Parshat Shoftim contains the following commandment [Devarim 17’ 11’]:
“...You shall act in accordance with the instructions given to you and the ruling handed down to you; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall declare unto you, to the right, nor to the left…”
The above Possuk is the Biblical command to listen to the Torah sages, and is the root of our binding obligation to follow the Torah SheBa’al Pe’eh. The Gemara in Shabbat 23A states:
“...And what blessing does one recite [on the lighting of Chanukah candles]? He recites: Who has made us holy through His commandments and has commanded us to light the Hanukkah light.
The Gemara asks: And where did He command us? [The mitzva of Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Torah, so how is it possible to say that it was commanded to us by God?] The Gemara answers that Rav Avya said: The obligation to recite this blessing is derived from the verse: “You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall declare unto you, to the right, nor to the left” (Deuteronomy 17:11)...”
Thus, because the Torah commands us not to veer from the words of our sages, it is inherently considered a command from Hashem to follow the words of our Torah scholars, and therefore, the blessing made on Rabbinic Mitzvot can be considered as commanded by Hashem, by virtue of the fact that Hashem commands us to listen to the Sages!
The Rambam, based on the above Gemara, states [Mishneh Torah Laws of Blessings, 11’ 3’]:
“...Similarly, with regard to all the Rabbinic mitzvot - one should recite a blessing before performing them, [praising God] "who has sanctified us with Your commandments and commanded us….”
Where has He commanded us [to fulfill these commandments]? In the Torah, which states : "You shall act in accordance with the instructions given to you…”
R’ Yaakov Kamentzky of blessed memory notices that the Rambam actually quotes the positive injunction of the first part of the Verse["You shall act in accordance with the instructions given to you…”], rather than the negative commandment of the second part of the verse [“You shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall declare unto you, to the right, nor to the left”]. R’ Yaakov explains that the Rambam is echoing a principle espoused by the Halachic great, the Chaye Adam, who states in Rule 15, paragraph 24, that a Blessing is never made on a Lo Taasei [negative Mitzvah], and therefore the Rambam clarifies that a blessing made on a Mitzvah, even if Rabbinic in nature, must be rooted in the positive portion of the Mitzvah to listen to the Rabbis, not the negative component. A similar point is reflected in the Rambam Laws of Shechitah [ritual slaughter] Chapter 1 Halachah 2, where the Rambam states that a blessing is made on Shechitah because it is a Mitzvat Assei [positive Mitzvah], rather than merely a way of unlocking the prohibitions of eating meat from a living animal [which would not have required a blessing].
Left unexplained, according to R’ Yaakov’s approach, however, is why the Gemara in Shabbat saw fit to quote the negative component of the command to listen to our sages, if that cannot serve as the basis for the making of the blessing!
לזכות רפואה שלימה אחינו כל בית ישראל הנתונים בצרה ובשביה
Dedicated in memory of all those who have perished and sacrificed for Am Yisrael