The 'Taryag'/613 Commandments : What is 613?

[muman613]

Ever since I returned to my Jewish roots I have been fascinated with the number 613. This number represents the total number of mitzvot/divine commandments which are expounded in our Holy Torah. Once I began seriously studying the Torah, and the entire holy scriptures of the TaNaKh I realized that I must bind myself to them in order to never forget them.

I also took on serious observance of the mitzvah of the TzitTzit, the fringes we wear on our four-cornered undergarment (tallit katan) because of this. We wear these fringes not because we think they are cool looking, but because they remind us that we are Jewish and that we are bound to these 613 commandments. It is a mental thing, which is supposed to speak to our mind, our heart, and our soul (things we speak about in the Shema prayer).

Here are some articles which discuss the importance of this number, the mystical connections, and the practical facts...

http://ohr.edu/973

The Jew was given 613 commandments (mitzvot), according to the Talmud, which contain 248 positive commands and 365 negative ones. The positive mitzvot equal the number of parts of the body; the negative mitzvot correspond to the number of days in the solar year.

Thus are we introduced to 613, the magic number of Torah scholarship and Jewish living. Its source is the Babylonian Talmud; its importance is echoed in a vast body of scholarly literature spanning a millennium; its potential as an aid to studying and remembering Torah deserves our careful analysis.

The Talmud refers to this number as taryag mitzvot. Classical Jewish sources assign a numerical value to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is treated not as a mere utilitarian collection of word components but as a conveyor of esoteric information through the Kabbalistic medium of gematriya. Thus the gematriya of taryag is 613 (tav = 400, raish = 200, yud = 10, and gimel = 3). The tradition of taryag mitzvot was developed by Rabbi Simlai of the Talmud, reasoning as follows: Scripture tells us that Moses commanded the Torah (Pentateuch) to the Children of Israel. The gematriya (numerical equivalent) of the four Hebrew letters of the word Torah is 611. Add to this the two commandments which all of Israel heard from God Himself at Mt. Sinai and you have a total of 613 - taryag.

Before any ambitious Bible student goes plunging into the five books of the Torah in search of a list of these commandments, he should be warned that the task is more formidable than it seems. The Torah is a fascinating complex of prophetic history and divine guidance, encompassing the entire human and universal experience, and the commandmnts contained therein represent but one of its dimensions. Tradition has it that God used the Torah as His blueprint for creating the world and that all of its letters can be combined to form the different sacred names of the Deity. Attempting to approach the Torah superficially is therefore as safe as negotiating an iceberg. One unfamiliar with the Talmudic ground rules for calculating the mitzvot is likely to come up with a number far below or beyond the 613 total. In actuality the Torah contains thousands of rules and the taryag mitzvot are only the broad classifications.

The First Shorthand

The first recorded attempt to develop scholarly criteria for counting the commandments was made close to 1,000 years ago by Rabbi Shimon Kaeira, whose classic Halochot Gedolot (The Great Laws) became the pacesetter in this field. The famed medieval Spanish scholar, Rabbi Avraham lbn Ezra, suggests that something along the lines of Rabbi Kaeira's work had been written more than two millennia earlier by Joshua and the Children of Israel when entering the Land of Israel. Commanded by God to record the entire Torah in 70 languages on 12 great stones after crossing the Jordan, they faced the apparently insurmountable task of inscribing millions of words. lbn Ezra concluded that they only listed the 613 commandments in each language, rather than the whole Torah.
Even if lbn Ezra was correct in his assumption, later generations had no record of which commandments were indeed inscribed on those stones. Kaeira's work won wide acceptance but by no means went unchallenged. There has probably been no single item of the Talmud which has been the subject of so much critical analysis as Rabbi Simlai's statement. Rav Saadia Gaon's listing differed from Rabbi Kaeira's, and Maimonides challenged them both. His own compilation laid the groundwork for his Sefer Hamitzvot (Book of the Mitzvot) and the classic Mishne Torah codification which followed. Dozens of volumes and epic poems have been authored throughout the generations of the taryag theme, with earlier generations favoring Rabbi Kaeira's system and the later ones following the pattern of Maimonides.

