![]() And if the Rambam might understand that Sinai can include post-Sinaitic commands, is it unreasonable to assume it can include those written beforehand by the Divine author? While it is theoretically possible to claim that these, too, were given at Sinai and “written in its place”, this does not appear to be the plain meaning of the text (nor would it explain why Moshe was “stumped” by the question of Tzelofchad’s daughters)-and clearly is not the view of Rav Yehuda. More difficult are the many mitzvot as a result of the events occurring after Sinai, including the laws of inheritance in response to the inquiry of the daughters of Tzelofchad, and the prohibition to accept (male) converts from the nation of Moav because they refused to give us bread and water in the desert. Were these all given again at Sinai and “written in its place”? And that is before we open up parshat Bo, where many of the mitzvot relating to Pesach are recorded. Our Sages note that the mitzvot of Shabbat, judgement and kivud av v’eim were given at Mara (Sanhedrin 56b), prior to their arrival at Sinai. It is exceedingly difficult to take the notion that the 613 mitzvot originated at Sinai literally. It is almost as if, according to the Rambam, the opening sections of the Torah have legal applicability for non-Jews only! In fact, the Rambam’s proof to his “Sinai only” theory is based on the teaching that “613 mitzvot were given to Moshe at Sinai” (Makkot 24a). This last example is a fascinating one, as the prohibition of ever min hachai applies to non-Jews, who received no commandments at Sinai. As Rashi explains, this verse teaches that as long as the “soul ” is in the animal-i.e., it is still alive-we may not eat from the animal. Nor, the Rambam explains, is the prohibition of eating ever min hachai, a limb torn from a living animal, incumbent upon us because it is one of the “seven mitzvot on all descendants of Noach”, i.e., all of humanity, but rather because it, too, was commanded at Sinai-being derived from the verse, “However, be strong, do not eat the blood, for the blood is the soul and you shall not eat the soul with the flesh” (Devarim 12:23). Similarly, the Rambam notes that the obligation to have a brit milah is not because G-d commanded Abraham to do so, but rather because the mitzvah was given to Moshe at Sinai and is recorded at the beginning of parshat Tazria. However, it was only at Sinai that the prohibition was affirmed and thus became obligatory. Mitzvot are obligatory because, and only because, they were given by G-d to Moshe at Har Sinai. The historical origins of the prohibition of gid hanasheh may stem from Yaakov’s encounter with the “man”, and that may be the reason the Torah prohibited the gid hanasheh in the first place. “They said to him: It was said at Sinai, but written at its place.” This retort of the Sages is, in the words of the Rambam (Commentary to Mishna 7:6), “a major principle of Judaism” to which we must pay extra attention. Nonetheless, the Sages disagree and limit the prohibition to kosher animals only. As Rabbi Yehuda notes (Chulin 100b), the gid hanasheh was prohibited from the time of Yaakov, a time when the concept of kosher and non-kosher animals did not yet exist and hence, if the Torah prohibits the gid hanasheh, it must apply to all animals, kosher or not. Rather, it is a separate stand-alone mitzvah and, based on its historical context, applicable to all animals. Having been given before Sinai, it stands to reason that the prohibition to eat gid hanashe is not part and parcel of the not-yet-given laws of kashrut. ![]() It is the third of the three mitzvot that appear in sefer Breisheet, following on the heels of pru urevu and brit milah. ![]() The prohibition to eat gid hanasheh dates to Yaakov’s encounter with the mysterious “man” as, alone at night, he prepared to meet Eisav. “Because of this the children of Israel, to this day, do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle” (Breisheet 32:33).
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