Having concluded the tochachah, the Torah exhorts B’nai Yisrael to keep all of the laws without deviating from them. To that end, the Torah commands: “You shall not add to the word which I command you, and you shall not subtract from it, that you may keep the commandments of Hashem your God which I command you.” (Dev. 4:2.)
In Ramban’s view, this prohibition has two elements. First, it prohibits an individual from adding or subtracting to the Torah. For instance, if you were to sleep in the Sukkah for an eight night, intending to expand the mitzvah, you would violate the prohibition of bal tosif. Additionally, the Torah prohibits institutions, such as beis din, from adding and subtracting from the law. For example, Yeravam, seeking to diminish the political and religious significance of the Beis Ha-Mikdash, invented an entirely new version of Sukkos to be observed on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. (I Kings 12:33.) Yeravam violated bal tosif by instituting a new holiday. (Ramban to Dev. 4:2.)
This presents a problem. Chazal frequently make all sorts of innovations: the prohibition of eating dairy products and poultry; hachanah on Shabbat; not to mention Purim, Chanukah, and Tisha B’av. These ought to be violations of bal tosif.
Ramban explains that institutions such as a beis din have license to make two types of innovations: (1) gedarim or siyagim and (2) anything which can be derived from the text of the Torah. The Torah says: “You shall keep my requirements.” (Lev. 18:30.) The Gemara interprets this as a command to enact additional halachot which minimize the likelihood of violating the Torah. (Yevamos 21a.) Thus, the Torah itself authorizes Chazal to make additional laws, which, per force, cannot violate bal tosif. The prohibition of eating poultry and dairy products is an example: it is designed not to innovate or expand, but to protect the original dinnim.
Additionally, in Ramban’s view, days like Purim, Chanukah, and Tisha B’av have their source in the Torah. For instance, according to the Talmud Bavli, the mitzvot of Purim are extensions of the obligation that B’nai Yisrael had to say Hallel upon leaving Egypt. (Megillah 14b.) According to the Talmud Yerushalmi, the mitzvos of Purim are extensions of zicharas Amalek. (Yerushalmi Megillah 1:5; Pnei Moshe ad loc. s.v. eilu.) Similarly, the Torah juxtaposes the chanukas ha-Nissiem to the halachos of the Menorah. Ramban takes this as an indication1 that the Menorah would be later used in a future chanukas ha-Bayis in the time of the Maccabees, which is of course the basis for the modern-day celebration of Chanukah. (Ramban to Dev. 8:2.) Tisha B’av has its origins in the cheit ha-Miraglim: according to tradition, the spies told the lashon ha-ra about Eretz Yisrael on Tisha B’av. That date became the official day of national mourning, such that all subsequent tragedies were integrated into the tragedy of cheit ha-Miraglim. (Ramban to Dev. 14:23.)
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The Ramban’s term is remez. Unlike the Middos she-ha-Torah ni-dreshest ba-hen, there are no standards for what qualifies as a remez. This creates an obvious problem: if all we need to avoid the prohibition of bal tosif is the slightest textual indication from the Torah, and, there are no limitations on what constitutes a “textual indication,” anyone has carte blanche to make any new innovation he pleases. Yeravam, for example, could say “The Torah’s term chag ha-Sukkos (in the plural) is a remez that a future Sukkah would be created and an additional holiday would be created along with it. And this is of course a remez for the holiday I have made.” Objecting that Yeravam’s interpretation is not compelling will not help: a remez is, by definition, a non-compelling reading which does not conform to the normal standards of a textual analysis. It seems that bal tosif, as Ramban understands it, is an issur which will only apply when an innovator refrains from making an effort to connect his innovation to the Torah text.↩︎