Mitzvah

Mitzvah is from the Hebrew מִצְוָה, meaning commandment or precept, from the root tzavah (to command, to instruct)[1]. The plural is mitzvot[2]. Classical Jewish tradition counts 613 mitzvot in the Torah (a count attributed to Rabbi Simlai and elaborated by Maimonides), of which 248 are positive commandments (do this) and 365 are negative (do not do this)[3]. The number is symbolic and the actual list has variants[3].

the term combines divine command, ethics, and communal practice in ways English equivalents only partly capture.

Mitzvah in everyday Jewish English carries two related senses. In the strict sense, a mitzvah is a divine commandment from the Torah or rabbinic tradition. Observing the mitzvot is the heart of religious practice in observant Jewish life: putting on tefillin, lighting Sabbath candles, keeping kosher, honoring parents, refraining from work on Shabbat, and hundreds of other specific obligations.

In a looser but related sense, mitzvah is used for any good deed[4]. Helping a stranger, visiting the sick, comforting the bereaved, giving to charity (tzedakah), studying Torah: all are described as doing a mitzvah, even where they are not technically among the 613 specific commandments[4]. The two senses are connected, because in Jewish thought the moral and the legal are not sharply separated[4].

Different Jewish movements approach the mitzvot differently[4]. Orthodox Judaism treats the mitzvot as binding divine law, with rabbinic interpretation governing detailed observance[4]. Conservative Judaism affirms the binding force of mitzvot while allowing more historical adaptation[4]. Reform Judaism in its classical form moved away from binding observance of ritual mitzvot, though contemporary Reform increasingly recovers ritual practice while emphasizing personal autonomy[4]. Reconstructionist Judaism reframes mitzvot as practices that sustain Jewish civilization rather than as direct divine commands[4].

Jewish studies and rabbinic scholarship treat the mitzvot system as central to understanding Judaism’s lived practice[4]. Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah is the classic systematic treatment[5]. Modern scholarship by figures including Jacob Milgrom (on Levitical law), Moshe Halbertal (on Jewish legal theory), and many others has explored the structure, theology, and ethics of mitzvah observance[6]. Comparative ethics and religious law studies place mitzvah alongside sharia in Islam, dharma in Hinduism, and Christian moral theology while noting the distinctive features of the Jewish system[2].

• Mishneh Torahby Maimonides
  primary source
• A Code of Jewish Ethics (2 volumes)by Joseph Telushkin
  book