Mining the Riches of the Parshah on Noach | 2026.10.16

Welcome to Mani, the Richest of the Parties. Tonight is Thursday night, October 15, 2026. I just want to mention that two weeks from tonight, October 29th, we will not be meeting and that's because there's another event taking place here to which I want to invite you, Dalia Abraham Klein, who is a Jewish author and educator. She will be giving a lecture on the Jews of Central Asia, a story of survival, identity, and hope. It should be a fascinating evening and it's necessary to register. You can get that information on our website and in our Friday emails. We would love to have you join us. But we will not have this class. This is only an in-person event, just Dalia Klein's event, only in person. So we will not be having our class on that Thursday night of October 29th. This week's total portion is the part of Noah. And one of the concepts that's associated with this total portion is the Sheva Mitzvos Bene Noah, the seven laws of Noah, the seven Noahide laws. There is an expectation in the Torah that the laws of the Torah are binding on all Jews for all times. The Torah says this explicitly, repeatedly, especially in, say, for Dvarin, the book of Deuteronomy, but other places also. And there is also a set of laws for all mankind, for every human being to follow. Now we refer to these as the Sheva Mitzvos Bene Noah, the seven laws of Noah. And often we think to ourselves, or we discuss 613 Mitzvos for Jewish people to follow. Those two terms are not comparable because the Sheva Mitzvos, yes, it's commandments, but they're really categories of commandments. Each one of the seven comprises numerous details. If you wanted to try to compare how many of the 613 commandments are included in these seven Noahide laws, it will be a sizable number. It's certainly over 100 of the 613. So again, it's a smaller number, but it's a sizable number. And they are as follows. Do not murder, do not steal, do not worship false gods, do not be sexually immoral, do not eat the limb removed from a live animal, do not curse God and set up courts and judicial systems to bring offenders to justice. Now, the Gomar explains that there are really more than seven. There's a little bit of a longer list. Number one, there's a Mitzvah of Kibiravim, honoring respecting one's parents applies to non-Jews as well as Jews. There's also the general Mitzvah of Midoz, of having good personality traits, to have gratitude, to have compassion, to have forgiveness, kindness, acts of kindness, Chesed, Kamil Chesed is also a Mitzvah for non-Jews people and a few others that the Gomar mentions. And the Gomar says, the Talmud says, Arabi say that a non-Jews person who follows these is considered among Sadiqe Umosa Olam the righteous of the nations of the world and is a ben olam haba is worthy of a share in the world to come of heavenly reward. And what that means is that it's not necessary to be Jewish. First, well, certainly it's not necessary to be Jewish to be a good person, obviously, but it's not necessary to be Jewish to be righteous or to be holy or to be rewarded by God or close to God or whatever spiritual goal you want to identify. It's not necessary to be Jewish. And this idea, the fact that there is a system of laws of basic morality for every single person in the world, which means that that person can come as close to God as I can come, that is the basis of our one of our attitudes towards conversion. Because when a person comes to us and says, I want to convert to Judaism, we have no reason to advocate that because it doesn't bestow any privilege. There's no privilege at all in being Jewish over non-Jewish. There is no extra holiness by being Jewish over non-Jewish. Yes, there are certain groups within the Jewish world that disagree with what I'm saying. That's fine. They can disagree. But what I'm sharing is what I believe to be the normative approach of traditional Judaism. And so if you come and say you want to convert because you want to be closer to God, you're not going to get any closer to God. You can be just as close to God acting correctly the way a non-Jewish person should act. You want to go to heaven. You want to be a ben olam abay. You want the world to come. Those are not reasons. Okay, people have other reasons. Okay. But from a theological point of view, this is our attitude that there's no benefit. You don't get any extra credit for being Jewish over being non-Jewish. Why do we call these the seven laws of Noah? Sheva mitzvah bineh noach, why Noah? It's associated with Noah for an interesting reason. Our rabbis derive six of the seven that were commanded to Adam, Adam and Eve. The seventh, number seven is the prohibition against cruelty to animals. That was commanded for the first time to Noah. So it's not that all these laws were commanded to Noah. It is that during the time of Noah, the list was completed. So by the time of Noah, when he left the taeva, when he left the ark after