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InJudaism, theSeven Laws of Noah (Hebrew:שבע מצוות בני נח,Sheva Mitzvot B'nei Noach), otherwise referred to as theNoahide Laws[6] or theNoachian Laws[8] (from theHebrew pronunciation of "Noah"), are a set ofuniversal moral laws which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as acovenant with Noah and with the "sons of Noah"—that is, all ofhumanity.[13]
The Seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions againstworshipping idols,cursing God,murder,adultery andsexual immorality,theft,eating flesh torn from a living animal, as well as the obligation to establishcourts of justice.[16]
According toJewish law, non-Jews (Gentiles) are not obligated toconvert to Judaism, but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in theWorld to Come (Olam Ha-Ba), the final reward of the righteous.[20] The non-Jews that choose to follow the Seven Laws of Noah are regarded as "Righteous Gentiles" (Hebrew:חסידי אומות העולם,Chassiddei Umot ha-Olam: "Pious People of the World").[21]
The Seven Laws of Noah as traditionally enumerated in theBabylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a-b) andTosefta (Avodah Zarah 9:4),[22] are the following:[23][24]
According to the Talmud, the seven Noahide laws were given first toAdam and subsequently toNoah.[34] TheTannaitic andAmoraiticrabbinicsages (1st–6th centuries CE) disagreed on the exact number of Noahide laws that were originally given to Adam.[35] Six of the seven laws wereexegetically derived from passages in theBook of Genesis,[37] with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.[38] The earliest complete rabbinic version of the seven Noahide laws can be found in theTosefta:[41]
Seven commandments were commanded of the sons of Noah:
- concerningadjudication (dinim)
- concerning idolatry (avodah zarah)
- concerning blasphemy (qilelat ha-Shem)
- concerning sexual immorality (gilui arayot)
- concerning blood-shed (shefikhut damim)
- concerning robbery (gezel)
- concerning a limb torn from a living animal (ever min ha-hay)
Theuniversal morality of the Noahide covenant forGentiles (non-Jews) was already affirmed in theTorah[1] and was subsequently highlighted in theBook of Genesis (e.g., relating toMelchizedek inGenesis 14:18–20), theBook of Job, and theBook of Jonah (showing thatGod would be known and his call for repentance responded to even by the evil Ninevites, making them acceptable to God), showing that God directly related to every person regardless of their culture or religion, and would save all "Righteous Gentiles" who conformed to the Seven Laws of Noah.[42][43]
TheBook of Jubilees, generally dated to the 1st century BCE,[3][44] includes a substantially different list of six commandments at verses 7:20–25:[3](1) to observe righteousness;(2) to cover the shame of their flesh;(3) to bless their creator;(4) to honor their parents;(5) to love their neighbor; and(6) to guard against fornication, uncleanness, and all iniquity.[45]
In theSamaritan Pentateuch and tradition there is no record of Noahide Laws as inrabbinical literature.
People who are not in the Samaritan community or seeking to practice the tenets ofSamaritanism are considered foreigners. The Torah is not binding nor applicable to them, unless a potential convert decides or is in the process of joining the community, in which he/she must partake of the Paschal lamb and live with them for at least three years following all communal and ceremonial laws to be fully integrated which includes being circumcised if male.[46][47]
Instead of seeking converts, they consider themselves to be a source of blessing to all the families of the nations by keeping their covenant and guarding the Torah onMount Gerizim, the chosen and blessed place given by theGod of Israel to them as enumerated many times in their book ofGenesis andDeuteronomy, and expounded upon by Samaritan commentaries.[48][49]
According to theTorah/Pentateuch (Genesis 9:4-7), three laws are explicitly stated for Noah and his descendants (non-Abrahamic peoples) for the fundamentalmoral code considered expected and virtuous though not enforceable nor envisioned as amessianic end of days establishment of an Israelite or 'Noahide' global court but rather considereddivinely sanctioned are the following:
In the book ofMemar Marqah, ahomiletictractate, it is mentioned regarding the day of vengeance and recompense in its full weight and responsibility as being applicable only to thesons of Israel.[54][55] all other nations and peoples are subject to their own moral laws, codes, cultures and fates asMarqah the Samaritan sage and priest pointed out in his works expounding on the Israelite Samaritan Torah.[56][57]
Other references in the Torah scripture and Samaritan teachings which suggest and prove Israelite ancestralparticularism is in regards to inheritance, cultures, and social structures; and the celestial bodies and heavenly hosts[58][59][60] which can be read as the nations who are non-Israelites being 'allotted' other natural forces and/or spiritual powers and beings outside of thecovenant, the Israelite Samaritan traditional cosmology regarding angels, humans, and "Sheedem" the gods of other religions appears evident to back this conclusion.[61][62]
