How Many Commandments Are There?

---

(Video Version)

Are There Really 613 Separate Laws in the Torah?

The idea that there are 613 commandments comes from the 12th century Jewish scholar, Moshe ben Maimon (the Rambam), who was the first to actually make a formal list. You can find it on the website, www.the613commandments.com.

Many of the Rambam’s laws have a Talmudic interpretation that could be considered adding to the Torah. For example, the law #31 says: Do not make human forms even for decorative purposes; however, the actual law says: Exodus 20:23 You shall not make gods of silver along with Me, and you shall not make gods of gold for yourselves. And another example is law #72, which says: Do not tattoo the skin; however, the actual law says: Leviticus 19:28 And you shall not make any cuttings for the dead; and you shall not put on yourself any writing or mark; I am YHWH. And the best example is law #195, which says: Do not eat meat and milk cooked together. (Many Torah observant people, both Christians and Jews, take this to mean they are forbidden from eating cheeseburgers!) The actual law states: Exodus 23:19 You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother. The best practice is always to use the source scripture for interpretation and pray for discernment.

We went through the Rambam’s list and eliminated all the duplicate laws and laws that weren’t really laws; as well as the ones that involved slavery or required the Levitical priesthood, justice system, or tabernacle. So, are there six-hundred and thirteen laws? Not even close.

---

How Many Laws Are There Actually?

One argument rationalizing disregard for YHWH’s law is that Yeshua said we only have two commandments now: 1) Love God, and 2) love your neighbour.

Matthew 22:35-40 And one of them, a lawyer, questioned Him, testing Him, and saying, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments all the Law and the Prophets hang.

Yeshua was speaking to Jewish men who were well educated in YHWH’s law; they already knew the details of His expectations, therefore Yeshua did not have to repeat them.

Clear Instructions = Just Expectations

Let’s say you have a twelve-year-old son and you want him to clean the kitchen as his daily chore. If the only instruction that you gave him was to “clean the kitchen”, do you think you would get the outcome you desired? Do you think his idea of “clean the kitchen” might be a little different than yours? Would you be justified in being upset with him when the job he did was not up to your standards? An honourable parent is one who gives clear and just rules and instructions.

Breaking down the chore of cleaning the kitchen into smaller tasks would make your expectations a little more clear to your son.

Therefore, the daily chore list the first week would be:

So, how many chores does your son actually have? One, four, or thirteen?

Let’s say that the following week, you wrote out a new chore list for him that said:

1. Do the dishes,
2. Clean the counters,
3. Sweep the kitchen floor, and
4. Take out the garbage.

Would he be excited because he ONLY had four chores this week, instead of thirteen? If in the third week your chore list only said, “Clean the Kitchen”, does that mean his workload has decreased? In fact, his chore list did not change from week one to week three. You still expect him to complete all the same tasks as part of cleaning the kitchen; you just have the reasonable expectation that you don’t need to repeat the detailed instructions that you already gave him and that he had been practicing every day for a week or two. It is the same with YHWH and His commandments.

YHWH Has Just Expectations

The Church experienced the “great falling away” from the second century onwards and changed what “love God” meant into what they wanted it to mean, essentially falling away from how YHWH told us He wanted to be loved. This would be the equivalent of your son in the above analogy deciding in week four that “clean the kitchen” meant vacuum the living room.

YHWH first gave us detailed instructions of what “love God” and “love your neighbour” meant to Him. This ensured that our definition and His would be aligned. This is the same as your week one chore list for your son. In week three, it would make no sense for him to think his chores decreased from thirteen tasks to one, and it would be equally illogical for us to say, “We don’t have to obey all of YHWH’s commandments anymore; we only have to love YHWH and our neighbours now!” YHWH is still expecting us to obey all the same commandments as part of loving Him.

1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not heavy.

It is important to understand two things about Yeshua’s answer to the Pharisee’s question in Matthew 22:35-40: 1) Yeshua did not say these were the ONLY commandments that Christians need to be obeying. He was asked which was the GREAT commandment, not which was the ONLY commandment. And, 2) these were not new commandments given by Yeshua, He was quoting from the Torah.

Deuteronomy 6:5 And you shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Leviticus 19:18 You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am YHWH.

Within Torah, there are two distinct groups mentioned: neighbours and idolaters. The law gives different ways each group is to be treated, so let’s identify to whom YHWH is referring. Idolaters are everyone who does not believe in Yeshua Messiah. Your neighbours are fellow believers in Yeshua Messiah. This conclusion is supported by the rest of scripture and we will need to do a study on them in the near future.

As Yeshua said, there are two great laws and all of the other commandments hang on them.

When parents want their children to follow rules or complete tasks, the more specific and detailed they are in their instructions, the greater the likelihood of them getting their desired outcome. Children obey best when they are given clear expectations.