the flood, then that's the point at which we had these seven laws. So that we refer to them as the Sheva mitzvah bineh noach. You should know that there are people and there are groups all over the world who call themselves Noah hides, or some other word like that. Meaning they are people who believe that it's the correct thing for them to observe the Sheva mitzvah bineh noach, the seven mitzvahs of Noah, and they're very careful about it. And there are classes for Noah hides. There are Jewish Torah scholars who specialize in answering questions for bineh noach according to their laws, because it's not, it's quite complicated. I'm going to go into a little bit of detail, but it's quite complicated what is permitted, what is prohibited for a non-Jewish person. And it's certainly not something that is so widely studied. There are halakhic authorities that specialize in this. And there are people literally all over the world who practice this. Sometimes such a person will then say, I want to take the next step, what they will call the next step, and I want to convert to Judaism. Okay, we evaluate that. But very often they exist as communities, and they follow these laws. I want to just discuss briefly each of the seven so that we're clear on what it means. Number one, God commands this to every human being, not only Jews, do not murder, do not commit murder. It's one of the seven. Not committing murder includes euthanasia, where one person is causing the death of another person, not because they're angry with them, not because they don't like them, but on the contrary, because they love them out of compassion for them. They feel that they're releasing that person from terrible pain, God forbid. And it certainly is true that there are situations where a person is suffering, and it sounds like it would be a compassionate thing to help end their life. But the Torah says no. The Torah says no, whether it is an act of anger or violence, whether it's an act of compassion, euthanasia, made medical assistance and dying, these are prohibited not only for Jewish people, it's prohibited also for non-Jewish people. It's one of the seven myths with Enoch. There's a question among halakic authorities about abortion. Is it permitted for a non-Jewish person to have an abortion? For a Jewish person, there is a general prohibition against abortion except in situations that affect the health or the life of the mother or the baby, and that could be either physical or psychological. But what is the story for non-Jews? That is a disputed issue, a debated issue among halakic authorities. It's prohibited to steal. Stealing is prohibited. It's prohibited for a non-Jew to steal whether they are stealing from a Jewish person, whether it's stealing from a non-Jewish person, and there are many different forms of stealing that are prohibited. Obviously, if a person forcefully robs a bank or steals money or breaks into somebody's house or a person who kidnaps someone else to steal a person, it's also prohibited. Or an employer who withholds wages from their worker, that's also called stealing, and there are many other practical examples that could be included within this category of stealing. Number three, a non-Jewish person is prohibited from serving other gods. We're required to serve one god, whether we're Jewish or not. We're required to serve one god and to serve other gods, to worship idols, to bow down to idols, to believe that there's a deity other than god, god forbid. That is a prohibition that applies to non-Jews. There's a fascinating debate that has real practical consequences. In the Aseris Adibros, in the Ten Commandments, the Torah says, I'm the Lord your God. You have to serve God, one God, and we know God is one God, then the Torah says, do not have any other gods beside me. Now that is a situation where a person says they believe there's one God, but they also believe that there is a second God, or a third God. Now in Halakhid terminology that's called shi'tuf, I guess we might translate that as partnership. You believe there's one God that created heaven and earth, but you believe that there's also another God. Just to look for a moment at the major religions of the world, Islam of course is a monotheistic religion. They serve one God. They recognize one God, the God who created heaven and earth, the same God that we serve. They believe that they're prophets, they have a different list of prophets, okay, but a prophet is not a God. Within Christianity, this is a very complicated subject. And before I try to go any further, it's important to understand that Christianity is a very, very wide term. There are more than a thousand different denominations of Christians in the world, and they all have different theology, different ideas, different practices, different beliefs. Some of them are very close to, in their beliefs, very close to believing in one God. For example, there's one denomination of Christians, and that's their name. They're