Even before the time of Jesus, Jewish teachers had discussed the Law of Moses and whether there were one or more commands that summarized the whole law. This debate is easily seen in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The debate also seems to be behind Luke’s account, which immediately precedes the parable of the Good Samaritan. We will look at examples of how some Jewish teachers proposed to resolve the question.
Not all teachers agreed that some commands might be more important than others. Because of the Jewish belief that all of the Torah (written and oral) came from God, most believed that all of the Torah was equal in importance. Yet some commands were thought to be more comprehensive than others. To keep those commands would mean keeping the whole of the Law of Moses.
The Talmud calculates that the numerical value of the Hebrew word "Torah" is 611. Thus, Moses’s 611 commandments combined with the two directly from God (the first two of the Ten Commandments commandments; they are phrased in the first person) add up to 613. 248 are mitzvot aseh ("positive commandments" commands to perform certain actions) and 365 are mitzvot lo taaseh ("negative commandments" commands to abstain from certain actions). 365 corresponded to the number of days in a year and 248 was believed by ancient Hebrews to be the number of bones and significant organs in the human body. Three of the negative commandments can involve yehareg ve’al ya’avor, meaning ‘One should let himself be killed rather than violate this negative commandment’, and they are murder, idol-worship, and forbidden relations.
In Leviticus Rabbah 24:5 (i.e. the homiletic midrash [Jewish commentary] to the Biblical book of Leviticus), Rabbi Levi taught that all the Torah is summarized in one chapter, Leviticus 19, and he shows how all of Exodus 20—the Ten Commandments—is included in this chapter. In subsequent discussion, Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Tanhuma saw that in three chapters Moses gave all of the Torah [Exodus 12; 21; Leviticus 19] because each one contains sixty specifications of religious duties (or some say 70 in each chapter). Then Rabbi Simlai says that David comprehended all the commands in eleven commands (in Psalm 15), Isaiah in six (in Isa 33:15), and Micah in only three (Mic 6:8, also noted by Jesus in Matt 23:23). Then Isaiah 56:1 is said to have comprehended all the commandments in just two: “Observe justice and do righteousness”; and finally, Amos 5:4 and Habakkuk 2:4 in just one statement. (Habakkuk 2:4 is, of course, also important for Paul in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11)
This is mostly from wikipedia and http://www.bibleresourcecenter.org/vsItemDisplay.dsp&objectID=C9EFF70C-8099-43F7-B740B4AFAB3A329F&method=display
This entry was originally published at Interconnectedness by Mikhail (Misha) Lomize
