Seven Laws of Noah: Difference between revisions

The Rainbow is the modern symbol of the Noahide Movement reminiscing the rainbow that appeared after the Great Flood of the Bible.

The Seven Laws of Noah (Hebrew: שבע מצוות בני נח, Sheva mitzvot B'nei Noach), often referred to as the Noahide Laws, are a set of seven moral imperatives which, according to the Talmud, were given by God to Noah as a binding set of laws for all mankind. According to Judaism any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as a Righteous Gentile and is assured of a place in the world to come (Olam Haba), the Jewish concept of heaven. Adherents are often called "B'nei Noah" (Children of Noah) or "Noahides" and may often network in Jewish synagogues.

The Noahide Laws were predated by six laws given to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Later at the Revelation at Sinai the Seven Laws of Noah were regiven to humanity and embedded in the 613 Laws given to the Children of Israel along with the Ten Commandments. These laws are mentioned in the Torah. According to Judaism, the 613 mitzvot or "commandments" given in the written Torah, as well as their reasonings in the oral Torah, were only issued to the Jews and are therefore only binding upon them, having inherited the obligation from their ancestors. At the same time, at Mount Sinai, the Children of Israel were given the obligation to teach other nations the embedded laws. It is actually forbidden by the Talmud for non-Jews on whom the Noahide Laws are still binding, to elevate their observance to the Torah's mitzvot as the Jews do.

Whilst several Jewish organizational bodies such as Chabad form the loose frame of a Noahide community, Noahides tend to congregate less than followers of other religions, thus their exact numbers are unknown. Noahides exist predominantly in the United States, South America and Europe.

The Seven Laws

The seven laws listed by the Talmud are

1. Prohibition of Idolatry: - There is only one God. You shall not make for yourself an idol.
2. Prohibition of Murder: - You shall not murder.
3. Prohibition of Theft: - You shall not steal.
4. Prohibition of Sexual Promiscuity: - You shall not commit adultery.
5. Prohibition of Blasphemy: - Revere God and do not blaspheme.
6. Prohibition of Cruelty to Animals: - Do not eat the flesh of an animal while it is still alive.
7. Requirement to have just Laws: - You shall set up an effective judiciary to fairly judge observance of the preceding six laws.

Background

According to rabbinic Judaism, as expressed in the Talmud, the Noahide Laws apply to all humanity through mankind's descent from one paternal ancestor who in Hebrew tradition is called Noah (the head of the only family to survive during The Flood). In Judaism, בני נח B'nei Noah (Hebrew, "Descendants of Noah", "Children of Noah") refers to all of mankind.

The Talmud also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come" (Sanhedrin 105a). Any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as one of "the righteous among the gentiles". Maimonides writes that this refers to those who have acquired knowledge of God and act in accordance with the Noahide laws out of obedience to Him. According to what scholars consider to be the most accurate texts of the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides continues on to say that anyone who upholds the Noahide laws only because they appear logical is not one of the "righteous among the nations," but rather he is one of the wise among them. The more prolific versions of the Mishneh Torah say of such a person: "..nor is he one of the wise among them."

According to the Biblical narrative, the Deluge covered the whole world killing every surface-dwelling creature except Noah, his family and the creatures of Noah's Ark. After the flood, God sealed a covenant with Noah with the following admonitions (Genesis 9):

• Food: "However, flesh with its life-blood [in it] you shall not eat." (9:4)
• Murder: "Furthermore, I will demand your blood, for [the taking of] your lives, I shall demand it [even] from any wild animal. From man too, I will demand of each person's brother the blood of man. He who spills the blood of man, by man his blood shall be spilt; for in the image of God He made man." (9:5-6)

The Talmud (tractate Sanhedrin 56a/b, quoting Tosefta Sanhedrin 9:4) states that the instruction to not eat "flesh with the life" was given to Noah, and that Adam and Eve had already received six other commandments. Adam and Eve were not enjoined from eating from a living animal since they were forbidden to eat any animal. The remaining six are exegetically derived from a seemingly superfluous sentence in Genesis 2:16

Judaism holds that gentiles (or goyim, non-Jews, [literally "nations"]) are not only not obligated to adhere to all the laws of the Torah (indeed, they are forbidden to fulfill some laws, such as the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath in the exact same manner as Israel ). Rabbinic Judaism and its modern-day descendants discourage proselytization. The Noahide Laws are regarded as the way through which non-Jews can have a direct and meaningful relationship with God or at least comply with the minimal requisites of civilization and of divine law.

