A Brief Introduction to the Noahide Covenant

by 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 Israel before the Temple is rebuilt, Sanhedrin or no. That is rooted in the very purpose of Torah, which is education ("Torah" literally means "teaching"). Torah, for Jews and for gentiles, is "a tree of life" (Proverbs 3:18), given to educate and uplift us, not to kill us. Obviously any society in our times that adopts the Noahide Laws will need to go through a gradual process of transformation to this special, Divine system.

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 Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

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 Temple, "the LORD's house." May we live to see this, as well as the prophesied result of the rabbis' selfless, righteous judgment:

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.