Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך
The six hundred and thirteen commandments set out by weekly portion—and to each is said what it is for.
The book is arranged as no other list is: the commandments follow not themes and not the Rambam's order, but the weekly portions, one after another. The commandments in it number six hundred and thirteen. That is why it is the convenient way to count how many commandments are in the portion read this week—and the timeline relies on that count.
Each commandment has four parts: its substance, its "root"—what it is for—the details of the law, and who is obliged by it. The "root" is the book's best-known feature: an attempt to say what a commandment means in plain words, without claiming to settle the matter.
The author did not name himself. The book is signed "a man of the house of Levi of Barcelona"; most often it is ascribed to Rabbi Aharon haLevi, but there is no certainty, and the author himself asked that the book be judged, not the name.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Makkot 23b — the number 613
Rishonim
- Sefer HaChinuch, introduction — the plan: the commandments by weekly portion
- Sefer HaChinuch, commandment 16 — «a man is shaped by his deeds» — the famous «root»
Basis: documents and evidence.