The Talmudic tractateSanhedrin 105a named and excluded certain specific Jewish and non-Jewish groups of the distant past fromsalvation, but thereby implied, as explicitly stated there, that all other non-Jews of past or present could be righteous and would be saved as they were, without Gentiles needing to undergo conversion to Judaism.[43] FollowingMoses Maimonides'analysis of Islam, medieval Jewish rabbis affirmed that Islam as an entire religion, despiteits perceived errors andcruelties towards the Jews, could still be considered as a Noahide faith. The 13th–14th century Catalan rabbiMenachem ben Solomon Ha-Meiri fully extended much the same status toChristianity itself.[42]
The Talmud has some striking accounts illustrating how far God's lovingkindness and mercies might extend, giving ultimate salvation even to persons who had led notoriously evil lives. Some said that if those persons had done only one truly selfless, kind and good deed in their entire lives God, would accept them for the sake of that precious act intoParadise, either immediately at death (if their death was the result of an extraordinarily generous, self-sacrificing, or courageous deed) or after they had atoned for their sins inPurgatory. So it is evident that full observance of the Noahide covenant itself was not always obligatory for salvation after all, even if it remained the chief guide to lives of spiritual loftiness and nobility.[63]
This led the 18th-century ItalianJewish Kabbalist and rabbiMoshe Chaim Luzzatto to emphasize and explain at length that God would end up accepting all humanity, good and evil alike, into theWorld to Come (Olam Ha-Ba)—the evil ones, however, would of course need to purify themselves in Purgatory first, but there will be no eternal punishment for them.[64]
For this reason you will find that the Noachian and the Mosaic laws, though differing in matters of detail, as we shall see, agree in the general matters which come from the giver. They both existed at the same time. While the Mosaic law existed in Israel, all the other nations had the Noachian law, and the difference was due to geographical diversity, Israel being different from the other lands, and to national diversity, due to difference in ancestry. And there is no doubt that the other nations attained human happiness through the Noachian law, since it is divine; though they could not reach the same degree of happiness as that attained by Israel through the Torah. The rabbis say: "The pious men of the other nations have a share in the world to come". This shows that there may be two divine laws existing at the same time among different nations, and that each one leads those who live by it to attain human happiness; though there is a difference in the degree of happiness attainable by the two laws. This difference in the laws can not concern fundamental or derivative principles. Therefore the examination of the law itself is always of the same kind. But the examination relating to the messenger may undergo change. At all events the verification must be direct, though the verification of one religion may be different from that of another.
— Yosef Albo, Maamar 1, Chapter 25:5,Sefer ha-Ikkarim,Castille (1425 CE)[65]
During the 1860s inWestern Europe, a resurgence of Noahide faith as the universal moral religion forGentiles (non-Jews) was developed by the 19th-century ItalianJewish Kabbalist and rabbiElijah Benamozegh.[11][66][67] Between the years 1920s–1930s, French writer Aimé Pallière [fr] adopted the Seven Laws of Noah at the suggestion of his teacher Elijah Benamozegh. Afterwards, Pallière spread Benamozegh's doctrine in Europe and never formally converted to Judaism.[11][68]
Modern historians argue that Benamozegh's role in the debate on Jewish universalism in the history ofJewish philosophy was focused on the Noahide laws for Gentiles as the means subservient to the shift ofJewish ethics from particularism to universalism, although the arguments that he used to support his universalistic viewpoint were neither original nor unheard in the history of this debate.[66] According toClémence Boulouque, Carl and Bernice Witten Associate Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies atColumbia University in the City of New York, Benamozegh ignored theethnocentricbiases contained in the Noahide laws, whereas some contemporaryright-wingJewish political movements have embraced them.[66]
TheEncyclopedia Talmudit, edited by the 20th-century Belarusian Hasidic rabbiShlomo Yosef Zevin, states that after the giving of theTorah, theJewish people were no longer included in the category of the sons of Noah. Maimonides (Mishneh Torah,Hilkhot Melakhim 9:1) indicates that the seven commandments are also part of the Torah, and theBabylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 59a, see alsoTosafot ad. loc.) states that Jews are obligated in all things that Gentiles are obligated in, albeit with some differences in the details.[10] According to theEncyclopedia Talmudit, mostmedieval Jewish authorities considered that all the seven commandments were given to Adam, although Maimonides (Mishneh Torah,Hilkhot Melakhim 9:1) considered the dietary law to have been given to Noah.[10]
