The Oath-Brit Approach

By what precedent does one learn the commandments applicable to Bnai Noach. Ger Toshav or Ger Tzedek? Ger Toshav do not currently exist. When they do exist they qualify as a sub-culture under a larger Jewish culture and population. Bnai Noach qualify as a bnai brit people in their own land. Even though they do not currently exist, because a brit requires an oath to be said before the Safer Torah. None-the-less, should one day this occur and they are caused to exist, this makes them a new creation, like the Ger Tzedek! If Bnai Noach are sons and daughters of Avraham, and Avraham kept all the commandments of the Torah then why shouldn't Bnai Noach honor their father? Honoring one's father is lacking in the 7 commandments.

A possible reason for its omission being that the 7 commandments apply to the ger toshav and the sages of blessed memory had terrible headaches determining if the Cutiim converted from righteousness or from fear of lions.

The Avot had great doubts if the kings of their day still remained faithful to the brit of Noach. Where as in the time of Moshe our Teacher the Torah brings clarity that the kings of the nations had abandoned the brit of Noach. "arose a new king that did not know Yosef" Obviously the government of Yosef was a Bnai Noach government.

The Oath-brit of Bnai Noach: not to do acts of forbidden sex, theft or oppression among one's bnai brit people. The midrash teaches that at the revelation of the Torah, the Ancient of Days asked Esau and Yishmael if they would accept the Torah. They refused. Who were "they"? They were bnai noach! Hence the Talmud teaches that the nations abandoned the brit bnai Noach. Simple logic.

Therefore it seems to me that the precedent by which a person can understand the meaning of Bnai Noach is to learn from Ger Tzedek!

Mitzvot have applicability to only bnai brit peoples. A brit requires an oath. No oath No brit simple as pie. Man received the name Adam because he was formed from the earth. When "Adam" eat from the tree of knowledge this resulted in the divorce of the human soul from the earth. Consequently the Creator cursed the land. The brit relationship repairs this damage. Consequently the Creator swore to give certain lands to the bnai brit peoples.

Doing mitzvot operates on 2 levels:

(1) the reward results in a re unification of the Neshamah to the promised land, hence the Talmud teaches that if a person dies abroad that his/her neshama has to roll back to the promised lands interesting metaphor!

(2) the performance of mitzvot by the bnai brit peoples acquires heaven and earth, establishing our brit Elohim to be specifically Ehohi of the promised lands.

Obviously the other lands of the earth, non bnai brit lands might and do have other gods. But this falls outside of the parameters of the bnai brit peoples b/c by our oath/brit we swear only to seek and obey our brit Elohim. For a bnai brit to worship other gods this profanation of the oath/brit thereby results in false and futile vanity, this understands the metaphor employed by the prophets when they described idols made of wood and stone.

The logical inference takes the specific and applies it to the general; meaning that just as its silly to bow down and worship gods of wood and stone its silly for the bnai brit peoples to worship any of the other gods irregardless if they are wood or stone or allah or jesus or Buddha etc etc etc. this all comes into the category of avodah zarah. Now it should be clear why idolatry is a very bad translation of avodah zarah.

To date to my knowledge no bn candidates have sworn or cut an oath/brit. No bn candidates have dedicated or affixed their neshamot to live in a particular paradise. Until these basis requirements are achieved, it seems to me that bn candidates accomplish nothing by doing commandments who's relevance only touches bnai brit peoples.

Rabbi Kerr Shalom, What is your position on the current court systems in the world today? The majority of the rabbis I have encountered say the current systems are noachide courts. Few will disagree.

Billy Jack

Answer

A bnai noach court, as i understand the term receives a mandate to judge by the Torah. Non-bnai brit nations have established the "form" of justice, but without cut a brit with the Elohim the "substance" of justice who can find? The Torah revelation gives light to all generations of humanity. What makes this generation so special: the measure that Jewry following a 2000 year exile the Elohim has allowed to return and rule upon the oath lands in equal measure the non-bnai brit goyim have the opportunity to reject the folly of their fore-fathers and cut an oath-brit_ by means of the Torah revelation. The commandments function not according to codification of commandments, this concept of the commandments the Reshonim of the middle ages embrace, but rather as a prophetic revelation of a man's dedication to express middot tohorot through actions dedicated unto the Elohim, this concept of the commandment the Sage of the Talmud embraced. A non-bnai brit person has not compulsion to seek to glorify the rule of the Elohim in this world. But the substance of justice can not exist without the Elohim. Hence a bnai brit judge is called by the Torah - Elohim. Therefore clearly until humanity embraces the oath-brit revelation of Avraham, a bnai noach who through prophecy envisioned all the commandments of the Torah, then the substance of Torah has no means of expression through the forms of judicial system in our world today.

with respect moshe

Are the 7 Commandments a code of law, like RaMBaM's code? The error that many if not most people make is thinking that the 7 commandments are like some code of law, like RaMBaM's great halachic work. The 2 share no comparison at all. The commandments constitutes as revelation equal to the revelation at Sinai. In fact the revelation of Sinai only was an even deeper more in depth revelation of the earlier one. But it did not mean that because it came latter that it was different rather the Sinai revelation gave further amplification of the original intent of the 1st revelation given to Adam and Noach, but the brit is the same. Once a Bnai Noach swears a Safer Torah oath, the Bnai Noach court must interpret THEIR own Torah obligations as did Adam and Noach! It might seem like the wild west but Bnai Noach can sincerely study the Torah with the Oral Torah and interpret the original intent of Moshe our Teacher.

Bnai Noach have a constitutional basis to establish not only their own religious communities but rather their own states, and countries! With out the oath-brit the Bnai Noach movement is just another belief system, you can buy into it or not; whereas the oath-brit constitutes as a prophetic revelation of the commandments that require Torah Baal Peh to interpret the intent and meaning of the prophetic commandment revelation. Its like a person having a dream and then going to a person who possesses the skill and wisdom to interpret the dream, like Yosef and the ministers of Par'o and even Par'o himself! The wisdom to interpret the intent this causes awe. Know the "7 commandments" are NOT a code of law but rather a prophetic revelation of how and under what conditions that the Ancient of Days dwells within the soul of man. The difference between a "belief system" and an oath-brit: whereas the former is an aliens perspective of Torah the latter is the son living in his fathers house. Israel is the first born, but the family of Avraham has many children.