The Idea of Mitzvah

(2) Ben Azai says: One should run to do an easy commandment as to a difficult one, and flee from transgression. For one commandment leads to another commandment, and one transgression leads to another transgression; and the reward for a commandment is another commandment, the reward for a transgression is another transgression.

(4) ואת חקתי תשמרו AND KEEP MY ORDINANCES/huqotai — [This refers to] matters which are decrees of the King, against which the evil inclination answers back: "Why should we observe them?" and against which also the nations of the world answer back - for example, the prohibitions of eating swine (VaYiqra 11:4-7), of sha'atnez (wearing clothes that mix wool and linen - VaYiqra 19:19), the tahor status from the waters of the sin-offering [of the parah adumah - B-Midbar Ch. 19] (טהרת מי חטאת) — therefore it is stated: "I, God" have decreed this upon you — you are not at liberty to free yourself (Sifra; Yoma 67b).

(16) He used to say: It is not your responsibility to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it. If you have learned much Torah, your reward will be much; and the Master of your work is trustworthy to pay you the wage for your activity. And know, the giving of reward to the righteous is in the future to come.

Rabbi Simlai expounded: There were 613 mitzvot said to Moses - 365 prohibitions like the number of days in the solar year, and 248 positive mitzvot like the number of a person’s limbs. Rav Hamnuna said: What is the verse [that supports this]? It is written: Moses commanded to us the Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob (Deuteronomy 34:4). The word Torah's numerical value [gimatriya], is 611. [The two mitzvot] “I am the Lord your God” and: “You shall have no other gods” (Exodus 20:2, 3) - those we heard from the mouth of the Almighty.

Rabbi Ḥananya ben Akashya says: The Holy One, Blessed be He, sought to confer merit upon Israel; therefore, He multiplied for them Torah and mitzvot, as it is stated: “It pleased the Lord for the sake of His righteousness to make the Torah great and glorious” (Isaiah 42:21).

...Our rabbis learned: (Leviticus 18:4) "You shall do My ordinances/mishpatai" - things that, had they (not) been written (in the Torah), it would be right that they should have been written; and these are: idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, bloodshed, robbery, and blasphemy (lit. 'blessing' God's name). "You shall observe My decrees/huqotai" - things to which the satan answers back, and these are: eating swine [Dvarim 14:7-8], and wearing sha'atnez [Dvarim 22:11], and release from levirate marriage [Dvarim 25:5-10], and changing the metzora's status to tahor [Va-Yiqra 14:1-32], and the goat that is sent away [on Yom Kippur - Va-Yiqra Ch. 16]. And if you were to say, "These are pointless matters/​ma'asei tohu", the text comes to say: "I am God." I, God, have incised/​haqaqtiv this and you have no authority to reconsider them.

The Sages taught in a baraita: The descendants of Noah [i.e., all of humanity] were commanded to observe seven mitzvot: Courts of law, and [the prohibitions against] blessing, i.e., cursing, the name of God; idol worship; forbidden sexual relations; bloodshed; robbery; and eating a limb from a living animal...

[56b] From where are these matters [the Noahide mitzvot] derived? Rabbi Yoḥanan says: It is from that which the verse states: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; [but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it, for on the day that you eat from it, you shall die” (Genesis 2:16–17).]...

[With regard to the term] “and…commanded,” these are the courts of judgment; and so it states in another verse: “For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children [and his household after him that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19)].

(1) There are some that do not seek any reason [for a commandment] and say that all the teachings are only drawn forth by the will [of God]. And there are some that say that every commandment and caution is drawn forth by the wisdom [of God] and that some end is intended for each; all commandments have a reason and are commanded on account of some benefit. And with all of them having some purpose, still we are too foolish [to see] the purpose of a few of them and don't know the ways of [His] wisdom within them; this is our understanding - all of us, whether the multitude or the chosen...But the multitude of sages doesn't believe that they are matters that have no purpose at all and for which one does not seek out any benefit, for this would lead to purposeless action (as we have mentioned). But [instead] they hold that even these ordinances have a purpose, by which I mean to say an end which has some value in some way, but that it is hidden from us-whether from the inadequacy of our understanding or the lack of our wisdom...And so they said that God concealed the causes of commandments so that they should not despise them, as happened with Solomon in respect to the three commandments, the reason for which was explained...And what any person of full understanding should believe in this matter is that which I will tell - that the general principle of the 'commandment' is that, of necessity, it has a reason, and it was commanded for a particular benefit, but as to its parts, of them it is said that they are only a commandment....

(4) ... It is, therefore, necessary for every man to behold himself throughout the whole year in a light of being evenly balanced between innocence and guilt, and look upon the entire world as if evenly balanced between innocence and guilt; thus, if he commit one sin, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of guilt, and be a cause of its destruction; but if he perform one duty, behold, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of virtue, and bring about his own and their salvation and escape, even as it is said: "But the righteous is an everlasting foundation" (Prov. 10. 25), it is he, by whose righteousness he overbalanced the whole world to virtue and saved it....