It is, therefore, no wonder that the prophet Isaiah exhorts his brethren: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil: learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (i. 16, 17). “He that walketh righteously, [[238]]and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil, he shall dwell on high,” &c. (Ibid. xxxiii. 15, 16). In the same sense the virtuous man is described by all prophets; also in Ps. xv. and Ps. xxiv.
R. Akiba says: “ ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Lev. xix. 18) is an important principle in the Torah,” but at the same time he shows what importance he ascribes to all other principles and precepts of the Law by most carefully examining the details of every one of them alike. The great Hillel told the Gentile who desired to become a Jew: “ ‘Do not to thy neighbour what is hateful to you;’ this is our whole religion;” but that he did not ignore the remainder of the Torah, or consider it as not essential, is proved by the additional words: “The rest is its explanation; go and learn” (Babyl. Talmud, Sabbath, 31a). Hillel only gave the proselyte a lesson which would lead him to obey all the words of the Almighty.
Rabbi Simlai (Yalkut on Micah vi. 8) said: “Six hundred and thirteen commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai; David reduced them to eleven (Ps. xv.); Isaiah reduced them to six (xxxiii. 16, 17); Micah (vi. 8) to three; then Isaiah reduced them again to two (lvi. 1); and Habakkuk to one—Faith (ii. 4).” This Rabbi does certainly not mean to say that Isaiah cancelled some of the eleven virtues mentioned by David, or that Habakkuk only demanded Faith, and did not consider it essential that man should be righteous, truthful, &c. Rabbi Simlai intended only [[239]]to point out that by training ourselves in the practice of certain virtues, the fulfilment of all Divine precepts will be greatly facilitated.
All the commandments of the holy Torah are equally Divine. Laws concerning justice and humanity, and laws concerning Sabbath and Holydays, are equally introduced by the declaration, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.” The commandments, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” and “A garment of diverse kinds, of linen and wool, shall not come upon thee,” stand side by side in the same paragraph. The equality of all the precepts as the expression of the Will of the Almighty is clearly set forth in the Law, in the frequent exhortations that the Israelites should obey all the precepts, whatever their nature may be, whether they be of the class of “statutes” or of “judgments,” or of any other class of Divine commands. (Comp. Exod. xv. 25, 26; Lev. xxvi. 15, 43; Num. xv. 39, 40; Deut. iv. 1, 5, 8, &c.)
As to the various terms employed in the Pentateuch to designate the Divine precepts: words (דברים), commandments (מצוות), statutes (חקים), judgments (משפטים), and laws (תורות), they may be considered as synonyms signifying similar things. But even synonyms are as a rule distinguished from each other by a certain variation in their meaning, especially when the terms occur in one and the same sentence. A definition of these terms is not given in the Pentateuch or in the Bible; from the context, however, in which they occur the following distinction may be drawn:—
חק or חקה, “statute,” is applied to those laws which are absolute and do not depend on certain conditions, [[240]]whilst mishpat, “judgment,” is a law the performance of which varies according to circumstances. Thus the Paschal sacrifice is called chukkah, and must absolutely be performed, whilst the civil laws concerning slaves, damages, &c., are mishpatim, because cases of slavery or damages need not occur, and the respective precepts are then not carried into effect. In a similar manner Jewish theologians divide the Divine precepts into מצות שמעיות and מצות שכליות precepts which our duty of obedience to God makes us perform, and precepts which, without distinct Divine command, our own reason would impel us to do.—The other terms, mitsvah, “commandment,” and mishmereth, “charge,” are used in a general sense, the former in reference to the Giver of the law, and the latter in reference to those to whom it is addressed.
The division of the precepts into שמעיות and שכליות is a vague one, and the line of demarcation will be moved farther to the one side or the other, according to the judgment exercised by the interpreter. Of greater importance is the division into positive and negative precepts, commandments, and prohibitions, מצות עשה and מצות לא תעשה. The prohibitions are of two kinds: such as admit of amends being made for their transgression and such as do not admit: שיש בה קום עשה and שאין בה קום עשה.
The number of the commandments is, according to Rabbi Simlai, 613 (תר״יג), and in some editions of the Pentateuch the number of each commandment has been noted in the margin. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, in the introduction to his Mishneh-torah, enumerates the 613 mitsvoth. They are also contained in liturgical [[241]]compositions, called אזהרות “exhortations,” or “precepts,” such as are met with in the Machzor for the Feast of Weeks.
Maimonides, in “The Guide” as well as in Mishneh-torah, treats of the precepts of the Torah under the following fourteen heads: (1) Fundamental principles of our faith;[2] (2) Divine worship; (3) Sabbath and festivals; (4) Marriages; (5) Forbidden food and forbidden relations of the sexes; (6) Vows; (7) Agriculture; (8) The Temple and the regular sacrificial service; (9) Occasional sacrifices; (10) Cleanness and uncleanness; (11) Compensation for damages; (12) Transfer of property; (13) Contracts; (14) Administration of the law.
Another theologian, Rabbenu Jakob, divided the code of laws into four sections: (1) Divine worship, Sabbath, festivals, and fasts; (2) Things forbidden and things permitted in satisfying our bodily desires; (3) Marriages; (4) Civil laws.