THE FOURTEENTH PRINCIPLE OF FAITH
Moses Maimonides, the great Jewish leader and teacher of the 12th century, enumerated for us thirteen principles of the Jewish faith. They are included in our siddur in two forms: the Ani Maamin (“I believe with perfect faith that…”) an optional extra included at the end of the morning Shacharit service, and Yigdal, a hymn sung after the service on Friday nights.
Scholars of Maimonides are puzzled why he opted for thirteen principles of faith. If one were ever to talk about Maimonides favourite number, it would be fourteen, rather than thirteen!
Maimonides classifies his classic code of Jewish law, the Mishne Torah, into fourteen books, representing fourteen categories of commandments. In his philosophical work, Guide for the Perplexed, he has a different, fourteen-fold, classification of the commandments. In his introduction to his Sefer Hamitzvot (“The book of Divine Commandments”) he lists fourteen principles which establish the criteria whether a biblical passage is to count as one of the 613 commandments or not. The 248 positive commandments and the 365 negative commandments are each divided into fourteen groups. Maimonides great grandson noted that the sum of the digits (2+4+8) and (3+6+5) both equal 14.
One might therefore have expected Maimonides to list fourteen principles of faith!
My teacher, the late Rav Nachum Rabinovitch (passed away in 2020), points out that there is a fourteenth principle of faith, and it is based on a verse in this week’s portion.
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deut. 30: 19)
The Torah is setting out here the principle of free will. Maimonides codifies it in the following way :
“Free will is bestowed on every human being. If one desires to turn toward the good way and be righteous, he has the power to do so. If one wishes to turn towards the evil way and be wicked, he is at liberty to do so . . . This doctrine is an important principle, the pillar of the law and the commandment . . . If G-d had decreed that a person should either be righteous or wicked . . . what room could there be for the whole of the Torah? By what right or justice could G-d punish the wicked or reward the righteous?” (Teshuvah 5: 1-6)
Free will is the fourteenth principle of faith. Indeed, it is the principle that underscores all the others.