A non-Jew who keeps the Noahide Law in all its details is said to attain the same spiritual and moral level as Israel's own Kohen Gadol (high priest). Maimonides states in his work Mishneh Torah that a non-Jew who is precise in the observance of these Seven Noahide commandments is considered to be a Righteous Gentile and has earned a place in the world to come. This follows a similar statement in the Talmud. However, according to Maimonides, a gentile is considered righteous only if a person follows the Noahide laws specifically because he or she considers them to be of divine origin (through the Torah) and not if they are merely considered to be intellectually compelling or good rules for living.

Noahide law differs radically from the Roman law for gentiles (Jus Gentium), if only because the latter was an enforceable judicial policy. Rabbinic Judaism has never adjudicated any cases under Noahide law (per Novak, 1983:28ff.), although scholars disagree about whether the Noahide law is a functional part of Halakha ("Jewish law") (cf. Bleich).

In recent years, the term "Noahide" has come to refer to non-Jews who strive to live in accord with the seven Noahide Laws; the terms "observant Noahide" or "Torah-centered Noahides" would be more precise but are infrequently used. The rainbow, referring to the Noahide or First Covenant (Genesis 9), is the symbol of many organized Noahide groups, following Genesis 9:12–17. A non-Jewish person of any ethnicity or religion is referred to as a bat ("daughter") or ben ("son") of Noah, but most organizations that call themselves בני נח (b'nei noach) are composed of gentiles who are keeping the Noahide Laws.

Subdividing the Seven Laws

Various rabbinic sources have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. Maimonides lists one additional Noahide commandment forbidding the coupling of different kinds of animals and the mixing of trees. Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz), a contemporary commentator on Maimonides, expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were listed in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 56b).

The tenth century Rabbi Saadia Gaon added tithes and levirate marriage. The eleventh century Rav Nissim Gaon included "listening to God's Voice", "knowing God" and "serving God" besides going on to say that all religious acts which can be understood through human reasoning are obligatory upon Jew and Gentile alike. The fourteenth century Rabbi Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi added the commandment of charity.

The sixteenth century work Asarah Maamarot by Rabbi Menahem Azariah of Fano (Rema mi-Fano) enumerates thirty commandments, listing the latter twenty-three as extensions of the original seven. Another commentator, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes (Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess I, end Ch. 10) suggests these are not related to the first seven, nor based on Scripture, but were passed down by oral tradition. The number thirty derives from the statement of the Talmudic sage Ulla in tractate Hullin 92a, though he lists only three other rules in addition to the original seven, consisting of the prohibitions against homosexuality and cannibalism, as well as the imperative to honor the Torah.

Talmud commentator Rashi remarks on this that he does not know the other Commandments that are referred to. Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws is also possible from the reading.

The tenth century Shmuel ben Hophni Gaon lists thirty Noahide Commandments based on Ulla's Talmudic statement, though the text is problematic. He includes the prohibitions against suicide and false oaths, as well as the imperatives related to prayer, sacrifices and honoring one's parents.

Prohibition against idolatry

• No idolatry
• To pray only to God
• To offer ritual sacrifices only to God

Prohibition against blasphemy

• To believe in the singularity of God
• No blasphemy
• No idolatrous rituals
• No divination
• No astrology
• No following omens
• No witchcraft
• No incantations
• No necromancy
• No mediums
• To honor one's father and mother

Prohibition against murder

• No murder
• No suicide
• No Moloch worship (infant sacrifice)
• According to Maimonides's interpretation, no abortion

Prohibition against theft

• No stealing
• No kidnapping of persons

Prohibition against sexual immorality

• No adultery
• Formal legal marriages
• No incest with close relatives
• No Sodomy (i.e. male to male)
• No bestiality
• Not to crossbreed animals
• No castration

Prohibition against eating the limb of a living animal

• Not to eat a limb of a living creature (whilst it is still alive)
• Not to eat or drink blood
• Not to eat carrion (for those recognised by a Beth Din)

Establish courts of justice

• To establish courts and a system of justice
• No false oaths

The contemporary Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein counts 66 instructions but Rabbi Harvey Falk has suggested that much work remains to be done in order to properly identify all of the Noahide Commandments, their divisions and subdivisions.

