The 613 Commandments

Where the number 613 comes from

1. 1

   A number not found in the Bible

   The number 613 never appears in the biblical text. It comes from the teaching of Rabbi Simlai in the third century. The Talmud (Makkot 23b) records that he taught that 613 commandments were given to Moses: 365 prohibitions, matching the days of the solar year, and 248 positive commands, matching the limbs of the human body. Simlai gave the number, but he did not list what the 613 were.

2. 2

   Maimonides' list

   Listing the 613 one by one was left to later generations. Several lists appeared, beginning around the ninth century with the Halakhot Gedolot, and they did not agree. In the twelfth century Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, 1138–1204) set out fourteen principles for what counts as a commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot (Book of Commandments) and fixed the 613. He repeated the list at the opening of the Mishneh Torah, his fourteen-volume code of Jewish law. It is the most widely used list of the 613 today.

3. 3

   No single definitive list

   Maimonides' list was also challenged. In the thirteenth century Nachmanides (Ramban) argued that some of his entries should be dropped and others added. The Sefer HaChinukh, from the same century, rearranged Maimonides' 613 in the order they appear in the Torah and explained each one. This page likewise lists the commandments in the order their source verses appear in the Torah.

4. 4

   Commandments that can be kept today

   Many of the 613 presuppose the Temple and its sacrifices, the priesthood, the land of Israel, a king, or the Sanhedrin, so many could no longer be kept once the Temple was destroyed. In the twentieth century Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim, counted in his Sefer HaMitzvot HaKatzar 77 positive and 194 negative commandments that can still be kept today, 26 of them only in the land of Israel. Many others apply only to particular people, such as priests, judges, or the king.

5. 5

   Reading the 613 as a Christian

   Asked which commandment in the Law is the greatest, Jesus named the command to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and the command to love your neighbor as yourself, and said that all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two (Matthew 22:37–40). Both are among the 613: number 415 (Deuteronomy 6:5) and number 241 (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), and Paul calls love the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:10). The Reformed tradition (Westminster Confession, chapter 19) divides the Law into moral, ceremonial, and judicial law: the ceremonial law is fulfilled in Christ, Israel's judicial laws expired with that nation, and the moral law remains the rule of Christian life.