The 613 Mitzvot

The Torah contains 613 commandments — 248 positive and 365 negative. They are the operating program of a Jewish life.

By The EditorsEssential

Torah & Texts · 3 minute read

Photograph

Summary. The Talmud (Makkot 23b–24a) records Rabbi Simlai’s teaching that the Torah contains 613 mitzvot — 248 positive (mitzvot aseh, “thou shalt”), corresponding to the limbs of the body, and 365 negative (mitzvot lo ta’aseh, “thou shalt not”), corresponding to the days of the solar year. The Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvot enumerates them with halachic precision; the medieval Sefer HaChinukh treats each mitzvah with its biblical source, halachic detail, and rationale. Not all 613 are operative today; many depend on the existence of the Temple, the Jubilee year, or kings of Israel.

What “Mitzvah” Means

Mitzvah is commonly translated “commandment.” The Editor of this guide (and many others) prefer the translation “holy act”—the term carries connotations of being commanded by God and of being a sanctifying deed in itself. Both senses are correct. A mitzvah is something a Jew does because God commanded it, and the doing changes the doer.

Positive and Negative

The 248 mitzvot aseh include such commandments as keeping Shabbat, putting on tefillin, lighting Hanukkah candles, loving one’s neighbor (Vayikra 19:18), and honoring one’s parents. The 365 mitzvot lo ta’aseh include the prohibitions against murder, theft, idolatry, eating leaven on Pesach, and shaving with a razor. By traditional accounting, the negative commandments are graver — the violation of a “thou shalt not” incurs heavier penalty than the omission of a “thou shalt.”

Operative Today

By the traditional accounting, roughly 369 mitzvot remain operative in our day — 126 of the 248 positive and 243 of the 365 negative. The Sefer HaChinukh’s often-quoted figure of 270 is narrower: it counts the mitzvot that bind every Jew without any particular circumstance ever having to arise. The rest depend on conditions that do not currently obtain (the Beit HaMikdash, the Jubilee, the agricultural laws of the Land of Israel applied to Jewish farmers in a Jewish state, the laws of kings, the laws of slaves, etc.). With the establishment of the State of Israel and the partial return of Jewish agricultural life to the Land, some of the operative count has crept upward — shemittah (the sabbatical year for agricultural land) is observed by religious Israeli farmers.

Categories

Mitzvot are categorized in several useful ways. Mitzvot bein adam la-makom govern the relationship between a person and God (prayer, Kashrut, Shabbat). Mitzvot bein adam le-chaveiro govern the relationship between a person and his fellow (theft, slander, honesty in business, returning lost objects). Chukim are mitzvot without given reason (kashrut categories, shaatnez, parah adumah — the red heifer). Mishpatim are mitzvot with apparent rational basis (prohibitions on murder, theft, etc.). Eidot are testimonial mitzvot — those that bear witness to historical events (Pesach, Sukkot, tefillin).

B’diavad: What Is Enough?

Jewish law recognizes the principle of b’diavad — “after the fact” — a minimally acceptable performance of a mitzvah that still discharges the obligation. The Talmud (Berachot 25b, Kiddushin 54a) teaches that the Torah was not given to ministering angels; God does not act unfairly toward His creatures (Avodah Zarah 3a). Sincere effort, even if imperfect, has Halachic standing. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein repeatedly counseled Jews struggling to observe fully that incremental, sincere observance is vastly better than nothing. (See the Editor’s article “B’diavad: What Is Enough?” reformatted in this Field Guide.)

Where Denominations Diverge

Orthodox treats the 613 as binding wherever operative. Conservative and Reform Judaism vary; Conservative officially maintains halachic obligation with modern application, while Reform treats mitzvot as opportunities for meaning rather than as binding law. The classical Reform Pittsburgh Platform of 1885 dismissed many ritual mitzvot as “Mosaic legislation” no longer binding; the 1999 Pittsburgh Platform of Reform reinstated the language of mitzvah as a serious category. All denominations agree on the ethical mitzvot of the Decalogue and the commandment to love one’s neighbor.