Project 613
Action
Use the filters to see which of 613 mitzvot are practically applicable to your life today.
PROJECT 613 – ACTION
I was curious to know which of all the 613 Mitzvot of the Torah truly applied for me to do today, right now.
PROBLEM
Every day we say ‘Ki Hem Chayeinu V’Orech Yomeinu’. Naturally, I want to know what exactly I can do that The Torah obligates me to do. I was immediately in search for a resource that showed me what I’ve got to do. Because, it’s ‘my life’. This is what I base my beliefs and values in. I want to know if I’m missing out a certain mitzva or whether I even know what’s applicable on a daily basis.
Yes, there are already loads of Mitzvah lists that already exist, Baruch HaShem. However, many mitzvot depend on the existance of the Beis HaMikdash. Also, I don’t own a field in Eretz Yisroel so does the mitzvah of Peah, or Leket, or Shemittah apply to me? I don’t employ someone so does the mitzvah of ‘Pay your worker on time’, or ‘don’t work your worker on shabbat’ apply to me? 100s of mitzvot already became conceptual instead of practical.
Do you see the problem and frustration I experience? It’s frustrating to lead your life with the notion of 613, but actually it’s 60, or 150, or The 300.
My frustration turned to intrigue and so I started to search for the coveted list of actionable mitzvot.
RESEARCH
– I was told about the Rambam’s list of mitzvot at the beginning of Mishne Torah, The Sefer HaChinuch, the Sma’g, and the Smu’k. But what list was readily available for me to see what I must practically do today?
– I discovered that The Chofetz Chaim has this list I was searching for.
It’s called: Sefer HaMitzvot HaKatzar.
Thing is there roughly 308 mitzvot which were not all relatable to me. The wording was hard to follow, and though all actionable mitzvot were there it included all the Moadim and mitzvot that are circumstantial. This was closer to what I was looking for but didn’t hit the spot. I needed a list that identified all constant actionable mitzvot I can action myself today.
– CREATE DATABASE
I used Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvot to build a database of all 613 mitzvot.
At this stage I used my own knowledge to filter between ‘Actionable’ and ‘Conceptual’ Mitzvot e.g. Keep Shabbat is Actionable whereas Bring the Korban Pesach in the Beit HaMikdash would be Conceptual.
Now, all 613 mitzvot were accounted for in the database. Now to filter out the mitzvot that were truly relevant nowadays 🙂
I used ChatGPT and Perplexity to analyse my databse in contrast to The Chofetz Chaim’s Sefer HaMitzvot HaKatzar and identify only those 308 or so mitzvot that were applicable nowadays. However, both platforms were unable to provide a trustworthy and definitive list.
At this point, I turned to the Sefer HaChinuch to identify which mitzvot were truly actionable today. It quickly became apparent that there are a few discrepancies between the The Sefer HaChinuch and the Rambam’s Sefer Hamitzvot. In order to create a viable version 1, I decided to base the databse on The Sefer HaChinuch primarily because every mitzvah is referred to and each mitzvah is identified by the author himself whether or not it is actionable nowadays (he was writing The Sefer HaChinuch in the 1300s in Spain).
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Stay Tuned, a fully interactive list of 613 mitzvot where you can see in a click of a button (or two) all the mitzvot that are personally actionable by you. You’ll be able to filter the list for gender, religion (yes, there are obligations for non-jews), location, profession etc.
Please, don’t hesitate to reach out with your feedback!
Thank you,
Richy
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