Maimonides' Omissions: Explaining Exclusions from Mishneh Torah
Comprehensive guidelines posited by interpreters as to why Maimonides excluded certain laws from his Mishneh Torah
English Abstract
From here, with slight stylistic adjustments, such as splitting into paragraphs.
Maimonides in the introduction to his monumental Mishneh Torah (literally “Repetition of the Torah”) promises to include all laws mentioned in previous authoritative sources - Mishnah, Tosefta, Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud, Sifra, and Sifrei. Maimonides goes so far as to say that after reading the Hebrew Bible and Maimonides’ own Mishneh Torah, no other work is necessary to know the Oral Law.
Because of this somewhat astonishing guarantee of comprehensiveness, commentators of the Mishneh Torah frequently question why Maimonides does not mention this or that law which is mentioned in one of authoritative sources Maimonides promises to encompass. These commentators extrapolate rules that Maimonides used to judge what he would include in his Mishneh Torah, which Maimonides implicitly used when composing this work.
[…] Brand […] attempts to assemble as many of these rules offered by the commentators as he can find, based on some recent works that collect general rules (“k’lalim”) regarding Mishneh Torah.
He divides these rules into two categories: those that say that Maimonides left out laws because of something extrinsic to the actual law under discussion, on the one hand, and those that say that he left them out because of something intrinsic, on the other hand. Each rule is discussed in depth in the footnotes, collating and analyzing many sources.
The article ends with the following question concerning many of the rules suggested by the commentators: How do these rules fit with the aforementioned statement of Maimonides that he will include all laws from previous sources, which we said was the basis for asking these “questions of omission” in the first place?
Summary
My published article presents an in-depth compilation of guidelines outlined by interpreters to clarify why Maimonides chose to exclude certain laws from his Mishneh Torah. Maimonides himself expressly indicated that his Mishneh Torah was intended to be a comprehensive compilation of Jewish law, aiming to encapsulate all pertinent laws for every generation.
Various reasons are postulated by commentator as to what led Maimonides to omit some laws from his Mishneh Torah, which are categorized in the study into extrinsic and intrinsic.
Extrinsic reasons refer to those that depict the laws omitted by Maimonides for reasons unconnected to the inherent nature of the law, such as ambiguity or inconsistency. Intrinsic principles, on the other hand, characterize the types of laws that Maimonides omitted due to their inherent qualities, like laws reliant on tradition or those not pertinent to future generations.
The article itemizes 13 principles for each category, offering examples and references for each principle. It extensively cites commentators and critics who have discussed Maimonides' omissions, offering either justification or criticism of these rules.
Citation
Ezra Brand, “Principles of the Omission of Halachot in the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides” (Hebrew), Hamaayan (53:2, Tevet 2013), pp. 31-54
עזרא ברנד, "כללי השמטת דינים מספר 'משנה תורה' לרמב"ם", המעין נג, ב (טבת תשע"ג), עמ' 31-54
Where to find the article
PDF:
Link to PDF and text:
https://www.machonso.org/hamaayan/?gilayon=28&id=978
Also here, text only: http://shaalvim.co.il/torah/maayan-article.asp?backto=&ed=%E2%EC%E9%E5%EF%20%E8%E1%FA%20%FA%F9%F2%E2%20&id=693
Cited by
Marc Shapiro, Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History (2015)
ר' עדיאל ברויאר, בתוך אשכול "השמטות הרמב"ם - להשמיט חלק מהסוגיה בגלל שהמסקנה לא התקבלה?", פורום אוצר החכמה (11 אוקטובר, 2015)
ר' הראל דביר, "טהרת נשים לקרבן פסח – שימוש באמצעים פרמקולוגיים", אסיא צה-צו (תשע''ה) עמ' 125-134
ר' מיכאל אברהם, "כללים טריוויאליים ככללים שליליים: על פסיכולוגיה ולוגיקה (טור 221)", באתר שלו (https://mikyab.net/)
ר' יוסף גבריאל בקהופר, "בגדר חיוב קידוש השם ויהרג ואל יעבור", פני משה: לכבודו ולזכרו של ר' משה יצחק עזרל ז"ל (תשפ"ב)