The Seven Noachide Laws

all right so tonight we're beginning a new series about morality and bioethics I decided that the first lecture should be about the seven noahide laws a very important lecture that is actually geared towards all of humanity before we begin I thought that it would be a good idea to ask you I'm not sure if you know the answer to this question but if you're an American citizen and you studied American history you're probably familiar with the Declaration of Independence and in this declaration of independence the authors actually State the reasons of why they wanted to become independent of British rule what was so urgent what didn't they like about Britain why did they want to disconnect from British true what bothered them do you recall what was not nice about being a British citizen about being governed by British law what was not good about it well you don't remember I'll just briefly tell you that it has to do with something called despotism and tyranny they suffered they suffer suffered greatly under British rule they were not treated fairly the British government the king treated them in a very abusive way enacted laws that very much limited their freedom and what did they ask for what is that all that they aspired for and for that look at the Declaration of Independence and perhaps the most famous words of that document says at all that the people are endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness does that sound familiar now do you think these requests are exaggerated you think it's asking a lot no these requests seem to be normal requests something that everybody would want then why was it so difficult for them to have it why couldn't they enjoy the that Liberty and the answer is very simple if man is the final judge if man uses his laws to judge other people then what he will do will always be what will benefit him the judge without any consideration to how these laws will affect his constitu the citizens if man is the one that enacts the law if man is the final arbitrator the only judge then he will tend to judge a situation or an individual based on how this benefits himself he will not always consider the benefit or the welfare of others so what is necessary in order to avoid these kinds of uh lack of Justice if we can call it so abuse of power we need a universal moral code and this Universal moral code needs to be predicated on the belief of God a God that we recognize as such that he knows exactly what we are doing he knows our Deeds he reads our thoughts a God to whom we are accountable for our actions if we don't have that in mind if we don't believe in that if we don't recognize that supreme power it will be almost impossible for the human being to overcome his selfishness his selfish nature his subjective mind we're not always objective so if we don't have a supreme power dictating to us directing us showing us the right path we're going to make many mistakes if we have to rely on our own judgment we're not going to always get it right it is because of that that Mas the Jewish tradition is that God in the very beginning when he created the world handed over the seven noite laws this Universal moral code to all of you ity seven Commandments seven instructions and the purpose of that is in order for this world to continue to exist and to function properly according to God's wishes I said it's the Jewish tradition but you will not find it clearly in the Torah in the written word it is mentioned in the T in the oral word that is where you find mention of this tradition that God gave the world a universal moral code it's important to also keep in mind then when we talk about a code when we talk about laws seven nide laws we're not talking about morality or ethics these are laws laws intended to be implemented whereas morality which is very important which we'll talk about separately is a system of beliefs or principles of how one needs to conduct himself it is different than a law a law needs to be implemented we need to abide by it morality is important ethics are valuable and we need to adapt them in our life they will make definitely a big difference in our life if we apply them but it's very different than a law tonight we're talking about seven noite laws law that need to be implemented if we want Society to function properly if we want to preserve the welfare of people if we want this world to be a peaceful place there's certain laws that need to be implemented when the Torah was given to the Jewish people in Matan Tora in Sinai along with this Tora with the 613 Commandments that we have we received as well the task or the mission to be a light unto the Nations we will be the ones to teach the seven alai laws or at least to remind everyone about them to guide them with the ultimate goal of bringing them to the recognizing that there is a Creator and reminding them of the importance of observing his laws so that is our responsibility it has always been we did not always carry that out we did not always go about it whether it was because we were scattered over many countries in the diaspora in Exile and not capable of telling others what to do or simply we were negligent and did not do what we were in trusted to do if you read if you read psalms you will see that also emphasizes this [Music] point recount his glory among the Nations it is clear that this is our responsibility this is our job to teach to Enlighten people as to what God wants of us when one begins to study the law of God he is reminded that he is he's the crown of creation he's not a monkey like many want to claim that our DNA is so close we're very very different we're endowed with a we're endowed with a soul we're a part of God we are endowed with free will to act in one way or God forbid in another way in other words we have choices so if we learn the laws if we understand that God exists this will definitely have a great impact on how we live our lives a positive impact if we do not then we risk becoming worse than animals not the same even worse as Humanity has shown shown has history has shown the brutality of many human beings of what they've been capable of doing to other human beings and you ask how is that possible how could this human being be worse than an animal apparently he can if he does not have proper direction then that's what he succumbs to he succumbs to certain innate weaknesses that human beings all have one of them is selfishness a selfish world view