Q&A: Question
Question
Question
Hello,
I saw a certain book that notes various differences between Maimonides’ Sefer HaMitzvot and the Mishneh Torah, and then basically offers various theories for why those differences exist.
The question is: is it really correct to look for differences and give reasons for them? Maybe the differences stem from various technical reasons of one kind or another that have nothing at all to do with deep ideas of different sorts?
And another question on top of that: the various theories in the book seemed to me, at least, pretty fanciful (here he meant holiness of this kind, here he meant holiness of another kind; here he discussed the commandment from the perspective of the Jewish people, here he discussed the commandment from the perspective of the Holy One, blessed be He, and so on—various ways of reconciling different discrepancies). Am I right in that feeling, or are there really genuinely such deep reasons?
Thank you very much
Answer
As a rule, there is no reason to reconcile everything, certainly not by forcing it. Sometimes he simply changed his mind. Sometimes it really is because of the difference in genre (I explained this in the past regarding the contradiction there in defining repentance as a commandment). Therefore, each proposed explanation has to be examined on its own merits. If it is reasonable, then there is no reason to insist that there is a contradiction here. But if it is not reasonable, then one can simply assume that Maimonides changed his mind.