But on one thing there was consensus: the usefulness of the listing of the mitzvot as a medium for gaining a perspective of all the divine commandments included in the Torah's message to Jewry. The great French Torah authority and itinerant preacher, Rabbi Moshe of Coucy, memorized all of the 613 mitzvot as a personal checklist when he set out in 1235 on a tour of Jewish communities in France and Spain for the purpose of strengthening their fulfillment of Torah commandments. French Jewry was then suffering from the decree of Crusader King Louis IX (who was later canonized by the Catholic Church) on the burning of the Talmud, and these talks on the mitzvot filled a serious intellectual void. In one community after another he was besieged by information-hungry audiences asking him to expand his lectures into a fullfledged book.

Modesty prevented the sage of Coucy from undertaking a work of such magnitude for the public. Then one night he was commanded in a dream to write a book on the mitzvot which was to be divided into two sections: the positive commandments and the negative ones. The response to this prophetic dream was the compilation of the classic Sefer Hamitzvot Hagadol (The Great Book of Mitzvot).

Not long afterwards, another French sage, Rabbi Yitzchak of Couerville, compiled a more concise listing of the mitzvot, Sefer Mitzvot Katan (The Small Book of Mitzvot), which he dispatched at his own expense to Jewish communities in western Europe so that they might copy its contents as a record of the commandments they were obligated to fulfill.

The Night-Long Vigils

The situation in Spain was different. There was no need for mitzva listings as a replacement for banned literature. But even here the need was felt for providing at least a periodical review of the commandments in order to refresh the Torah perspective of both scholar and layman. An ingenious method, typical of the character of medieval Spanish Jewry, was developed. Scholar-poets wove all 613 commandments into long poems to be recited once a year. The time chosen for this unique sort of review was the long sleepless night with which Jews traditionally usher in the Shavuot festival. As they celebrate this holiday, known as "the season of the giving of our Torah," the People of the Torah recall with shame that on a summer morning in the year 2448 (1312 B.C.E.) in the Sinai Desert, they had to be roused from their sleep by God, anxious to give them His Torah. As an atonement for this ancestral lack of enthusiasm, they stay awake all Shavuot eve studying Torah. The most renowned of these poetic compilations which became part of the tikkun (order) of Shavuot eve are the Azharot (warnings) of Rabbi Shlomo lbn Gvirol, and it is his version which so many Oriental Jews still recite during their all-night holiday vigil.
There is an apocryphal tale of how lbn Gvirol's masterpiece was inspired. Once, when he was still an 18-year-old student in the yeshiva, he heard the master announce that he would offer the hand of his exceptional daughter in marriage to the disciple who would present him with some new scholarly creation. That night the young scholar-poet went without sleep, pouring all of his energies into the writing of his Azharot and tossing the finished manuscript into his master's home through an open skylight. The following morning the master found the papers, recognized lbn Gvirol's handwriting, and immediately made arrangements for taking him as his son-in-law.

The once-a-year recital of taryag mitzvot through Azharot poetry did not satisfy religious leaders in other lands who felt a need for a more frequent review. Rav Moshe of Couerville recorded his listing of relevant commandments on seven pages so that a Jew could complete the entire listing each week through daily review. Rabbi Aharon Halevi of Barcelona, a contemporary of the sages of Coucy and Couerville, arranged his Sefer Hachinuch (Book of Education) according to weekly Torah portions to encourage his son and other youths to reflect upon the mitzvot contained in each chapter. The motivation for this effort, as exIplained in his introduction, has a ring of contemporary significance: "To familiarize them with the mitzvot and to occupy their minds with pure thought and meaningful calculation lest they take into their hearts calculations of amusement, insignificance and meaninglessness; and even when they grow older these mitzvot shall not depart from them." The weekly portion system of listing the mitzvot for review was utilized a few centuries later by Rabbi Yeshaya Halevi Horowitz in his Shnei Luchot Habrit (Two Tablets of the Covenant).

