Q&A: Maimonides on the commandment of eating sacrificial offerings
Maimonides on the commandment of eating sacrificial offerings
Question
Maimonides wrote, in commandment no. 89, that the commandment of eating sacrificial offerings applies only to priests and only to the most holy offerings, since only there was the command and commandment stated explicitly. But he added that even with lesser holy offerings there is a commandment, except that it is derivative.
A. I did not understand what “derivative” means. Either it is a commandment or it is not.
B. Why is it derivative? If there is no explicit command about it, then it is not a commandment; so why should it be drawn along after something else?
C. To which commandment is it derivative—to the commandment of eating and atonement, or to the overall commandment of offering the sacrifice?
D. Does Maimonides mean that even in the owner’s portion there is a derivative commandment?
We would be very grateful if the honorable Rabbi would answer and expand on this matter, or point to a place where he discussed it at length, since he has dealt extensively with the roots of the commandments according to Maimonides.
With thanks and blessings
Answer
I don’t know. It really is interesting. There are two possible ways to understand his words: either this is a commandment derived from exposition, and therefore it is not counted. That does not seem to be the implication of his wording. Or, this is a commandment that is not part of the atonement, but it is indeed a commandment. Therefore it is not counted as a separate commandment, because it is part of the commandment of the sacrifice itself. That is unlike the most holy offerings, where the eating is counted as a commandment in its own right. In this context, the concept of “dragging along” in the categories of labor on the Sabbath in the laws of unwitting transgressions is interesting. https://www.yeshiva.org.il/wiki/index.php/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94_%D7%AA%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%93%D7%99%D7%AA:%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%94
Many thanks for making the effort to answer my question.
And indeed it is surprising that he did not address this issue in his book It Shall Send Forth Its Roots, in Root 12, where Maimonides deals with eating sacrificial offerings. I looked there to see whether you had addressed the topic, but I did not find it.