Difference between revisions of "Subdividing the Seven Commandments"

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Various [[rabbinic literature|rabbinic sources]] have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. [[Maimonides]] (Melakhim 10:6) lists one additional Noahide commandment forbidding the coupling of different kinds of animals and the mixing of trees. Maimonides commentator Radbaz expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were listed in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 56b).
 
Various [[rabbinic literature|rabbinic sources]] have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. [[Maimonides]] (Melakhim 10:6) lists one additional Noahide commandment forbidding the coupling of different kinds of animals and the mixing of trees. Maimonides commentator Radbaz expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were listed in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 56b).
  
The [[tenth century]] Rabbi [[Saadia Gaon]] added [[tithe]]s and [[levirate marriage]]. The [[eleventh century]] Rav Nissim Gaon included "listening to God's Voice", "knowing God" and "serving God" besides going on to say that all religious acts which can be understood through human reasoning are obligatory upon Jew and Gentile alike. The [[fourteenth century]] Rabbi [[Nissim of Gerona|Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi]] added the commandment of charity.
+
The [[tenth century]] Rabbi [[Saadia Gaon]] included [[tithe]]s and [[levirate marriage]]. The [[eleventh century]] Rav Nissim Gaon states that all religious acts which can be understood through human reasoning are obligatory upon Jew and Gentile alike. According to this reasoning, he included "listening to God's Voice", "knowing God" and "serving God". The [[fourteenth century]] Rabbi [[Nissim of Gerona|Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi]] included the commandment of charity.
  
 
The [[sixteenth century]] work ''Asarah Maamarot'' by Rabbi [[Menahem Azariah of Fano]] (Rema mi-Fano) enumerates thirty commandments, listing the latter twenty-three as extensions of the original seven. Another commentator (''Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess'' I, end Ch. 10) suggests these are not related to the first seven, nor based on Scripture, but were passed down by oral tradition. The number thirty derives from the statement of the Talmudic sage Ulla in tractate Hullin 92a, though he lists only three other rules in addition to the original seven, consisting of the prohibitions against homosexuality and cannibalism, as well as the imperative to honor the Torah.
 
The [[sixteenth century]] work ''Asarah Maamarot'' by Rabbi [[Menahem Azariah of Fano]] (Rema mi-Fano) enumerates thirty commandments, listing the latter twenty-three as extensions of the original seven. Another commentator (''Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess'' I, end Ch. 10) suggests these are not related to the first seven, nor based on Scripture, but were passed down by oral tradition. The number thirty derives from the statement of the Talmudic sage Ulla in tractate Hullin 92a, though he lists only three other rules in addition to the original seven, consisting of the prohibitions against homosexuality and cannibalism, as well as the imperative to honor the Torah.
Line 7: Line 7:
 
Talmud commentator [[Rashi]] remarks on this that he does not know the other Commandments referred to. Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws is also possible from the reading.
 
Talmud commentator [[Rashi]] remarks on this that he does not know the other Commandments referred to. Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws is also possible from the reading.
  
The tenth century [[Shmuel ben Hophni Gaon]] lists thirty Noahide Commandments based on Ulla's Talmudic statement, though the text is problematic. He includes the prohibitions against suicide and false oaths, as well as the imperatives related to prayer, sacrifices and honoring one's parents. The commandments, according to Shmuel ben Hophni Gaon, cover:
+
Theft, robbery and stealing covers the appropriate understanding of other persons, their property and their rights. The establishment of courts of justice promotes the value of the responsibility of a corporate society of people to enforce these laws and define these terms. The refusal to engage in unnecessary lust or cruelty demonstrates respect for the [[Creation (theology)|Creation]] itself as renewed after the Flood. To not do [[murder]] would include [[human sacrifice]].
* [[Idolatry]]
 
** No idolatry
 
** To pray
 
** To offer ritual sacrifices only to God
 
* [[Blasphemy]]
 
** To believe in the singularity of God, see, [[Monotheism]]
 
** No blasphemy
 
** No [[witchcraft]]
 
** No [[Haruspex|soothsayers]]
 
** No [[Conjuration|conjurers]]
 
** No sorcerers
 
** No [[Medium (spirituality)|mediums]]  
 
** No [[demonology]]
 
** No [[Wizard|wizardry]]
 
** No [[necromancy]]
 
** To respect father & mother
 
* [[Murder]]
 
** No murder
 
** No suicide
 
** No [[Moloch]] worship (infant sacrifice)
 
* Property
 
** No stealing
 
* Sexual Immorality
 
** No [[adultery]]  
 
** Formal legal [[marriage]]s
 
** No [[incest]] with close relatives
 
** No [[homosexuality|male to male]] [[anal sex]]
 
** No [[Zoophilia|bestiality]]
 
** Not to [[Crossbreeding|crossbreed animals]]
 
** No [[castration]]
 
* Food Laws
 
** Not to eat a limb of a living creature
 
** Not to eat or drink blood
 
** Not to eat [[carrion (biology)|carrion]] (for those recognised by a Beth Din)
 
* Justice
 
** To establish courts and a system of justice
 
** No false oaths
 
  
The contemporary Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein counts 66 instructions but Rabbi Harvey Falk has suggested that much work remains to be done in order to properly identify all of the Noahide Commandments, their divisions and subdivisions.
+
==Thirty Noahide Commandments==
  
