The 613 mitzvot are distributed among the five books as follows:
1. Sefer Beresheet - 3 mitzvot
2. Sefer Shemot - 111 mitzvot
3. Sefer Vayiqra - 247 mitzvot
4. Sefer Bamidbar - 52 mitzvot
5. Sefer Devarim - 200 mitzvot
If you've been reading the weekly Parshah, know that the mizvot will be
scarce in Sefer Beresheet. So far, we have only encountered the
mitzvah to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28) and the mitzvah that
"every male among you shall be circumcised" (Gen. 17:10).
Why are there so few mitzvot in the first book of the Torah? The purpose of the first book is to first set the stage and define the rules of the game, otherwise there would be no context to the narrative of God giving commandments to Moses from Sinai or from the Tent of Meeting. Additionally, the rest of the mitzvot would be incomprehensible if not for the narrative context that they are embedded within.
God gave the commandments to Israel. But who is Israel? We need Sefer Beresheet to first understand how Israel came about. This is why we find detailed lists of the generations of Adam and Noah and the patriarchs in Sefer Beresheet, while very little of this type of material appears elsewhere in the Torah.
Why are there so few mitzvot in the first book of the Torah? The purpose of the first book is to first set the stage and define the rules of the game, otherwise there would be no context to the narrative of God giving commandments to Moses from Sinai or from the Tent of Meeting. Additionally, the rest of the mitzvot would be incomprehensible if not for the narrative context that they are embedded within.
God gave the commandments to Israel. But who is Israel? We need Sefer Beresheet to first understand how Israel came about. This is why we find detailed lists of the generations of Adam and Noah and the patriarchs in Sefer Beresheet, while very little of this type of material appears elsewhere in the Torah.
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