Negative Commandments – Part 3
- Theft, Property, and Economic Integrity (Mitzvot 245–255)
- Do not rob.
- Do not move boundary markers to steal land.
- Do not oppress another person financially.
- Do not deny your financial obligations.
- Do not swear falsely regarding money owed.
- Do not cheat in business transactions.
- Do not verbally oppress or hurt another with words.
- Do not verbally oppress a convert.
- Do not cheat a convert in business.
- Do not return a runaway slave to an owner outside Israel.
- Do not oppress a runaway slave who sought refuge.
- Treatment of the Vulnerable: Widows, Orphans, and Slaves (256–264)
- Do not afflict or mistreat a widow or orphan.
- Do not treat a Hebrew slave with degrading labor.
- Do not sell a Hebrew slave publicly as slave‑merchants do.
- Do not force a Hebrew slave to perform crushing labor.
- Do not allow a gentile master to treat a Hebrew slave harshly.
- Do not sell a Hebrew maidservant to someone else after taking her.
- Do not withhold food, clothing, or marital rights from a designated maidservant.
- Do not sell a captive woman (Yefat To’ar).
- Do not treat a captive woman harshly or degrade her.
III. Coveting and Desire (265–267)
- Do not covet another’s wife or property.
- Do not desire another’s property in your heart.
- Do not allow a hired worker to eat produce before it is fully detached.
- Employer–Worker Law (268–271)
- Do not allow a worker to take more produce than he needs to eat while working.
- Do not ignore or hide from a lost item — you must return it.
- Do not abandon an animal collapsed under its load.
- Honest Weights, Measures, and Judicial Fairness (271–288)
- Do not distort measures in commerce.
- Do not keep dishonest weights or measures.
- Do not pervert justice.
- Do not take a bribe.
- Do not show honor to a powerful person in court.
- Do not allow fear of people to influence judgment.
- Do not favor a poor litigant in judgment.
- Do not pervert judgment against a sinner — judge fairly.
- Do not have pity on those liable for monetary penalties when the Torah mandates punishment.
- Do not pervert justice for converts or orphans.
- Do not hear one litigant’s claims without the other present.
- Do not follow the majority to convict in capital cases when the majority exceeds by one.
- Do not have a judge reverse his earlier vote for acquittal in capital cases.
- Do not appoint an unqualified judge who lacks Torah knowledge.
- Do not testify falsely.
- Do not assist a wicked person by collaborating with him in testimony.
- Do not accept testimony from relatives.
- Do not convict based on one witness.
- Homicide, Capital Law, and Personal Safety (289–298)
- Do not murder.
- Do not execute anyone based on circumstantial estimation — only direct testimony.
- Do not allow witnesses to serve as judges in capital cases.
- Do not execute a murderer before he stands trial.
- Do not have pity on a pursuer — stop him even by killing if necessary.
- Do not punish a person who committed an act under duress.
- Do not accept monetary ransom instead of executing a murderer.
- Do not accept monetary ransom in place of exile for an accidental killer.
- Do not stand by while another’s life is in danger.
- Do not leave dangerous hazards in your home.
VII. Causing Harm and Improper Influence (299–301)
- Do not cause another to stumble spiritually or physically (“do not put a stumbling block before the blind”).
- Do not inflict extra lashes beyond the court’s ruling.
- Do not go about gossiping or talebearing.
VIII. Love, Peace, Dignity, and Interpersonal Boundaries (302–309)
- Do not hate another Jew in your heart.
- Do not embarrass another Jew.
- Do not take revenge.
- Do not bear a grudge.
- Do not take a mother bird with her young.
- Do not cut the signs of a leprous bald spot (netek).
- Do not remove the signs of tzara’as.
- Do not plow or plant in the wadi used for the eglah arufah.
- Exempted Persons, Sorcery, and Rebellion (310–314)
- Do not obligate a newlywed husband in communal duties the first year.
- Do not allow a sorcerer to live.
- Do not rebel against the rulings of the Sanhedrin.
- Do not add new mitzvot to the Torah.
- Do not subtract any mitzvah from the Torah.
- Forbidden Speech and Honor of Parents and Leaders (315–319)
- Do not curse a judge.
- Do not curse the leader of Israel.
- Do not curse any fellow Jew.
- Do not curse your father or mother.
- Do not strike your father or mother.
- Shabbat and Yom Tov Labor Prohibitions (320–329)
- Do not do any labor on Shabbat.
- Do not walk beyond the Shabbat boundary like weekday travelers.
- Do not punish on Shabbat.
- Do not perform labor on the first day of Pesach.
- Do not perform labor on the seventh day of Pesach.
- Do not perform labor on Shavuos.
- Do not perform labor on Rosh Hashanah.
- Do not perform labor on Yom Kippur.
- Do not perform labor on the first day of Sukkos.
- Do not perform labor on Shemini Atzeres.
XII. Forbidden Sexual Relations (Arayos) (330–353)
- Do not commit incest with your mother.
- Do not commit incest with your sister.
- Do not commit incest with your father’s wife.
- Do not commit incest with your sister by father or mother.
- Do not commit incest with your granddaughter (son’s daughter).
- Do not commit incest with your granddaughter (daughter’s daughter).
- Do not commit incest with your daughter (taught by tradition).
- Do not commit incest with a woman and her daughter.
- Do not commit incest with a woman and her son’s daughter.
- Do not commit incest with a woman and her daughter’s daughter.
- Do not commit incest with your father’s sister.
- Do not commit incest with your mother’s sister.
- Do not commit incest with the wife of your father’s brother.
- Do not commit incest with your daughter‑in‑law.
- Do not commit incest with your brother’s wife (except yibbum).
- Do not commit incest with your wife’s sister during her lifetime.
- Do not have relations with a woman during her menstrual impurity.
- Do not commit adultery with a married woman.
- Do not commit bestiality (men).
- Do not commit bestiality (women).
- Do not commit homosexual relations.
- Do not commit incest with your father.
- Do not commit incest with your father’s brother.
- Do not engage in any physical acts that lead to forbidden sexual relations.
XIII. Marriage, Lineage, and Family Restrictions (354–361)
- Do not allow a mamzer to marry into the general community.
- Do not allow a woman to be a “kedeshah” (engaging in intercourse without marriage).
- Do not remarry a divorced wife who married another man in the interim.
- Do not let a yevamah marry someone else before chalitzah or yibbum.
- Do not divorce a woman you forcibly violated (the “ones”).
- Do not divorce a wife after falsely slandering her.
- Do not allow a eunuch to marry into the community.
- Do not castrate any male — human or animal.
XIV. Leadership, Monarchy, National Conduct (362–365)
- Do not appoint a foreigner as king over Israel.
- Do not allow the king to accumulate excessive horses.
- Do not allow the king to accumulate excessive wives.
- Do not allow the king to accumulate excessive silver and gold.
- Rambam’s Concluding Principles
- All 613 commandments were given to Moses at Sinai, including all general principles, details, and explanatory rulings.
- All those explanations belong to the Oral Torah transmitted from court to court.
- Later rabbinic laws (e.g., Megillah reading, Chanukah lights, fasts, Eruvin, washing hands) are binding but are not additions to the Torah’s mitzvot.
- “Do not add” and “Do not subtract” forbid claiming that God commanded something He did not command.
- However, rabbinic enactments (decrees, safeguards, ordinances) are permitted when stated as human legislation, not divine commandments.
- One must obey rabbinic decrees, as the Torah commands: “Do not stray from what they tell you.”