Daily Review

The idea of a comprehensive review each week was revived by Rabbi Shabtai Hacohen (1621-1663), author of the classical Siftei Cohen on the Shulchan Aruch. His Poel Zedek (Worker of Righteousness) was a listing of the 613 mitzvot, each identified by a one-line seriptual source. He divided them into seven sections to enable readers to easily complete a total review each week. Rabbi David Arel of Volozhin made the same time breakdown in his elaboration of the Keter Torah (Crown of Torah) compilation of mitzvot authored by Rabbi David Vital.
Even a week was too long for some authors. Rabbi Shabtai considered a daily review of all the mitzvot as the ideal fulfillment of the prophetic command: "This book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall study therein day and night." He submitted his weekly plan only as a concession to those who couldn't keep the daily pace.

Somewhere in between the ideal and practical paces discussed by his predecessors is the quota suggested by a Torah giant of the last generation. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Hacohen Kagan (1838-1933), known as the Chafetz Chaim because of a Torah classic by that name which he authored, wrote Sefer Hamitzvot Hakatzeir (Abridged Book of Mitzvot) in which he offered brief descriptions of the commandments relevant to our own times. He advised reviewing half the positive commands on Monday and half on Thursday, repeating the same pattern the following week in regard to negative commands.

Almost a millennium is spanned by all these efforts, from the pacesetting, comprehensive Halachot Gedolot till the Chafetz Chaim's concentration on relevance. The common denominator of all these works is their authors' conviction that it is vital for a Jew to regularly review the commandments as a means of refreshing his sense of duty and his general Torah perspective.

In this age of the information explosion, there is still very little available for the uninformed Jew curious about his heritage, but too impatient to read lengthy works at the outset of his investigation. The experience of 1,000 years teaches us that Taryag mitzvot may well provide both the medium and the message for the student in search of an introduction to the vast wealth of Torah knowledge.

[muman613]

http://www.torah.org/learning/livinglaw/5767/vayishlach.html


Parshas Vayishlach

Taryag Mitzvos: No. 613

Rabbi Sumlae’i learned: Taryag mitzvos, 613 commandments were said to Moshe at Sinai. There are 365 negative commandments which correspond to the 365 days of the solar calendar and 248 positive commandments parallel to the 248 components in the human body. (Talmud, Makkos 23b)

In his message to the threat of Eisav marching with his army towards Yaakov, he sent a tribute to pacify his angry twin brother and informed him im Lavan garti, “with Lavan I sojourned” (Bereishis 32:5). The word “garti” has the same letters as “taryag, 613”. Yaakov advised Eisav, “Although I took up residence with Lavan, nevertheless I observed the commandments in their entirety. Nor was I influenced by his wicked conduct”. (Rashi, ad loc)

Moshe brought down G-d’s Torah to the Jewish people. It contains 613 commandments – divided into 248 positive commandments and 365 negative commandments – reflected in how the numerical value of “Moshe Rabbeinu”, Moshe Our Teacher, is 613.

613 is the number which defines a Jew’s existence and life.

It is impossible for one individual Jew to fulfil Torah in its entirety. Some laws are only relevant to men; others to priests and still others, only to kings. Some relate to the Temple which was destroyed. It takes the unification of Jewish people, as one entity as at the foot of Sinai, for all the diverse 248 limbs to combine and make up the collective body.

Each mitzvah, like the individual components of the body, has intrinsic value. Each has a unique function to call its own – the heart circulating the blood, the eyes as the vehicle of sight, the nose to smell etc.

But they operate in a wider setting, in conjunction with all the others, to become a complete body, a whole unit. This is why each mitzvah must be heeded in equal measure – each is an important component in providing vitality for the united spiritual make-up of the Jewish people. If a little spring is missing, the mechanism of a watch will not function. No mitzvah can be negated or downplayed, Heaven forbid. Nor can one afford to dismiss one law and only accept to fulfil 612 commandments (See Rabbeinu Yonah, Shaarei Teshuva). It requires the joint efforts of all the different members of the Jewish nation to fulfill the 613 commandments. When involved in mitzvah observance, it should ideally be performed “In the name of the entire [nation of] Yisrael”, as the Jewish nation are, at root, one.