selfish Outlook of that me first no matter what the price is at the expense of others but God wants us to remember that we are different than animals very very different and that is why he gave us the laws not only to preserve the peace but also to connect with him to be continuously connected with the almighty so let's begin with the MIT there are only seven and what I will do is give you just a little overview a brief overview of each one and in addition to an explanation of the Commandment what branches out or what additional details can be learned and applied as a result of of these what appear to be simple instructions there is more information so let's begin with first one the first mitvah is is to recognize that there is a God and not to worship idols recognize that there is a God who created the world and he's the only one there's nothing else but him he's always been around he's an infinite an eternal God today this concept is known as monthes the belief in one God but just to say monotheism doesn't really tell you too much about this belief so I added that there's nothing like him which is explicit in the statement that every Jew says sh that God is one not only is he one he's unique there's nothing like him it's not physical it's something that we cannot describe there's nothing like it and he's always been around he's Eternal this God we cannot replace in any way in any format by worshiping other gods other powers so this commandment is very significant because as you know at certain times in our history people did worship other gods or other entities for what ever reason and as a result of that they got carried away in many ways without this strong belief in one God people begin to act or to behave very very differently just because of this one commandment what branches out from this first commandment the additional idea that one can pray to this God he supervises the world this is additional information then one can learn by delving a little bit deeper into it second commandment that even though we may believe we have to be also respectful of him and not to be respectful would be a very very severe act because not being respectful means that at some point in time God forbid we may lose that connection if you don't respect someone you don't care about them you look down at them then you don't really have a connection with them what's a form of disrespect of utter disrespect for God that is forbidden to curse or as they call it in fancy English blasphemy so the second commandment is to be very very careful even if you're angry not to curse one who complains and curses risks becoming totally disconnected but not just disconnected I would like to explain that the severity of this commandment also is because cursing having this kind of a of an attitude could easily lead one to deteriorate or to degenerate in his moral conduct look at people who use foul language and you you will understand what I mean it says something about them one who is careful with how he speaks what he says he Cho uses his words carefully you know what it says about him it says that he understands not only the power of words but he recognizes that this power of speech he has and the animal does not he's the crown of creation he can't misuse this power of speech a curse in Hebrew comes from the root which is also in Arabic and in farsy meaning to belittle to minimize and that is why this is so serious you believe but you curse then you don't believe or you will lose that belief you will become disconnected number three since we're talking about respect as you will see that this is somewhat of a common denominator with the various commands Commandments though the human being is asked to be respectful of creation and of all the creatures that God created it's all about respect we respect God we respect that which he created so number three is respect for human beings for other human beings which means don't kill them so number three not to kill why not only because it's disrespectful not only because God says so we just said that human being is special he's the crown of creation to destroy a human life is to destroy an entire world to save a human life is to save a world the potential of life you know what one individual can bring about to this world one yes is it to kill or to murder to we're talking about murder here to kill murder to kill and to murder it's the same thing isn't it it's different what's the difference when you go to war you're killing the enemy well obviously we're talking about in a situation where where you don't need to kill yeah obviously we're not talking this is not war right you kill somebody because you don't like him you're upset at him or for some other selfish reason we're not talking about self-defense and so forth so having respect for Humanity is important because what every human being represents the value of a human being which we sometimes underestimate when we talk about abortion another week I'll emphasize this point on how some people did not want to have that baby and they were almost ready to abort that baby and at the end for some reason they did not and that baby eventually turned out to be a general turned out to be an individual who brought so much happiness to the parents and to the entire country how should they know the is a a potential of life to just look down at it as though it's a piece of Flesh a piece of nothing human life is very very special and when we talk about euthanasia which will be another topic we'll also talk a little bit about how even though an individual is already 90 years old and some people would give up on him and the doctors would rather not know of him and treat him nonetheless even at 90 years old they can really contribute so much in ways that we don't even realize and there many many stories so when we talk about that I'll elaborate a little bit more about that but it's all about human life and you can understand why this is one of The Commandments if it were to be left for the human being to decide some human beings have already decided that perhaps we' should put an age limit until when people should live their lives after which they should die why should they drain the treasury of the country why should they be a burden on society some people think like that you see why we need a universal code that is based on faith in God that is god-given not man-given what branches out from this commandment isra helping others we may not be saving