שסז ב.ויש מצוות אחרות שנתחדשו אחר מתן תורה, וקבעו אותן נביאים וחכמים ופשטו בכל ישראל--כגון מקרא מגילה, ונר חנוכה, ותענית תשעה באב, וידיים, ועירובין..ויש לכל מצוה ומצוה מאלו פירושין ודקדוקין; והכול יתבאר בחיבור זה.
367 All these newly established precepts, we are in duty bound to accept and observe, as it is said, “Thou shalt not turn aside (from the sentence which they shall declare unto thee, to the right hand, nor to the left)” (Deut. 17:11). They are not an addition to the precepts of the Torah. In regard to what, then, did the Torah warn us, “Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish (from it)” (Deut. 13:1)? The purpose of this text is to teach us that a prophet is not permitted to make an innovation and declare that the Holy One, blessed be He, had commanded him to add it to the precepts of the Torah or had bidden him to abrogate one of these six hundred and thirteen precepts. But if the Court, together with the prophet living at the time, institute an additional precept as an ordinance, judicial decision or decree, this is not an addition (to the precepts of the Torah). For they did not assert that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded the making of an Erub, or ordered the reading of the Scroll of Esther at the appointed time. Had they said this, they would have been adding to the Torah. We hold, however, that the prophets, in conjunction with the Court, enacted these ordinances, and commanded that the Scroll of Esther be read at the appointed time, so as to proclaim the praises of the Holy One, blessed be He, recount the salvations that He wrought for us, and that He was ever nigh when we cried to Him, and that we should therefore bless and laud Him and inform future generations how true is the reassurance of the Torah in the text, “For what great nation is there that hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord, our God is (to us), whensoever we call upon Him” (Deut. 4:7). In this way every precept, affirmative or negative, instituted by the Scribes, is to be understood.