Halakhah su Deuteronomio 16:8

And from the fundamentals of this Torah that we said that God gave to His people through Moshe, His prophet, is to know that the Lord God in the Heavens that gave the Torah to Israel is the First Being - such that there is no beginning nor end to His being, may He be blessed - and that He made exist and created from His will and His power all that was created, ex nihilo. And [likewise] that He keeps in existence everything that He created the whole time that He wishes, but no longer - [not] even an instant. And that He is not prevented from doing anything. And [also from the fundamentals is] to believe that He is one without any conjunction; to believe that in a man fulfilling that which is written in [the Torah], his soul will merit great enjoyment forever; and to believe that God oversees the actions of people and knows all the details of their deeds and repays everyone according to his action. And also from the fundamentals of the Torah is to believe that the true explanation of the Torah is the traditional received explanation that is in our hands from the early Sages of Israel. And anyone who explains about it something that is the opposite of their intention is [expressing] a mistake and a completely void thing. As our Sages received the explanation of the Torah from our teacher, Moshe - peace be upon him - who received it from God, blessed be He, when he stood on the mountain forty days. And even though it was possible to learn [it] in less time than this due to the power of the Teacher, God wanted to hint to the learners that they learn it with deliberation. And this true explanation that we wrote is the explanation that is written in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds (Gemara), which [was] composed [by] our early Sages, who received it one generation after another from our teacher Moshe, peace be upon him. And the Babylonian is lengthier and more elucidated, and [so] we rely upon it more. And it is made up of six orders, and there are sixty tractates in it, according to the division of the contents. Their mnemonic is 'there are sixty queens.' And there are five hundred and twenty-two chapters. And the true explanation of the Torah is likewise elucidated from other books that some of our early Sages composed. And [these books] are called Sifra, Sifrei, Tosefta and Mekhilta. All of these are books that all of Israel believe and [they] rely upon the words of theirs which are there without a disagreement. And about those that there is a disagreement, they have already also explained the ruling that we should take from them. Everything is nicely elucidated without any doubt or confusion to those that understand. And anyone whose heart troubles him about these matters is not included in the holy (Jewish) people - since we would never agree about the truth from the simple understanding of the verses of the Torah without their explanations and their true tradition. As there are several verses in the Torah that appear to contradict one another. But the one who knows their explanation understands and sees that the ways of God are straight: Behold it is written in the Torah (Exodus 12:40), "And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel [which they dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years]." And [yet] we found that Kehat the son of Levi was from those that went down to Egypt; and if you count the days of his life and the years of the life of Amram, his son, and the eighty years of Moshe - as he was eighty in his standing in front of Pharaoh to speak to him to take out the Children of Israel from Egypt - they all only add up to three hundred and fifty years. However the explanation of this is that the tally of four hundred and thirty begins from the time that it was stated to Avraham, "that your seed will be a stranger" (Genesis 15:13). And the explanation of the verse is thus: "And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel which they dwelt in Egypt" and other lands - meaning that they began to be exiled - "was four hundred and thirty years." As from the time that it was stated to Avraham, "that your seed will be a stranger," did the distress begin for him - and [so] the beginning of the tally is from there. And do not let its stating, "the Children of Israel," be difficult for you - as behold they said in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 63:3), "Avraham is called Israel, as it is stated, 'And the inhabitation of the Children of Israel.'" And that which it states, "the Children of Israel" is meaning to say the Children of Israel and Israel (referring to Avraham); but Scripture expressed it in this language since the distress began to the father with the proclamation of the exile of the children. And that which it is stated, "Egypt," is also not specific, but rather meaning to say in exile. And that which it expressed it all with the [word,] Egypt, is because the core of the exile was there; and everything goes according to the core, and it is always called by it. And so [too,] is it written in the Torah (Deuteronomy 10:22), "With seventy souls did your forefathers go down to Egypt." But when you count their enumeration, you find [only] sixty-nine souls. But rather the explanation (Bava Batra 123b) comes that Yocheved was born 'betwixt the walls' (of Egypt, though she was conceived before they arrived), and [so] was not counted in the enumeration. And likewise, one verse (Exodus 12:15) states, "Seven days shall you eat matsot" and one verse (Deuteronomy 16:8) states, "Six days." And many like this would not be elucidated without the traditional explanation that is in our hands, that was given to us from our teacher, Moshe.

