<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span style="font-size: 19px;" class="">The gemara, masechta Makkos brings a proof that there<br class="">are 613 mitzvos from the portion V’zos Hab’racha (33:4),<br class="">"Torah tziva lanu Moshe.”<br class="">This is how it is explained: Only 2 commandments were<br class="">directly heard from God which were “I am the Lord Your God Who<br class="">brought you out of the land of Egypt” and “Thou shalt have no other<br class="">gods before Me.” <br class="">After that all of the other mitzvot were heard by the people through Moshe.<br class=""><br class="">So the gematria of Torah is 611 (which they heard through Moshe) and<br class="">the only 2 heard directly from God comprise the 613. The gemara goes on to<br class="">explain that the first mitzvah (“I am the Lord your God”) encompasses all of the<br class="">248 positive mitzvot and the second mitzvah (“Thou shalt have no <br class="">other gods”) encompasses all of the 365 negative mitzvos.<br class=""><br class="">There is a fascinating symbol to the breakdown of the numbers 248 and 365.<br class="">According to the gemara there are 248 organs in the body and we are to act<br class="">positively with every part of our being. Obviously, the 365 refers to the days of the <br class="">solar year and we are to be circumspect in what we are not allowed to do every<br class="">day of our lives (even when we were in high school; however, we have Yom Kippur<br class="">to atone and change).</span><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><span style="font-size: 19px;" class=""><i class="">Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.</i></span><br class=""><b class="">Socrates</b></body></html>