Six Hundred Thirteen
613 mitzvot or 613 Commandments (Hebrew: ???"? ????? transliterated as Taryag mitzvot; TaRYaG is the acronym for the numeric value of "613") are a list of commandments from God in the Torah. In Judaism, there is a tradition that the Torah contains 613 mitzvot (Hebrew for "commandments," from mitzvah - ???? -- "precept", plural: mitzvot; from ???, tzavah- "command").
According to tradition, of these 613 commandments, 248 are mitzvot aseh ("positive commandments" commands to perform certain actions) and 365 are mitzvot lo taaseh ("negative commandments" commands to abstain from certain actions). Three-hundred and sixty-five corresponded to the number of days in a year and 248 was believed by ancient Hebrews to be the number of bones or significant organs in the human body.
Three of the negative commandments can involve yehareg ve'al ya'avor, meaning 'One should let himself be killed rather than violate this negative commandment', and they are murder, idol-worship, and forbidden relations.
<< Home