A class by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah: Sight, sound, and fragrance of anything forbidden — Hekdesh, chametz on Pesach, a corpse — carry their own rabbinic issur hana’ah, even without a biblical violation.

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg has launched a new series of classes on the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah in response to the Rebbe’s call to learn at least one halacha in depth.

The Rebbe initiated a major effort to unite all Jews with the study of the entire encyclopedic work, Mishneh Torah, by learning three chapters a day and completing the entire work in less than a year. Alternatively, one can learn one chapter and complete the entire Mishneh Torah in close to three years. The Rebbe also gave a third option to study Maimonides’ companion work, Sefer Hamitzvos that parallel the Mishneh Torah.

In addition, the Rebbe requested that we learn one halacha in depth.

We recently began the 46nd cycle of Mishneh Torah which inspired Rabbi Greenberg to record brief classes on selected passages of the Mishneh Torah.

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is a shliach of the Rebbe in Buffalo NY and the Director of the Jewish Discovery Center, and, for over 50 years, has taught thousands of classes on all aspects of Jewish knowledge.

Rabbi Greenberg has also authored dozens of works on diverse subjects including several volumes of commentary on the Mishneh Torah.

Many of Rabbi Greenberg’s classes can be accessed on his website rabbigreenberg.com.

Can looking at something be “deriving benefit” from it? Can smelling something be forbidden even when eating it obviously is? In this shiur we unpack a fascinating and often overlooked halacha in the Rambam’s Hilchos Meila — one that reshapes how we think about issur hana’ah (forbidden benefit) far beyond the Beis Hamikdash.

The Rambam teaches that Kol, Mar’eh, v’Reach shel Hekdesh — the sound, sight, and fragrance of something consecrated — may not be benefited from. There’s no biblical (Torah-level) violation in merely looking, hearing, or smelling, but the Chachamim forbade it rabbinically all the same. From this single halacha, the Poskim extend the principle to other areas of issur hana’ah throughout Shas — Basar b’Chalav, Chametz on Pesach, and beyond.