The 613 Commandments (Mitzvot): Meaning and Origin

People often say that Judaism has “613 commandments”. Where does this number come from, since the Torah never states it anywhere? What exactly does the word mitzvah mean, a word heard at a bar mitzvah as much as from a grandmother who says “do a mitzvah”? And what is a “positive” or a “negative” commandment? Here is a complete answer: the origin of the number, the way the Sages counted, the reasons given by tradition and the place of these commandments today.

In short: the Hebrew word mitzvah (מִצְוָה, plural mitzvot) means “commandment”. According to the Talmud (Makkot 23b), the Torah contains 613 mitzvot: 248 positive commandments, which require doing something (praying, putting on tefillin, honoring one’s parents, giving tzedakah), and 365 negative commandments, which require refraining from something (not stealing, not eating pork, not taking revenge). The Torah does not draw up this list itself: it was the Sages, and later authors such as the Rambam (Maimonides), who established it on the basis of the verses. Many of these commandments concern only the priests, the Temple or the Land of Israel. Judaism sees in them not a list of arbitrary obligations, but a path of life that connects man to G-d, to his fellow and to himself.

What does the word “mitzvah” mean?

The word mitzvah comes from the root tzav (צ-ו-ה), “to command”. The Torah uses it from its very first pages: “the L-rd G-d commanded (vayetzav) the man” (Bereshit [Genesis] 2:16). A mitzvah is therefore, in its primary sense, an order given by G-d. This is why most of the blessings recited before performing a commandment say: “Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments (bemitzvotav) and commanded us (vetzivanu)…”.

In everyday speech, the word has taken on a second meaning: that of a “good deed”. When people say, in Yiddish or in everyday English, that it is “a mitzvah” to visit someone who is sick, they mean that it is a good and meritorious act. The two meanings meet: doing good means answering a call.

Hasidic and kabbalistic masters proposed a third reading. They link mitzvah to the Aramaic word tzavta, “company, union”. A mitzvah would above all be a bond: the act through which man connects himself to the One who commands. Rav Raphaël Benizri takes up this idea, as we will see: “the mitzvah is a bond”.

The expression bar mitzvah, literally “son of the commandment”, refers to someone who is subject to the commandments: a boy at 13 (Pirkei Avot 5:21) and a girl, bat mitzvah, at 12, when they become responsible for their actions.

Where does the number 613 come from?

The number 613 does not appear in the Torah. It comes from the Oral Torah, and its best-known source is a teaching of the Talmud:

“Rabbi Simlai taught: 613 commandments were stated to Moshe: 365 negative commandments, corresponding to the number of days in the solar year, and 248 positive commandments, corresponding to the number of limbs in the human body” (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b).

The 248 positive commandments correspond to the 248 limbs of the body: every part of a person has its own action to perform. The 365 prohibitions correspond to the 365 days of the year: each day calls for its own vigilance. A person’s body and time are thus entirely covered by the Torah.

The Talmud continues with a remark by Rav Hamnuna. The verse says: “Moshe commanded us a Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Yaakov” (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 33:4). The numerical value of the word Torah (תורה) is 611. That is the number of commandments transmitted by Moshe. The first two of the Ten Commandments, “I am the L-rd your G-d” and “You shall have no other gods”, the people heard directly from the mouth of G-d at Sinai. 611 plus 2: 613 (Makkot 23b-24a).

The number became a kind of name for the whole Torah. Rashi gives a famous example: when Yaakov sends word to his brother Esav, “I have sojourned (garti) with Lavan” (Bereshit 32:5), the word garti (גרתי) has the value 613. Yaakov means: “I sojourned with Lavan, and I kept the 613 commandments; I did not learn from his evil deeds” (Rashi on Bereshit 32:5).

Positive and negative commandments

The first major division is therefore this one:

The mitzvot aseh (“do”): 248 positive commandments. They call for an action: putting a mezuzah on one’s door, eating matzah on Pesach, reciting the Shema, rejoicing on the festivals, loving one’s fellow, returning a lost object.
The mitzvot lo taaseh (“do not do”): 365 negative commandments. They call for restraint: not working on Shabbat, not eating blood, not cheating with weights and measures, not hating one’s brother in one’s heart, not placing a stumbling block before the blind.

The two categories do not carry the same legal weight. A prohibition is, as a general rule, more serious than a positive commandment, and the penalties set out in the Torah almost always concern prohibitions. Conversely, the Ramban (Nachmanides) explains that the positive commandment is in a certain sense higher, because it stems from love, whereas the prohibition stems from fear (Ramban on Shemot [Exodus] 20:8). Hence the Talmudic rule that, in a case of conflict, a positive commandment can sometimes override a prohibition (aseh docheh lo taaseh, Yevamot 3b-4a).

