On an important digital layout of Maimonides’ Sefer HaMitzvot

Part of a series on digital layouts of rabbinic texts. See previous pieces in the series here, section “Digital Layout of the Talmud and other Rabbinic Texts”

Wikipedia, entry “Sefer HaMitzvot”:

Sefer Hamitzvot ("Book of Commandments", Hebrew: ספר המצוות ) is a work by […] Maimonides. While there are various other works titled similarly, the title "Sefer Hamitzvot" without a modifier refers to Maimonides' work. It is a listing of all the commandments of the Torah, with a brief description for each.

It originally appeared in Arabic [...], and was translated by the Provençal rabbi Moses ibn Tibbon [...] in the 13th century. A new Hebrew translation from the original Arabic was made by the noted Yemenite scholar, Rabbi Yosef Qafih.

In the work, the Rambam lists all the 613 mitzvot traditionally contained in the Torah (Pentateuch). He describes the following fourteen principles (klalim/shorashim) to guide his selection.

Commentators, from Nahmanides and on, mostly focus on Maimonides’ introductory principles, and which mitzvot he includes and doesn't include. The literature on this is vast.^[1]

This digital edition on the website Da’at highlights the Sefer HaMitzvot for what it primarily is: a preparatory work to Mishneh Torah.^[2] As Maimonides states explicitly in his intro, Sefer HaMitzvot  is a preparatory work, so he won't forget to include anything in Mishneh Torah.^[3]

Here’s a screenshot of commandments # 13-15, for illustration:

Maimonides systematically states:

1. The commandment number

2. The verse

3. A short discussion of some drashot, to show the number of commandments

4. In negative commandments, he’ll include the punishment for transgression

5. Who is commanded: Only men, only priests, etc.

6. He generally concludes the main places in Mishnah and Talmud Bavli where the halachot of the commandment is discussed.

This edition highlights this structure very well.

As an aside, somewhat related to this, I'd like to point out a general point about Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. Maimonides in Mishneh Torah famously and controversially almost never explains the Talmudic sources for laws. It’s important to point out that this is essentially the same as the Mishnah. It cannot be a coincidence that Mishneh Torah has a very similar name as the Mishneh, using the same root (שנ"ה).^[4]

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^[1]  In addition to Nahmanides, see:

מהר"ץ חיות (ב'כל כתבי מהר"ץ חיות'); ירוחם פישל פערלא, 'ספר המצוות לרס"ג'; משה הלברטל, 'רמב"ן'.

^[2]Many of Da'at's digital editions are ascribed to a “Yehuda Eisenberg“. I originally assumed that this is the American-Israeli theoretical physics professor Yehuda Eisenberg:

פרופ' יהודה אייזנברג - קורות חיים

But J. Tabory pointed out that the chronology doesn’t match.

^[3]  On omissions in Mishneh Torah in general, and Maimonides inadvertently not including halachot in particular, see my article in the Hebrew journal HaMaayan, discussed in a previous blogpost: “Maimonides' Omissions: Explaining Exclusions from Mishneh Torah” (May 30, 2023)

^[4] On the Mishnah in general, as well as the issue of sources of laws in particular there, see Ishai Rosen-Zvi in his Hebrew introductory essay, available on his page on Academia.edu.