Another matter, “these are the ordinances,” the idolaters have judges and Israel has judges and you do not know the difference between them. This is analogous to an ill person whom a doctor came to visit. [The doctor] said to the members of his household: ‘Feed him everything that he requests.’ He went to [visit] another [patient] and said to [the members of his household]: ‘Make certain that he does not eat such-and-such item.’
They said to him: ‘To the first you said that he should eat what he wants, and to the second you said that he should not eat such-and-such item?’ He said to them: ‘The first one will not live; therefore, I said that he may eat everything that he wants. However, for this one, who will live, I said to be careful with him.’ So too, for the idolaters who separate themselves and do not engage in Torah study and do not fulfill it, it is stated: “I too gave them statutes that were not good, [and ordinances by which they could not live]” (Ezekiel 20:25). But about the mitzvot it is written: “Which a man shall perform and live by them” (Leviticus 18:5).