Rabbi Samlai explains that six hundred and thirteen commandments were communicated to Moses; three hundred and sixty-five negative, according to the number of days in the year, and two hundred and forty-eight positive, according to the number of members in the human body. Rav Hamnunah asked what was the Scripture proof for this. The reply was (Deut. xxxiii. 4), "Moses commanded us a law" (Torah), which by Gematria answers to six hundred and eleven. "I am," and "Thou shalt have no other," which we heard from the Almighty Himself, together make up six hundred and thirteen. _Maccoth_, fol. 23, col. 2. David, we are told, reduced these commandments here reckoned at six hundred and thirteen, to eleven, and Isaiah still further to six, and then afterward to two. "Thus saith the Eternal, Observe justice and act righteously, for my salvation is near." Finally came Habakkuk, and he reduced the number to one all-comprehensive precept (chap. ii. 4), "The just shall live by faith." (See _Maccoth_, fol. 24, col. 1.) The precept concerning fringes is as weighty as all the other precepts put together; for it is written, says Rashi (Num. xv. 39), "And remember all the commandments of the Lord." Now the numerical value of the word "fringes" is six hundred, and this with eight threads and five knots makes six hundred and thirteen. _Shevuoth_, fol. 29, col. 1. "For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet," etc. (Isa. iii. 1, 2). By "the stay" is meant men mighty in the Scriptures, and by "the staff" men learned in the Mishna; such, for instance, as Rabbi Yehudah ben Tima and his associates. Rav Pappa and the Rabbis differed as to the Mishna; the former said there were six hundred orders of the Mishna, and the latter that there were seven hundred orders. "The whole stay of bread" means men distinguished in the Talmud; for it is said, "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled" (Prov. ix. 5). And "the whole stay of water" means men skillful in the Haggadoth, who draw out the heart of man like water by means of a pretty story or legend, etc. _Chaggigah_, fol. 14, col. 1. There are seven hundred species of fish, eight hundred of locusts, twenty-four of birds that are unclean, while the species of birds that are clean cannot be numbered. _Chullin_, fol. 63, col. 2. "The same was Adino the Eznite," etc. (2 Sam. xxiii. 8). This mighty man when studying the law was as pliant as a worm; but when engaged in war he was as firm and unyielding as a tree; and when he discharged an arrow he killed eight hundred men at one shot. _Moed Katon_, fol. 16, col. 2. "Ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land" (Deut. iv. 26). The term soon uttered by the Lord of the Universe means eight hundred and fifty-two years.