The HEBREW SCRIPTURE
As G-D Commanded...
GOD
And God said further to Moses, “So shall you say to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is how I should be mentioned in every generation.
Shemot (Exodus) 3:15
TORAH
The Five Books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But the word “Torah” can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), or in its broadest sense, to the whole body of Jewish law and teachings.
PEOPLE
The original name for the people we now call Jews was Hebrews. The word “Hebrew” (in Hebrew, “Ivri”) is first used in the Torah to describe Abraham (Gen. 14:13). Another name used for the people is Children of Israel or Israelites, which refers to the fact that the people are descendants of Jacob, who was also called Israel.
LAND
This is the land now known as Israel, named after Abraham’s grandson, whose descendants are the Jewish people. The land is often referred to as the Promised Land because of G-d’s repeated promise (Gen. 12:7, 13:15, 15:18, 17:8) to give the land to the descendants of Abraham.
Because Abraham obeyed My voice, and observed My safeguards, My commandments, My decrees, and My Torahs.”
Bereishit (Genesis) 26:5
248 Positive Commandments (do's) and 365 Negative Commandments (do not's)
1. To know that God exists (Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6)
2. Not to entertain the idea that there is any god but the Eternal (Ex. 20: 3)
3. Not to blaspheme (Ex. 22:27-28 ) Cf Lev 24: 16
4. To hallow God’s name (Lev. 22:32)
5. Not to profane God’s name (Lev. 22:32
6. To know that God is One, a complete Unity (Deut. 6:4)
7. To love God (Deut. 6:5)
8. To fear Him reverently (Deut. 6:13; 10:20)
9. Not to put the word of God to the test (Deut. 6:16)
10. To imitate His good and upright ways (Deut. 28:9)
11. To honor the old and the wise (Lev. 19:32)
12. To learn Torah and to teach it (Deut. 6: 7)
13. To cleave to those who know Him (Deut. 10:20)
14. Not to add to the commandments of the Torah.(Deut.13:1)
15. Not to take away from the commandments of the Torah (Deut. 13: 1)
16. That every person shall write a scroll of the Torah for himself (Deut. 31: 19)
17. To circumcise the male offspring (Gen. 17:12; Lev. 12: 3)
18. To put fringes on the corners of clothing (Num. 15:38)
19. To bind God’s Word on the head (Deut. 6:8)
20. To bind God’s Word on the arm (Deut. 6:8)
21. To affix the mezuzah to the door posts and gates of your house (Deut. 6: 9)
22. To pray to God (Ex. 23:25; Deut. 6:13)
23. To read the Shema [lit: The Hearing] in the morning and at night (Deut. 6: 7)
24. To recite grace after meals (Deut. 8: 10)
25. Not to lay down a stone for worship (Lev. 26:1)
26. To love all human beings who are of the covenant (Lev. 19: 18)
27. Not to stand by idly when a human life is in danger (Lev. 19:16)
28. Not to wrong any one in speech (Lev. 25: 17)
29. Not to carry tales (Lev. 19:16)
30. Not to cherish hatred in one’s heart (Lev. 19:17)
31. Not to take revenge (Lev. 19:18)
32. Not to bear a grudge (Lev. 19:18)
33. Not to put any Jew to shame (Lev. 19:17)
34. Not to curse any other Israelite (Lev. 19: 14)
35. Not to give occasion to the simple-minded to stumble on the road (Lev. 19: 14)
(this includes doing anything that will cause another to sin)
36. To rebuke the sinner (Lev. 19:17)
37. To relieve a neighbor of his burden and help to unload his beast (Ex. 23:5)
38. To assist in replacing the load upon a neighbor’s beast (Deut. 22:4)
39. Not to leave a beast, that has fallen down beneath its burden, unaided (Deut. 22:4)
40. Not to afflict an orphan or a widow (Ex. 22:21)
41. Not to reap the entire field (Lev. 19:9; Lev. 23:22)
42. To leave the unreaped corners of the field or orchard for the poor (Lev. 19:9)
43. Not to gather gleanings (the ears that have fallen to the ground while reaping)
(Lev. 19:9)
44. To leave the gleanings for the poor (Lev. 19:9)
45. Not to gather ol’loth (the imperfect clusters) of the vineyard (Lev. 19: 10)
46. To leave ol’loth (the imperfect clusters) of the vineyard for the poor (Lev. 19:10; Deut. 24:21)
47. Not to gather the single grapes that have fallen to the ground (Lev. 19: 10)
48. To leave the single grapes of the vineyard for the poor (Lev. 19:10)
49. Not to return to take a forgotten sheaf (Deut. 24: 19) This applies to all fruit trees (Deut. 24: 20)
