The qualification of the 613 mitzvos | Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz | June 2 2026

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Good morning, good morning, everybody. Hope, uh, hope you're well. Um, we're still, uh, this will probably be the last session on the particular letter we're looking at, so don't worry, we're going to be almost finished with it. Uh, this is the letter to, uh, Reb Pinchas HaDayan, who you'll recall was a Dayan who came from Provence, came from France, and relocated from Christian France and relocated to Islamic, uh, Egypt, and had different adjustment problems and occasionally got into some disagreements with the Rambam. disagreements with the Rambam. Uh, etc. And, as I say, the letter is very interesting because it is a fascinating mixture of personal, uh, problems with halakhic issues. So, the last issue we're going to talk about is indeed a halakhic issue. And, in order to understand the background, there's a lot of, uh, preliminary information I need to give you, and I need to revisit something we discussed a long time ago. So, I'm not sure if I hope you remember, I I'm not sure if I hope you remember, I hope you forget. That's always a problem when you when you repeat. Uh, but here is the thing. One of the very, very beautiful works that the Rambam wrote, uh, before he wrote the Mishneh Torah, was a much shorter work called the Sefer HaMitzvot, the Sefer of Mitzvot. And unlike the Mishneh Torah that was written in Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew, uh, Sefer HaMitzvot was originally written in Arabic,

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00Good morning, good morning, everybody. Hope, uh, hope you're well. Um, we're still, uh, this will…
2. 3:37Uh and of course, 248 + 365 = the 613, and that is the tradition that…
3. 7:42bones. And every time you do a positive commandment, you are giving you are giving spiritual…
4. 11:44count him for a minyan. So, he was willing And again, as I say, it's like…
5. 15:20And it's known as Bahag. Bahag. Bahag means Bahal, the author of Hilchos Gedolos. Hilchos Gedolos…
6. 19:29we have one commandment called listen to the Hahamim. We have it We have it both…
7. 23:32I am convinced. Now, am I obligated to follow his decision because he was a gadol?…
8. 27:04and their decisions were not binding. In fact, the Rambam even had a problem that he…
9. 31:09until the morning. Meaning, finish it. Is that a divine command? Yes, it is. It's a…
10. 35:11but if it still exists, this mitzvah will still apply, right? So, that's a machlokes of…

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