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, theLubavitcher Rebbe, published and spoke about the Seven Laws of Noah many times.[69] According to Schneerson's view, based on a detailed reading ofMaimonides' tractateHilkhot Melakhim in theMishneh Torah, theTalmud, and theHebrew Bible, the seven commandments originally given to Noah were given yet again, throughMoses at Sinai, and it is exclusively through the giving of the Torah that the seven commandments derive their current force.[70] What has changed with the giving of the Torah is that now, it is the duty of theJewish people to bring the rest of the world to fulfill the Seven Laws of Noah.[71]
According toMichael S. Kogan, professor of Philosophy andReligious studies atMontclair State University, the Seven Laws of Noah are not explicitly mentioned in the Torah but were exegetically extrapolated from the Book of Genesis by 2nd-century rabbis,[72] which wrote them down in theTosefta.[72]
According to Adam J. Silverstein, professor ofMiddle Eastern studies andIslamic studies at theHebrew University of Jerusalem, Jewish theologians started to rethink the relevance and applicability of the Seven Laws of Noah during theMiddle Ages, primarily due to the precarious living conditions of the Jewish people under theMedieval Christian kingdoms and theIslamic world (seeJewish–Christian relations andJewish–Islamic relations), since bothChristians andMuslims recognize thepatriarchAbraham as the unifying figure of theAbrahamic tradition, alongside themonotheisticconception of God.[73]
Silverstein states that Jewish theology came to include concepts and frameworks that would permit certain types of non-Jews to be recognized as righteous and deserving of life in the Hereafter due to the "Noachide Law". He sees there being two "Torahs": one for Jews, the other for the gentile "Children of Noah". Whilst theoretically the Noachide Law should be universal, its prohibitions against blasphemy and idolatry mean that in practice it only really applied to non-idolatrous theists. Therefore, Jews normally considered Christians and/or Muslims when discussing this concept.[73]
David Novak, professor of Jewish theology andethics at theUniversity of Toronto, presents a range of theories regarding the sources from which the Seven Laws of Noah originated, including the Hebrew Bible itself,Hittite laws, theMaccabean period, and theRoman period.[74] Regarding themodern Noahide movement, he denounced it by stating that "If Jews are telling Gentiles what to do, it's a form ofimperialism".[75]
According to theBabylonian Talmud, the Seven Laws of Noah laws apply to all ofhumanity.[3][10][33] In Judaism, the termB'nei Noach (Hebrew:בני נח, "Sons of Noah")[19] refers to all mankind.[10] The Talmud also states: "Righteous people of all nations have a share in the world to come".[76] Any non-Jew who lives according to these laws is regarded as one of theRighteous among the Gentiles.[5][7][11][17][18][19][33] According to the Talmud, the Noahide covenant was given first toAdam and subsequently toNoah.[2][3][10][33] Six of the seven laws wereexegetically derived from passages in the Book of Genesis,[2][7][10][33] with the seventh being the establishment of courts of justice.[2][7][10][33]
The Talmudic sages expanded the concept ofuniversal morality within the Noahide laws and added several other laws beyond the seven listed in the Talmud and Tosefta which are attributed to different rabbis,[2][3][7][10] such as prohibitions against committingincest,cruelty to animals,pairing animals of different species, grafting trees of different kinds,castration,emasculation,homosexuality,pederasty, andsorcery among others,[79] with some of the sages, such asUlla, going so far as to make a list of 30 laws.[2][3][7][80] The Talmud expands the scope of the seven laws to cover about 100 of the613 mitzvot.[81]
In practice, Jewish law makes it very difficult to apply theJewish death penalty.[82] No record exists of a Gentile having been put to death for violating the seven Noahide laws.[74] Some of the categories of capital punishment recorded in the Talmud are recorded as having never been carried out. It is thought that the rabbis included discussion of them in anticipation of the comingMessianic Age.[82]
According Sanhedrin 56a, for Noahides convicted of a capital crime, the only sanctioned method of execution is decapitation,[83] considered one of the lightest capital punishments.[84] Other sources state that the execution is to be by stoning if he has intercourse with a Jewish betrothed woman, or by strangulation if the Jewish woman has completed the marriage ceremonies, but had not yet consummated the marriage. In Jewish law, the only form of blasphemy which is punishable by death is blaspheming theIneffable Name (Leviticus 24:16).[85] Some Talmudic rabbis held that only those offences for which a Jew would be executed, are forbidden to gentiles.[86] The Talmudic rabbis discuss which offences and sub-offences are capital offences and which are merely forbidden.[87]