Theft, robbery and stealing covers the appropriate understanding of other persons, their property and their rights. The establishment of courts of justice promotes the value of the responsibility of a corporate society of people to enforce these laws and define these terms. The refusal to engage in unnecessary lust or cruelty demonstrates respect for the Creation itself as renewed after the Flood. To not do murder would include human sacrifice.

Legal status of an observer of Noahide Laws

Main article: Ger Toshav

From the perspective of traditional halakhah, if a non-Jew keeps all of the laws entailed in the categories covered by the Seven Noahide commandments, then he or she is considered a Ger Toshav "Sojourning Alien" amid the people of Israel. A "Ger Toshav" is the only kind of non-Jew who Jewish law permits to live among the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. Jewish law only allows the official acceptance of a "Ger Toshav" as a sojourner in the Land of Israel during a time when the Year of Jubilee (yovel) is in effect.

A Ger Toshav should not be confused with a Ger Tzedek. A Ger Tzedek is a person who prefers to proceed to total conversion to Judaism, a procedure that is traditionally discouraged by Judaism and allowed only after much thought and deliberation over the conversion has taken place.

Noahide laws as a basis for secular governance

Some Jewish thinkers regard the determination of the details of the Noahide Law as something to be left to Jewish rabbis. This, in addition to the teaching of the Jewish law that punishment for violating one of the seven Noahide Laws includes a theoretical death penalty (Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin 57a), is a factor in modern opposition to the notion of a Noahide legal system. Jewish scholars respond by noting that Jews today no longer carry out the death penalty, even within the Jewish community. Jewish law, in contemporary practice, sees the death penalty as an indicator of the seriousness of an offense; violators are not actually put to death.

Some Jewish thinkers believe that penalties are a detail of the Noahide Laws and that Noahides themselves must determine the details of their own laws for themselves. According to this school of thought - see N. Rakover, Law and the Noahides (1998); M. Dallen, The Rainbow Covenant (2003)- the Noahide Laws offer mankind a set of absolute values and a framework for righteousness and justice, while the detailed laws that are currently on the books of the world's states and nations are presumptively valid.

Public endorsement of Noahide Laws

United States Congress

The Seven Laws of Noah have officially been recognised in the United States Congress:

"Whereas Congress recognizes the historical tradition of ethical values and principles which are the basis of civilized society and upon which our great Nation was founded; Whereas these ethical values and principles have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization, when they were known as the Seven Noahide Laws."

Israeli Druze

In January 2004, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafak Tarif, signed a declaration calling on all non-Jews in Israel to observe the Noahide Laws as laid down in the Hebrew Bible and expounded upon in Jewish tradition. The mayor of the Galilean city of Shefa-'Amr (Shfaram) - where Muslim, Christian and Druze communities live side by side - also signed the document. The declaration includes the commitment to make a better, more humane world based on the Seven Noachide Commandments and the values they represent commanded by the Creator to all mankind through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Support for the spread of the Seven Noahide Commandments by the Druze leaders reflects the Biblical narrative itself. The Druze community reveres the non-Jewish father-in-law of Moses, Jethro, whom Arabs call Shoaib. According to the Biblical narrative, Jethro joined and assisted the Jewish people in the desert during the Exodus, accepted monotheism, but ultimately rejoined his own people. In fact, the tomb of Jethro in Tiberias is the most important religious site for the Druze community. [2]

Christian observance of Noahide Laws

The 18th century rabbi, Jacob Emden believed that Jesus, and Paul after him, intended to convert the gentiles to the Noahide laws. Jacob Emden's belief not withstanding, it is difficult to directly compare Christian ethical obligations to the Noahide laws because Christianity is a principle based, rather than a rule based religion. Christian ethics is rooted in Jesus answer to the question, "Which of the commandments is most important". Jesus answered that (1) one should love God, who is One, with all one's heart (2) one should love one's neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:28-31).

Over the last 2000 years Christians have used a variety of ethical philosophies to convert these very general commandments into a specific set of obligations. They include natural law theory, the divine command theory, moral relativism, and cultural relativism. According to the Natural Law theory of ethics, there is an immutable set of moral rules which govern the universe, society, and the human person. These rules can be perceived by a rational analysis of human nature and society. A classic example of this approach can be seen in the ethics of the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas. However, even Thomas Acquinas was forced to acknowledge that some moral norms are simply revealed law. For these laws, Thomas Acquinas turned to the Bible.