their lives but we need to help them we need to be considerate of them that too is included number four respect for marriage for manom woman relationship to protect its sanctity whoever betrays that special relationship is betraying something called love a very powerful component that unites people which in some ways corresponds or is similar to the union that we seek with God the love the connection that we want to have with him betraying the marriage would therefore be almost tantamount like betraying God betraying the whole purpose of life which is continuity procreation and the strong connection between two Souls so there's so much to this Commandment that people don't understand and this is one area that perhaps we need to spend more time on because it covers many many areas number four it's called adulter M number before therefore in general terms is called adultery exactly adultery adultery adultery in English yes what branches out from this one at least one example of what branches out or is inferred from this is immoral or deviant behavior of all kinds and you probably know what I mean by that there's all kinds of immoral behavior all kinds of things that people do that are deviant in nature that are not compatible with what God wants for this world number five respect for another's possessions you know what that one is called not the steal some people have a problem with this they say Finders Keepers right they say all kinds of things to justify that something belongs to them then you have communism we're all the same what's yours is mine what's mine is yours they don't believe in privacy this commandment teaches us to respect the privacy see the possessions of another individual not to steal to be honest in our business dealings what branches out from this is the faith or belief that God provides for everyone why be afraid that you won't have that you won't make it that you have to steal to survive people who still have a very weak connection to God very weak faith or trus in God who provides for everyone some have it of course more difficult than others but still it doesn't mean that you need to steal to stay alive very very important law because this applies all the time in every society in many many kinds of situations as I just said business is one area where people may be tempted to do things dishonestly to cheat to lie be respectful of someone else's possessions number six be respectful of creatures of animals we just spoke about human beings but now we need to speak about God's creatures they are also created for a purpose they're also important we need them and this law is called ever ever I guess Loosely translated means eating the limb of an animal while it's still alive as I've given you an example in the past about some peoples and some countries will open up the skull of a monkey and eat its brains while it's still alive that's called ever taking something from an animal while it's still alive you know look around at animals there are very few that eat other animals alive as far as I can recall many of them first kill the animal and then they eat them fish but to to to begin to eat the animal wall it's still moving hyenas do that there are some animals that for some reason they don't have the patience to wait and they get to work right away but ever is a problem because it brings pain unnecessary pain to the animal and I'll tell you soon why I said unnecessary to cause unnecessary pain to another creature is forbidden but wait a minute don't we Slaughter animals to eat them yes but that is for a purpose that is allowable the Torah says it's permissible but even then if you learn the rules of Slaughter the Jewish rules of Slaughter you will be amazed how we need to be so careful not to cause unnecessary pain in the process of slaughtering the animal because if we did sometimes depending on what was done it would render the animal not Kosher so the Torah is sensitive to not to inflict unnecessary pain on any animal some people ask me when I talk about this but what about killing mice rats roaches all those pests well obviously you don't need to live with them and you can definitely protect yourself not only for sanitary reasons but they can cause damage damage to your crops damage to your home some of them can hurt you so obviously in those kinds of circumstances you're allowed to eliminate them but even then not to be cruel and number seven anybody want to guess what number seven is number seven is really all encompassing it means to set up courts courts of Justice to protect the law here we have laws who's going to enforce them who's going to make sure that they're implemented that they're observed we need a judicial system that is is just and not corrupt of course that will enforce all kinds of laws even traffic laws even those traffic laws are not part of the seven allite laws but that's the intent with number seven the idea is to establish laws in courts for the welfare of society there's a lot of laws in business FDA to make sure that people do not take advantage of others and uh give them something which is not healthy you know what people are capable of doing for money is incredible they don't care if others will suffer there need to be laws that will prosecute them if they do something illegal something that is harmful so there's many many laws in a normal civilized society there are many many laws and the whole idea behind them is of course to ensure that people live happily that their Liberties are not taken from them as I mentioned earlier in the Declaration of Independence so in order to ensure that you're going to have to have police you're going to have to have judges number seven even though it varies from country to country is unfortunately not kept very very well because of of corruption corruption is unfortunately something that has always been around yes whether it's at the judicial level or some or or even at the higher level Kings presidents leaders of their country congressmen Senators you know you think that they are upright you think that they're doing that which is right and that they care about you but unfortunately that's not always the case they may care more about being reelected than about doing the right thing something that is controversial they may not take a position on it so it's not to come out Pro this or against that they want to be elected by everyone so they want to resort to flattery into all kinds of behavior that is not really