Six Hundred and Thirteen Laws To Find Inner Peace

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

        Straight from Ha Shem to Moses

The Jewish tradition that there are 613 commandments (Hebrew: תרי״ג מצוות, romanized: taryag mitzvot) or mitzvot in the Torah (also known as the Law of Moses) is first recorded in the 3rd century CE, when Rabbi Simlai mentioned it in a sermon that is recorded in Talmud Makkot 23b.   

Baraita designates a tradition in the Jewish oral law not incorporated in the Mishnah. Baraita thus refers to teachings "outside" of the six orders of the Mishnah.                                          

                                        Rambam

Moses ben Maimon, also known as Maimon ben Joseph (1110-1165),was a scholar and pupil himself of Joseph ibn Migas.  He was the dayyan in his native Cordova and author of an Arabic commentary on the Bible. 

He was the  father of  Maimonides, AKA The Rambam, and lived from 1135 to 1200 in Spain.  Maimonides,  had a lot to do with collecting these 613 laws and putting them together.  He was a philosopher, halakhist and medical writer. 

Maimonides's son was Balmes Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon (1186-1237), a court physician to the Sultan Alkamil.  He wrote many works in Arabic including the Book of satisfaction for the Godfearing, an encyclopedic work on Judaism and commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Talmud and his father's books.  He was the succession to his father, and issued ordinances to strengthen the community.  

At age 13, most likely after his Bar Mitzva, he left his native Cordova with his family to  escape the Almohade Persecutions.                     

 The generally harmonious relations that prevailed between the Muslims and Jews throughout the Muslim world in the early medieval period were brutally interrupted with the emergence of a fanatical sect in the twelfth century in North Africa: the Almohads (al-Muwahhidun, “unifiers,” i.e. strict believers in the unity of God). There was fighing between the different Muslim, Christian and Jewish groups.  

Maimonides was a court physician under the Fatimids and Saladin’s Ayyubids in Old Cairo and was not the subject of persecution in this period of his life. But he would never forget the Berber Almohades and their invasion of southern Spain in 1145. Maimonides, then a boy, faced death under the Almohades if he did not embrace Islam. Not long after the invasion of the fanatics, the great philosopher and legal mind settled in North Africa. But it was controlled by the same Almohades Muslims, and it is likely that his family was forced to convert to Islam but practiced Judaism in secret.

When Marrakesh was captured, according to one source, the Christian church there was destroyed and a great number of Jews and Christian militia were killed. When ‘Abd al-Mu’min conquered Ifriqiya (Tunisia) in 1151, he gave the Jews and Christians there the option of conversion to Islam or death.  Abu Ya’qub Yusuf was the first Almohad ruler of al-Andalus [Andalusia) (1153-1184), establishing a dynasty that lasted there until 1227. 

As may be seen from a letter of Maimon (father of Maimonides), a religious judge (dayyan) of the Jewish community of Cordoba, persecution of the Jews had begun by 1160. For the most part, however, this consisted of pressuring the Jews to formally convert to Islam, which necessitated merely the recital of the Muslim creed. In his letter, Maimon urged Jews to perform what they can of the commandments of the Torah. Meanwhile, however, many Jews were fleeing the cities held by the Almohads…                             

After a period of wandering in Northern Africa, Moses ben Maimon reached Palestine in 1165, having already written treatises on the Jewish calendar, called Sepher ha-Ibbur on intercalation in 1158, and works on the technical terms of logic, as well as establishing a list of the 613 Precepts.  Here are the 1st 10 that Judaism 101 has listed.  They have all 613.    Jews have the Torah (5 books of Moses) and the bible called aTanakh.  Mine was bought in Israel, called the Tanach of the Stone Edition, an ArtScroll series from the Mesorah Heritage Foundation.

1. To know that G-d exists (Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6) (CCA1). See What Do Jews Believe?.
2. Not to entertain the idea that there is any god but the Eternal (Ex. 20:3) (CCN8). See What Do Jews Believe?.
3. Not to blaspheme (Ex. 22:27; in Christian texts, Ex. 22:28), the penalty for which is death (Lev. 24:16) (negative).
4. To hallow G-d's name (Lev. 22:32) (CCA5). See The Name of G-d.
5. Not to profane G-d's name (Lev . 22:32) (CCN155). See The Name of G-d.
6. To know that G-d is One, a complete Unity (Deut. 6:4) (CCA2). See What Do Jews Believe?.
7. To love G-d (Deut. 6:5) (CCA3). See What Do Jews Believe?.
8. To fear Him reverently (Deut. 6:13; 10:20) (CCA4).
9. Not to put the word of G-d to the test (Deut. 6:16) (negative).
10. To imitate His good and upright ways (Deut. 28:9) (CCA6).
    
    
    

Being unable to settle in Palestine, then still suffering from the aftermath of the Crusades, the family went on almost immediately to Egypt.  In a document of 1167, Maimon appears as one of the signatories of a decree issued by the Egyptian rabbinical authorities and soon became spiritual head of the Cairo community.  Now, rabbis usually had a trade as a means of making a living, and what he did was trade in jewels with his brother, David, but when David died, Maimon became a physician to the viceroy of Egypt in 1170.  

Resource:

https://www.jewfaq.org/613_commandments

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-almohads/

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/maimonides-on-jewish-humiliation-under-islamic-rule-622050