The Rambam begins his introduction to the Mishnah with a single word: דע.
Da. Know.
It’s easy to skip past this short little word. To not pay it much thought. But that, I believe, is a mistake. There is quite a bit hidden in that word, and we would be wise to take a moment to understand it.
As such, let’s turn to what may be the best initial source to try and understand this word — the very book named after it: Sefer HaMadah (ספר המדע -- Sefer HaMadah).
Note the name. It shares the same root as our two-lettered friend — ידע, to know.
And also note that the Rambam actually explains why he named this work Sefer HaMadah. Of course, it’s not so easy to find — one has to know where to look.
We start with the Rambam’s introduction to the Mishnah Torah.
We then continue by skipping that introduction.
At this point we have hit a section called Minyan HaMitzvos (מנין המצוות -- The Count of the Mitzvos). This is a section where the Rambam lists all the mitzvos in the Torah. 248 positive commandments (מצוות עשה) and 365 negative commandments (מצוות לא תעשה).
We will skip that section also.
Then, after enumerating them all — and after a short section discussing them — the Rambam writes the following line:
וראיתי לחלק חיבור זה לארבעה עשר ספרים
And I saw fit to divide this work into fourteen books.
This is the section we want. It’s short and easy to pass by. If you find yourself in the area where the Rambam lists all the different halachos found in each of these fourteen books, then you have gone too far.
Come back and enjoy this view — because it is here that we will finally find what we have been looking for:
ספר ראשון
אכלול בו כל המצוות שהן עיקר דת משה רבינו וצריך אדם לידע אותן תחלת הכל
First Book
In it, I will include all the mitzvos that are the essence of the religion of Moshe Rabbeinu, and a person needs to know them before anything else.
I love this line.
Because (as we will see) this line will give us our working-hypothesis for what the Rambam means by דע. Of course, as we make our way through the Rambam, we may need to update, modify or radically change our hypothesis. But for now, we have something to work with.
So let’s dive deeper into what the Rambam is saying here.
Sefer HaMadah, says the Rambam, is not like any other sefer (book) in the Mishnah Torah. Rather, it contains a special class or category of Mitzvos — namely, those Mitzvos which one needs to know first (תחלת הכל) because they are the essence of the entire system of Torah (עיקר דת משה רבנו).
Now, this is a bit abstract. We need something concrete to help us fully understand what it is that the Rambam is saying.
And I have just the story for that.
A Real World Example
The story I have in mind involves a man named Stephen Covey (the author of the ever so famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).
In this story, Covey was riding a subway when a man boarded with his children. The children were not just misbehaving.
They were yelling.
Throwing things back and forth.
Grabbing other people’s newspapers (remember those).
And the father?
He simply sat there, closed his eyes and did nothing. This irked Covey.
How could the father be so insensitive to everyone else?
How could he not take responsibility for his children?
Eventually, Covey confronted the man.
Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?
The man looked up at Covey — as if he was just now becoming aware that his kids were misbehaving — and softly replied:
“Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital, where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it, either.”
In that moment, everything changed for Covey. His entire interpretation of the situation changed.
What he thought changed.
How he felt changed.
What he said changed.
How he acted changed.
But you know what did not change — the actual situation.
It was the same boys running wild in the same subway car. It was the same father who was still doing nothing to rein them in.
All the data, all the facts — the entire reality — was exactly as it had been one moment earlier.
The only thing that changed was the information that Covey had. He now knew something that he did not know before.
And with that knowledge, his entire perspective and experience were fundamentally transformed.
Bringing it Back to the Rambam
Now let’s go back and read the Rambam’s words again:
וצריך אדם לידע אותן תחלת הכל
A person needs to know them before anything else.
Notice the Rambam’s language.
It’s not enough to just know these Mitzvos at some time point in one’s learning. No, these are Mitzvos that one needs to know before anything else.
Why?
Because without this knowledge, a person will experience the entire Torah the way Covey experienced that father and his children — with all the facts in front of him, but missing the crucial information needed to understand those facts.
As such, we now have our working definition of what the Rambam means by דע:
Daas (דעת) is knowledge that transforms how you understand the facts in front of you.
And the Rambam himself signals this in the name he chose. He didn’t call it Sefer Madah — the Book of Knowledge (ספר מדע). He called it Sefer HaMadah — the Book of the Knowledge.
Note that word “the”. It sticks out. No other book in the Mishnah Torah has “the” in its name. Why does this one?
The word “the” is a defining and limiting word.
Can you please bring me the book.
That means I have a particular book in mind. Not just any old book, but a specific one.
So too, for the Rambam. Not just any old knowledge, but specific, crucial, essential knowledge — the knowledge that transforms how we understand the Mitzvos of the Torah.
Back to the Mishnah
With that said, let’s return to the first word of the Rambam’s Introduction to the Mishnah: דע.
It is in command form — there is something (says the Rambam) which you have to know. Some bit of information which will transform how you understand the Mishnah.
So, what is it?
That’s what we need to find out. And we’ll start on that avodah in the very next article.