Maimonides states that anyone who does not accept the seven Noahide laws is to be executed, as God compelled the world to follow these laws.[88] For the other prohibitions such as the grafting of trees and bestiality he holds that the sons of Noah are not to be executed.[89] Maimonides adds a universalism lacking from earlier Jewish sources.[81]: 18 The Talmud differs from Maimonides in that it considers the seven laws enforceable by Jewish authorities on non-Jews living within a Jewish nation.[81]: 18
Nahmanides disagrees with Maimonides' reasoning. He limits the obligation of enforcing the seven laws to non-Jewish authorities, thus taking the matter out of Jewish hands. TheTosafot seems to agree with Nahmanides' reasoning.[90]: 39 According to some opinions, punishment is the same whether the individual transgresses with knowledge of the law or is ignorant of the law.[91]
Some authorities debate whether non-Jewish societies may decide to modify the Noahide laws of evidence (for example, by requiring more witnesses before punishment, or by permitting circumstantial evidence) if they consider that to be more just.[92] Whilst Jewish law requires two witnesses, Noachide law, as recorded by Rambam, Hilkhot Melakhim 9:14, can accept the testimony of a single eyewitness as sufficient for use of the death penalty. Whilst a confession of guilt is not admissible as evidence before a Jewish court, it is a matter of considerable dispute as to whether or not it constitutes sufficient grounds for conviction in Noachide courts.[93]
There is also some debate as to whether the ideal punishment for violation of these laws is the death penalty, or if it is up to the court's discretion to decide which punishment is most fitting. While a simple reading of the Talmud might suggest that the ideal punishment is the death penalty, a number of prominent commentators, including Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, have argued that it is up to the courts to decide.[94]
Variousrabbinic sources have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. Maimonides, in hisMishneh Torah, included the grafting of trees.[89] Like the Talmud, he interpreted the prohibition against homicide as including aprohibition against abortion.[95][96]David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, a commentator on Maimonides, expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were also listed in the Talmud.[97]
The TalmudistUlla wrote of 30 laws which the sons of Noah took upon themselves. He only lists three, namely the three that the gentiles follow: not to create aKetubah between males, not to sellcarrion orhuman flesh in the market and to respect the Torah. The rest of the laws are not listed.[98] Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws are also possible from the reading.[99][100]
Two different lists of the 30 laws exist. Both lists include an additional twenty-threemitzvot which are subdivisions or extensions of the seven laws. One from the 16th-century workAsarah Maamarot by RabbiMenahem Azariah da Fano and a second from the 10th centurySamuel ben Hofni which was recently published from his Judeo-Arabic writings after having been found in theCairo Geniza.[101][102] RabbiZvi Hirsch Chajes suggests Menahem Azariah of Fano enumerated commandments are not related to the first seven, nor based on thewritten Torah, but instead were passed down byoral tradition.[103]
Duringbiblical times, a Gentile living in theLand of Israel who did not want to convert to Judaism but accepted the Seven Laws of Noah as binding upon himself was granted the legal status ofger toshav (Hebrew:גר תושב,ger: "foreigner" or "alien" +toshav: "resident", lit. "resident alien").[7][104][105][106] Ager toshav is therefore commonly deemed a "Righteous Gentile" (Hebrew:חסיד אומות העולם,Chassid Umot ha-Olam: "Pious People of the World"),[5][7][11][17][18][19] and is assured of a place in theWorld to Come (Olam Ha-Ba).[5][7][11][17][18][19]
The rabbinic regulations regarding Jewish–Gentile relations are modified in the case of ager toshav.[18] The accepted halakhic opinion is that theger toshav must accept the seven Noahide laws in the presence of threehaberim (men of authority),[106] or, according to therabbinic tradition, before abeth din (Jewish rabbinical court).[18] He will receive certain legal protection and privileges from the Jewish community, and there is an obligation to render him aid when in need. The restrictions onhaving a Gentile do work for a Jew on the Shabbat are also greater when the Gentile is ager toshav.[18]
According to theJewish philosopher and professorMenachem Kellner's study onMaimonidean texts (1991), ager toshav could be a transitional stage on the way to becoming a "righteous alien" (Hebrew:גר צדק,ger tzedek), i.e. a fullconvert to Judaism.[107] He conjectures that, according to Maimonides, only a fullger tzedek would be found during the Messianic era.[107] Furthermore, Kellner criticizes the assumption withinOrthodox Judaism that there is an "ontological divide between Jews and Gentiles",[108] which he believes is contrary to what Maimonides thought and theTorah teaches,[108] stating that "Gentiles as well as Jews are fullycreated in the image of God".[108]