worthy of somebody who who's educated and uh who really wants to do the right thing the correct thing if you have a good judicial system hopefully they will take care of any Injustice in society sometimes they need more manpower but the goal here is still the same if there's a will there's a way even if it requires is more money people have to understand the value of this otherwise you would have Anarchy if Society functions properly then we become Partners in creation we become partners with God in preserving this beautiful world all right these are the seven noite laws now we've come to a very important additional detail about these laws which the rambam elucidates on ramb manad says as follows a non-jew who observes these seven noite laws will have a share to the world to come he will be called the righteous amongst the Nations un condition that he did so because God commanded not that he did it on his own because he likes it because he understands it and believes in it he did it only because God God commanded him if he does not observe these Commandments because God commanded him he just observed it because he thought it was a good idea then he's just he's not from the righteous of the nature he's a a gentleman a good individual a smart individual that's all and you wonder to yourself what's the difference between doing something because God commanded versus just doing it because you felt it's the right thing to do one has the title being righteous of the Nations and the other one has a title he's a good man what's the difference here yes the job then of the Jew is to teach the the law so be right the job of the Jew is to teach but what difference would it be for the individual whether he does It ultimately because God commanded or he does it on his own because he thinks it's the right thing to do has to teach them has to teach the world yes but why would it make a difference is I mean ultimately he's doing the right thing the Raam says first of all if he's the righteous of the Nations he will have a share to the world to come for keeping the seven oride laws if he does not then he does not have a share to the world to come in other words he has to do it because God commanded why why should that make a difference so there are two ways of looking at it one way perhaps we can borrow from esav you remember esav Jacob's brother we have a tradition and you can clearly see it when you read the Torah that isav was a professional expert in one Mitzvah which one he honored his father and mother k a very very valuable Mitzvah he was one of the best he performed very well now wait a minute so I have a question es who performed this beautiful Mitzvah how come he never became a better person he never formed a better relationship with God according to our tradition the commentaries explain exp that this one Mitzvah this one commandment of honoring your parents is a springboard to honoring God if you watch your parents what they do for you how much they take care of you they clothe you they feed you how they raised you and you treat them properly and respectfully this mitvah will train you will help you observe what God has done for you how he has taken care of you he has given you life and come to respect him too so you understand what my question is if asav is that good at observing this one Mitzvah how come he never Advanced how come he didn't progress to form a better relationship with God and honor God and be respectful of God just your parents how come there's no more what's the answer cuz he did it not because of God commanding him to respect his parents he did it because he felt that's the right thing to do he's my father she's my mother I'm a devoted child of course I'm going to be responsible and take care of them he didn't do it because God told him so when you don't do something because God told you to it doesn't go too far you follow me doing something because God said gives you the impetus to move forward and do more there's another however explanation the rabis tell us one who's commanded to do a particular commandment and does so is greater than one who's not commanded and does so anyway I would think the opposite someone who's not commanded who does a beautiful act a beautiful deed should be commanded for for it if he's not commanded and he did it anyway much more than the one who is commanded but the rabbis tell us no the one who's commanded has a greater responsibility he has the Yoke on himself he's being constantly challenged whether he should do it or not he's therefore rewarded much more than one who's not commanded who does not have that responsibility that Duty the sense of Duty being constantly aware of our responsibility of our duty to God is very significant it weighs upon us we're rewarded for that therefore more than one who doesn't have that therefore one who observes a noide law or the seven noide laws and does so because God commanded him he's always UND Duty it's not as easy he realizes that he's going to be judged he's going to have to give an accounting before the God when he heads upstairs he's going to have to give a reckoning right someone who does not have that mitvah someone who does not have that obligation doesn't feel that way if he feels good one morning he'll do it if he doesn't feel that good he won't do it so you see the difference between doing it because God said so all right so what do we understand so far that one who observes the seven noite laws and thuso because God commanded him he's from the righteous of the Nations well what if somebody says but I want to convert to Judaism and fulfill all 613 Commandments not just seven what should we say to him huh obviously somebody wants to do it we tell them welcome aboard but we're not going to encourage it we're not missionaries because we recognize that every nation every human being has his T has his job his mission on Earth the Jews have a mission a very very clear mission that involves 63 instructions the rest of the world doesn't have to so why do it if you don't have to if you do the seven and you do the seven properly then you've done it right and we wish for all of humanity to fulfill at least these seven the world would look like a different place so obviously if one wants to convert for the real reasons he feels drawn to it then he's welcome we welcome those who truly sincerely want to observe God's Commandments but it's not because they're converting because they want to marry someone of the Jewish