50. To leave the forgotten sheaves for the poor (Deut. 24:19-20)
51. Not to refrain from maintaining a poor man and giving him what he needs (Deut. 15:7)
52. To give charity according to one’s means (Deut. 15:11)
53. To love the stranger (Deut. 10:19)
54. Not to wrong the stranger in speech (Ex. 22:20)
55. Not to wrong the stranger in buying or selling (Ex. 22:20)
56. Not to intermarry with gentiles (Deut. 7: 3)
57. To exact the debt of an alien (Deut. 15:3)
58. To lend to an alien at interest (Deut. 23:21)
59. To honor father and mother (Ex, 20:12)
60. Not to smite a father or a mother (Ex. 21:15)
61. Not to curse a father or mother (Ex. 21:17)
62. To reverently fear father and mother (Lev. 19: 3)
63. To be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28)
64. That a eunuch shall not marry a daughter of Israel (Deut. 23: 2)
65. That a bastard [Heb.mamzer = illegitimate son] shall not marry the daughter of a Jew (Deut.23:3)
66. That an Ammonite or Moabite shall never marry the daughter of an Israelite
(Deut. 23:4)
67. Not to exclude a descendant of Esau from the community of Israel for three generations (Deut. 23:8-9)
68. Not to exclude an Egyptian from the community of Israel for three generations (Deut. 23:8-9)
69. That there shall be no harlot (in Israel); that is, that there shall be no intercourse with a woman, without previous marriage with a deed of marriage and formal declaration of marriage (Deut.23:18)
70. To take a wife by the sacrament of marriage (Deut. 24: 1)
71. That the newly married husband shall (be free) for one year to rejoice with his wife (Deut. 24:5)
72. That a bridegroom shall be exempt for a whole year from taking part in any public labor, such as military service, guarding the wall and similar duties (Deut. 24:5)
73. Not to withhold food, clothing or conjugal rights from a wife (Ex. 21: 10)
74. That the woman suspected of adultery shall be dealt with as prescribed in the Torah (Num. 5:30)
75. That one who defames his wife’s honor (by falsely accusing her of unchastity before marriage) must live with her all his lifetime (Deut. 22:19)
76. That a man may not divorce his wife concerning whom he has published an evil report (about her unchastity before marriage) (Deut. 22: 19)
77. To divorce by a formal written document (Deut. 24: 1)
78. That one who divorced his wife shall not remarry her, if after the divorce she had been married to another man (Deut. 24:4)
79. That a widow whose husband died childless must not be married to anyone but her deceased husband’s brother (Deut. 25:5) (this is only in effect insofar as it requires the procedure of release below).
80. To marry the widow of a brother who has died childless (Deut. 25:5)
(this is only in effect insofar as it requires the procedure of release below )
81. That the widow formally release the brother-in-law (if he refuses to marry her) (Deut. 25:7-9)
82. Not to indulge in familiarities with relatives, such as sensual kissing, carnal embracing, or provocative winking which may lead to incest (Lev, 18:6)
83. Not to commit incest with one’s mother (Lev. 18: 7)
84. Not to commit sodomy with one’s father (Lev. 18: 7)
85. Not to commit incest with one’s father’s wife (Lev. 18:8)
86. Not to commit incest with one’s sister (Lev. 18: 9)
87. Not to commit incest with one’s father’s wife’s daughter (Lev. 18:9)
88. Not to commit incest with one’s son’s daughter (Lev. 18: 10)
89. Not to commit incest with one’s daughter’s daughter (Lev. 18:10)
90. Not to commit incest with one’s daughter (this is not explicitly in the Torah but is inferred from other explicit commands that would include it)
91. Not to commit incest with one’s fathers sister (Lev. 18: 12)
92. Not to commit incest with one’s mother’s sister (Lev. 18:13)
93. Not to commit incest with one’s father’s brothers wife (Lev. 18:14)
94. Not to commit sodomy with one’s father’s brother (Lev. 18: 14)
95. Not to commit incest with one’s son’s wife (Lev. 18:15)
96. Not to commit incest with one’s brother’s wife (Lev. 18: 16)
97. Not to commit incest with one’s wife’s daughter (Lev. 18: 17)
98. Not to commit incest with the daughter of one’s wife’s son (Lev. 18: 17)
99. Not to commit incest with the daughter of one’s wife’s daughter (Lev. 18: 17)
100. Not to commit incest with one’s wife’s sister (Lev. 18:18)
