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What are the 613 mitzvot?

Asked on June 30, 2026

Answer

The 613 mitzvot are the commandments that Hashem gave us in the Written Torah at Mount Sinai. These are not from the rabbis - we have 613 mitzvot from Hashem and only 7 from the rabbis. Most people think it's the opposite, but it's really 613 from Hashem and 7 from the rabbis. Now, it's critical to understand that no single person can fulfill all 613 mitzvot. Why? Because some mitzvot are only for Kohanim, some are only for women, some are only for men, and many can only be done in the Beit HaMikdash which we don't have today. So the average person is responsible for maybe half of them - around 250 to 300 mitzvot that are actually relevant to them. The purpose of all 613 mitzvot is to fix your character traits, your middot. This is what the Gaon of Vilna taught. When his student asked him why there's no specific mitzvah commanding us to fix our middot if it's so important, the Gaon looked at him and said the entire purpose of all 613 mitzvot is so you fix yourself. Each mitzvah teaches you something - praying to Hashem teaches gratitude, giving tzedakah teaches generosity, and so on. The 613 mitzvot include both positive commandments - things you must do - and negative commandments - things you must not do. They cover every aspect of life: your relationship with Hashem, your relationship with other people, how you eat, how you dress, how you conduct business, holidays, Shabbat, family purity laws, and much more. Out of all the 613 mitzvot, Shabbat stands above everything else. Chazal teach us that even if someone found a way to keep 612 out of 613 mitzvot but doesn't keep Shabbat, those 612 are worth absolutely nothing. Without Shabbat, there is no Judaism. Without Shabbat, there is no teshuva. Shabbat is the foundation of everything. If you want to learn what each mitzvah is, the Chafetz Chaim wrote a book that lists all 613 mitzvot with a short explanation of each one. It's an excellent resource to understand what the mitzvot are, even though each mitzvah is so deep you could write thousands of books about just one of them.