Parshas Tazriah-Metzorah 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- May 2
- 3 min read
מכות דף כב.
"ארבעים חסר אחת"
Our Mishnah states: The amount of מלקות is forty minus one = 39. The Mishnah explains since the pasuk says: במספר ארבעים, we interpret this to mean the number that is close (causes the) number 40 to be counted after it. If the Torah would’ve said ארבעים במספר, we would take it literally to mean 40. Since the Torah says במספר ארבעים, we דרשין it to mean 39. רבא remarks: "כמה טפשאי שאר אינשי דקיימי מקמי ס"ת ולא קיימי מקמי גברא רבה". Our רבנן are so great, that even though it seems the Torah says explicitly 40, they teach us not to read it literally, but rather that it means 39. The [סנהדרין פ"יז, ה"א] רמב"ם says we never give more than 39 even if the חוטא is very strong. But if he is weak, we give him less, for fear he might die. לפיכך, the חכמים said: even if one is strong we only give him 39, so in case the שליח ב"ד adds one accidentally and gives him 40, he won’t be עובר, because he gave him 40 which is ultimately ראויות לו. The כסף משנה says: it seems that the רמב"ם is learning that 39 is a תקנת חכמים, not דאורייתא. He explains, although the Gemara says this limud is from the words במספר ארבעים, the רמב"ם must learn that this is only an אסמכתא. The כסף משנה adds: ויותר נראה לי that this is the רמב"ם לשיטתו who calls everything that is not בפירוש בתורה a דברי סופרים. But really this is מקובל ממשה רבינו. ע"ש. The [שם] רדב"ז says: based on the way the רמב"ם is learning, if the שליח ב"ד loses count and gives 40, he isn’t גולה (if the חוטא dies) and isn’t עובר בל תוסיף because מן התורה he should receive 40 anyway.
The [תקצד אות ד'] מנחת חינוך brings the above רמב"ם and asks: we have a כלל that the רבנן never make a תקנה (סיג) that is עוקר לגמרי something that is said explicitly in the תורה. For example: They are מתקן not to blow שופר on Shabbos, but since in other years when יו"כ doesn’t fall on Shabbos we will be תוקע, this isn’t considered an עקירה לגמרי. But here, by giving only 39 as a precaution to losing count, we will never give the stated amount of 40. This is עוקר לגמרי the amount said in the Torah! Furthermore, he asks [אות ה], according to the רמב"ם that we administer one less as a סיג, it would come out, if we are אומד someone for 5 מלקות, we would subtract 1 for the סיג. This leaves 4, since it needs to be ראוי להשתלש, he would only receive 3. Similarly, if one is אומד for 6, we take away 1, leaves 5 but it’s not ראוי להשתלש so he would receive only 3. It follows, that if one is אומד for 3, take away 1, leaves 2. This is not ראוי להשתלש, so he receives none! וצע"ג why the רמב"ם wouldn’t discuss this phenomenon? The מנחת חינוך concludes (like the above כסף משנה), that really 39 is מן התורה and the רמב"ם means to only give us a קצת טעם for this but he doesn’t mean to always decrease an אומד by 1.