faith they're doing it for the sole reason of wanting to observe these mitv because they believe that it's the right thing to do they want to be a part of the nation of Israel fine in that case okay but we don't encourage it we actually discourage it it's not necessary a non-jew can be a very good person an excellent human being if he observes the seven all kind laws and he has a share to the world to come you may have heard that other religions say if you don't believe like us you go to hell you go to gam you'll never hear that in Judaism every human being is created in the image of God every human being is special every human being has potential everyone contributes or can contribute something to the world we don't look down on anyone unless of course he's evil not something else but a human being who conducts himself properly and does so because God said so he has a share to the world to come even though he wasn't Jewish it has nothing to do with being Jewish people always complain you guys say that you the chosen nation that does not mean that we're better chosen means chosen for responsibility and it's not easy not too many who were chosen did a good job so is it good well if you do the right things if You observe the 63 Commandments then of course it's good you will be rewarded accordingly but if not then you're in trouble my manad goes on to explain what the consequences will be for those who do not observe the Commandments the seven orai laws and even though he's talking really more about an individual he really means an entire nation as well not observing them has consequences in the same way that observing them is good and will be rewarded not observing them can have a tremendous impact on a nation's economy on the weather on disease on all kinds of areas in life that the Torah tells us pretty much in in great detail that certain things happen certain calamities and certain natural disasters as a result of not abiding by God's law so this is already a completely different lecture which we've discussed in the past as to the meaning behind natural disasters but natural disasters when you believe in God you know that these things are not r occurrences this is a message from God you're not doing your job right Society is falling apart morally and you can see you can see it in the act of nature you can see it in many ways and you say R in isy when the Jews left Israel yes the land was Barren when they came back now it's fertile yeah that that is is a different idea that is just a sign that mashiach is coming that when the land begins to bear fruit one more time after being Barren for so long it is a sign a clear sign that the prophecies that describe the land of Israel being fruitful before before mashia comes is coming true so we are living this time okay just to finish up whoever observes the mitv whoever studies them will notice that they actually make a lot of sense it's not something which is difficult for us to comprehend the human being has a god-given soul and it is because of this soul that one can comprehend that these things are from God that these laws are not man-made they make very good sense to us and because they make very good sense to us Many Many Nations have adopted them do you know one country where it's okay to steal at least in the books you know I don't think in the books it says it's okay to steal what people do is something else civilized Nations have pretty much accepted this because this is common sense our soul our n understands it relates to it still it still has to be taught it still has to be to be discussed because people forget the importance of them they forget that it's from God they forget why it's so important why it's necessary which leads us to another point of of people having the wrong attitude about law about Commandments it limits me Judaism says Allah does not limit you it actually brings freedom to you it brings freedom to you from all your nonsense that you may have in your head from all the wrong ideas that people develop the Torah therefore guides us through these laws to make sure that we do the right thing so is it limiting us or helping us tell us the Torah transforms us to B to free men without the Torah we would be slaves of our evil inclination we would not know right from wrong human beings try to teach us what is right and what is wrong but then it's not always right and it's not always wrong if it's coming from a human being but when God teaches us what is right and what is wrong then we know that it's correct we need therefore the law given to us by God and not the law given to us by human beings where even if it is right at a given time who says that it will be right tomorrow perhaps tomorrow they will amend the Constitution and decide on some other law because people change you see why Society will not last for long this way if you're always changing the laws arbitrarily based on what human beings want instead of what God wants anyway people have to realize that if they leave a purposeful life according to these Divine laws their life will be transformed to a more orderly life to a happier life a life of meaning and purpose therefore a life where one feels is that is not necessarily chained or limited to to the laws but that he is a free man this is a a very important idea because people really think that if they keep Shabbat or they keep some other commandment Jewish people that they will somehow interfere in everything that they would like to do it will not allow them to go to the beach it will not allow them to have fun wait a minute try it out and you will see that if you follow the Commandments you will feel better you'll be happier than if you don't you only think that you're being limited you only think that it restricts you you think that it it's limited liting and it's interfering but if it's a Divine Law if it's God's law it will not interfere with your life on the contrary it will give you the life that you really want for yourself this is something that not everyone knows because they don't have that belief in God so they look at the law as a restriction when you fulfill a law therefore because God commanded so because it's coming from him then you will not only appreciate it you will definitely want to live by it and that's exactly what will happen very soon when Messiah comes when the whole world will come to this awareness that God is the boss that God created the world and God is the one that gave us this loss