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Section 7. Having set out these matters, I think I should follow these words with a discussion of the abrogation of law.
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The children of Israel transmitted, through continuous mass-transmission, that the prophets told them of Torah's laws: that they are not subject to abrogation.
They said: we heard this in explicit language from which every doubt and every reinterpretation is removed.
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Then I examined the scriptures and found what points to this. First: many of the statutes have written in them 'an everlasting covenant,' and written in them 'throughout your generations.'
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Also, because of the Torah's words: 'Moses commanded us the Torah as a heritage' (Deut. 33:4). And also because our nation, the children of Israel, is a nation only by virtue of its laws.
And when the Creator says that the nation shall endure as long as heaven and earth endure, it follows necessarily that its laws too shall endure as long as heaven and earth endure.
And I found at the very end of the prophetic writings an explicit statement about guarding Moses' Torah until the Day of Resurrection, and the sending of Elijah before it.
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I have also seen some of our people argue against the abrogation of law in a general way, saying: when God legislates a law, it cannot avoid belonging to one of four categories.
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Either it is explicitly stated to be permanent — in which case it cannot be abrogated — or it is made time-bound, as if to say: 'Observe this for one hundred years.'
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They were told: there is a fifth category — a law for which no time is set, so people continue to observe it until commanded otherwise.
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I have found that those who permit abrogation in this regard advance seven arguments, claiming they are theoretical and that all are grounded in reason. I shall present them and present the refutations against them.
The first is an analogy with life and death: just as He may give life in wisdom and take life in wisdom, so may He legislate in wisdom and abrogate in wisdom.
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I found, however, a great difference between them: He gives life precisely in order to cause death, since death is the path of transition to the World to Come — which is the true goal.
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But He did not legislate in order to abrogate — for if He had legislated only to abrogate, every law would have to be abrogated: the first by the second, the second by a third, and so on infinitely.
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The fourth is an analogy with enriching and impoverishing, giving sight and blindness — each done at the moment most fitting for it.
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For He has made all happiness the recompense of obedience and all suffering the recompense of transgression — but He has not made law itself a recompense for either obedience or transgression.
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The sixth argues: just as Sabbath labor was permitted by reason but the revealed text abrogated it by rest, so another revealed text could restore its permissibility.
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I say: this analogy would be valid only if reason had made Sabbath labor obligatory — then one could say the revealed text abrogated that obligation.
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But mere permissibility cannot be abrogated this way, for a person has always seen by reason that resting is permitted on the Sabbath or any other day.
All of these, God have mercy on you, are distractions — none of them, upon reflection, holds up.
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The seventh argues: just as Moses' law could differ from Abraham's law, so another law could differ from Moses'.
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When we examine Moses' law, we find it is in truth Abraham's law — and the additions of the Passover bread and the Sabbath were added for events that befell his people.
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After these seven, I think I should fix one argument of theirs that deserves extended discussion. They say: just as the reason for believing Moses was his performance of signs and proofs, so belief in anyone else must also be grounded in his performing signs and proofs.
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I was greatly astonished when I heard this — for the reason for our belief in Moses was not miraculous signs alone.
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The reason for believing him — and every prophet — is that they first called us to what is permissible. When we heard the call and found it permissible, we demanded proofs for it.
But if we heard a call that was impermissible from the outset, we would not demand proofs — for there is no proof for the impossible.
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This is the approach with every claimant to prophecy: if he says to us 'My Lord commands you to fast today,' we demand from him the sign of mission. If he shows it to us, we accept and fast.
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But if he says 'My Lord commands you to commit adultery and theft,' or 'informs you that He will bring a flood of water' — we do not demand a sign, since he is calling us to what is impermissible by reason or by transmitted report.
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— who witnessed signs and proofs that abandoned what is in our minds: the esteeming of truth and the finding repugnant of falsehood and the like.
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Some of them argue for abrogation from scriptural passages. I think I should present these passages and what is said about them.
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The first is the Torah's verse: 'The LORD came from Sinai, He shone from Seir upon them; He appeared from Mount Paran' (Deut. 33:2) — these three are names for Mount Sinai.
For every mountain extending alongside several towns is divided into segments named after the town that faces each segment —
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— just as one sea acquires many names from the towns facing it. So Mount Sinai is a mountain that faces Sinai, Seir, and Paran.
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I found that in enumeration, some verbs take a past form while others take a present-future form —
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Just as our ancestors' errors in the wilderness are enumerated: 'They rebelled at the sea, at the Red Sea, they soon forgot His works, they had a wanton craving in the wilderness' (Ps. 106:7–14).
I found still others arguing from Jeremiah's words: 'Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah' (Jer. 31:31).
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I said to them: look at what follows it — for it makes explicit that this 'new covenant' is the very same Torah, as it says: 'For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put My Torah within them' (Jer. 31:33).