AN EVALUATION OF MAIMONIDES' ENUMERATION OF THE 613 COMMANDMENTS, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE POSITIVE COMMANDMENTS by Albert D. Friedberg A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto © Copyright by Albert D. 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Canada AN EVALUATION OF MAIMONIDES' ENUMERATION OF THE 613 COMMANDMENTS, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE POSITIVE COMMANDMENTS Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Albert D. Friedberg Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto Abstract The TaRYaG count, that is the traditional enumeration of the 613 commandments contained in the five Mosaic books (Torah), has gained a prominent place in Judaism. The count is based on a dictum found in the Babylonian Talmud and attributed to R. Simlai, a Palestinian rabbi of the late third century. No one did more to see this count achieve the importance it has than Moses Maimonides, the prominent 12th-century Jewish philosopher and perhaps the most important post-talmudic jurist of all times. M. offered an impressive methodology, made up of rules of individuation, identification and interpretation - in all, fourteen rules - to support his ii proposed enumerative scheme and used it to critique all previous such attempts. By his own account, Maimonides undertook this project with the sole aim to provide a comprehensive outline for his upcoming Code of Jewish Law. This thesis demonstrates the enormous difficulties inherent in such a project - difficulties that could not have passed unnoticed by such an accomplished author - and seeks to uncover any other reason or reasons that may have prompted him to adopt such a constraining count. The thesis concludes by speculating that Maimonides may have found it convenient to use the TaRYaG scheme in order to introduce into the list of commandments the beliefs in the existence of God and in His unity - beliefs that had previously not been considered commandments. An ancillary product of the dissertation is the discovery that many of the commandment designations proposed in the enumerative scheme are abandoned in the Halakhot, a discovery that was noted, albeit only partially, by less than a handful of scholars over the past eight hundred and fifty years. The dissertation examines the proposed solutions and rejects them on a number of counts. A systematic analysis of these occurrences suggests a more consistent solution and reveals an aspect of Maimonides that has not been sufficiently appreciated, Maimonides the exegete and legal philosopher. The agenda-oriented research also examines some of the important innovations contained in M's list of positive commandments, the hermeneutics behind them and the politico-philosophical ideas that may have informed them. iii To the memory of my father, z "l, a man of unusual foresight, a generous dose of skepticism, a trader's decisiveness and clear and uncomplicated thinking. To my mother, may she live and be well, to whom I will be forever indebted for sending me away to further my Jewish education at the cost of great sacrifice. iv Acknowledgements This journey began more than 45 years ago, while I was attending yeshivah in Baltimore. There I had the privilege to study under Rabbi Jacob Weinberg z"l, who was later to become the dean of the school. He initiated me in Rambam studies and fired up my young spirit with titillating insights and brilliant inferences drawn from whatever text was in his ken, be it Tanakh, Talmud, Rambam or another rishon. He taught me how to read. He taught me that to listen to a text one must silence all other sounds. He taught me that what a text did not say was as important as what it said. Alas, to my chagrin I was too young to learn all that he could offer, even if that had been possible. After I got married and moved to Toronto, I had the fortune to meet up again with old friends from yeshivah days, disciples as it happens of Rabbi Weinberg z"l. First, my old roommate and closest friend, R. Uziel Milevsky, z"l, with whom I studied rabbinic works be-havruta. A few years later he left Toronto to become the chief rabbi of Mexico. Through the years of physical separation we kept in regular contact and reunited again in Toronto, not long before his untimely passing away. His creative and analytic mind were a constant inspiration; his enjoyment at hearing a hiddush was contagious, his intellectual generosity exemplary. I truly miss him. Second, my present havruta, R. Moshe Hochman, yibadel le-hayim, with whom I have been studying on an almost daily basis for close to forty years. A good part of these years has been spent studying Rambam, and in particular the Sefer ha-Mitsvot and the Mishneh Torah. Held back by our Sages' counsel to tone down our praises of those who are present, I will say v only that it has been a privilege and a supreme joy to spend many thousands of hours with him poring over texts. From him I learned the meaning of intellectual honesty, humility and patience, and from him I acquired a love for research. I know that he did not agree with me on many points of this dissertation and therefore I want to exonerate him of any criticism. And yet, I want to give him credit for what the reader finds pleasing and right in this work. Even where it may not represent his direct input, it certainly is the fruit of our daily engagement. I also would like to single out R. Asher Turin, another friend from yeshivah days and an extraordinary talmid haham, who patiently reviewed with me an earlier draft of the entire dissertation. He not only helped me sharpen many an argument but also corrected outright errors that only a true talmid haham like him could detect on first reading. If any errors remain it is only because I did not wish to burden him with reviewing the later drafts. There are many other people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. In the first instance, I must acknowledge Fuerh Tang, who worked tirelessly on all the technical aspects of the dissertation, from filing, editing and keeping track of the various versions to the creation of a bibliography and its linkage to footnotes. Given my very poor computer skill, I seriously doubt that this dissertation could have come into being without her assistance. To Josie Parks, for editing and smoothing over my deplorable writing style while still making sure that the text retained the original meaning. To Sharon Moss for her attention to detail in the never-ending job of finding and correcting typographical errors — if the work still has typos it's because I did not give her enough time to review it. To Andrew Moss for his ability and perseverance in searching for and obtaining difficult to find research material. To Effy Lev for his quick response to my cries of help whenever vi my computer acted up. In general, to all my office co-workers, whose extra effort and dedication covered the many hours and days when I was absent, busy with courses, exams and research, and in particular, Henry Fenig, Danny Gordon, Rick Zauderer, Yakov Friedman and Brenda Lev. My deep appreciation goes to my sons-in-law, Avi Horowitz and Dan Scheiner, for their patience in listening to my ramblings and for the many interesting and valuable suggestions that they made. A very special thank you goes to Professor Yakov Elman. The final shape of this dissertation owes a great deal to his early intervention. Despite his busy schedule, he was gracious enough to read the entire manuscript in its final form, to which he offered many valuable suggestions. Thank you to David Sklare and Haggai ben Shammai for generously helping me understand some critical Judeo-Arabic terms, and to Jim Diamond and Hindi Najman for their interest and constant encouragement.