The Positive Commandments — Part 3
Moed — Sukkot & Shemini Atzeret
- Rest on the eighth day of the festival (Shemini Atzeret).
- Sit in the sukkah for seven days.
- Take the lulav and the Four Species.
Rosh Hashanah & Half‑Shekel
- Hear the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.
- Give the half‑shekel every year.
Nevi’im & Torah Authority
- Obey every prophet in each generation, provided he adds nothing and subtracts nothing.
- Appoint a king over Israel.
- Obey the decisions of the Great Sanhedrin.
- Follow the majority ruling when the Sanhedrin is divided.
Judges & Justice
- Appoint judges and officers in every community.
- Ensure equal treatment of litigants in court.
- Testify in court when you possess testimony.
- Investigate witnesses thoroughly.
- Carry out the punishment for eidim zomemim (false conspiring witnesses).
Eglah Arufah & Cities of Refuge
- Perform the eglah arufah ceremony when required.
- Prepare six cities of refuge.
- Give the Levites cities in which to dwell, which also serve as refuge.
Public Safety & Destroying Idolatry
- Build a guardrail (ma’akeh) on your roof.
- Destroy idolatry and all its accessories.
- Execute the people of an idolatrous city and burn the city.
Milchamot — National Wars
- Destroy the seven Canaanite nations.
- Wipe out the descendants of Amalek.
- Remember the evil Amalek did to us.
- Conduct an optional war according to the Torah’s laws.
- Anoint the priest appointed for war (Kohen Meshuch Milchamah).
- Designate a place outside the camp for bodily needs.
- Carry a spike for digging and covering waste in the camp.
Monetary Law — Restitution & Lending
- Return stolen property.
- Give charity generously.
- Grant gifts to a freed Hebrew slave (ha’anakah).
- Lend money to the poor.
- Lend to a gentile with interest (a permitted positive mitzvah).
- Return collateral to its owner when required.
- Pay a hired worker on time.
- Allow a worker to eat from produce while working.
Chesed & Interpersonal Mitzvot
- Help unload a struggling animal.
- Help reload an animal.
- Return lost property.
- Rebuke a sinner when needed.
- Love every member of Israel.
- Love the convert.
- Maintain honest weights and measures.
- Honor Torah scholars.
- Honor your father and mother.
- Revere your father and mother.
Marriage, Family, & Sexual Mitzvot
- Be fruitful and multiply.
- Marry through kiddushin.
- Bring joy to one’s wife for the first year of marriage.
- Circumcise your son.
- Perform yibbum when obligated.
- Perform chalitzah when not doing yibbum.
- A rapist must marry the woman he violated (when permitted).
- A man who slanders his wife must keep her as his wife.
- Require a seducer to pay fifty silver and marry her (with her consent).
- Perform the laws of the yefat to’ar.
- Divorce a woman with a get.
Ritual Law — Sotah, Punishments, and Capital Cases
- Fulfill the laws of the sotah.
- Administer lashes when required.
- Exile an unintentional murderer to a city of refuge.
- Execute with the sword when required.
- Execute by strangulation when required.
- Execute by burning when required.
- Execute by stoning when required.
- Hang those liable to hanging after execution.
- Bury an executed person on the same day.
Slaves & Servants
- Judge the laws of a Hebrew slave.
- Designate (yi’ud) a Hebrew maidservant.
- Redeem a Hebrew maidservant.
- Make a Canaanite slave serve permanently.
Damages & Financial Liability
- Require a person who injures another to pay damages.
- Judge cases of damage caused by an animal.
- Judge cases of damage caused by a pit.
- Judge a thief according to laws of payment or death.
- Judge cases of damage caused by an animal who grazed.
- Judge cases of damage caused by fire.
- Judge laws of an unpaid custodian.
- Judge laws of a paid custodian and renter.
- Judge laws of a borrower.
- Judge laws of buying and selling.
- Judge claims of denial and admission.
- Save the pursued even at the cost of the pursuer’s life.
- Judge the laws of inheritance.
