the seven Commandments

These Seven Commandments which G-d gave to the Descendant’s of Noah, i.e. to all mankind, via the Prophet Moses and the oral Torah tradition, are basic laws with far-reaching ramifications which embrace the whole life of the society as well as of the individual, to ensure that the human race will be guided by these Divine laws of morality and ethics, and that the human society will indeed be human, and not a jungle.

The prophet Isaiah foretold that the Jewish people are to be “a light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6), and as part of fulfilling this task they have preserved in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a-60b, 96b, Avodah Zarah 2a-3b, 64b, 65a & 65b, Bava Kamma 38a and Chullin 92a) the universal code of seven Noachide commandments, which is a basic program of ethical monotheism.

The Jewish people have been historically deliberately prevented from carrying out their G-d given task, to teach the people of the world the true monotheistic faith in G-d and His Seven Universal Commandments, by the Evil heretical terrorist organization, known as the Catholic “Inquisition”, who have used torture and murder to prevent people receiving the truth and have tricked and misguided innocent people into following a false religious dogma. The Jewish people are now free to be a “light unto the nations” and teach the true faith, without the threat of being burnt to death at the stake by the christian inquisition.

The Oral Torah (i.e. The Talmud) in Sanhedrin 56b alludes to the Seven Commandments of the Covenant of Noah, in G-d’s commandment to Adam not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, in the Written Torah (the Bible):

Genesis 2:16 – “G-d [YKWK], Almighty G-d [Elokim], commanded man, saying: “You may eat freely from every tree of the Garden, but you must not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. For on the day that you will eat from it you will certainly die.”

1. “G-d” refers to ‘Idolatry’.
2. “Almighty G-d” refers to ‘Blasphemy’.
3. “Commanded” refers to ‘Establishing Courts of Justice’.
4. “Man” refers to ‘Murder’.
5. “Saying” refers to ‘Illicit Sex’.
6. “You may eat freely” refers to ‘Eating flesh taken from a Living Animal’.
7. “From every tree of the garden” refers to ‘Theft’.

This means that these seven laws were encompassed by Adam’s single commandment that was given in the Garden of Eden.

For those who foolishly deny the Oral Torah, please note that the Oral Torah is mentioned in the Written Torah, Exodus 24:12, Where “G-d said to Moses, “Come up to Me, to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the Torah (the [verbal] teaching, i.e. the Oral Torah) and the Mitzvah (the [written] commandment, i.e. the Written Torah), which I have written to instruct them.”

According to rabbinical teaching, the Seven Noachide Commandments were actually repeated to Moses on Mount Sinai, two days before the revelation of the Torah, as the verse states: “Moses came and told the people all the words of G-d and all the Mishpatim (laws)…” (Ex. 24:3).

The Seven Noachide Commandments were later codified into the Jewish Legal Code called the ‘Mishneh Torah’, by Rabbi Moses Maimonides (Rambam), in the section called Hilchos Melachim (The Laws of Kings), Chapters 8, 9 and 10. Quoting the Midrash Genesis Rabbah 16:6, Maimonides states that six commandments were given to Adam and the seventh was given to Noah after the flood, as until the Flood Mankind were not permitted to eat meat.

To be an authentic Noachide, one must have the right intention, and this is explained by Rambam in Hilchos Melachim 8:11: “Any person who accepts upon himself the Seven Commandments and is scrupulous in their observance is considered one of the ‘Righteous Gentiles’ and he is given a portion in the World to Come. This is provided that he accepts them and observed them because G-d commanded so in the Torah, and made known to us through Moses, our teacher, that the descendants of Noah had already been commanded in these laws. However, if he observes them due to personal conviction he is not considered a ‘Ger Toshav’ (foreign resident)  nor a ‘Righteous Gentile’ nor one of their Sages.”

Some people think that there is no need to connect the laws of ethics and morality with Divine authority, and try to rationalize these principles instead. The fallacy of this thinking is abundantly clear, as we saw in the middle of the last century, a whole nation which had boasted of great philosophic advancement and ethical systems sink to the lowest depth of inhuman depravity and unprecedented barbarism, and the reason for this was that they thought that they could establish a morality and ethics based on human reason, not subject to the authority of a Supreme Being, having themselves become a super race, as they thought.

In essence, the Seven Noahide Commandments establish a stable, humane and just society, which accomplishes G-d’s command of inhabiting/settling the world. This is the basis of civilization, for “He did not create it as a wasteland, but formed it to be inhabited/settled.” (Isaiah 45:18). Observing these Laws helps everyone accomplish his or her true purpose: to make a dwelling place for G-d in this world.