Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 2 (Negative) -- Prohibition: 47 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 2 - The 365 Prohibitions of the Tora
47 - ACCEPTING OPINIONS CONTRARY TO THOSE TAUGHT IN THE TORAH
In his “Mishneh Torah”, Maimonides explains the full scope of the commandment: “It is not only idolatry to which we must not turn in thought. We are likewise warned not to permit any thought to enter our minds, that might cause one to reject a fundamental principle of the Torah… For the mind is limited; not every mind is capable of attaining knowledge of the truth in its purity. If every man were to follow after the vagaries of his heart, the result would be universal ruin, ensuing from the limitations of the human intellect. How so? Sometimes one will be drawn to idolatry. Sometimes he will waver in his mind concerning the Unity of God… Sometimes he will harbor doubts concerning the Torah, as to whether it is of divine origin or not. And such a person, being ignorant of the logical principles which need to be applied in order to attain positive truth, will lapse into heresy. In this regard, the Torah exhorts us: and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined...etc. This means: you shall not allow yourselves to be drawn each one after his own limited intelligence, to imagine that his mind is attaining truth.”*