YHWH is the Perfect Parent and He knows that His children need clearly defined and detailed rules and instructions. We would have no idea what it means to “love God” and “love our neighbour” to His standards without a detailed blueprint. The evidence of this fact is written all over the face of mainstream Christianity! YHWH gave us detailed instructions in His Law but during the “great falling away” the Church forgot them.

YHWH Gives Clear Instructions

So, what we have is two great laws that act as main headings, with ten sub-headings (let’s call them commandments) under them that explain further how to obey those first two laws. Much like the above analogy had four tasks listed that explained how to go about cleaning the kitchen.

YHWH has further broken down those ten commandments into even better detailed instructions. We could call them additional commandments, but it would be more accurate to say they are just a detailed description of how to obey the ten commandments. This would be like you explaining to your son how to complete each of the four tasks involved in cleaning the kitchen.

The detailed instructions can change over time as society changes. In our analogy, this would be like your family not having a dishwasher when your son begins doing the dishes. The detailed instructions under that task would look a little different, and would then change when you bought a dishwasher. The task, do the dishes, did not change.

The world was different in Moses’ time than in Yeshua’s. This is why some of the detailed instructions look a little different. The world has changed much more today compared to Yeshua’s time, and therefore, there are some detailed instructions that need to change with the times. The commandments do not change, only how we obey them has changed. Here are just a few examples:

• Most of us do not need to build a railing around our roofs to keep people safe, because we do not hang out on our roofs. However, we do need to build railings around our decks and balconies.
• We no longer need to take a shovel, go outside the city, dig a hole, empty our bowels, and cover up the hole in order to have proper sanitation and hygiene within our cities. However, we do need to maintain our sewer and water systems.
• We no longer need to segregate menstruating women and call unclean anything they touch, lay on, or sit on in order to prevent blood from getting on other people and to keep good hygiene. However, we do need to wear sanitary napkins or the equivalent, wash contaminated clothing and bedding, and shower regularly to keep good personal hygiene.

We’ve given the ten commandments titles that are more broad in scope, while still retaining their meanings. Those titles are:

1. Worship YHWH
2. Abstain from the Pollution of Idols
3. Respect YHWH
4. Keep YHWH’s Set Apart Times
5. Respect Your Elders
6. Take Care of Your Neighbours
7. Abstain from Fornication
8. Keep Only What is Yours
9. Speak the Truth
10. Do Not Covet What Your Neighbour Has

All of Torah fits under these ten broad sub-headings. These are YHWH’s clear instructions for how He wants us to love Him and each other!

So how many commandments are there actually? Are there two, ten, or sixty-eight? We believe there are two Great Commandments, ten commandments, and sixty-eight instructions. The commandments never change, and no one can add to them or take-away from them. The instructions are the how-to for the commandments, and some have changed slightly over time as society and technologies have advanced.

Follow the links to study each of YHWH’s commandments, find them in scripture, and learn how to obey them in the twenty-first century.

---

---

What About the Laws That Require the Levitical Priesthood?

Many of the laws listed in Torah require the Levitical priesthood and/or tabernacle; for example, any that involve making sacrifices and offerings or penal actions. Does this mean that they no longer apply? Absolutely not! All of YHWH’s laws are forever. Let’s look at an analogy to better understand:

The same thing applies to the laws that require the Levitical priests and/or the tabernacle. Because there is no Levitical priesthood or tabernacle, we are not disobeying those laws (just as my granddaughter isn’t disobeying traffic laws), and therefore we are obeying them.

---

---

Is the Torah Too Difficult to Keep?

Mainstream Christianity would have you believe that God’s Law is impossible to obey, that it is too heavy a burden. Please consider the following scriptures:

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, the One giving me power.

1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not heavy.

1 John 2:3-6 And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commands. The one saying, I have known Him, and not keeping His commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that one. But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. The one saying to rest in Him ought so to walk himself as that One walked.

John 14:21-24 He that has My commandments and keeps them, it is that one who loves Me; and the one that loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I shall love him and will reveal Myself to him. Judas, not the Iscariot, said to Him, Lord, what has happened that You are about to reveal Yourself to us and not at all to the world? And Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him. And We will come to him and will make a dwelling-place with him. The one who does not love Me does not keep My words–and the word which you hear is not Mine, but of the Father who sent Me!

Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man;

Psalm 40:8 I delight to do Your will, my God; and Your law is within my inward parts.

Psalm 1:2 But his delight is only in the law of YHWH, and he meditates in His law day and night.

Psalm 119:97 O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all day.

James 1:25 But the one looking into the perfect law of liberty, and continuing in it, this one not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing.

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon (Satan) was enraged over the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, those keeping the commandments of God, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are the ones keeping the commands of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Some questions for you to contemplate:

---