Q&A: Do Not Deviate
Do Not Deviate
Question
Maimonides, in the Laws of Rebels, says on the one hand that one is obligated under “do not deviate” even regarding decrees and enactments (and Nachmanides, as is well known, disagrees).
On the other hand, he writes that a rebellious elder is liable to strangulation only over a matter whose intentional violation incurs karet.
I did not understand how he splits the passage in Deuteronomy 17.
Answer
There is discussion of the question whether a rebellious elder is liable to death even for a rabbinic law whose Torah-level counterpart carries karet. But in any case, there is a distinction between the law of the elder and the law of an ordinary person. Even according to Nachmanides there is such a distinction, since a rebellious elder is liable only over a matter whose intentional violation incurs karet, whereas “do not deviate” applies to every interpretation of the Sages in any Torah law.