What biblical positive mitzvot do we perform often (daily or almost daily)?
I am asking about physical actions we take rather than thoughts such as:
"You shall love a convert", Devarim 10:19
"Love your neighbor as yourself", Lev: 19:18
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4 Answers
We obviously have Tefillin, Tzitzis, Tzedaka, and many others...
See Beur Halacha 1:Hu Klal Gadol Batorah... For the 6 "constant mitzvos". 1. Believe in one G-d 2. Not to believe in any others 3. To unify Him 4. To love Him 5. To fear Him 6. Not to stray after one's thoughts and sights.
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Limud hatorah, shema, kedoshim tihyu, guard one's body, Daven (according to those who say that davening is biblical...) Aug 9, 2015 at 15:56
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"You shall love a convert", Devarim 10:19 "Love your neighbor as yourself", Lev: 19:18– Yehuda WAug 10, 2015 at 16:05
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1I meant to ask about physical actions we take (and have clarified my question). (It is still not easy for me to ask a perfectly clear question.)– Yehuda WAug 10, 2015 at 16:10
The Chafetz Chayim wrote ספר המצות הקצר, which lists all the mitzvos applicable nowadays, excluding (as he says in the intro, with my translation) "those practiced in Israel but not outside the land... those practiced only at the time the Temple stands... those connected to holiness and purity... those practiced by s'muchim courts". Among the mitzvos he lists are 77 "do it!" (positive) ones. Some of those are thought-based, like loving a convert (#61), which you say you don't want; others are done far from daily by most people, like circumcising one's son (#47), celebrating holidays (#21), affixing a m'zuza (#12), marrying via kidushin (#44), slaughtering an animal if you're going to eat from it (#48), or apportioning an estate (#73), which you also say you don't want. The remaining ones are:
- 6, to act like God (be kind etc.)
- 7, to pray
- 8-9, to don t'filin
- 10, to don tzitzis
- 11, to say "Sh'ma"
- 13, to say grace after a meal
- 14, to study Torah
- 16, to stick to Torah scholars
- 17, to rise before and show honor to an elder and scholar
- 18, to practice awe of a holy site
- 33, to repent sins and leave them
- 38, to give to the poor
- 39, to keep one's word
- 41-42, to show honor to and awe of one's parents
- 50, to show honor to a kohen
- 62, to lend to the poor
- 63, to return collateral to the borrower
- 66, to pay a worker on time
- 67, to adjudge business law
- 69, to return a lost item
- 71, to help reload someone who is losing his packages
- 72, to rebuke a sinner
Just two dozen.
(In an effort to include only those that are or can easily be done on pretty much a daily basis by most Jews, I necessarily made some judgement calls, and there was no science behind them. For example, I included returning collateral but excluded sending away a mother bird, and you may disagree with either (or both!) of those decisions. In general, I tended to include such mitzvos — so you're more likely to disagree with my decision to include something on the list than with my decision to exclude something from it.)
These come to mind:
tefillin
birchat hamazon
kibbud av v'am
kiriat shema
talmud torah
Are there more?
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kriat shema is rabbinic accoding to some authorities (and one opinion in the Gemara.)– mevaqeshAug 9, 2015 at 14:55
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To listen to the Rabbis
Devarim 17:10
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1Be aware that according to all but the Sefer Hachinuch's lone view this only applies to rulings of the Sanhedrin HaGadol; not contemporary rabbis. Nevertheless, it is what technically binds us in rabbinic precepts (at least according to Rambam). We do indeed encounter rabbinic precepts frequently. Nevertheless, the question asked for biblical commandments, presumably to exclude rabbinic ones, so reiterating the biblical basis for rabbinic precepts does not seem to fit the answer.– mevaqeshAug 10, 2015 at 0:12