According toChristine Hayes, an American scholar of ancient Judaism and early Christianity serving as theSterling Professor ofReligious Studies in Classical Judaica atYale University, thegerim were not necessarily Gentile converts in theHebrew Bible, whether in the modern or rabbinic sense.[109] Nonetheless, they were granted many rights and privileges when they lived in theLand of Israel.[109] For example, they could offer sacrifices, actively participate in Israelite politics, keep their distinct ethnic identity for many generations, inherit tribal allotments, etc.[109]
During theGolden Age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula, themedieval Jewish philosopher and rabbiMaimonides (1135–1204) wrote in thehalakhic legal codeMishneh Torah (tractateHilkhot Melakhim) that Gentiles must perform exclusively the Seven Laws of Noah and refrain fromstudying the Torah or performing anyJewish commandment, including resting on theShabbat.[110] He also states that if Gentiles willingly perform any Jewish commandment besides the Seven Laws of Noah according to the correct halakhic procedure, they are not prevented from doing so.[33][111] According to Maimonides, teaching non-Jews to follow the Seven Laws of Noah is incumbent on all Jews, a commandment in and of itself.[75] Nevertheless, the majority ofrabbinic authorities over the centuries have rejected Maimonides' opinion, and the dominant halakhic consensus has always been that Jews are not required to spread the Noahide laws to non-Jews.[75]
Maimonides held that Gentiles may have a part in theWorld to Come (Olam Ha-Ba) just by observing the Seven Laws of Noah and accepting them asdivinely revealed to Moses.[2][19][33][112] According to Maimonides, such non-Jews achieve the status ofChassid Umot Ha-Olam ("Pious People of the World"),[19] and are different from those which solely keep the Noahide laws out of moral/ethicalreasoning alone.[19] He wrote inHilkhot M'lakhim:"[19]
Anyone who accepts upon himself and carefully observes the Seven Commandments is of the Righteous of the Nations of the World and has a portion in the World to Come. This is as long as he accepts and performs them because (he truly believes that) it was the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Who commanded them in the Torah, and that it was through Moses our Teacher we were informed that the Sons of Noah had already been commanded to observe them. But if he observes them because he convinced himself, then he is not considered a Resident Convert and is not of the Righteous of the Nations of the World, but merely one of their wise.[113]
Some later editions of theMishneh Torah differ by one letter and read "Nor one of their wise men"; the latter reading is narrower. In either reading, Maimonides appears to exclude philosophical Noahides from being "Righteous Gentiles".[19] According to him, a truly "Righteous Gentile" follows the seven laws because they are divinely revealed, and thus are followed out of obedience to God.[19][114][115]
The 15th-century Sephardic Orthodox rabbiYosef Caro, one of the earlyAcharonim and author of theShulchan Aruch, rejected Maimonides' denial of the access to the World to Come to the Gentiles who obey the Noahide laws guided only by their reason asanti-rationalistic and unfounded, asserting that there is not any justification to uphold such a view in the Talmud.[112] The 17th-century Sephardic Dutch philosopherBaruch Spinoza read Maimonides as saying "nor one of their wise men", and accused him of being narrow and particularistic.[112] Other Jewish philosophers influenced by Spinoza, such asMoses Mendelssohn andHermann Cohen, also have formulated more inclusive and universal interpretations of the Seven Laws of Noah.[112][114]
The 18th-century Ashkenazi German philosopherMoses Mendelssohn, one of the leading exponents of theJewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), strongly disagreed with Maimonides' formulation of the subject in theMishneh Torah (tractateHilkhot Melakhim), citing a letter sent by Maimonides to the Jewish translatorAbraham ben Samuel ibn Hasdai ha-Levi ofBarcelona, and instead contended that, in conformity to the letter itself, Gentiles which observe the seven Noahide laws out of ethical, moral, or philosophicalreasoning, without necessarily believing in the Jewish monotheistic conception of God or knowing the Torah, retained the status of "Righteous Gentiles" and would still achievesalvation.[116][117]
According toSteven Schwarzschild, Maimonides' position has its source in his adoption ofAristotle's skeptical attitude towards the ability of reason to arrive at moral truths,[118] and "many of the most outstanding spokesmen of Judaism themselves dissented sharply from" this position, which is "individual and certainly somewhat eccentric" in comparison to other Jewish thinkers.[119]
