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May 28, 2010
Mitzvot in abundance
Why are there 613 commandments in the Torah?
RABBI SHMUEL YESHAYAHU
I hear that the Torah has 613 commandments. Considering the huge number, I’d assume that it’s impossible to fulfil all of them. So, I’m wondering, what is the attitude in Judaism towards this fact?
You are right that 613 commandments seems like a lot to expect from any one person. So, I’d like to start by taking a closer look at the mitzvot (commandments).
The 613 mitzvot are actually categorized in a few different ways. There are mitzvot you perform when interacting with people (for example, around issues in business ethics) and those performed between man and G-d (like prayer, for instance). There are 248 “positive” mitzvot (“do this”) and 365 “negative” (“don’t do this”) mitzvot. There are other categorizations, for instance, there are mitzvot that only apply when residing in the land of Israel, or only applicable when the Temple stands in Jerusalem, mitzvot kept only by kings and those kept only by kohanim (priests).
One opinion says that, today, it’s only possible to observe 77 negative and 194 positive commandments. So, as you can see, it is not expected that any one person would fulfil all 613 mitzvot, since it is – literally – impossible to do so. You would need to be a man, woman, king, priest and many other things all at once to succeed.
Still, what is the purpose of trying to keep all of the mitzvot that we are able to keep? It says in Pirkei Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers) that there is no free man besides those who occupy themselves with Torah study. Considering that, once you learn Torah you have been told what to do on so many levels, how does this make sense?
Rabbi Chananyah ben Akshia said: Hashem wanted to give Israel merits and, therefore, gave them much Torah and mitzvot, as it says, “Hashem wanted for the sake of [Israel’s] righteousness that the Torah be made great and glorious.” (Makot 20b)
The Hebrew word z’chut (merit) comes from the same root as the Hebrew word for refinement (zach). One way to understand this quote from the Talmud is to explain that G-d gave the Torah and mitzvot to us in order to give us the tools with which to reach our inner potential.
I’d like to use a laser beam as an analogy. As light leaves its source, it naturally scatters and dilutes. On the other hand, a laser is built in such a way that even as light travels away from the source, it stays concentrated and focused. Some lasers can even cut metal because they are so powerful.
In this world, all the distractions, like our habits, desires and moods, can divert us in unintended directions. The mitzvot and the Torah act like the restrictions imposed on the laser to help us reach our true potential. They empower each individual to express their true essence.
There’s a beautiful story in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a), which describes a non-believer who approached the sage Shammai and said, “Make me a proselyte, on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Shammai chased him away. When the man then approached the sage Hillel and gave him the same challenge, Hillel replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary; go and learn it.”
It’s a nice story, but does Hillel’s answer make sense? What about all the other mitzvot? How could it be that Hillel considered so much of the Torah “commentary”?
I think that what Hillel was saying was that the Torah gives us the ability to look at the world, and at people, from G-d’s perspective. Once we view things through the eyes of the divine, our attitudes towards other people, other living things and the world as a whole, change. Through implementing the Torah, we gain the ability to connect to people soul to soul.
From the perspective of our physical selves, other people are different than us and removed from us. But once the Torah begins to refine us, and defines us as spiritual beings, essentially divine and with boundless potential, we view others as interconnected with ourselves. It is then that we could never hurt each other.
Hillel’s explanation is a test we can use to see whether or not our Torah study and mitzvot are being done effectively. We should ask ourselves if we are treating others as we would want to be treated. If the answer is no, if it doesn’t hurt us when somebody is in pain, or we only perform the mitzvot between us and G-d, we are missing the point. If, however, the answer is yes, if we treat others as we would want to be treated or, at the very least, we strive towards that goal, we have captured the essence of the Torah and its many commandments. The rest is commentary.
Rabbi Shmulik Yeshayahu is head of the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel. He wrote this article with Deena Levenstein, a freelance writer living in Jerusalem. Her website is habitza.com.
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