Asu Seyag La Torah 109
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
Gee Rashi to Deut. 4:2, s.v. Lo tosifu; also, Rashi to Deut 13:1, s.v. Lo toseif alav.
Megillah14a-b; Yerushalmi Megillah 1,#7.
Gee Nachmanides to Deut 4:2, s.v. Lo tosifu. . See Tigay ’s commentary to Deut. 4:2 in the JPS Torah Commentary,(JPS ),
Philadelphia , 1987, pp- 43-44.
Two popular lists of the mitzvot are those of Moses Maimanides(Rambam ) and the Chafetz Chayim(Rabbi Yisrael Meir haKohen ). Rambam '’s list is found in the first volume of his Mishneh Torah and Chafetz Chayim wrote Sefer ha-Mitzvot ha-gatzar(The Concise Book of Mitzvot) translated and published by Feldheim, 1990. Of course, one would be remiss not to mention Sefer haHinnukh, the thirteenth century classic that lists each of the 613 mitzvot in the order and context in which they appear in the Torah . The five volume Hebrew -English edition by Feldheim is highly recommended. Berakhot 19b.
Polemics in Sefer Miswot Gadol of Rabbi Moses of Coucy, Jeffrey R. Woolf, Jewish Quarterly Review, LXXXIX, Nos. 1-2(July-October 1998), pp. 85-94. Ibid., pp. 85-86.
Ha-Smag ha-Shalem, pp. 5-6.
Menachem Elon , Jewish Law, Vol. II, pp 495 ff. The following list can be found in its full treatment on pp. 505-533.
Elon , Jewish Law, pp. 505-506.
Rosh HaShanah 29b . This gezerah is a perfect example of the dynamism of halakhah. The original decree forbade the sounding of the shofar when Rosh HaShanah fell on Shabbat in any place except the Temple. The reason for this gezerah was to build a fence around the Torah that would prevent Jews from mistakenly violating Shabbat on Rosh HaShanah . The concern was that some Jews might be tempted to carry their shofar in public or have it repaired and thereby violate Shabbat . After the destruction of the Temple, Rabban Yohanan ben Zakhai favored annulling this gezerah. He permitted the sounding of the shofar when Rosh HaShanah fell on Shabbat in every town where there was a beit din. Despite Yohanan’s opinion, traditional Halakhah prohibits the shofar when Rosh HaShanah falls on Shabbat (see Rambam ’s Hilkhot Shofar 2.6).
See Rambam ’s Hilkhot Mamrim 2.9 on the issue of including fowl in the prohibition of mixing meat and milk. Our late, beloved teacher Jakob Petu chowski wrote a marvelous essay on the same subject that is now reprinted in a new collection: Studies in Modern Theology and Prayer, JPS , 1998, pp: 6173. What mostly fascinated Petuchowski was the evidence of pluralism as demonstrated by the fact that not every community accepted the expansion of the prohibition against mixing milk and meat to include poultry.
Elon , Jewish Law, pp. 521-533. Also see Joel Roth, The Halakhic Process, pp-190204.
Yevamot 89b-90b. Elon , Jewish Law, ppp. 190ff.
Tosafot: to Yevamot 90b s.v. Ve-ligmar minei haCarmel). Cf. Nachmanides in his novella to Yet ish Law, pp. 519-20 and note 117.
506; Roth, The Halakhic Process,