The 20th-century Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbiAbraham Isaac Kook, firstChief Rabbi of theBritish Mandate of Palestine, cited many rabbinical authorities in ruling leniently that a non-Jew who follows the seven commandments due to philosophical conviction rather than revelation (what Maimonides calls "one of their wise men") would also have a part in theWorld to Come (Olam Ha-Ba). This would be in line with Maimonides' general approach, he said, that following philosophical wisdom spiritually "advances an individual even more than righteous behaviour".[120]
Menachem Mendel Schneerson encouragedhis followers on many occasions to preach the Seven Laws of Noah,[11][75] devoting some of his addresses to the subtleties of this code.[70][71][121] Since the 1990s,[11][17]Orthodox Jewish rabbis from Israel, most notably those affiliated to Chabad-Lubavitch andreligious Zionist organizations,[11][17][122] includingThe Temple Institute,[11][17][122] have set up a modern Noahide movement.[11][17][122] These Noahide organizations, led by religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis, are aimed at non-Jews toproselytize among them and commit them to follow the Noahide laws.[11][17][122]
These religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis that guide the modern Noahide movement, who are often affiliated with theThird Temple movement,[11][17][122] are accused of expounding aracist andsupremacistideology which consists in the belief that the Jewish people are God's chosen nation and racially superior to non-Jews,[11][17][122] and mentor Noahides because they believe that the Messianic era will begin with therebuilding of the Third Temple on theTemple Mount inJerusalem to re-institute theJewish priesthood along with the practice ofritual sacrifices, and the establishment of a Jewishtheocracy in Israel, supported by communities of Noahides.[11][17][122]
In 1990,Meir Kahane, a convicted terrorist and founder of the Israeli ultra-nationalist political partyKach, was the keynote speaker at the First International Conference of the Descendants of Noah, the first Noahide gathering, inFort Worth, Texas.[11][17][122] After theassassination of Meir Kahane that same year, The Temple Institute, which advocates rebuilding the Third Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, started to promote the Noahide laws as well.[11][122]
The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has been one of the most active in Noahide outreach, believing that there is spiritual and societal value for non-Jews in at least simply acknowledging the Noahide laws.[11][17][75][123]
In 1982, Chabad-Lubavitch had a reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in aU.S. Presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 4921",[124] signed by the then-U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan.[124] TheUnited States Congress, recalling House Joint Resolution 447 and in celebration of Schneerson's 80th birthday, proclaimed 4 April 1982, as a "National Day of Reflection".[124]
In 1989 and 1990, Chabad-Lubavitch had another reference to the Noahide laws enshrined in a U.S. presidential proclamation: the "Proclamation 5956",[125] signed by then-U.S. PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush.[125] TheUnited States Congress, recalling House Joint Resolution 173 and in celebration of Schneerson's 87th birthday, proclaimed 16 April 1989, and 6 April 1990, as "Education Day, U.S.A."[125]
In January 2004, the spiritual leader of theDruze community in Israel, SheikhMowafak Tarif, met with a representative of Chabad-Lubavitch to sign a declaration calling on all non-Jews in Israel to observe the Noahide laws; the mayor of theArab city ofShefa-'Amr (Shfaram) – where Muslim, Christian, and Druze communities live side-by-side – also signed the document.[126]
In March 2016, theSephardicChief Rabbi of Israel,Yitzhak Yosef, declared during a sermon that Jewish law requires that only non-Jews who follow the Noahide laws are allowed to live in Israel:[127][128] "According to Jewish law, it's forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noahide laws, [...] If the non-Jew is unwilling to accept these laws, then we can send him toSaudi Arabia, ... When there will be full, true redemption, we will do this."[127]
Yosef further added: "non-Jews shouldn't live in the land of Israel. ... If our hand were firm, if we had the power to rule, then non-Jews must not live in Israel. But, our hand is not firm. [...] Who, otherwise be the servants? Who will be our helpers? This is why we leave them in Israel."[129] Yosef's sermon sparked outrage in Israel and was fiercely criticized by several human rights associations,NGOs andmembers of the Knesset;[127]Jonathan Greenblatt,Anti-Defamation League's CEO and national director, and Carole Nuriel, Anti-Defamation League's Israel Office acting director, issued a strong denunciation of Yosef's sermon:[127][129]
The statement by Chief Rabbi Yosef is shocking and unacceptable. It is unconscionable that the Chief Rabbi, an official representative of the State of Israel, would express such intolerant and ignorant views about Israel's non-Jewish population – including the millions of non-Jewish citizens.
As a spiritual leader, Rabbi Yosef should be using his influence to preach tolerance and compassion towards others, regardless of their faith, and not seek to exclude and demean a large segment of Israelis.
