What Are Mitzvot? The 613 Commandments Explained

Ask a Jewish friend about a kind act they just did and you may hear, "It was a mitzvah." Ask a rabbi what the word means and you will get a more formal answer: a commandment. Both are right. The double meaning is the heart of how Judaism understands a good life.

Mitzvot (singular: mitzvah) are the commandments of the Torah, and the word has also come to describe the good deeds those commandments produce. Understanding both senses opens a window onto everyday Jewish practice.

One word, two senses

In the Torah and in Jewish law, a mitzvah is a commandment: something God instructs Israel to do or to refrain from doing. Lighting candles before Shabbat, resting on the seventh day, giving to the poor, not mixing certain fabrics: each of these is a mitzvah in the strict sense, an obligation with a source in the text.

In everyday modern speech, especially in English, "mitzvah" has widened to mean any good deed: visiting a sick neighbor, driving an elderly friend to an appointment, donating to a food bank. Jewish speakers use the word this way themselves, warmly and without apology. The two senses overlap because so many classic good deeds are, in fact, commandments too. Giving charity is not merely a nice idea in Judaism; it is tzedakah, an obligation.

In a text about Jewish law, mitzvah means commandment. At a community dinner, it probably means someone did something kind. Both meanings deserve their place.

The traditional count: 613

Tradition puts the number of mitzvot in the Torah at 613, a count known in Hebrew as taryag, a word built from the letters that represent that number. The most influential list was compiled by Maimonides, the twelfth-century rabbi and philosopher, who worked through the Torah and enumerated all 613 in his Sefer Hamitzvot, the Book of the Commandments. His list became the reference point later scholars argued with, refined, and taught from.

The 613 divide into 248 positive commandments, the "do" instructions, and 365 negative commandments, the "do not" instructions. Tradition delights in the correspondences: 365 matches the days of the solar year, and 248 was traditionally held to match the number of bones and organs in the human body, as if the whole person is involved. These are teachings tradition passes along about the numbers, offered as meaning rather than anatomy.

The commandments also reach in two directions. Some are between a person and God: prayer, Shabbat observance, the dietary laws. Others are between one person and another: honoring your father and mother, paying a worker promptly, not holding a grudge, leaving the corner of a field for the poor. Judaism treats the second category with full seriousness. A person cannot claim devotion to God while dealing dishonestly with people, and the tradition's own ordering of forgiveness, seen most clearly around Yom Kippur, sends you to repair things with people first.

The most famous summary of the whole system is itself a mitzvah, from Deuteronomy:

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart

Deuteronomy 6:5 (JPS 1917)

Many mitzvot belong to another time

A common follow-up question is whether anyone actually keeps all 613. No one can, and no one is expected to, because a large share of them are tied to circumstances that no longer exist. Many govern sacrifices, purity, and the service of the Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed in 70 CE. Others apply only to a king, only to priests, only to farmers in the land of Israel, or only when a particular situation arises. A mitzvah about returning a lost animal obligates you only if you find one.

So the 613 are less like a personal checklist of 613 daily chores and more like the full constitution of a people's life, parts of which apply to different people, in different roles, at different times. The mitzvot that shape daily life today are a smaller, recognizable set, and Jews across the spectrum of observance relate to them in different ways, from careful full observance to choosing those that carry meaning for their family.

The mitzvot people actually live by

Some examples will be familiar even from outside Jewish life. Tzedakah is the obligation to give charitably, treated not as optional generosity but as righteousness and justice: the word shares its root with tzedek, justice. Kashrut is the body of dietary laws, summed up in keeping kosher, which for many households means not mixing meat and dairy and avoiding certain foods such as pork and shellfish. Shabbat observance, from lighting candles on Friday evening to resting from work until Saturday night, structures the week. Honoring parents is one of the Ten Commandments and one of the most universally kept mitzvot of all.

Around these sit smaller moments the tradition sanctifies: a blessing before eating, a mezuzah on the doorpost, words of Torah studied in the morning. Ordinary life is the arena where a relationship with God is actually lived.

A mitzvah as a connection

There is a popular teaching, often shared in sermons and classrooms, that links mitzvah to the Aramaic word tzavta, meaning connection or companionship. Scholars would note that this is a folk association rather than the word's strict etymology. But it endures as a teaching because it captures something practitioners recognize: a mitzvah is not experienced mainly as a rule imposed from outside, but as a point of connection, between a person and God, and between a person and their community. Doing the deed is the connection.

That teaching also explains the warmth in the modern usage. When someone calls a ride to the hospital "a real mitzvah," they are saying the act connected people, which is precisely what the commandments were understood to do.

Bar and bat mitzvah: becoming obligated

This is also where the phrase bar mitzvah comes from. A bar mitzvah, "son of the commandment," is a boy who has reached thirteen and is now obligated in the mitzvot in his own right; a bat mitzvah, "daughter of the commandment," is a girl who reaches that stage at twelve in traditional practice. The celebration, often with the young person reading from the Torah, marks the milestone. It is not the party that makes someone a bar or bat mitzvah, but the age and responsibility: from then on, the mitzvot are theirs.

If you would like to keep learning how these ideas fit into the rhythm of Jewish life, you can Explore Judaism in Faith Map, where reading and lessons are free.