613 Laws – Could You Keep Them?

As someone reared in the Methodist church, I didn’t know a lot about Judaism. I still don’t, but I’m trying to learn. In my hometown, there were two families of Hebrew heritage. The daughter in one of the families was in my class in high school and she was a good friend. But I didn’t know much about her faith. How I wish I’d asked questions.

If you’ve followed my blogs for a while, you know that my husband and I have embarked on a journey of renewed faith and along with that have begun reading through our Bibles using a chronological plan each year. This is our third time through. We’re in the book of Daniel at the moment. You remember, the fiery furnace and the lion’s den. Also, the handwriting on the wall, from whence we get the old saying. Interesting stories.

I never know where my thoughts will take me when I sit down to write my blog posts. I try to write something that will give you information you may not know about, or I share something to make you think. And, as always, I’m no Biblical scholar. I’m just a housewife, mother, and grandmother who likes to read, write, study my Bible,  and who loves learning new things.

My thoughts today took me to the Tanakh, The Hebrew Bible. We have one and we use it in our daily study as a supplement to our ESV and NLT study Bibles. The one we have contains both the Tanakh and the New Testament.

613 Laws - Could You Keep Them? @DDuPreeWilliams #faith #writing Share on X

613 LAWS

We’ve recently heard several preachers we listen to, in our church or online, mention that there were 613 laws or mitzvot that Jews were expected to keep, not just the Ten Commandments. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard enough time keeping all the ten. But 613? That’s a lot. And they’re all right there in your Bible.

So, I decided to look them up to see what was expected.

In my research on this subject, I learned that of the 613, 248 are positive commands, but of those, only 126 are applicable. So, today, 369 mitzvot are still used. Believe me when I tell you things got very complicated from this point. I’ll just leave this there and move on.

In the writing I found, it was stated that in actuality, there are only 270 precepts every Jew is expected to observe. Of those, 48 are positive and 222 are negative. (Source, Rabbi Eliezer Danziger for Chabad.org).

A HELPFUL AND INTERESTING SOURCE

I purchased a book, 613 Questions of the 613 Mitzvot, Commandments of the Torah by L. Dale Richesin, to help me on my quest (free, or very inexpensive on kindle). Each of these laws is presented as a question, hence, his title. One thing I found extremely interesting is what we’ve been taught from the beginning of our study. The Hebrew people revere G-d so highly that they never spell out His name in full. It is always written as I have it here, with the vowels left out. The same is true with L-rd. Would that we were all this reverent of His very name.

Question number 3 asks, Can we speak G-d’s name aloud? He answers in part with this verse from Leviticus 24:15-16 Then tell the people of Isra’el, ‘Whoever curses his God will bear the consequences of his sin; and whoever blasphemes the name of Adonai must be put to death; the entire community must stone him (The Complete Jewish Study Bible).

I don’t know about you, but I know a whole lot of people who wouldn’t be alive today if we kept this law. Just walk into any theatre or turn on our televisions these days and you’ll know that in a hurry. Mercy!

Question 13: Why should we not add to the commandments or laws? Everything I am commanding you, you are to take care to do. Do not add to it or subtract from it (Deuteronomy 13:1, The Complete Jewish Study Bible).

We’ve all heard the gospel message and what we call the Old Testament the Tanakh, changed to suit today’s worldly values. So much has been taken away when it doesn’t suit one’s modern beliefs. So much has been added to make it fit today’s world.

ONE MORE QUESTION (there are hundreds more!)

One last one, question 26: Why should we show love to all people who believe in God? Leviticus 19:18, Don’t take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any of your people; rather, love your neighbor as yourself; I am Adonai (The Complete Jewish Bible). [This is a part of the original 10.]

I don’t think I need to even comment on this one. We know we’d all fail miserably.

If you’d like to know more about these, do get the ebook I mentioned above. It poses a question for each law cited and includes the scripture that explains it.

Before we got so involved in this Bible study, we weren’t aware of all these things. Now, we learn something new daily. We’re thankful for the resources we’ve come to know. I hope you find them useful to your faith journey.

Blessings, y’all!

 

Another anthem we sang at IPC in B’ham, AL. Words: Teach me, Oh L-rd, the way of Thy statutes and I shall keep it unto the end.