We call upon the Chief Rabbi to retract his statements and apologize for any offense caused by his comments.[129]
Historically, some rabbinic opinions consider non-Jews not only not obliged to adhere to all the remaining laws of the Torah, but actually forbidden from observing them.[130][131]
Noahide law differs radically fromRoman law for gentiles (Jus Gentium), if only because the latter was enforceable judicial policy. Rabbinic Judaism has never adjudicated any cases under the Noahide laws,[74] and Jewish scholars disagree about whether the Noahide laws are a functional part of theHalakha (Jewish law).[132]
Some modern views hold 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 humankind 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.
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 these are infrequently used. Support for the use of "Noahide" in this sense can be found with theRitva, who uses the termSon of Noah to refer to a gentile who keeps the seven laws, but is not ager toshav.[18]
In thehistory of Christianity, theApostolic Decree recorded inActs 15 is commonly seen as a parallel to the Seven Laws of Noah, and thus be a commonality rather than a differential.[3][133][134] Some modern scholars dispute the connection between Acts 15 and the seven Noahide laws.[134] The Apostolic Decree is still observed by theEastern Orthodox Church and includes somefood restrictions.[135]
TheJewish Encyclopedia article onPaul of Tarsus states:
According toActs 13,14,17,18 [...], Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the proselytes of the gate [e.g.,Exodus 20:9] and the Jews met; and only because he failed to win the Jews to his views, encountering strong opposition and persecution from them, did he turn to the gentile world after he had agreed at acouncil with the apostles at Jerusalem to admit the gentiles into the Church only as proselytes of the gate, that is, after their acceptance of the Noachian laws (Acts 15:1–31)".[136]
The article on theNew Testament states:
For great as was the success of Barnabas and Paul in the heathen world, the authorities in Jerusalem insisted upon circumcision as the condition of admission of members into the Church, until, on the initiative of Peter, and of James, the head of the Jerusalem church, it was agreed that acceptance of the Noachian Laws—namely, regarding avoidance of idolatry, fornication, and the eating of flesh cut from a living animal—should be demanded of the heathen desirous of entering the Church.[137]
The 18th-century rabbiJacob Emden hypothesized that Jesus, and Paul after him, intended to convert the gentiles to the Seven Laws of Noah while calling on the Jews to keep the fullLaw of Moses.[130]
Furthermore, the sign of the Noahide covenant, therainbow, is available to all humanity to symbolize God's promise of safety. And it is completely outside of the specialcovenant with Abraham and his descendants. The covenant with Noah is expanded to the entireprimeval period, encompassing all the revealed commandments precedingSinai.
Noahide Laws, also calledNoachian Laws, a JewishTalmudic designation for seven biblical laws given toAdam and to Noah before the revelation to Moses onMt. Sinai and consequently binding on all mankind.
Beginning withGenesis2:16, the Babylonian Talmud listed the first six commandments as prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and robbery and the positive command to establish courts of justice (with all that this implies). After the Flood a seventh commandment, given to Noah, forbade the eating of flesh cut from a living animal (Genesis 9:4). Though the number of laws was later increased to 30 with the addition of prohibitions against castration, sorcery, and other practices, the "seven laws", with minor variations, retained their original status as authoritative commandments and as the source of other laws. As basic statutes safeguardingmonotheism and guaranteeing properethical conduct in society, these laws provided a legal framework foralien residents in Jewish territory.Maimonides thus regarded anyone who observed these laws as one "assured of a portion in theworld to come."
The two roots of compassion for animals [...] produce two fundamental responsibilities that humans have toward animals: (1) to protect a precious and imperiled human "sentiment of compassion" that flows simultaneously toward both humans and animals, and (2) toprotect animals from humans where economic incentives make abuse likely. Significantly, these responsibilities are among the very few that somerabbinic traditions extend to all humanity. [...] A stronger statement of the universality of this obligation is themishnaic prohibition againsteating a limb from a living animal, one of the seven "Noahide laws", understood as obligatory for all humanity. While this prohibition is justified in a variety of ways,compassion for animals is a common rabbinic explanation. This inclusion of animal protection in the Noahide laws [...] implies that treatment for animals is one marker of whether a person or nation is "civilized" and thus fully human.
