77 Positive Commandments Which Can be Observed Today

 This summary of the positive mitzvot is based on the Rambam and the Chofetz Chaim and compiled by Rabbi Yonah Bookstein (The Concise Book of Mitzvoth). The mitzvot below are arranged according to where they appear in Rambam’s Mishna Torah.

Sefer HaMada: Foundations of Faith

To believe that God exists (Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6)

To know that God is One, a complete Unity (Deut. 6:4)

To love God with all one’s heart, spirit and might (Deut. 6:5)

To fear God (Deut. 6:13; 10:20)

To sanctify God’s name publicly (Lev. 22:32)

To imitate God’s good and upright ways (Deut. 28:9)

To cleave to those who know Him — to torah scholars and their disciples (Deut. 10:20)

To learn Torah and teach it (Deut. 6:7)

To honor the old and the wise (Lev. 19:32)

To turn away from sin and confess one’s sins before God (Num. 5:6-7)

To bear affection for everyone in Jewry as for oneself (Lev. 19:18)

To bear affection for a convert, stranger, proselyte (Deut. 10:19)

To rebuke the sinner (Lev. 19:17)

Sefer Ahava: Love and Remember HaShem

To pray to God everyday (Ex. 23:25; Deut. 6:13)

To bind tefillin on the arm (Deut. 6:8)*

To bind tefillin on the head (Deut. 6:8)*

To put tzitzit on the corners of one’s clothing (Num. 15:38)*

To recite the Shema in the morning and at night (Deut. 6:7)

To affix the mezuzah to the doorposts of one’s house (Deut. 6:9)

To recite grace after meals, after eating bread (Deut. 8:10)*

That every person shall write a scroll of the Torah for himself (Deut. 31:19)*

To circumcise every boy on the eighth day after birth (Gen. 17:12; Lev. 12:3)

That the kohanim are to bless the Jewish people (Num. 6:23)

Sefer Zmanim: Sacred Moments and Festivals

To sanctify Shabbat (Ex. 20:8)


To rejoice on the festivals (Deut. 16:14)

To remove chametz on the Eve of Passover (Ex. 12:15)

To eat matzah on the first night of Passover (Ex. 12:18)

To discuss the departure from Egypt on the first night of Passover (Ex. 13:8)

To rest from work on the first day of Passover (Ex. 12:16; Lev. 23:7)

To count seven whole weeks from the second day of Pesach (Lev. 23:15)*

To rest from work on the seventh day of Passover (Ex. 12:16; Lev. 23:8)

To rest from work on the festival of Shavuot (Lev. 23:21)

To rest from work on Rosh Hashanah (Lev. 23:24)

To hear the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah (Num. 29:1)*

To rest from work on Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:32)

To fast on Yom Kippur (Lev. 23:27)

To rest from work on the first day of Sukkot (Lev. 23:35)

To dwell in the sukkah all seven days of the Festival (Lev. 23:42)*

To take up the lulav and esrog on Sukkot (Lev. 23:40)*

To rest from work on the eighth day of Sukkot [Shmini Atzeret] (Lev. 23:36)

Sefer Nashim: Family and Sexual Relations

To marry in order to be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 1:28)

To marry with kiddushin (Deut. 24:1)

To marry the wife on ones brother who has died without children (a yevamah) (Deut. 25:5)

That a yevomah (childless widow) should remove the shoe of the yavam (husband’s brother) if he does not want to marry her (Deut. 25:7-9)

Sefer Kedusha: Purity of Food and Sexual Relations

To ritually slaughter a domestic or untamed animal, or fowl, to prepare it for eating (Deut. 12:21)

To cover the blood of the ritually slaughtered pure untamed animals or fowl (Lev. 17:13)

To send the mother away from the nest when taking the eggs (Deut. 22:6-7)

Sefer Haflaah: Vows and Oaths

To fulfill the words that come from one’s lips (Deut. 23:24)

To judge about inheritance of land (Num. 27:8-11)

To judge cases of nullifying vows and oaths (Num. 30:2-17)

Sefer Zeraim: Produce, Wealth and the Land

That whoever slaughters a pure animal is to give the foreleg, cheeks, and maw to the kohen (Deut. 18:3)

To give the kohen the first wool (Deut. 18:4)

That a Jew is to redeem a son who is first born to his Jewish mother (Ex. 13:13; Ex. 34:20; Num. 18:15)

To consecrate firstborn males (Ex. 13:13; Ex. 34:20; Num. 18:15)

To redeem a first born male donkey or lamb (Ex. 13:13; Ex. 34:20)

To break the neck of a first born donkey or lamb if it is not redeemed (Ex. 13:13; Ex. 34:20)

To separate challah from bread and give it to a kohen (Num. 15:20)

To give charity to poor Jews (Deut. 15:11)

To release a loan in the year of shmittah (Deut. 15:2)

Sefer Avoda: Temple and Offerings

To have a reverent fear of the Sanctuary (Lev. 19:30)

To accord honor to a kohen (Lev. 21:8)

Sefer Nezikin: Injury to Person and Property

To return whatever one has stolen (Lev. 5:23)

To return a lost item (Deut. 22:1)

To unload the burden of another person’s animal (Ex. 23:5)

To help another person load their animal (Deut. 22:4)

To make a fence around a roof, and remove other hazards from one’s house (Deut. 22:8)

Sefer Kinyan: Commerce and Chattels

To judge on matters of buying and selling (Lev. 25:14)

Sefer Mishpatim: Compensation and Transfer of Property

To lend money to a poor person (Ex. 22:24)

To give a pledge object back to its owner if he needs it (Deut. 24:13)

That an owner should allow a field-hand to eat from the work of his hands (Deut. 23:25-26)

To give wages on the same day that a person works (Deut. 24:15)

Sefer Shofetim: Judges and Judgment

To respect ones father and mother (Ex. 20:12)

That a kohen is to defile himself for a close kin in attending their burial (Lev. 21:3)

To have reverence for one’s father and mother (Lev. 19:3)

To remember what Amalek did to us (Deut. 25:17)

To destroy the descendants of Amalek (Deut. 25:19)


* Traditionally applies to men but not to women.