called Unitarians. Unitarians. I don't know if there are any Unitarians in Montreal, but in New Haven, Connecticut, Unitarians were very big. It's a very big thing in New England, Unitarians. What does it mean? It means their belief is that whatever other names you might use, everything is one God. It's one God. It's a unity, one God. All right, that sounds pretty good. And then there are others that believe that there is a trinity. Now, to use the term trinity is also very, very complicated because every different Christian has a different idea of what that means. But there are some Christians who believe that there is one God that created heaven and earth, but there's also another God they refer to as a son, and another God they refer to as the Holy Spirit. And there are a lot of different interpretations of what that means. So the question is, is that prohibitive for non-Jews? If you admit and you believe that there's one God that created heaven and earth, but you believe that there are additional gods also, so that's the prohibition of shiitouf. That's not clear. Medieval commentators and up until today disagree about that. There are those who feel that many forms of Christianity is within the category of a Votazzara idolatry and would be prohibited even for non-Jews to observe, certainly for Jews, but even for non-Jews. And there's another opinion that says that no, it is prohibited for Jews to believe that, but for non-Jews, it's in the category of shiitouf of partnership and is not prohibited according to the seven laws of Noah. It's a big dispute. There's a prohibition number five of adultery or incest. There's specific sexual relationships that are prohibited. Now obviously, if there is going to be a prohibition of adultery, there must be some kind of concept of marriage and divorce, because adultery means a sexual relationship of a married person with somebody else. So the Ramam says, yes, there is such a concept or an institution of marriage. And then we'll have to discuss what creates a marriage for non-Jews, what dissolves a marriage for non-Jews. That's beyond our subject for tonight. There's a prohibition of Avraham and Ha'ai as a general principle. It means cruelty to animals. And by the way, this covers many, many of the 613 commandments that Jews are commanded to follow, not to be cruel to animals. Until the time of Noah, our rabbis explain, no one had permission to use animals for food. Adam and Chava were vegetarians. Rabbi Alex gave a dvartorah just a little while ago, and he was talking about the food that Noah would have taken on the ark to feed himself and his family. He didn't bring this up, but I'm sorry to tell you, there were no dried salamis to take home, which would have been a really good idea. A few dried salamis could keep you going for a while. But no, it was only after the flood, after the flood. When Noah emerges from the flood, God says, okay, now it's permitted to eat, to use animals for food. However, you're not allowed to treat animals with unnecessary cruelty. So the way that you take the life of an animal has to be with his little pain as possible. And also it's not permitted to cause unnecessary suffering to any animal. And that applies to non-Jews as it does to Jews. For example, a lot of animals are used for animal experimentation for medical purposes, to try out a medicine or try out a procedure. And it could be done in a way that causes pain to the animal. And very often, the animal, after the tests are done, the animal is, life is taken. So as a general rule, Jewish law says, it's permissible as long as it's for a legitimate human purpose. And as long as you try to minimize whatever pain and suffering you can, but it's for a legitimate human purpose. If you're using it to find a cure for cancer, so yes, human life takes precedence over animal life, that's what the Torah says. However, there are other areas of animal experimentation. For example, in the cosmetics industry. So animals are sometimes used, not probably, are used to test different cosmetics, different chemicals. And that is not a necessity for human beings. If a person had to go without cosmetics, they would be able to go. They'd be able to live just fine. Not to live without a cure for cancer is a problem. Not to live without the fanciest new kind of lipstick. That's not a necessity. And therefore animal experimentation that causes pain to animals or suffering to animals for cosmetic purposes is generally not permitted. And that would apply to Jews as well as to non-Jews. Number six, number seven is dinim. Dinim is a requirement for every society to set up a judicial system. There must be a system of law and order in every society. Now the Torah doesn't say what legal system there should be. The Torah has a very detailed legal system for us, yes. But a society has the right to decide what kind of legal system they want. A society has the right to decide what is considered a crime and has the right to decide