What is important is that the “soul” to each one of 613 commandments is the same.

The commandments are, after all, 613 different means and pathways to connecting to G-d Who is One. A mitzvah is classified as an eitzah, “guidance”. Through “any” one of these precepts, man is able to forge a pathway to draw close to his Creator.

That means every mitzvah earns him merit. Every mitzvah performed is important insofar as the common denominator running through each mitzvah is identical: obedience to the Divine Will. Accordingly, it is absurd to be selective when it comes to mitzvah observance or to favor one mitzvah over and above another.

Many sources mention the good practice of studying and memorizing all 613 commandments. Since many laws cannot be enacted today, learning the rules and laws of that mitzvah it deemed equivalent to its observance: “Anyone who is involved in the laws of the burnt offering, it is as if he has actually sacrificed it” (Menachos 110a).

The Jewish nation’s performance of the 613 commandments encompassing all circumstances and all generations is what crowns G-d as King of the Universe and glorifies His Name.

And guess what?

The title Hashem Eloy-kei Yisrael, “Hashem the G-d of Israel” adds up numerically to… 613.

[muman613]

Since I mentioned the connection of remembering all 613 commandments to the commandment of wearing the Tzit-Tzit (fringes) on the Tallit, here is a very informative article on the topic... From the esteemed Rav Yitzok Ginsburg himself...

http://www.inner.org/613-mitzvot/tzitzit.php

The Tzitzit

Introduction

One of the 613 commandments is to tie a tzitzit on each of the corners of a four-cornered garment.

The commandment of tzitzit appears in the Pentateuch in the following verses:1

God said to Moshe: "Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them [that] they shall make tzitzit (צִיצִת ) on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations; and in the tzitzit (צִיצִת ) on the corner, they shall place a blue fiber. They will be your tzitzit (לְצִיצִת ); you will look at it and you will remember all of God's commandments and you will do them; and, you shall not follow your hearts and eyes, after which you prostitute. So that you may remember and perform all my commandments; and you will be consecrated to your God. I am Havayah, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am Havayah, your God."

Note that in this paragraph, the Torah mentions the word tzitzit explicitly three times, whereas using a pronoun to refer to it would have been just as suitable (indeed, pronouns are used in some cases in this paragraph). It would be appropriate therefore to see how the three explicit instances of tzitzit in the parshah correspond to some Kabbalistic models.

Space, Time, and Soul

The simplest and most straightforward model to which these three instances of tzitzit correspond is from the Book of Formation, and is known as the space-time-soul model.

In this case, the correspondence is easy to see:

The 1st instance, "…make tzitzit on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations…" corresponds to time (generations).

The 2nd instance, "…in the tzitzit on the corner, they shall place a blue fiber" correspond to space (to place a blue fiber on the corner). The sages explain that the blue fiber, known as the techelet triggers a cascade of images related to both physical and spiritual space, "the techelet is similar to the sea, the sea is similar to the firmament, and the firmament is similar to the Supernal Throne." The Supernal Throne in Kabbalah is a connotation for the World of Creation. In Hebrew, the word "world" (עוֹלָם ) stems from the word meaning "concealed" (נֶעֶלָם ), alluding to the fact that the Creator is concealed (impalpable) in the Worlds. Of the four worlds usually discussed (Emanation, Creation, Formation, and Action), the description of World is explicitly related to the World of Creation, the first level of consciousness where the ego shrouds God's presence.

And the 3rd instance, "…they will be your tzitzit; you will look at it and you will remember all of God's commandments" corresponds to soul (to look and to remember).

From Action to Emanation

The three explicit mentions of the tzitzit in these verses also suggest a progression through the Worlds, beginning with Action and ending in Emanation. This can be seen by focusing on the verbs accompanying each of the instances.