101. Not to have intercourse with a woman, in her menstrual period (Lev. 18: 19)
102. Not to have intercourse with another man’s wife (Lev. 18:20)
103. Not to commit sodomy with a male (Lev. 18:22)
104. Not to have intercourse with a beast (Lev. 18:23)
105. That a woman shall not have intercourse with a beast (Lev. 18:23)
106. Not to castrate the male of any species; neither a man, nor a domestic or wild beast, nor a fowl (Lev. 22:24)
107. That the new month shall be solemnly proclaimed as holy, and the months and years shall be calculated by the Supreme Court only (Ex. 12: 2)
108. Not to travel on the Sabbath outside the limits of one’s place of residence (Ex. 16:29)
109. To sanctify the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8)
110. Not to do work on Sabbath (Ex. 20:10)
111. To rest on Sabbath (Ex. 23:12; 34:21)
112. To celebrate the festivals (Ex. 23: 14)
113. To rejoice on the festivals (Deut. 16: 14)
114. To appear in the Sanctuary on the festivals (Deut. 16: 16)
115. To remove leaven on the Eve of Passover (Ex. 12: 15)
116. To rest on the first day of Passover (Ex. 12:16; Lev. 23: 7)
117. Not to do work on the first day of Passover (Ex. 12:16; Lev.23:6-7)
118. To rest on the seventh day of Passover (Ex, 12:16; Lev, 23:8)
119. Not to do work on the seventh day of Passover (Ex. 23:8)
120. To eat “matzah” [unleavened bread] on the first night of Passover (Ex. 12:18)
121. That no leaven be in the Israelite’s possession during Passover (Ex. 12:19)
122. Not to eat any food containing leaven on Passover (Ex. 12:20)
123. Not to eat leaven on Passover (Ex. 13: 3)
124. That leaven shall not be seen in an Israelite’s home during Passover (Ex.
13:7)
125. To discuss the departure from Egypt on the first night of Passover (Ex. 13:8)
126. Not to eat leaven after mid-day on the fourteenth of Nissan (Deut. 16: 3)
127. To count forty-nine days from the time of the cutting of the Omer
(i.e. first sheaves of the barley harvest) (Lev. 23:15)
128. To rest on Pentecost (Lev. 23:21)
129. Not to do work on the feast of Pentecost (Lev. 23:21)
130. To rest on Rosh Hashanah [i.e., the feast of Trumpets] (Lev. 23:24) (CCA29)
131. Not to do work on Rosh Hashanah (Lev. 23:25)
132. To hear the sound of the Trumpet [Heb. shofar or ram’s horn] (Num. 29: 1)
133. To fast on Yom Kippur i.e., the day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27)
134. Not to eat or drink on Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:29) (CCN152)
135. Not to do work on Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:31) (CCN151)
136. To rest on the Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:32)
137. To rest on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles or Booths.[Heb. Sukkot] (Lev. 23:35)
138. Not to do work on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:35)
139. To rest on the eighth day of the feast of Tabernacles (Lev.23:36)
140. Not to do work on the eighth day of the feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:36)
141. To take during Sukkot a palm branch and the other three plants (Lev. 23:40)
142. To dwell in booths seven days during Sukkot (Lev. 23:42)
143. To examine the marks in cattle (so as to distinguish the clean from the unclean) (Lev. 11:2)
144. Not to eat the flesh of unclean beasts (Lev. 11:4)
145. To examine the marks in fishes (so as to distinguish the clean from the unclean (Lev. 11:9)
146. Not to eat unclean fish (Lev. 11:11)
147. To examine the marks in fowl, so as to distinguish the clean from the unclean (Deut. 14:11)
148. Not to eat unclean fowl (Lev. 11:13)
149. To examine the marks in locusts, so as to distinguish the clean from the unclean (Lev. 11:21)
150. Not to eat a worm found in fruit (Lev. 11:41)
151. Not to eat of things that creep upon the earth (Lev. 11:41-42)
152.Not to eat any vermin of the earth (Lev. 11:44)
153. Not to eat things that swarm in the water (Lev. 11:43 and 46)
154. Not to eat of winged insects (Deut. 14:19)
155. Not to eat the flesh of a beast that is torn (Ex. 22:30)
156. Not to eat the flesh of a beast that died of itself (Deut. 14:21)
157. To slay cattle, deer and fowl according to the law if their flesh is to be eaten (Deut. 12:21)
158. Not to eat a limb removed from a living beast (Deut. 12:23)
159.Not to slaughter an animal and its young on the same day (Lev. 22:28)
