that a person who, Heaven forbid, was injured should not be cruel and refuse to forgive, Heaven forbid. And so in the Laws of Character Traits, chapter seven, halachah seven, the Rambam says in the Laws of Character Traits to be lenient and to forgive, for this world is not worth anything, and to be a person of mercy and forgiveness. And whoever forgives - the spirit of the Sages is pleased with him. He also wrote in the Laws of One Who Injures and Damages, chapter 5, halachah 10, at the end.

29:07 The line of thought the Rambam teaches us, so that we will be more in awe of the other person, we will be in awe of Hashem - beyond the halachah. The Rambam will always teach us what his outlook is, what his understanding is, what fear of Heaven is. That is why this book is full and overflowing with fear of Heaven: beyond his ruling and beyond his halachah, the Rambam took care to give his outlook and his opinion, and the moral teaching, and the awe - how to conduct oneself before Hashem, blessed be He.

29:40 We know that learning the Torah of Hashem, blessed be He, is a matter of responsibility. We learn the Torah; we must learn it for the sake of Heaven. True, we review and learn, but the essence of Torah - the Sages taught in Tractate Berachos, page 17a, in the words of Rashi and Tosafos - is the whole meaning of learning Torah for its own sake, that one learns the Torah for its own sake. There is learning Torah for its own sake, and there is learning Torah not for its own sake, of which it would have been better for him not to have been created than to have been created, as they counted and concluded in Tractate Eruvin, page 13b: 'It would have been better for him not to have been created than to have been created;

30:13 now that he has been created, let him examine his deeds' - let him do teshuvah. But as for the value of Torah, what will become of it? According to the words of Rashi and Tosafos, according to the words of the Ritva in Tractate Yoma, page 73a, we learn from here that a person who learns Torah not for its own sake - the meaning is not only for the sake of honor, and so on, rather 'not for its own sake' is what Tosafos wrote in Taanis, page 7a, in Pesachim, page 50, in the words of the Sfas Emes - the Sfas Emes also brings this - the meaning is that he learns in order to provoke his fellow, and the whole essence of his learning is to provoke.

30:46 He uses his Torah to cause his fellow pain, he uses his Torah to smear the other, to argue with the other not in the way of the Torah, but in order to disgrace him, in order not to honor him, to disgrace him as much as possible. That is the goal of his learning. And about this they said: it would have been better for him not to have been created than to have been created. And it is also in Sefer Chassidim, siman 289, that Sefer Chassidim writes that he is called completely wicked: whoever learns Torah not for its own sake, that is, he learns in order to provoke and to hate and to hurt another person through his Torah - he is called completely wicked.

31:23 For Torah not for its own sake, when they speak of learning Torah not for its own sake, the meaning is for the sake of honor, the meaning is that he learns in order to be called 'Rabbi' - that is not for its own sake, but still, from 'not for its own sake' he will come to 'for its own sake,' as Maran ruled in the Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah, siman 246, se'if 20, and so the Shach also brought it, in se'if katan 19; he brought it in Birkei Yosef, siman 246, se'if 12; Maran the Chida also brought this, he also brought this. But the intention is that one learns the Torah in order to come close to Hashem, blessed be He.

31:51 'Torah scholars increase peace in the world.' Torah scholars do not increase disputes in the world. If we had many Torah scholars, we would have to have great peace in the world. The fact that we have so many disputes shows that we do not have many Torah scholars, and it shows that we do not have much Torah for its own sake. And learning the Rambam is the only learning that can bring a person to fear of Heaven, when he learns it: in everything, the Rambam will instill in him fear of Hashem, will instill in him the outlook, the emunah and the knowledge in truth, how to come close to Hashem, blessed be He, and how to honor people and all creatures, and not to treat their honor lightly, Heaven forbid, for this is the essence, the greatest learning,

