A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE
NOAHIDE COVENANT
By Rabbi Michael Shelomo Bar-Ron
According to the ancient oral Torah
tradition of the Jewish People, every human being among the nations of the world
is considered a Ben NoaH (Noahide). More than the literal meaning of a
"descendent" of the biblical Noah, Ben NoaH
refers to an obligated member of the Covenant G-d made with Noah after the
Flood. Only Israel are not called B'nei NoaH, since Abraham our
forefather was sanctified with special, additional commandments, according to
the unique role of the nation that would stem from him—the role of holy priests
to minister to the rest of the world.
Therefore, the Noahide
Covenant is not a religion that one must convert to, a people one must be
accepted into. It is the
Divinely-ordained social, moral, legal framework all humans are born into, just
as we are born into a natural framework of physical laws and limitations. That fits in with the Torah tradition that in
fact, six of the Seven Laws were given to Adam in the Garden of Eden (with the
exception of the prohibition of eating meat from living animal, which did not
apply to the first man, who was not permitted to slaughter animal meat for
consumption).
The Noahide
Covenant is made of Seven fundamental Commandments,
which are generally viewed as Seven categories of Law, containing other
laws within them, and other laws that accompany them. The Seven general Commandments—mainly
prohibitions—appear in Talmudic literature under the following titles:
Idolatry (the prohibition)
Cursing G-d's Name (the
prohibition)
Murder (the prohibition)
Forbidden sexual relations (the prohibition)
Theft (the prohibition)
Consuming Meat of a
Living Animal
(the prohibition)
Courts of Law (the
obligation to establish them)
The simplicity of this Covenant is
striking: It includes no religious
ceremonies, requires no sacrificial service, with no priestly hierarchy. Perfect equality between
men and women. Perfect equality of all races and colors. What a vision... what a world! As it is written in Yalkut
Shim'oni on Judges, section 42,
"I bring heaven and earth to
witness that the Divine Spirit rests upon a non-Jew as well as upon a Jew, upon
a woman as well as upon a man, upon a maidservant as well as a manservant. All depends on the deeds of the particular
individual."
The Noahide
Laws are the most basic code of human behavior; the only code that provides the
moral, legal base for a world united in harmony, under the King and Father of
us all, the One and Only G-d. Fittingly,
the Torah forbids non-Jews (or anyone) from creating man-made religions. Why add to the simple perfection of G-d's covenant?
"You shall not add and you shall not subtract from it."
(Deuteronomy 13:1) Just as with the
Torah, adding is subtracting. The immeasurable
suffering and death in the name of man-made religion throughout history is enough
proof of the wisdom of this prohibition!
However, since they are the most
basic moral elements to human co-existence and can even be derived naturally
from basic human logic, there is no excuse that can legitimize the purposeful,
willing transgression of a Noahide Law; no plea of
ignorance. When a person willfully
transgresses the basic Divine laws that make human life possible, it is a crime
against life itself and therefore a capital crime. Likewise, as basic moral principles, there are
no minimal measures beyond which one is exempt: ultimately, theft is theft,
whether one dollar was stolen from a wealthy man, or a poor man was robbed of
all he owned. Careful observance of the
Seven Laws, just like proper observance of the Torah, requires study.
Sadly, the issue of capital
punishment is the source for antagonism to the Seven Laws. Antisemitic literature,
written from a place of blind ignorance and hate, cite this as a desire on the
part of the rabbis to butcher the gentile world, G-d forbid! They comfortably ignore the rest of Talmud,
saturated with teachings of peace and goodwill towards non-Jews, to the extent
that wronging a gentile can be considered worse than wronging a Jew! They conveniently ignore that there is no
capital punishment in
In general, Torah is comparable to
medicine (see Exodus 15:26). Any application
and enforcement of the Law in the wrong hands is like a scalpel in the hands of
an untrained fool in the operating room!
It is for this reason that, in his infinite Wisdom, G-d entrusted the
application and ultimate interpretation of the Seven Laws, (like the 613 Laws
of the Torah), into the hands of the "surgeons" of Torah Law: the Great
Court of 71 ordained rabbinical sages, the Sanhedrin of Israel, the bearers of
the unbroken chain of Torah tradition from Moses.
Once a truly valid Sanhedrin is
established according to Jewish Law, it will have the monumental task of determining
the full application of the Noahide Laws in this 58th
(21st) century. Under the current
Sanhedrin restoration project, a sub-court for B'nei NoaH, headed by Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, was appointed to begin
this process: to provide personal
instruction and eventually Noahide Torah training to
B'nai NoaH—particularly through the new High Council
of B'nei NoaH. Beginning with these efforts by rabbis and Noahides, may the vision of Isaiah 2-5 eventually be realized:
And it shall come to pass in
the end of days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations
shall flow unto it. And many peoples
shall go and say: 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to
the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will
walk in His paths.' For out of
According to sacred Torah tradition,
this refers to the Sanhedrin, the "Pillar of Teaching" (Mishneh Torah, Maimonides, hilkhoth
Mamrim), when the ordained judges sit in the
Chamber of Hewn Stone in the
“and
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning
hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more”.