In the 1st instance (וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִת ), the verb is to make (וְעָשׂוּ ), which in Hebrew is the same verb as that from which stems "Action" (עַשִׂיָה ).

In the 2nd instance (וְנָתְנוּ עַל צִיצִת הַכָּנָף ), the verb is to place (וְנָתְנוּ ), which alludes to the World of Formation, the level of consciousness in which there is an ongoing struggle between the two inclinations, the good and the evil (or, to use the conceptual scheme of the Tanya, between the Divine soul and the animal soul). The verb translated here as "they shall place" literally reads "they shall give." This same verb, to give, is the verb in the verse "Behold I have given before you today life and good and death and evil… choose life!"2 Furthermore, these words, "And in the tzitzit on the corner, they shall place a blue fiber" instruct us to place a blue fiber together with the white fibers of the tzitzit. The white of the tzitzit alludes to the good inclination while the blue alludes to the power that God gives us to overcome our evil inclination. The value of this verb "and they shall place" (וְנָתְנוּ ) is 512, or 29, also alluding to the inherent duality characterizing the human psyche.

In the 3rd instance (וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְצִיצִת ), the verb used is "to be" (וְהָיָה ), which alludes to the World of Creation, the world were reality comes into being (ex nihilo). The word "and it shall be" (וְהָיָה ), whose letters permute to spell God's essential Name, Havayah (י־הוה ), represents the reflection of the Almighty's manifestation in the World of Creation (a manifestation that originates from the World of Emanation). The two verbs in the previous phrases were in the plural form, referring to those being commanded. This verb is in the singular form and refers to the tzitzit itself, to its Divine potential. The World of Creation is the world of potential, as explained in Kabbalah. Note also that in the third instance the word "tzitzit" is prefaced with a relational lamed (לְצִיצִת ), meaning "for a tzitzit." Based on its form (it is the only Hebrew letter ascending above the roof of the others), the lamed is described as "a tower soaring in the air," and alludes to the mother figure in Kabbalah embodied in the World of Creation.3

Immediately following the third instance of "tzitzit," we read the phrase, "And you shall see it" where the "it," literally refers to the tzitzit. However, this pronoun "it" (אֹתוֹ ) in Hebrew also means "him," thus alluding to "Him," i.e., to the Almighty as He is revealed in the World of Emanation where our sense of self does not obscure His Presence. Moreover, of the five senses, sight corresponds to the World of Emanation. The grammatical proximity between the 3rd instance of tzitzit and this phrase ("And you shall see it [Him]") illustrates how the supernal father and mother figures (which correspond to the Worlds of Emanation and Creation) are always connected and never part.

Numerical Considerations

The sum of the numerical values, the gematriot, of the three explicit instances of tzitzit (צִיצִת צִיצִת לְצִיצִת ) is 1800. But, 1800 is also the value of just the 3rd instance with the phrase following it, which we have seen as corresponding to the two companion Worlds of Creation and Emanation (וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְצִיצִת וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ )! So the progression through the three lower levels (the World of Action, Formation, and Emanation) is included within the unification of the two highest levels, the Worlds of Creation and Emanation.

1800 is also the double-square of 30, or 1800 = 2 ∙ 302. 30 is the value of the letter lamed (ל ), as above. This illustrates two things. First, that the World of Creation, signified by the letter lamed, extends and is present, as the potential inner life-force, within all three lower worlds. Second, it illustrates the inter-inclusion between the Worlds of Emanation and Creation. Before we saw that God's essential Name, which originates in the World of Emanation is reflected in the World of Creation in the verb "it shall be" (וְהָיָה ). Now we see that the World of Creation, again, signified by the lamed, is found to unify Emanation and Creation.

The final letters of the three explicit instances of tzitzit equal 1200, meaning that all the previous (10) letters of the three words equal 600 (in the secret of "whole and half"), the value of the word tzitzit when written in full, as we shall see.

