The Distribution of Mitzvot in the Torah

The Torah is primarily thought of as a book of law. While the word "Torah" means "a teaching / the teaching" generically, some translate the word as "law". This comes from the idea of God giving commandments to Israel through his prophet Moshe. These 'laws' are the 613 mizvot (commandments).

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.

Mishnah Sanhedrin on the Mold of the First Adam

"Therefore was man created singly, to teach you that whoever destroys a single life from Israel is considered by Scripture as if he had destroyed an entire world; and that whoever preserves a single life from Israel is considered by Scripture as if he had preserved an entire world. [...]

"And to teach the greatness of the Holy One, Blessed is He: For a man mints many coins from one mold, and they are all similar to one another; but the King of kings, the Holy One, Blessed is He, minted all men from the mold of the First Adam, and not one of them is like his fellow man. Therefore each and every one is obligated to say, 'For my sake was the world created'."

-- Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5


"ISRAEL" - this is Metatron on the Spiritual plane, about whom it is said, "Your name is Jacob. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." (Genesis 35:10).

"AN ENTIRE WORLD" - this is Metatron on the Physical plane, about whom it is said, "the whole earth is full of His glory." (Isaiah 6:3).

"THE MOLD OF THE FIRST ADAM" - this is Metatron on the Astral plane, about whom it is said, "and on the likeness of the throne, was a likeness like the appearance of a man upon it above." (Ezekiel 1:26).