613 Mitzvot

613 Mitzvot

So what is the Torah exactly? The Torah consists of the Ten Commandments and more, called “mitzvot” the Hebrew word for commandment or commandments. Some have posited that a distinction exists between the 10 commandments and the Mitzvot. The truth is they are one and the same.

When God spoke the 10 commandments it came with a terrifying eruption of smoke, lightning, thunder and the sound of a trumpet. The Jewish “Oral Torah” or tradition claims that Israel had a multi-sensory experience. They not only heard God speak his law, but they tasted it, felt it, saw it, and experienced all its many dimensions. In Exodus 20, after God spoke the 10th commandment he was interrupted. The people couldn’t take it anymore and pleaded to have Moses mediate for them, by writing the rest of God’s commandments in a book. Although the commandments or “Mitzvot” that followed after the first 10 commandments were written by the hand of Moses, they are no less important. They all came from God. If the people had allowed it, God would have continued until the very end.

Jewish tradition asserts there are 613 Mitzvot in total. Comprehensive lists can be found with a simple google search online, often citing from the work of Moshe Ben Maimon; one of the most prominent Jewish medieval scholars. The list includes every commandment written in the 5 books of Moses often differentiated into two categories: Positive commandments (do’s), and negative commandments (don’ts).

At first, 613 can seem to be an overwhelming number; especially if all this is new to you and consequently have grown accustom to your Christian life without them. If 613 mitzvot seems difficult to you, and admittedly it did to me, the “Hebrew Roots” movement often directs our attention to an astute observation: the US government literally has countless laws. In 1982, Ronald Gainer, the Justice Department official at the time led a formidable attempt to arrive at a definitive number. The outcome revealed 50 volumes and 23,000 titles of Law. Ronald Gainer has been documented as saying: “You will have died and resurrected three times, and still be trying to figure out the answer.” Today, the exact number of laws has not been identified. There are 20,000 laws governing the use of guns. The Internal Revenue code has more than 3.4 million words and if printed 60 lines per page, the resulting document would be more than 7,500 pages long. In a Dec 27, 2011 press release, the National Conference of State Legislatures announced that the government passed more than 40,000 bills and resolutions to law that year alone. As citizens of the United States we are expected to abide to them all!

“As citizens of the United States we are required to keep all the laws of our country. When you try to count all of the Laws it seems like an impossible task to accomplish. Yet the majority of Americans are considered law abiding citizens. Do we not want to be a Law abiding citizen in the Kingdom of God?” – Lex Myer, Unlearn the Lies, Youtube video: Can we keep all the commandments?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAn9-eYv1j4&t=6s

613 Mitzvot when compared to countless U.S. Federal Law suddenly seems quite reasonable, especially when you realize these laws are not to apply to every individual, but to govern the activities of Israel as a whole. Some laws only apply to the High Priest, some only for the Levitical priesthood, some for the Temple, some for the land, some for women, etc. A detailed look through the Mitzvot reveals that surprisingly, a decent amount of the general Mitzvot are fulfilled by the average Christian even without their knowledge of it. Although some may find a few of the Mitzvot strange, a lot of the Mitzvot just like the 10 commandments are simply practical and obvious. In contrast to the U.S. government, God did not deliver a law that is out of our reach, nor was it intended as a burden:

“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.” – Deuteronomy 30:11-14

“In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” - 1 John 5:3

Much of Christianity has interpreted New Testament references to the Law as a different Law, a “Law of Love” and that the old law was abolished.

In John 15:12 Jesus establishes a “new” commandment:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

John reiterates this in 1 John 3:23:

“And this is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another just as He commanded us.”

Jesus is also believed to have done away with all Law by regarding two commandments as supreme above all others:

“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:30-31

The Biblical definition of loving God is obeying him. Therefore the commandment to love God has within it, the adherence of all other laws. We get so caught up in the feeling and emotion of love that we often forget to think about HOW to love as an action. When we love, say our spouse; we try to make them happy by making an effort to fulfil their needs. We try to avoid the things that upset them, and we try to do what they ask. Love is worthless if action, as evidence of that love does not follow. I can love God to tears but if after the tears fall, I seek a life of sin, this love is not real. If someone says they love their spouse, but then act contrary to the statement through abuse or infidelity, the “love” they say they have is worthless. Can you see how love without action is hollow?

After loving God what else is left but loving your neighbour? Better than a sentiment, is action that follows. How do we love our neighbour exactly? God tells us through his Torah. Here are just a few Mitzvot regarding loving our neighbour:

• Not to take revenge (Lev. 19:18)
• Not to bear a grudge (Lev. 19:18)
• To relieve a neighbour of his burden and help to unload his beast (Ex. 23:5)
• Not to afflict an orphan or a widow (Ex. 22:21)
• To leave the unreaped corner of the field or orchard for the poor (Lev. 19:9)
• Not to delay payment of a hired man's wages (Lev. 19:13)
• That a man should fulfil whatever he has uttered (Deut. 23:24)
• To return lost property (Deut. 22:1)
• Not to defraud (Lev. 19:13)
• Not to refrain from maintaining a poor man and giving him what he needs (Deut. 15:7)

Taking from commandments 6-10, are we loving our neighbour if we murder him? Are we loving our neighbour if we sleep with his wife? Are we loving our neighbour if we steal from him? Are we loving our neighbour if we give false testimony against him in court? Are we loving our neighbour if we are coveting his possessions?

Indeed, Love is the fulfilment of the Law: Loving God and loving others.

"Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law." – Romans 13:8

Paul says whoever loves fulfils the law. To what Law is Paul referring to? The Torah, or some abstract “Law of love” offering zero instruction and only sentiment?

“The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.” – Romans 13:9-10

Paul names off a few of the 10 commandments, and then states: “and whatever other command there may be” referring to the entire Torah, stating that love is its fulfilment. In Romans 7:7 Paul names the 10th commandment when referencing the Law, therefore we can be sure that the Torah, and the Law of the New Testament and the Commandments of the New Testament are the same:

“I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." – Romans 7:7

Jesus did not come to create a new religion. He definitely didn’t come to teach new doctrine or do away with what God has already established:

“My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” – John 7:16,17

What is the Fathers doctrine? That we obey his Torah and believe his son, the Messiah that was promised through prophecy all over the Old Testament:

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” – John 5:46

“He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’” – Luke 24:44

The Father’s doctrine is good:

”For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.” – Proverbs 4:2

In 1 John 3:23 Jesus was not declaring a new commandment, but revealing to them what it really is ALL about:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…”

He then uses himself and what he was about to do as an example of the ultimate act of Love. He didn’t just love, he did something for us as evidence of his love; he gave up his life.

“…Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16