what should be the proper punishment for that crime. Each society has the right to do that. But you can't just have a society that is lawless. There has to be some type of rule of law. This raises a very interesting question because of a possible conflict between number seven on my list and number one on my list. Is it permissible for a non-Jewish court to apply a punishment of capital punishment? Well, the Torah says for non-Jews, do not murder. Okay, if a court decides that a person committed a crime for which the punishment should be capital punishment, execution, and the court carries out that sentence, is that considered murder? Or does the mitzvah dinim of having a judicial system mean that you have the right, every society has the right to decide what punishments to give? And that includes even capital punishment. So it will be permitted. That's a dispute among authorities. I have shared in the past my own opinion based on the sources to the best of my understanding. I do not believe it is permitted according to Jewish law for secular legal systems to impose capital punishment. I'm very happy to live in a country now that does not have capital punishment in Canada. I don't like to talk about politics, but this is not politics. This is an issue. If there is capital punishment, it certainly has to take into account the values that the Talmud talks about, which is to show dignity even as we are carrying out the punishment of capital punishment, not to cause unnecessary suffering. The idea that was going on for a few days in the United States, that there might be a person who was going to be executed leaving aside the person, their guilt, if execution is the right thing, I'm not discussing that. But the idea that was floated, that it was going to be publicized, that people could watch it, that it was a horrific, terrible idea that goes counter to all of the values of Judaism. Okay, so again, as I said, the Ram Bam says, my monarchy says, that a person who faithfully follows these laws earns a place in heaven. Is it Ben Olom Habal? When Shlomo Amalakinsal and finished the first base of Mughdash, the project was started during the lifetime of his father David, David Amalakinsal, but it was Shlomo, his son, that actually built it and finished it. And there was a ceremony when it was completed. And Shlomo Amalakinsal offered prayers at that time. And among the prayers that he offered was specifically to say, to pray to God, that God should listen to the prayers and accept the sacrifices of non-Jews as well as Jews. Non-Jews could also come to the base of Mughdash to offer Karbonos. Famous Pasek, kibaysi-bayst filayikare l'khul-haw'ameem. God says, my house is a house of prayer and worship for all peoples. Everyone is welcome to serve God. The Talmud says, that on Sukkos, we offer a total of 70 Karbonos, 70 sacrifices. And the Talmud says, the number 70 corresponds to the nations of the world. In other words, we offered a sacrifice on behalf of every single nation of the world over the course of Sukkos. The Talmud says, if the non-Jews of the world would have known how the base of Mughdash, the holy temple, was used to pray for them, not only would they never have destroyed it, they would have protected it from anything ever happening because they benefited from it as well. Sadly, they did not realize that. Okay. But this system gives a universalistic component to Judaism in that God is concerned not just with Jews, God is concerned with every single human being we discussed this last week. And God has expectations of every single human being and every single human being can attain righteousness and holiness and spirituality and closeness to God. I want to move to another subject. Before I start this, I just want to say there are two names that are very popular, not only in the Jewish world, but in the non-Jews world. One is Adam and the other is Noah or Adam and Noah. There are two names. I know a lot of people whose name is Adam or Adam and they are wonderful, wonderful people. And I know a lot of people whose name is Noah or Noah and they are wonderful people. Nothing that I am about to share should take away from how wonderful are every single person named Adam and every single person named Noah. They're all wonderful and I love them all. But I do want to share something that I learned from a person who used to be my student. Now he's my teacher. His name is Abe Mezrich. We learned the name of Noah in last week's Torah portion. At the end of the part of Precious, the Torah tells us that Noah was born. And people said, This boy will grow up to be a comfort, a consolation from our actions and from the difficulties that we have caused to cause that the earth should be cursed by God. Remember, by the end of Precious, things are going downhill. God had said, I don't like how things are going. God had said, at the end of Precious, this is not what I want it to happen. And I'm not happy with this. Of course, at the beginning