According to the divine command theory of ethics, God's revealed will is the basis of all ethics. This theory does not of itself provide a set of rules. It needs a source for identifying God's commands. For Christian this source is the Bible. In the early Church there was considerable debate about which particular commands in the Bible applied to gentiles.The major Christian bodies (e.g. the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Protestant Churches) believe the Ten Commandments to be binding on them (for details see Old Testament#Christian view of the Law) as was the command to rule and subdue the earth.

Two of the Noahide laws - the injunction to set up courts of justice and the prohibition against eating the limb of a live animal - are not explicitly mentioned in the ten commandments, but were considered a natural implication of the commandments to love God, love one's fellow human being, and take responsibility for creation. Christians prohibit cruelty to animals because God considers God's creation good and human kind is responsible for it. Christians also consider themselves the obligation to set up courts of justice and maintain the social order as a natural outcome of both the responsibility to love one's neighbor as oneself..

The Christian Trinity and the prohibition against idolatry

Many rabbis have also questioned whether Christians can be said to obey the prohibition against idolatry. Much of the debate centers on how rabbis have understood the Christian concept of Trinity.

Some rabbis have understood the Trinity in terms of shittuf. shittuf (lit. "association") is defined as any doctrine that recognizes one Supreme God, but ascribes power, albeit secondary, to a created being (the term refers to one who does not deny the monotheistic and exclusionary aspect of God, but "associates" something else with Him). Rabbinic sources clearly prohibit any form of shittuf for Jews, but it is a matter of dispute if it is prohibited for non-Jews. The Tosafist Rabbeinu Tam (Rashi's grandson), in Bekhorot 2b and Sanhedrin 63b, imply that trinitarianism could be permitted to gentiles as a form of shittuf. This view was echoed by Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet (Rivash, responsa 119) and apparently accepted by Rabbi Moses Isserles (Rema, Orah Hayyim 156:1.) Nevertheless, many rabbinic sources disagree and prohibit shittuf to gentiles as well.

Louis Berkhof describes the doctrine of the Trinity requiring belief in a "simplex unity" and not a partnership or composite being. "There is in the Divine Being but one indivisible essence" and "The whole undivided essence of God belongs equally to each of the three persons." Whether this type of division should be considered shittuf is not clear.

Most Christian denominations reject a shittuf definition of the Trinity. They understand the Trinity as a form of monotheism and hold that this type of partnership is in contradiction to monotheism. Currently the only major Christian group that clearly holds a concept of shittuf is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which translates John 1:1 so that Jesus is not God Himself, but a secondary being with godlike attributes.

Joseph Telushkin formulates an understanding of Christianity without the concept of shittuf: "the majority of Jewish scholars concluded that although Christianity speaks of a trinity, if does not conceive of the three forces as separate with different and conflicting wills. Rather, the trinity represents three aspects of one God. While Jews are forbidden to hold such a belief, it is not avodah zarah."

Christian adherence

See also: Christian Torah-submission

Some Christian writers [3], particularly those affiliated with Primitive Apostolic Christianity see the verses in Acts 15:19-21 as a directive from the first Council of Jerusalem to observe the basic understanding of the Noahide Laws in order to be considered Righteous Gentiles, and not be required to live completely as Jews. According to Acts 15, the Council of Jerusalem determined that circumcision was not required of new converts, only avoidance of "pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, and blood" (KJV, Acts 15:20). The basis for these prohibitions as found in Acts 15:21 states only: "For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day". The evidence of these Noachian inclusions to primitive Christian observance were in addition to the moral Ten Commandments given to Moses at Sinai, which covers the most essential requirements of the Noachian covenant. The additions of the four cited above were to complete the requirements of the new Gentile converts to primitive Christianity.

Several Christian congregations have abandoned traditional Christianity (rejecting the Nicene Creed) and adopted the First Covenant or Noahism in recent years. In the United States a few organized movements of non-Jews (primarily of Christian origin) have either chosen to reject mainstream religious affiliation and live by the Apostolic Decree, which they view as the original Christian observance of Noahide Laws, or, under the influence of Orthodox Judaism, adhere to the Talmud's listing of the Laws (without converting to Judaism).