That is that He commanded us to count forty-nine days from the harvesting of the omer. And that is His, may He be exalted, saying, "you shall count for yourselves seven weeks from the morrow of the Shabbat, etc." (Leviticus 23:15). And you should know that just like the court is obligated to count the years of the Jubilee, year by year [and] cycle by cycle - as we explained in what came previously (Sefer Hamitzvot, Positive Commandments 140) - so too is each and every one of us obligated to count the days of the omer, day by day and week by week. And that is His having said, "you must count fifty days" (Leviticus 23:16), and "Seven weeks shall you count for yourself" (Deuteronomy 16:8). And just like the commandment of counting the years and the sabbatical cycles is one commandment - as we explained - so too is the counting of the omer, one commandment. And do not be fooled by their saying (Menachot 66a), "It is a commandment to count days and it is a commandment to count weeks," and think that they are two commandments. For it is a commandment to do each and every part of commandments that have have different parts. However had they said, "From where [do we know that] the days are a commandment; and from where [do we know that] the weeks are a commandment" - it would have been two commandments. And this will not be lost on the one that will not be fooled by the words. Since were you to say, "It is an obligation to do such and such," it surely does not necessarily make that action a separate commandment. And the clear proof for this is our counting every night that it is such and such weeks and such and such days. And were it to be a separate commandment, we would only arrange its content on the night of Shavuot; and we would say two blessings - on the counting of the omer; and on the counting of the weeks of the omer. But the things are not like this. Rather the commandment is counting the omer daily and weekly [together], as they ordained. And women are not obligated in this commandment. (See Parashat Emor; Mishneh Torah, Daily Offerings and Additional Offerings 10.)

And the verse stated here, "work of labor," and it did not state, "all work" - since the needs of food for the soul were permitted to be done on the holiday; as Scripture comes in another place (Exodus 12:16), "but that which is eaten by every soul, that alone shall be done for you." And this is the understanding of work of labor - meaning to say, work that is not for the needs of food for the soul, like the matter that is stated (Exodus 1:14), "labor in the field"; and so [too,] "Kain was a laborer of the field" (Genesis 4:2); "a king over a field that is labored" (Ecclesiastes 5:8); "labors his land" (Proverbs 12:11). But work that is for food for the soul like cooking and similar to it is work of enjoyment, not work of labor. So did Ramban, may his memory be blessed, explain. And he wrote further (Ramban on Leviticus 23:7) that this understanding is elucidated in the Torah [itself], since with the Festival of Matsot, [about which] it first stated, "all work shall not be done upon them" in the Order of Bo el Pharoah, it was required to explain, "but that which is eaten by every soul, that alone shall be done for you." But with all of the other holidays, it was brief and it stated, "all work of labor you shall not do," to forbid all work that is not [for] food for the soul, and to inform that food for the soul is permitted on them. And Scripture did not ever state in one of the other holidays, "all work," nor explain the permissibility of food for the soul - since "all work of labor" teaches about this. But in the section, Kol HaBekhor on the Festival of Matsot, it states (Deuteronomy 16:8), "and on the seventh day, it is a convocation to the Lord, your God; you shall not do work." And the reason is because it already explicitly permitted food for the soul on this holiday in the Order of Bo el Pharaoh. And afterwards in this Order, it mentions "work of labor," which also implies the permissibility of food for the soul. And therefore, when it repeated and mentioned it another time in the section of Kol HaBekhor, it was not needed for it to state a further explanation about it; and [so] it mentioned just, "work," and relied on that which is known [from the earlier entries]. And nonetheless, it did not state, "all work," as [it does] with Shabbat and Yom Kippur, but [rather just] stated, "work" - meaning to say, the work which I have warned you about.