32:35 the closest for coming close to Hashem. And I, the small and lowly one, bless you that you should succeed, that you should have help from Heaven, that the name of Heaven should become beloved through you, that we merit to see all the words of Rabbeinu the Rambam, all the prophecy at the end of the Laws of Kings, that we merit that time when there will be no famine there, no jealousy and no rivalry, 'for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea,' that we merit true unity, that we merit to truly love one another, that we merit to drive baseless hatred out from among us, that we merit to learn the Torah for its own sake, truly for the sake of Hashem, in order to fulfill this learning,

33:15 in order to come close to Him, blessed be He. Rabbeinu the Meiri, in Tractate Pesachim, page 50 - Rabbeinu the Meiri also interprets and explains this; it is the Meiri, it is the Ritva, it is Rashi, Tosafos, the Rambam - all of them, all the great ones, say with one voice that one who learns Torah not for its own sake and has in mind to provoke his fellow, Heaven forbid - it would have been better for him never to have been created. This is an astonishing idea: how all of them hold the same view.

33:41 A person must constantly search and stop: my learning - I learn in order to fulfill; I learn not in order to receive reward and sit in the Garden of Eden; I learn in order to crown the Holy One, blessed be He, in His kingship; and I learn in order to increase peace in the world, I learn in order to increase love in the world, I learn in order to drive hatred out of the world, I learn in order to honor the elderly, to honor my father and my mother, to honor the Sages, to honor the wretched, the destitute, the poor, the lowly, the despised.

34:12 He removes the evil speech and the baseless hatred from among us. These are the things that only they, and only they alone, will let us merit to see the footsteps of the geulah. As it was in the time of the Beis HaMikdash: when the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, and there was Marta bas Baysos and Yehoshua ben Gamla, who bought the priesthood, and they left it so to the Sages and to Rabbi Yochanan, and everything that happened in the destruction of Jerusalem was because they did not honor one another.

34:38 And there was also a dispute with the zealots and with the Sages and with the rich; there was a lack of one thought and one mind: that one must love everyone and help everyone, help the poor, help the weak, help the wretched, help the despised, help the scorned. And whoever thought about them - look and see what the Rambam - how he could think of a judge - he warns him, when he judges the one before him in court, he warns him not to stride over the heads of the holy people.

35:07 And this is an astonishing idea: how much he looked, and how much thought he had, and his judgment and his outlook, that beyond the ruling and the halachah that he judged and considered and settled in his mind, he also took care to shine his light and his opinion for the generations, so that all will know Hashem, and know how to conduct themselves.

35:31 And may it be His will that, by the merit of Rabbeinu the Rambam, Hashem, blessed be He, will bless all the rabbis, the great ones of Torah, all the honored rabbis, all the holy congregation, all your holy city - a city of Torah, a city of Torah scholars, a holy city, the air here is pure, of holy ones, of pure ones, of tzaddikim. May Hashem, blessed be He, strengthen you, may Hashem, blessed be He, guard you, may He give you help from Heaven, may He also give comfort to all those who were wounded and to all the families who were in the terror attack that took place last year; may Hashem, blessed be He, strengthen them, the holy families, all the holy ones, all the tzaddikim, all your holy city.

36:13 May you have help from Heaven, may Hashem, blessed be He, shine upon you with a precious light, may you have miracles and wonders, a good life. May you be blessed with all the blessings stated in the Torah, in Scripture and in the Mishnah and in Rabbeinu the Rambam - may the merit of the Rambam protect us and all the Jewish people. May we merit the complete geulah speedily in our days, amen and amen. [unclear] everyone singing together, Together, Together, Together, [unclear]...

57:57 [unclear] a good and long life, that you succeed in all matters, [unclear] for good and for blessing. Fortunate are you, Israel, fortunate are you, Israel. I have merited to know such a holy city of Torah scholars, and such holy and honored rabbis, [unclear] the study of the Torah of the Rambam - that you succeed and finish and learn and begin the Rambam endless times; and the main thing is to begin the Rambam and not only to finish it, as we see on Simchas Torah, that we begin Bereishis - right away we finish the Torah and right away we begin Bereishis, because the main thing is to begin and not to finish.

58:29 May it be His will that it be a blessing for everyone, and that they begin to learn the Rambam with blessing, for all the good influences.