160. Not to take the mother-bird with the young (Deut. 22: 6)
161. To set the mother-bird free when taking the nest (Deut. 22:6-7)
162. Not to eat the flesh of an ox that was condemned to be stoned (Ex. 21:28)
163. Not to boil meat with milk (Ex. 23:19)
164. Not to eat flesh with milk (Ex. 34: 26)
165. Not to eat the of the thigh-vein which shrank (Gen. 32: 33)
166. Not to eat the fat of the offering (Lev. 7:23)
167. Not to eat blood (Lev. 7:26)
168. To cover the blood of undomesticated animals (deer, etc.) and of fowl that have been killed (Lev. 17:13)
169. Not to eat or drink like a glutton or a drunkard (not to rebel against father or mother) (Lev. 19:26; Deut. 21:20)
170. Not to do wrong in buying or selling (Lev. 25: 14)
171. Not to make a loan to an Israelite on interest (Lev. 25: 37)
172. Not to borrow on interest (Deut. 23:20) (because this would cause the lender to sin)
173. Not to take part in any usurious transaction between borrower and lender, neither as a surety, nor as a witness, nor as a writer of the bond for them (Ex. 22:24)
174. To lend to a poor person (Ex. 22:24)
175. Not to demand from a poor man repayment of his debt, when the creditor knows that he cannot pay, nor press him (Ex.22:24)
176. Not to take in pledge utensils used in preparing food (Deut. 24:6)
177. Not to exact a pledge from a debtor by force (Deut. 24: 10)
178. Not to keep the pledge from its owner at the time when he needs it (Deut. 24: 12)
179. To return a pledge to its owner (Deut. 24: 13)
180. Not to take a pledge from a widow (Deut. 24: 17)
181. Not to commit fraud in measuring (Lev. 19:35)
182. To ensure that scales and weights are correct (Lev. 19:36)
183. Not to possess inaccurate measures and weights (Deut. 25:13-14)
184. Not to delay payment of a hired man’s wages (Lev. 19: 13)
185. That the hired laborer shall be permitted to eat of the produce he is reaping (Deut. 23:25-26)
186. That the hired laborer shall not take more than he can eat (Deut. 23:25)
187. That a hired laborer shall not eat produce that is not being harvested (Deut. 23:26)
188. To pay wages to the hired man at the due time (Deut. 24: 15)
189. To deal judicially with the Hebrew bondman in accordance with the laws appertaining to him (Ex. 21:2-6)
190. Not to compel the Hebrew servant to do the work of a slave (Lev. 25: 39)
191. Not to sell a Hebrew servant as a slave (Lev. 25:42)
192. Not to treat a Hebrew servant rigorously (Lev. 25:43)
193. Not to permit a gentile to treat harshly a Hebrew bondman sold to him (Lev. 25:53)
194. Not to send away a Hebrew bondman servant empty handed, when he is freed from service (Deut. 15:13)
195. To bestow liberal gifts upon the Hebrew bondsman (at the end of his term of service), and the same should be done to a Hebrew bondwoman (Deut. 15: 14)
196. To redeem a Hebrew maid-servant (Ex, 21:8)
197. Not to sell a Hebrew maid-servant to another person (Ex. 21:8)
198. To espouse a Hebrew maid-servant (Ex. 21:8-9)
199. To keep the Canaanite slave forever (Lev. 25:46)
200. Not to surrender a slave, who has fled to the land of Israel, to his owner who lives outside Palestine (Deut. 23: 16)
201. Not to wrong such a slave (Deut. 23:17)
202. Not to muzzle a beast, while it is working jn produce which it can eat and enjoy (Deut. 25:4)
203. That a man should fulfill whatever he has uttered (Deut. 23:24)
204. Not to swear needlessly (Ex. 20: 7)
205. Not to violate an oath or swear falsely (Lev. 19: 12)
206. To decide in cases of annulment of vows, according to the rules set forth in the Torah (Num. 30•.2-17)
207. Not to break a vow (Num. 30: 3)
208. To swear by His name truly (Deut. 10:20)
209. Not to delay in fulfilling vows or bringing vowed or free-will offerings (Deut. 23:22)
210. To let the land lie fallow in the Sabbatical year (Ex. 23:11; Lev. 25: 2)
211. To cease from tilling the land in the Sabbatical year (Ex. 23:11) (Lev. 25:2)
212. Not to till the ground in the Sabbatical year (Lev. 25:4)
213. Not to do any work on the trees in the Sabbatical year (Lev. 25:4)
214. Not to reap the aftermath that grows in the Sabbatical year, in the same way as it is reaped in other years (Lev. 25:5)
215. Not to gather the fruit of the tree in the Sabbatical year in the same way as it is gathered in other years (Lev. 25: 5)