The Mishna also specifies that women are exempt from most positive commandments tied to a specific time, such as the sukkah or tefillin, while they are bound by almost all the prohibitions (Mishna Kiddushin 1:7; Kiddushin 29a and 34a). There are important exceptions, such as the Shabbat Kiddush or the matzah of Pesach, and tradition sees in this a difference of role, not of worth.

Who drew up the list of the 613?

Since the Torah does not give the list, it had to be reconstructed. This is harder than it looks: does a verse contain one commandment or two? Does a general statement count separately? The authors’ lists differ on dozens of points, while agreeing on the total of 613.

The first enumerations

The oldest list that has come down to us is found at the beginning of the Halakhot Gedolot (the “Behag”), a collection of laws composed in Babylonia in the era of the Geonim, around the 9th century. Poets later set the 613 commandments to verse: these are the Azharot, still recited in several communities, Sephardic ones in particular, on the festival of Shavuot, the day the Torah was given. The most famous are those of Rav Saadia Gaon and of the poet Shlomo ibn Gabirol.

The Rambam’s Sefer Ha-Mitzvot

The decisive work is that of the Rambam (Maimonides, 1138-1204). Before writing his great code of law, the Mishneh Torah, he composed in Arabic the Sefer Ha-Mitzvot, the “Book of Commandments”. In it he lists the 248 positive and the 365 negative commandments, each with its verse and a summary of its laws.

Above all, he opens the book with fourteen principles (shorashim) that explain how to count. For example: commandments instituted by the Sages are not counted (first principle); a general instruction that encompasses the whole Torah, such as “be holy”, is not counted (fourth principle); an order given for a one-time circumstance, valid only in the desert, is not counted (third principle). His list begins with faith in G-d: “I am the L-rd your G-d” (Shemot 20:2), and the first prohibition is not to believe in other gods (Shemot 20:3).

The Ramban wrote detailed critiques of this book (the Hassagot), proposing other choices for several dozen commandments: the list is a learned interpretation, not a mechanical certainty.

The Sefer Ha-Chinukh and the medieval codes

In the 13th century, in Spain, an author who remained anonymous (tradition long identified him with Rabbi Aharon Halevi of Barcelona) wrote the Sefer Ha-Chinukh, the “Book of Education”. It follows the Rambam’s count, but arranges the commandments in the order in which they appear in the Torah, parasha by parasha. For each one it gives the source, the main laws and, above all, a reason (shoresh ha-mitzvah). The author says he wrote it for his son; it remains to this day one of the most widely read books on the subject. It begins with “Be fruitful and multiply” (Bereshit 1:28) and ends with the 613th commandment: writing a Sefer Torah (Devarim 31:19).

In France, in the same period, Rabbi Moshe of Coucy composed the Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (Smag), and Rabbi Yitzchak of Corbeil the Sefer Mitzvot Katan (Smak), a shorter work meant to be read by everyone.

What applies today

In the 20th century, the Chafetz Chaim (Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, 1838-1933) published the Sefer Ha-Mitzvot Ha-Katzar, which keeps only the commandments applicable in our time. He counts 77 positive and 194 negative commandments that may concern a Jew outside the Land of Israel, as well as a small number of commandments tied to the Land of Israel. All the others depend on the Temple, the sacrifices, a full rabbinical court (the Sanhedrin), or situations that do not arise today.

No one can fulfill all 613 alone

Here is an idea that often comes as a surprise: no Jew, however pious, can fulfill all 613 commandments. Many apply only to the Kohanim (the priests); others only to the king; others only to someone who owns a field in the Land of Israel, a firstborn donkey or a Hebrew servant; others to a judge; still others apply only to the Temple in Jerusalem. Some concern only men, others only women.

The 613 commandments are therefore a collective undertaking of the entire people (see Rav Benizri’s teaching below). And what cannot be done in deed can be fulfilled through study. The Talmud teaches that whoever studies the laws of a sacrifice is considered as though he had offered it (Menachot 110a). This is one of the reasons why the study of the whole Torah, including the laws of the Temple, remains at the heart of Jewish life.

The major families of commandments

In the Mishneh Torah, the Rambam divides the laws into fourteen thematic books: knowledge of G-d, love, the seasons (Shabbat and festivals), marriage, holiness (food and forbidden relations), damages, acquisitions, judges and kings, and so on. Two distinctions are especially useful for anyone discovering the subject.

