Sefer HaMitzvot

The Sefer HaMitzvot (“Book of Commandments”) is Maimonides’ 12th-century list of the 613 commandments accompanied by brief descriptions, originally written in Arabic. It was meant to serve as an introduction to his magnum opus and legal code, the Mishneh Torah. The work’s introduction details 14 principles that guided the selection of commandments and delivers harsh criticism to previous attempts to enumerate the commandments, particularly that of the Halakhot Gedolot. Many later works, including the Sefer HaChinukh, rely on the enumeration of commandments in the Sefer HaMitzvot.