Halakhah к Бамидбар 15:40

Blessed is the L–rd, the G–d of Israel, who has separated us from all the peoples and given us His Torah and brought us to the holy land so that we merit fulfilling all of His mitzvoth. His sole intent was for our good alone, so that through this we become holy unto Him — viz. (Numbers 15:40): "So that you remember and do all of My mitzvoth and be holy unto your G–d" — and so that it be in our power to receive the effluence of His good and the abundance of His lovingkindness in this world and in the world to come, as it is written (Devarim 10:12- 13): "What does the L–rd your G–d ask of you, but… to keep the mitzvoth of the L–rd and His statutes which I command you this day to do good unto you?" (See the Ramban there to the effect that "to do good unto you" reverts to "What does the L–rd your G–d ask of you.")

And this principle is very subtle in its understanding. And I will explain the nature of its subtlety: It is understood concerning everything about which the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said, "X and y impede one another" - like the four species of the lulav - that it is one commandment. Likewise the bread of display and the pure frankincense that is made with it - as their words about this are (Menachot 27a), "The bread of display and the bowls (of frankincense) impede one another." So it is clear that it is one commandment. Likewise anything about which it is understood that the desired outcome is not accomplished by one of the parts - it is then understood that their combination is the matter that is counted. This is like recognition of someone with tsaraat; as it is understood by you that were his clothes rent, but he did not leave his head bare, and he did not cover over his upper lip and he did not call out, "Impure, impure" - he will not have done anything. For his recognition will not be accomplished until he does all of them. And likewise is his purification not accomplished without all that is mentioned about the birds, the cedar wood, the fabric dyed scarlet and the shaving. However the point of difficulty is in the things about which they said, "They do not impede one another." For one would have thought that since each one of these parts do not require their counterpart, each one would be a separate commandment. As with their saying (Menachot 38a), "The blue-purple (tekhelet) is not impeded by the white, and the white is not impeded by the blue-purple" - it would have been possible for us to say that the white and the blue-purple be counted as two commandments. This is if we had not found a clear statement [otherwise] from them in the Mekhilta of Rabbi Yishmael. It says there, "It is possible that they are two commandments, the commandment of the white and the commandment of the blue-purple. [Hence] we learn to say (Numbers 15:39), 'That shall be your tzitzit (fringes)' - it is one commandment and not two commandments." So it has been already made clear to you that even parts that do not impede one another sometimes constitute one commandment - when their content is singular. For the intention of the tzitzit, is "in order that you should remember" (Numbers 15:40). If so - that the principle of the required thing is the remembering - it is counted as one commandment. Behold that it follows that in the count of the commandments, we may not look at their saying, it impedes or it does not impede - but rather only at the content. Is the content singular or is it multiple? [This is] as we explained in the ninth principle of these principles that we are trying to elucidate.