Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

The Origin of the Seven Noahide Precepts in Rabbinical Literature

The concept of law is basic to the functioning of any responsible society. Ancient rabbis understood that the Ten Commandments and the rest of the biblical laws were not given in a cultural vacuum. This fact is attested throughout the ancient Near Eastern world.

Nevertheless, the rabbis in their own unique way, wanted to formulate principles that would help guide a pagan world toward ethical monotheism. The classical rabbinic text dealing with these precepts is found in BT Sanhedrin 56a, which quotes a barraita (this is a special rabbinic text that was not included in the formulation of the Mishnah back in the 3^rd century).

The Rabbis taught: Seven commandments were given to the descendants of Noah: [to establish] a legal order, [and to refrain from] blasphemy, idolatry, incest, bloodshed, robbery; and eating flesh of a live animal.

These seven laws are just general categories much like the Decalogue represents only the general categories of biblical law. Nachmanides (ca. 13^th century) notes that the seven Noahide laws pertaining to theft include other legal proscriptions, e.g., extortion, overcharging, paying workers in a timely manner, torts, personal damages—essentially most of the ethical laws that governs Israel.

I often tell my students, “Love Talmud, but love truth more!” The Talmudic selection of the “Noahide” laws is far from complete; the Sages should have included the Sabbath and honoring parents; actually in the first chapter of the Jerusalem Talmudic tractate of Pe’ah, the Sages give numerous illustrations how the non-Jews of their time honored their parents! By the same token, the Sabbath is mentioned in the beginning of the creation narrative in order to teach that God envisioned this day as a sacred holiday for all humanity. Acts of charity and love of neighbor should have also been included, but weren’t.

Applying the “Noahide” Label to “Questionable” Jews?

With this little introduction, permit me to bring a problem that has come my way involving emissaries of the Chabad movement. Evidently, the Chabad rabbis have been telling people who happen to be non-Halachic Jews (children of an intermarriage where the mother may not have undergone an Orthodox conversion), that they should not consider themselves as “Jews” but as “Noahides”!

At least two families I have encountered here in Chula Vista expressed to me how the local Lubavitcher rabbis in Chula Vista and Tijuana told them, “By considering yourselves Noahides, you don’t have to worry about observing all the mitzvahs!”

Think for a minute: Is this revelation supposed to make the family feel great! Should they respond, “Oy ve, I want to say baruch HaShem for not making me a Jew?!” Actually, the people I have met feel as if they were being disenfranchised and alienated from their paternal heritage. In spiritual terms, this is malpractice and the theft of a wonderful spiritual heritage-Judaism. In Tijuana alone, there is a “Noahide” synagogue of 60 families! If these people knew that the rabbi was practicing religious apartheid, they would never allow themselves to effectively become so marginalized. Chabad is creating Crypto-Jews. Chabad’s attitude is worse than their practice of encouraging intermarried families to get divorced.

Some of my congregants have informed me they have to “prove” their Jewishness to the local Chabad Rabbi. I told them the next time the rabbi asks for “proof,” they should ask him to produce “proof” that he is Jewish as well! I know of at least three cases in Colombia where the Jewish persons in question are not allowed to even enter a synagogue!! Chabad realizes they could never get away with such a policy in the United States, but Latin America is different! One man I recently met, whose father was a Holocaust survivor, was very irate because the Chabad rabbi told him that he was a Noahide since his mother had a “Conservative” Jewish conversion! Hispanic-Jews have been historically scarred by centuries of religious persecution, must we continue this evil legacy?

Needless to say, the Chabad approach violates many Halachic antecedents that deal with the importance of outreach (kiruv). Rabbi Moshe Feinstein—by no means, a friend to non-Orthodox Judaism—felt that when it came to giving the children of patrilineal families a Jewish education, he urged that every day school in the country do what it can to welcome these children to traditional Judaism! In fact, many rabbinical scholars rule that the acceptance of the mitzvoth is not a requirement for children, ergo—the rabbis were encouraged to convert the children.[1]

The Origin of the Problem-The Rebbe’s Hidden Agenda

Toward the end of his life, in the 1980s Rabbi M.M. Schnersohn started a new and bizarre “mitzvah” campaign that differed considerably from the other projects the Rebbe had promoted. His goal: teach gentiles about the importance of observing the Seven Noahide Laws. At the time I wondered, “Doesn’t the Rebbe have enough projects to do?” It struck me as weird, but I had already long disaffiliated with the movement because of its cultic behavior

Still and all, did the Rebbe really care whether the gentiles observe the Noahide commandments or not? I have strong doubts; it seems the campaign was a ploy to keep anyone they deemed questionably “Jewish” out of the Jewish fold; if they could convince these “quasi-Jews” that they were not really “Jewish,” then they could guarantee that intermarriage would not take place between this new class of people who think they are “Jewish,” but they are not really!

This is a sleight-of-hand technique and it is being utilized wherever there are Chabad Hasidim doing “kiruv.”

Throughout Latin American countries, Orthodox and Chabad rabbis are doing everything in their power to promote “Noahide synagogues” that is intended to keep the children of patrilineal or non-Orthodox conversions apart from the mainstream synagogues, not to mention non-Orthodox synagogues.

I strongly urge everyone to make this a public issue of debate for your Jewish community. No movement can claim it is for “all Jews” and get away with this kind of outrageous behavior.

If any of you readers have experienced this kind of rabbinical malpractice with any rabbi, please contact me at my website, rabbimichaelsamuel.com and leave a note. Your letter will not appear on my website.