We Must Study Rambam – The Daily Chizuk (strengthening) from the Gaon and

Everyone needs to be attached to the Rambam; it was written in such a way that children aged 3 can understand it

The Daily Chizuk (strengthening) from the Gaon and Tzaddik, our teacher Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – Monday, 20th of Teves, 5785

The Rambam wrote his composition over the course of 10 years; he secluded himself and did not leave his house. He knew the entire Shas (Talmud) in his mind.

He said: I wrote the [commentary on the] Mishnayos while at sea; this is written at the end of Uktzin (a tractate of the Mishnah). He writes: "And this I wrote while I was on the sea, traveling from sea to sea."

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He left Spain; he writes that he left from the Salt Sea. The "Salt Sea" mentioned in the Torah is always the Mediterranean Sea—the salty sea where the water is salt, which is why everything is "lost" there (referring to things cast into the sea to be dissolved or discarded).

The Rambam says, "I wrote the commentary on the Mishnayos while I was crossing from sea to sea without books." He didn't have a single book, yet he already knew the entire Shas (Talmud). Everything was laid out within him as if in a drawer, in boxes, like an encyclopedia arranged by entries—everything was already organized in his mind by the age of 17.

The Rambam was born in Spain, but they had to flee from the Almohads (an Islamic Berber-Moorish dynasty founded in the 12th century) and from the Muslims, and they moved to Fez (the second largest city in Morocco).

He arrived in Fez at age 7 and stayed there until age 21, and then he decided to travel to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). After staying in Israel, he went to Egypt.

The Rambam writes that anyone who says that [the prohibition of] poultry is a De'Oraisa (Torah-level) prohibition is "subtracting" (violating the principle of not adding or subtracting from the Law)—one must know the entire Rambam. One should start specifically with [the Book of] Shoftim (Judges), because it is the easiest. Shoftim speaks about the Laws of Kings; these are simple matters: what is permitted to a king, what is forbidden to a king, and when war is permitted. What is a Milchemes Mitzvah (obligatory war) and what is a Milchemes Reshus (discretionary war).