Except for the seventh law, all are negative commands, and the last itself is usually interpreted as commanding the enforcement of the others. They are derived exegetically from divine demands addressed to Adam and Noah, the progenitors of all mankind, and are thus regarded as universal. Noachides may also freely choose to practice certain otherJewish commandments and Maimonides held that Noachides must not only accept these seven laws on their own merit, but must also accept them as divinely revealed. [...] Even though theTalmud and Maimonides stipulate thata non-Jew who violated the Noachide laws was liable to capital punishment, contemporary authorities have expressed the view that this is only the maximal punishment. According to this view, there is a difference between Noachide law and halakhah. According to halakhah, when a Jew was liable for capital punishment it was a mandatory punishment, provided that all conditions had been met, whereas in Noachide law death is the maximal punishment, to be enforced only in exceptional cases. In view of the strict monotheism of Islam,Muslims were considered as Noachides whereasthe status of Christians was a matter of debate. Since thelate Middle Ages, Christianity too has come to be regarded as Noachide, on the ground thatTrinitarianism is not forbidden to non-Jews.
In rabbinic literature theger toshab was a Gentile who observed the Noachian commandments but was not considered a convert to Judaism because he did not agree to circumcision. [...] some scholars have made the mistake of calling theger toshab a "proselyte" or "semiproselyte." But theger toshab was really a resident alien in Israel. Some scholars have claimed that the term "those who fear God" (yir᾿ei Elohim/Shamayim) was used in rabbinic literature to denote Gentiles who were on the fringe of the synagogue. They were not converts to Judaism, although they were attracted to the Jewish religion and observed part of the law.
Rashi,Yevamot 48b, maintains that a resident alien (ger toshav) is obliged to observeShabbat. Theger toshav, in accepting the Seven Commandments of the Sons of Noah, has renounced idolatry and [...] thereby acquires a status similar to that ofAbraham. [...] Indeed,Rabbenu Nissim,Avodah Zarah 67b, declares that the status on an unimmersed convert is inferior to that of ager toshav because the former's acceptance of the "yoke of the commandments" is intended to be binding only upon subsequent immersion. Moreover, the institution ofger toshav as a formal halakhic construct has lapsed with thedestruction of the Temple.
In order to find a precedent the rabbis went so far as to assume thatproselytes of this order were recognized inBiblical law, applying to them the term "toshab" ("sojourner," "aborigine," referring to theCanaanites; see Maimonides' explanation in "Yad," Issure Biah, xiv. 7; see Grätz, l.c. p. 15), in connection with "ger" (see Ex. xxv. 47, where the better reading would be "we-toshab"). Another name for one of this class was "proselyte of the gate" ("ger ha-sha'ar," that is, one under Jewish civil jurisdiction; comp. Deut. v. 14, xiv. 21, referring to the stranger who had legal claims upon the generosity and protection of his Jewish neighbors). In order to be recognized as one of these the neophyte had publicly to assume, before three "ḥaberim," or men of authority, the solemn obligation not to worship idols, an obligation which involved the recognition of the seven Noachian injunctions as binding ('Ab. Zarah 64b; "Yad," Issure Biah, xiv. 7). ... The more rigorous seem to have been inclined to insist upon such converts observing the entire Law, with the exception of the reservations and modifications explicitly made in their behalf. The more lenient were ready to accord them full equality with Jews as soon as they had solemnly forsworn idolatry. The "via media" was taken by those that regarded public adherence to the seven Noachian precepts as the indispensable prerequisite (Gerim iii.; 'Ab. Zarah 64b; Yer. Yeb. 8d; Grätz, l.c. pp. 19–20). The outward sign of this adherence to Judaism was the observance of the Sabbath (Grätz, l.c. pp. 20 et seq.; but comp. Ker. 8b).
against my reading of Maimonides is strengthened by the fact that Maimonides himself says that theger toshav is accepted only during the time that the Jubilee is practiced. The Jubilee year is no longer practiced in this dispensation [...]. Second, it is entirely reasonable to assume that Maimonides thought that the messianic conversion of the Gentiles would be a process that occurred in stages and that some or all Gentiles would go through the status ofger toshav on their way to the status of full convert,ger tzedek. But this question aside, there are substantial reasons why it is very unlikely that Maimonides foresaw a messianic era in which the Gentiles would become only semi-converts (ger toshav) and not full converts (ger tzedek). Put simply, semi-converts are not separate from the Jews but equal to them; their status is in every way inferior and subordinate to that of the Jews. They are separate andunequal.
the basic philosophical reason which compelled Maimonides to take this restrictive position toward the Noachides was the fact that he had learned from his teacher Aristotle and was ready also for religious reasons to believe that ethics are not a purely rational, philosophic or scientific discipline. Only the barest outline of general ethical principles can be defined by logical methods. The substance of the matter which resides in its details can be obtained only through positive statutes, traditions, or divine commands, none of which are produced by conscious, rational processes
