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.
The Torah says “Lo yihyeh lecha b’kischa” — you shall not have two sets of weights in your pocket. The Rambam rules that anyone who keeps an imperfect weight or measure in his home or store violates a negative commandment, even if he turns it into a chamber pot. The reason: someone who doesn’t know it’s defective may come along and measure with it in a sale. Yet the Rambam also rules there are no lashes for this lav, because no action is involved.
That short halacha opens a rich discussion. Is the chamber-pot ruling a rabbinic decree (Minchat Chinuch) or Torah law (the Alter Rebbe and other Rishonim)? If buying chametz on Pesach earns lashes because purchase is an action, why doesn’t buying a false weight? And what does it mean for the Torah itself to forbid one thing because it might lead to another?