Toward G-d and toward one’s fellow

The first contrasts the commandments bein adam laMakom, “between man and G-d” (Shabbat, prayer, the dietary laws), with the commandments bein adam lachavero, “between man and his fellow” (not stealing, not humiliating, helping, returning what one has found, paying a worker’s wages on the same day). Both are mitzvot in equal measure. The Mishna even teaches that Yom Kippur does not atone for wrongs done to one’s fellow until one has appeased him (Yoma 8:9).

For the Torah, honesty in business, respect for the stranger and care for animals are commandments as holy as prayer. The famous verse “you shall love your fellow as yourself” (Vayikra [Leviticus] 19:18) is itself one of the 613 mitzvot, and Rabbi Akiva called it “a great principle of the Torah” (Sifra on Vayikra 19:18).

Mishpatim, chukim and edot

The second distinction comes from the Torah itself, which speaks of “testimonies, statutes and laws” (Devarim 6:20). Tradition explains:

The mishpatim are laws whose reason is obvious, which society would have established even if they had not been written: the prohibitions of murder, theft, idolatry or blasphemy (Yoma 67b; Rashi on Vayikra 18:4).
The chukim are decrees whose reason escapes us: the prohibition of pork, the mixing of wool and linen (shaatnez), and the classic example of the red heifer (parah adumah), whose ashes purified from the impurity of the dead (Bamidbar [Numbers] 19; Rashi on Bamidbar 19:2). The Talmud says that these laws are sometimes mocked, and that this is why the Torah says “I am the L-rd”: it is a decree, and one has no right to question it (Yoma 67b).
The edot, the “testimonies”, are the commandments that recall an event: Shabbat, a witness to Creation; matzah and the sukkah, witnesses to the Exodus from Egypt.

Lighting the candles, sanctifying the wine, breaking the bread: the mitzvot enter every gesture of daily life.

Why so many commandments?

If G-d wanted man to be good, why not give him a single rule? Tradition offers several answers.

Multiplying the opportunities for merit

The Mishna that concludes tractate Makkot, which is very often recited at the end of a study session, answers directly: “Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya says: the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to bestow merit upon Israel; therefore He gave them much Torah and many commandments, as it is said: the L-rd desired, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and glorious” (Mishna Makkot 3:16; Yeshayahu [Isaiah] 42:21). The Rambam comments: it is enough to fulfill a single one of these commandments perfectly, for its own sake and out of love, to merit the World to Come (Commentary on the Mishna, Makkot 3:16). The more commandments there are, the more gateways there are.

Refining man

The Midrash teaches: “The commandments were given only to refine (litzrof) the creatures” (Bereshit Rabba 44:1). The word evokes the goldsmith who purifies metal. G-d has no need of our mitzvot; it is man who needs them. The Ramban develops this idea: the commandments are not for G-d but for us, to distance us from cruelty and make us better (Ramban on Devarim 22:6, regarding the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird before taking the young from the nest).

Actions shape the heart

The Sefer Ha-Chinukh formulates a principle that has become famous: “a person is shaped by his actions”; “the heart follows the deeds” (Sefer Ha-Chinukh, mitzvah 16). One does not become generous by thinking about it, but by giving. The sheer number of mitzvot brings this education into every gesture of daily life.

Understanding the reasons, or obeying without understanding?

Must one know the reason for a commandment in order to fulfill it? The Sages debated the question. The Talmud reports that Rabbi Shimon sought out the reasons behind the verses, while other Sages refused to make the law depend on them (Bava Metzia 115a). The Rambam devotes a large part of his Guide for the Perplexed (third part, chapters 26 to 49) to the reasons for the commandments. He writes that it is fitting to seek their meaning as far as one can, but that one must not treat lightly a commandment whose reason one cannot find (Hilkhot Me’ilah 8:8).

The Torah itself asserts that its laws have a meaning that other nations will recognize: “You shall keep them and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations” (Devarim 4:6). And at Sinai, the people said: “All that the L-rd has spoken, we will do and we will hear” (naaseh venishma, Shemot 24:7). The Talmud admires this order (Shabbat 88a): one commits first, and understanding comes with practice.

What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches

Rav Benizri returns several times to the 613 commandments. Here are his main ideas, faithfully summarized.

