Category: 613

The new year and mitzvos is something we are faced with every year. After Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, we want to merit a new year of live and all good things. We have the Aseres Yimai Teshuva, the ten days of repentance, when we are meant to demonstrate in practice our commitments to be good.

What can we do in practice to merit a good new year? Actions – the need to better our mitzva performance is definitely an area that can be to our advantage. Positive and negative commandments from the 613 mitzvos are there for the taking. Taking one mitzva to focus on and simply analyse how you are approaching it now and what more can be done is the way to go! This itself can act as a reason to give us another year of life. The danger is not to take on too high a goal but take it up one level from what you were doing should be the target. The year itself is the testing ground to see how your commitment is carried out in practice.  Keep strong to get the best results!

Tisha B’Av and the missing mitzvos is something central to every Jew. On the 9th of Av the holy Beis Hamikdosh was destroyed which led to exile. This resulted in many mitzvos no longer able to be fulfilled. In fact, from the 613 positive and negative commandments, only 271 mitzvos can be done nowadays. That means the majority, 342 mitzvos, currently cannot be done! This is part of our great aveiles and sadness specifically on Tisha B’Av, as well as throughout the year, that our spiritual lives have been minimised, further distancing us from Hashem. What we must do is strengthen ourselves in the mitzvos that remain with us and feel the loss of those we currently cannot do that will come back with the coming of Moshiach, may he speedily come now.

How many mitzvos nowadays can be done in practice? The Chofetz Chayim compiled a book called Sefer HaMitzvos Hakozer that lists out of the 613 mitzvos how many can be done nowadays. This is because a lot of mitzvos involve korbonous. sacrifices, and the holy Beis Hamikdosh that has been destroyed. He lists 77 positive commandments and 194 negative commandments.

When you start going through the list of the 613 commandments, you will find yourself asking, “but i can’t do all 613?”. This is because some of them are only for Jewish Kings and others for only Kohanim. Some are only applicable to when the Beis Hamikdosh was up and running. How then can each individual achieve completion with all 613 that parallels the human body – the 248 positive commandments to the 248 limbs and the 365 negative commandments to the 365 sinews? Here we come to an important principle of Arvus – Jews being connected to each other spirituality and therefore what is done by one can be seen to also be attributed to others. In this way it is possible for every Jew to do all 613 mitzvos!

The Sages tell us that the total number of mitzvos are taryag, 613.  Where does the number of 613 come from and what does it mean? If we look in the actual Torah, we can count more than 613? This is the reason for a huge argument between the commentators as to which ones are to be counted! What is clear is that there are most definitely many more than 613 mitzvos. The number 613 is like the “main” ones, but all the others most definitely are also mitzvos. The significance of 613 is that it is comprised of 248 positive commandments, paralleling the 248 limbs, and 365 negative commandments, paralleling the 365 days of the solar year. It is like the positive mitzvos are telling the person’s limb to constantly do mitzvos with the whole body while the negative mitzvos are saying each day of the year to the person not to sin!