I had heard it said before that there are 613 laws given to Moses that are found in the first 5 books of the Bible. These "laws" are often what makes reading books like Leviticus so boring for so many people. As I have become fascinated with ancient Jewish life, I have become fascinated with many of these laws. I spent a chunk of my night tonight learning more about the 613 laws.
Jews divide the laws into 14 "books" so that they can remember them easier. They divide them into things like, the book of love, the book of marriage and so on. Those books then are filled with a number of the laws. Memorizing the books and all their laws would allow you to memorize all 613 laws, and would give you a great understanding behind a lot of what Jews believe. For example, one of the books is the book of holidays. This book includes all commandments which take place at a consistent time. It covers all the Sabbath laws and all the holiday ritual laws. Learning about this "book of laws" would give a lot of insight into Jewish life.
One of the things that was most fascinating to me, is that they also divide these laws into the categories of "positive" and "negative." It is unlike our culture to consider many laws a positive thing, but the Jews find 248 of their commandments to be positive in nature. These refer mainly to things they need to continue to do or remember (example - Know God Exists, or Fear God), where the negative ones deal with things you shouldn't do (example - Make Graven Images, or Plant a Tree in the Sanctuary).
Some of the laws seem random, which I guess is why I am fascinated by them.
Don't know that any of you will get anything out of reading this, but I'm going to continue studying these laws throughout my life, so you might hear of them again.
Which laws that you have read so far stick out most in your mind and why?
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