From 613 to a single principle

In his lecture Mishlei: introduction to the Book of Proverbs, the Rav reads the passage of Rabbi Simlai (Makkot 23b-24a). He stresses that it is a way of “modeling the reality of man” on the 248 positive commandments, while the prohibitions are “spread across the days of the solar year”. He then follows the Talmud, which shows how the prophets summed up the 613 commandments: King David in eleven principles (Tehilim [Psalms] 15), Yeshayahu in six (Yeshayahu 33:15), Micha in three, “to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your G-d” (Micha 6:8), Yeshayahu again in two, “keep justice and do righteousness” (Yeshayahu 56:1), and Amos in a single one: “Seek Me and live” (Amos 5:4). “We started from 613,” the Rav concludes, “and we arrived at one.” The Talmud also cites Chavakuk: “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Chavakuk [Habakkuk] 2:4). These summaries do not abolish the commandments: they reveal their soul.

The law divided up to multiply the chances

In Pirkei Avot: all Israel has a share in the World to Come, the Rav comments on the Mishna of Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya. G-d, he explains, did not want to do as He had with Adam, who lost the Garden of Eden all at once, over a single commandment. “He divided the law into 613 mitzvot, so that whoever fails to observe one of them still has a chance to make up for it elsewhere.” There is no person who does not fulfill a single mitzvah in his life. Even the “emptiest” of Israel are as full of mitzvot as a pomegranate is full of seeds (Berakhot 57a): “we must above all not look down on them”.

No one fulfills them alone

In Vayishlach: avoiding confrontation with Esav, the Rav takes up the word garti, whose value is 613. But he immediately asks: who is able to fulfill all 613 mitzvot? Even the greatest tzaddik cannot: he is not a Kohen, and certain situations never arise for him. “The 613 mitzvot can only be fulfilled within a community, by a people as a whole.” What each person fulfills adds to what the other fulfills.

He develops this idea in Pirkei Avot: the mitzvah according to Ben Azzai. Of the 248 positive commandments, he says, we personally perform at most about sixty; the others we fulfill “in common accord with all the other members of society”. Not everyone owns a donkey whose firstborn must be redeemed: it is enough that someone performs this redemption for me to take part in it. “All the mitzvot we do have a social, national, even universal resonance.”

The Rav also draws from this a lesson in openness. In Lech Lecha: Lot, our neighbor, he recalls that we know the framework of the 613 mitzvot, but that someone who does not practice one of them is not, for all that, outside the Jewish people.

The mitzvah, a bond and a light

In the same lecture on Ben Azzai, the Rav explains that the mitzvah has a threefold reach: it allows a person to move forward and renew himself, to live with his fellow and with society, and to go out toward the Creator. “The mitzvah is a bond.” To break this bond is to condemn oneself to loneliness. He cites the verse “for the mitzvah is a lamp, and the Torah is light” (Mishlei [Proverbs] 6:23): the Torah is a great diffuse light, but the mitzvah, like a lamp one carries along, brings light into the most inaccessible corners.

Finally, he distinguishes three levels within one and the same mitzvah, in the image of the human soul: the body of the mitzvah, when one performs it out of habit; its spirit, when one understands and studies it; and its essence, when one performs it lishmah, “for its own sake”, with complete selflessness. This is the teaching of Ben Azzai himself: “the reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah” (Pirkei Avot 4:2).

Life above all

The 613 commandments are not a crushing burden. The Torah says: “You shall keep My statutes and My laws, which a person shall do and live by them” (Vayikra 18:5). The Talmud deduces from this: “he shall live by them, and not die because of them” (Yoma 85b). This is the principle of pikuach nefesh, the saving of life: to save a life, one transgresses almost all the commandments, including Shabbat and the Yom Kippur fast. Only three prohibitions are never set aside, even at the cost of one’s life: idolatry, murder and forbidden relations (Sanhedrin 74a).

The Torah also affirms that its commandments are within man’s reach: “It is not in heaven […]. For the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it” (Devarim 30:11-14).

What about non-Jews?

The 613 commandments are addressed to the people of Israel. Judaism does not require other nations to observe them. According to tradition, all of humanity is bound by seven laws, called the laws of the children of Noach (the Noahide laws): not to practice idolatry, not to blaspheme, not to murder, not to engage in forbidden relations, not to steal, not to eat a limb torn from a living animal, and to establish courts of justice (Sanhedrin 56a; Rambam, Hilkhot Melakhim 9:1). The Rambam teaches that the righteous of the nations who observe these laws have a share in the World to Come (Hilkhot Melakhim 8:11).

Common misconceptions about the 613 commandments

“The 613 commandments are just a longer version of the Ten Commandments.” Not exactly. The Ten Statements of Sinai (Shemot 20), engraved on the Tablets, themselves contain several of the 613 mitzvot. Rashi teaches that all 613 commandments are contained in the Ten Statements, and that Rav Saadia Gaon demonstrated this in his Azharot (Rashi on Shemot 24:12).

