The Midrash says: Jacob deserved that he be the one to give the Torah, as it is said, "give truth to Jacob", but the population was too small, that is, they did not number six hundred thousand, and could not receive the Torah until they reached six hundred thousand…and He gave us the Torah, 248 obligations corresponding to the 248 limbs in the human body, and 365 prohibitions, corresponding to the number of its tendons. This is to teach you that through Torah, we, the People of Israel, are considered as one body, and there are, as well, six hundred thousand letters in the Torah. So each soul of the people of Israel holds a single letter of the Torah, and the word "Israel", when taken as an acronym in Hebrew represents "There are six thousand letters in the Torah". Not until they reached six hundred thousand in number could they receive the Torah – the body did not yet conform to the norm as written in the Midrash: On the day that they received the Torah they were six hundred thousand minus one. The Almighty descended to Mount Sinai and was counted among them, completing the count of six hundred thousand.