Jubilees, part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, generally considered to be a 2nd century BCE Jewish apocrypha, Chapter 7, verses 20-33 states:

"And in the twenty-eighth jubilee [1324-1372 A.M.] Noah began to enjoin upon his sons' sons the ordinances and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to observe righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to bless their Creator, and honour father and mother, and love their neighbour, and guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity. For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth ... For whoso sheddeth man's blood, and whoso eateth the blood of any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth."

Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century, in Contra Faustum 32.13 stated:

"The observance of pouring out the blood which was enjoined in ancient times upon Noah himself after the deluge, the meaning of which we have already explained, is thought by many to be what is meant in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read that the Gentiles were required to abstain from fornication, and from things sacrificed, and from blood, that is, from flesh of which the blood has not been poured out. Others give a different meaning to the words, and think that to abstain from blood means not to be polluted with the crime of murder. It would take too long to settle this question, and it is not necessary. For, allowing that the apostles did on that occasion require Christians to abstain from the blood of animals, and not to eat of things strangled, they seem to me to have consulted the time in choosing an easy observance that could not be burdensome to any one, and which the Gentiles might have in common with the Israelities, for the sake of the Corner-stone, who makes both one in Himself; while at the same time they would be reminded how the Church of all nations was prefigured by the ark of Noah, when God gave this command,— a type which began to be fulfilled in the time of the apostles by the accession of the Gentiles to the faith."

Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, commentary on Acts 15:20, 15:29, 21:25 states:

"The occasion for issuing the Apostolic Decree, it should be observed, was to settle the question whether Gentile converts to Christianity should be required to submit to the rite of circumcision and fulfill other Mosaic statutes. The Council decided that such observance was not required for salvation; at the same time, however, in order to avoid giving unnecessary offense to Jewish Christians (and to Jews contemplating becoming Christians), the Council asked Gentile converts to make certain concessions for prudential reasons, abstaining from those acts that would offend Jewish scruples and hinder social intercourse, including joint participation in the Lord's Supper."

The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Gentile: Gentiles May Not Be Taught the Torah notes the following reconciliation:

"R. Emden, in a remarkable apology for Christianity contained in his appendix to "Seder 'Olam" (pp. 32b-34b, Hamburg, 1752), gives it as his opinion that the original intention of Jesus, and especially of Paul, was to convert only the Gentiles to the seven moral laws of Noah and to let the Jews follow the Mosaic law — which explains the apparent contradictions in the New Testament regarding the laws of Moses and the Sabbath."

See also

• B'nei Noah

Further reading

• Seven Noahide Laws - Chabad.org
• The Lubavitcher Rebbe on educating mankind via the Noahide Code
• Bleich, J. David. "Judaism and natural law" in Jewish law annual, vol. VII 5-42
• Bleich, J. David. "Tikkun Olam: Jewish Obligations to Non-Jewish Society" in: Tikkun olam: social responsibility in Jewish thought and law. Edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman and Nathan J. Diament. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1997. ISBN 0-7657-5951-9.
• Broyde, Michael J. "The Obligation of Jews to Seek Observance of Noahide Laws by Gentiles: A Theoretical Review" in Tikkun olam: social responsibility in Jewish thought and law. Edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman and Nathan J. Diament. Northvale, N.J. : Jason Aronson, 1997. ISBN 0-7657-5951-9.
• Clorfene C and Rogalsky Y. The Path of the Righteous Gentile: An Introduction to the Seven Laws of the Children of Noah. New York: Phillip Feldheim, 1987. ISBN 0-87306-433-X. Online version.
• Lichtenstein, Aaron. "The Seven Laws of Noah". New York: The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press and Z. Berman Books, 2d ed. 1986. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 80-69121.
• Novak, David. The image of the non-Jew in Judaism: an historical and constructive study of the Noahide Laws. New York : E. Mellen Press, 1983.
• Novak, David. Natural law in Judaism. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• Rakover, Nahum. Law and the Noahides: law as a universal value. Jerusalem: Library of Jewish Law, 1998.
• Michael Dallen. The Rainbow Covenant: Torah and the Seven Universal Laws ISBN 0-9719388-2-2 Library of Congress Control Number 2003102494 online excerpts

External Audio Sites

• The Lubavitcher Rebbe speaks on the Seven Universal Laws for all mankind
• OU Radio show on Bnei Noah - The Jew, The Minister and The Bnei Noah