“The number 613 is written in the Bible.” No. It comes from the oral tradition, recorded in the Talmud (Makkot 23b). The Written Torah does not count its own commandments.

“Rabbinic commandments don’t count.” They are not part of the 613, but they are binding. The Torah itself commands us to listen to the sages of each generation (Devarim 17:11). This is why, when lighting the Chanukah candles, a rabbinic institution, one says “who has commanded us” (Shabbat 23a).

Frequently asked questions about the 613 commandments

Why 248 and 365?

According to Rabbi Simlai, the 248 positive commandments correspond to the 248 limbs of the human body, and the 365 prohibitions to the 365 days of the solar year (Makkot 23b): the whole person and all of his time are concerned.

What is the first of the 613 mitzvot?

It depends on the classification. In the order of the Torah’s text, followed by the Sefer Ha-Chinukh, it is “Be fruitful and multiply” (Bereshit 1:28). In the Rambam’s order of importance, it is to believe in G-d: “I am the L-rd your G-d” (Shemot 20:2).

And the last one?

According to the Sefer Ha-Chinukh, the 613th commandment is to write a Sefer Torah, derived from the verse “And now, write for yourselves this song” (Devarim 31:19; Sanhedrin 21b). Today, people often fulfill it by taking part in the writing of a scroll; according to the Rosh, buying books of study is also part of it.

What is the connection between tzitzit and the 613 commandments?

The Torah says that tzitzit, the fringes on a garment, serve so that “you may remember all the commandments of the L-rd” (Bamidbar 15:39). Rashi explains that the numerical value of the word tzitzit is 600, and that by adding the 8 strings and 5 knots of each fringe, one arrives at 613 (Rashi on Bamidbar 15:39).

Do you have to understand a mitzvah to fulfill it?

No, but it is good to try to understand it, without disdaining a commandment whose reason one does not grasp (Hilkhot Me’ilah 8:8). “We will do and we will hear”: understanding grows with practice.

Sources and references

Bereshit (Genesis) 1:28; 2:16; 32:5
Shemot (Exodus) 20:2-3; 20:8; 24:7; 24:12
Vayikra (Leviticus) 18:4-5; 19:2; 19:18
Bamidbar (Numbers) 15:39; 19
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:6; 6:20; 17:11; 30:11-14; 31:19; 33:4
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 33:15; 42:21; 56:1
Amos 5:4; Micha (Micah) 6:8; Chavakuk (Habakkuk) 2:4
Tehilim (Psalms) 15
Mishlei (Proverbs) 6:23
Mishna Makkot 3:16
Mishna Kiddushin 1:7
Mishna Yoma 8:9
Pirkei Avot 4:2; 5:21
Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b-24a
Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 57a
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 23a and 88a
Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 3b-4a
Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 67b and 85b
Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 29a and 34a
Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 115a
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 21b, 56a and 74a
Babylonian Talmud, Menachot 110a
Sifra on Vayikra 19:18
Bereshit Rabba 44:1
Rashi on Bereshit 32:5; on Shemot 24:12; on Vayikra 18:4; on Bamidbar 15:39; on Bamidbar 19:2
Ramban on Shemot 20:8; on Devarim 22:6; Hassagot on the Sefer Ha-Mitzvot
Halakhot Gedolot (Behag), introduction
Azharot of Rav Saadia Gaon and of Shlomo ibn Gabirol
Rambam, Sefer Ha-Mitzvot, fourteen principles (shorashim) and positive commandment 1, negative commandment 1
Rambam, Commentary on the Mishna, Makkot 3:16
Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Me’ilah 8:8; Hilkhot Melakhim 8:11 and 9:1
Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed, third part, chapters 26-49
Sefer Ha-Chinukh, mitzvah 1, mitzvah 16 and mitzvah 613
Rabbi Moshe of Coucy, Sefer Mitzvot Gadol (Smag)
Rabbi Yitzchak of Corbeil, Sefer Mitzvot Katan (Smak)
Chafetz Chaim (Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan), Sefer Ha-Mitzvot Ha-Katzar
Rosh, Hilkhot Sefer Torah 1 (on Menachot)
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Mishlei: introduction to the Book of Proverbs
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Pirkei Avot: all Israel has a share in the World to Come
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Vayishlach: avoiding confrontation with Esav
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Pirkei Avot: the mitzvah according to Ben Azzai
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Lech Lecha: Lot, our neighbor

Article by the Pensées Juives editorial team. Passages attributed to Rav Raphaël Benizri are taken from his lectures published on this site.

What Are the 613 Commandments (Mitzvot)?