216. To sound the Ram’s horn in the Sabbatical year (Lev. 25:9)
217. To release debts in the seventh year (Deut. 15: 2)
218. Not to demand return of a loan after the Sabbatical year has passed (Deut.
15:2)
219. Not to refrain from making a loan to a poor man, because of the release of loans in the Sabbatical year (Deut. 15:9)
220. To assemble the people to hear the Torah at the close of the seventh year (Deut. 31:12)
221. To count the years of the Jubilee by years and by cycles of seven years (Lev.
25:8)
222. To keep the Jubilee year holy by resting and letting the land lie fallow (Lev. 25:10)
223. Not to cultivate the soil nor do any work on the trees, in the Jubilee Year (Lev. 25:11)
224. Not to reap the aftermath of the field that grew of itself in the Jubilee Year, in the same way as in other years (Lev. 25: 11)
225. Not to gather the fruit of the tree in the Jubilee Year, in the same way as in other years (Lev. 25: 11)
226. To grant redemption to the land in the Jubilee year (Lev. 25: 24)
227. To appoint judges and officers in every community of Israel (Deut. 16: 18)
228. Not to appoint as a judge, a person who is not well versed in the laws of the
Torah, even if he is expert in other branches of knowledge (Deut. 1:17)
229. To adjudicate cases of purchase and sale (Lev. 25: 14)
230. To judge cases of liability of a paid depositary (Ex. 22:9)
231. To adjudicate cases of loss for which a gratuitous borrower is liable (Ex. 22:13-14)
232. To adjudicate cases of inheritances (Num. 27:8-11)
233. To judge cases of damage caused by an uncovered pit (Ex. 21 : 33-34)
234. To judge cases of injuries caused by beasts (Ex. 21:35-36)
235. To adjudicate cases of damage caused by trespass of cattle (Ex. 22:4)
236. To adjudicate cases of damage caused by fire (Ex. 22: 5)
237. To adjudicate cases of damage caused by a gratuitous depositary (Ex. 22:6-7)
238. To adjudicate other cases between a plaintiff and a defendant (Ex. 22:8)
239. Not to curse a judge (Ex. 22:27)
240. That one who possesses evidence shall testify in Court
241. Not to testify falsely (Ex. 20: 13)
242. That a witness, who has testified in a capital case, shall not lay down the law in that particular case (Num. 35:30)
243. That a transgressor shall not testify (Ex. 23: 1)
244. That the court shall not accept the testimony of a close relative of the defendant in matters of capital punishment (Deut. 24: 16)
245. Not to hear one of the parties to a suit in the absence of the other party (Ex. 23:1)
246. To examine witnesses thoroughly (Deut. 13: 15)
247. Not to decide a case on the evidence of a single witness (Deut. 19:15)
248. To give the decision according to the majority, when there is a difference of opinion among the members of the Sanhedrin as to matters of law (Ex. 23: 2)
249. Not to decide, in capital cases, according to the view of the majority, when those who are for condemnation exceed by one only, those who are for acquittal (Ex. 23:2)
250. That, in capital cases, one who had argued for acquittal, shall not later on argue for condemnation (Ex. 23: 2)
251. To treat parties in a litigation with equal impartiality (Lev. 19:15)
252. Not to render iniquitous decisions (Lev. 19: 15)
253. Not to favor a great man when trying a case (Lev. 19: 15)
254. Not to take a bribe (Ex. 23:8)
255. Not to be afraid of a bad man, when trying a case (Deut. 1:17)
256. Not to be moved in trying a case, by the poverty of one of the parties (Ex. 23:3; Lev. 19:15)
257. Not to pervert the judgment of strangers or orphans (Deut. 24: 17)
258. Not to pervert the judgment of a sinner (a person poor in fulfillment of commandments) (Ex. 23:6)
259. Not to render a decision on one’s personal opinion, but only on the evidence of two witnesses, who saw what actually occurred (Ex. 23: 7)
260. Not to execute one guilty of a capital offense, before he has stood his trial (Num. 35: 12)
261. To accept the rulings of every Supreme Court in Israel (Deut. 17: 11)
262. Not to rebel against the orders of the Court (Deut. 17:11)
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