Moshe Rabbeinu and the Tzitzit

The filling4 of the three instances of tzitzit is צדי יוד צדי תו צדי יוד צדי תו למד צדי יוד צדי תו , and its numerical value is 1976, 76 ∙ 26, where 76 is the gematria of "servant" (עֶבֶד ) and 26 is of course the value of Havayah.5 How should we understand this finding?

Probably the best known gematria about the tzitzit is that it is related to the number 613. How so? The gematria of tzitzit (צִיצִית ) when written in its full form is 600 (see the next section for more on this). If we add to this the 5 double knots and the 8 strings found in each tassel, we get 613.6 This relationship provides a numerical depiction of how looking at the tzitzit reminds one of God's 613 commandments.

Indeed, 613 is the value of "Moshe Rabbeinu" (מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ ), providing an additional level of contemplation of how the tzitzit connects us with the Torah given by Moshe Rabbeinu. Indeed, Moshe Rabbeinu is described (consummately) as "God's servant"7 (עֶבֶד י־הוה ). And, as above, the filling of the three instances of tzitzit equals the product of God (Havayah) and servant! Thus, contemplating the tzitzit and kissing it each time we mention it in the morning Shema leads us to become one with Moshe Rabbeinu, the consummate servant of God, who is essentially one with the 613 commandments of the Torah.

More on the Tzitzit and 613

We noted above that the gematria of tzitzit (צִיצִית ) when written in its full form is 600. But, as we have seen, in all three instances the word tzitzit is spelled with only one yud not two, like so: צִיצִת .

Still, there is a simple numerical equivalency here that needs to be highlighted. The gematria of the three instances of tzitzit as it is written in the Torah (צִיצִת צִיצִת לְצִיצִת ) is 1800, exactly the value of three times the full form (צִיצִית ), which is equal to 600, and 3 ∙ 600 = 1800! Thus, the teaching about tzitzit and 613 is based on the average value of the three instances.

In fact, this idea is apparent in the form of the three instances. We noted that in the third instance an additional relational lamed (ל ), meaning "for," is added to the word. If we divide 30, the value of this additional lamed, in three, we get 10, or three letters yud (י ) whose value is 10. When we add a yud to each of the three appearances of tzitzit, then each will now be the full form of the word.

Let us go another step deeper. The final form of the letter mem (ם ) is equal to 600. Thus, three full forms of tzitzit (צִיצִית ) equal three final mems. The sages refer to the final mem as the concealed mem (mem stumah), the letter of Mashiach. In addition, according to many great tzadikim, the Mashiach's special mitzvah—the one through which he shines the most and his concealed essence becomes revealed—is the mitzvah of tzitzit.

One explanation for this is that the two-letter root of tzitzit is simply two letters tzadik (צצ ), symbolizing the two levels of tzadik present in every Divine soul. These tow levels are called the higher tzadik, the giver, and the lower tzadik, the receiver, as explained in Chassidic writings.8 When both levels are revealed and unified, they release the Messianic potential of the soul.

The gematria of each letter tzadik (צ ) is 90, or one twentieth of 1800. 90 is also the value of three letters lamed (ללל ). In the three explicit instances of tzitzit there are 6 tzadiks, which, when inter-included each in each, total 36, corresponding to the 36 tzadikim of every generation, which represent the potential of the generation to merit the coming of Mashiach.


Notes:

1. Numbers 15:37-39.
2. Deuteronomy 30:15.
3. See in depth in The Hebrew Letters, pp. 183, 189
4. There are two possible fillings for צ , either צדי or צדיק . Note that here, it is filled as צדי .
5. If we add to the three instances of tzitzit the filling of the pronoun "it" (אֹתֹו ), which we saw corresponds to yet a fourth level, אלף תו ואו , the total will come to 2506, or 7 times Mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ ).
6. See Rashi to Numbers 15:39.
7. Deuteronomy 34:5
8. In the Torah, the archetypal figures of the higher and lower tzadik are Joseph and Benjamin.

[muman613]