Makkos Daf 23 מאקוס דַף 23

In the next Mishnah, Rebbe Chananyah ben Gamliel says, if a person who does one aveirah (which incurs kares) forfeits his life because of it, העושה מצוה אחת על אחת כמה וכמה שתנתן לו נפשו – then if he does one mitzvah, how much more so that his life should be given to him (because the rate of Hashem’s reward is five hundred times greater than the rate of His punishment). Rebbe Shimon says the pesukim themselves teach this principle, because the passuk says that those who transgress עריות will be “cut off” (i.e., כרת), and the passuk beforehand says, about the laws of עריות, "אשר יעשה אותם האדם וחי בהם" – “you shall guard My statues and My laws which man shall perform and by which he shall live,” teaching: כל היושב ולא עבר עבירה – whoever sits and does not transgress an aveirah (e.g., he abstains from עריות) נותנין לו שכר כעושה מצוה – is given reward like one who does a mitzvah, and is given life.

Rebbe Shimon bar Rebbe says, if one who refrains from consuming blood, שנפשו של אדם קצה ממנו – from which a person is repulsed, is still rewarded, then one who refrains from theft and immorality, שנפשו של אדם מתאוה להן ומחמדתן – which a person desires and covets, על אחת כמה וכמה שיזכה לו – all the more so will earn merit for himself, ולדורותיו ולדורות דורותיו עד סוף כל הדורות – for his generations, and his generations’ generations, until the end of generations.

Rebbe Chananya ben Akashya says: רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל – Hashem wanted to provide merit for Yisroel, לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצות – therefore, he gave them an abundance of Torah and mitzvos, as the passuk says: ה' חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר – Hashem desired for the sake of [Yisroel’s] righteousness that the Torah be made great and glorious. Therefore, He gave many prohibitions, such as eating creeping creatures, which a person would refrain from anyway, so that he would receive reward for it.

Rebbe Simlai darshened: שש מאות ושלש עשרה מצות נאמרו לו למשה – six hundred and thirteen commandments were told to Moshe: שלש מאות וששים וחמש לאוין – three hundred and sixty-five negative commandments, כמנין ימות החמה – corresponding to the days of the solar year, ומאתים וארבעים ושמונה עשה – and two hundred and forty-eight positive commandments, כנגד איבריו של אדם – corresponding to the number of a person’s body parts. The Rivan explains that each day of the year warns him not to transgress an aveirah, and each part of a person’s body urges him to perform a mitzvah.

Rav Hamnuna brought a source for this total from the passuk: "תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה" – Moshe commanded to us Torah as a heritage. The gematria of "תורה" is six hundred and eleven, and after adding the two mitzvos of "אנכי ה' אלקיך" and "לא יהיה לך", which we heard directly from Hashem (not from Moshe), they total six hundred and thirteen mitzvos.