Theft, robbery and stealing covers the appropriate understanding of other persons, their property and their rights. The establishment of courts of justice promotes the value of the responsibility of a corporate society of people to enforce these laws and define these terms. The refusal to engage in unnecessary lust or cruelty demonstrates respect for the [[Creation (theology)|Creation]] itself as renewed after the Flood. To not do [[Murder|murder]] would include [[human sacrifice]].
+
The [[Samuel ben Hophni's Noahide Law|rediscovery in the Cairo Genizah]] of a biblical-commentary by [[Samuel ben Hophni]], Gaon, endows us with yet another significant statement on the Laws of the Sons of Noah.  Father-in-law to the better remembered Hai Gaon, Samuel ben Hophni was head of the academy at Sura, southern Babylonia, in the year 1000. Samuel ben Hophni goes on to compose a list of these thirty commands. Rashi, explicating the Talmud (Hullin 92), about a hundred years later, remarked that the thirty laws are nowhere identified. It was this gap that the Gaon was undertaking to fill. The Gaon also provided each of his laws with a Pentateuchal proof text and as a result, we are in a better position to fathom the meaning and nature of each.
 +
 
 +
Justice, the eighteenth item, does not actually appear in the Genizah manuscripts, but was supplied as likely. That is, each surviving manuscript is defective between the seventeenth and nineteenth positions, but since justice is the only one of the basic seven Laws of Noah which would otherwise be absent from the Gaon's thirty, and since we have every reason to expect that the Gaon recognized the basic seven, justice must have originally featured in the eighteenth position.
 +
 
 +
The following is a listing of Samuel ben Hophni's thirty laws, re-arranged in the order following Maimonides listing of the seven laws.  For the original ordering and further discussion see [[Samuel ben Hophni's Noahide Law]].
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Idolatry]]===
 +
 
 +
1. No idolatry<br>
 +
2. To pray<br>
 +
3. To offer ritual sacrifices only to God<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Blasphemy]]===
 +
 
 +
4. To believe in the singularity of God, see, Monotheism<br>
 +
5. No blasphemy<br>
 +
6. No witchcraft<br>
 +
7. No soothsayers<br>
 +
8. No conjurers<br>
 +
9. No sorcerers<br>
 +
10. No mediums<br>
 +
11. No demonology<br>
 +
12. No wizardry<br>
 +
13. No necromancy<br>
 +
14. To respect father & mother<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Homicide]]===
 +
 
 +
15. No murder<br>
 +
16. No suicide<br>
 +
17. No Moloch worship (infant sacrifice)<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Sexual Immorality]]===
 +
 
 +
18. No adultery<br>
 +
19. Formal legal marriages<br>
 +
20. No incest with close relatives<br>
 +
21. No sodomy (i.e. homosexuality)<br>
 +
22. No bestiality<br>
 +
23. Not to crossbreed animals<br>
 +
24. No castration<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Theft]]===
 +
 
 +
25. No stealing<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Limb of a Living Creature]]===
 +
 
 +
26. Not to eat a limb of a living creature<br>
 +
27. Not to eat or drink blood<br>
 +
28. Not to eat carrion (for those recognised by a ''Beth Din'')<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Imperative of Legal System]]===
 +
 
 +
29. To establish courts and a system of justice<br>
 +
30. No false oaths<br>
 +
 
 +
==The Sixty Six Noahide Laws==
 +
 
 +
Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein, following the general consensus of halacha, sees the [[Seven Laws as Categories]].  In Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein's opinion it is possible to look at all seven laws with the view towards establishing the extent to which they, severally, correspond to the Jewish law directed at Jews.  His study seeks to resolve the question raised in the correspondence as to the categorization of the Laws of Noah. He sought to prove that the earliest sources on Noahism, and the writers who deal with these sources conscientiously, view the seven categories as subject heads for a mass of legal dicta.
 +
 
 +
His intention was not to define Noahide law in terms of an expanded list of sixty six laws, rather only to prove that the volume of Noahide Law is greater - when compared to the volume of Israelite Law - than a ratio of 7 to 613 would indicate. His book "The Seven Laws of Noah" demonstrates the breadth of Noahic legislation.<ref>[[Aaron Lichtenstein|Lichtenstein, Aaron]]. "The Seven Laws of Noah". New York: The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press and Z. Berman Books, 2d ed. 1986</ref>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Idolatry]]===
 +
 
 +
1. "Against entertaining the thought that there exists a deity except Hashem." (Negative 1)<br>
 +
2. "Against making any graven image [& against having anyone else make one for us]." (Negative 2)<br>
 +
3. "Against making idols for use by others." (Negative 3)<br>
 +
4. "Against making any forbidden statues [even when they are for ornamental purposes]." (Negative 4)<br>
 +
5. "Against bowing to any idol [& not to sacrifice nor to pour libation nor to burn incense before any idol, even where it is not the customary manner of worship to the particular idol]." (Negative 5)<br>
 +
6. "Against worshipping idols in any of their customary manners of worship." (Negative 6)<br>
 +
7. "Against causing our children to pass [through the fire] in the worship of Molech." (Negative 7)<br>
 +
8. "Against practicing Ov." (Negative 8)<br>
 +
9. "Against practicing Yiddoni." (Negative 9)<br>
 +
10. "Against turning to idolatry [in word, in thought, in deed, or by any observance that may draw us to its worship]." (Negative 10)<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Blasphemy]]===
 +
 
 +
11. "To acknowledge the existence of G-d." (Positive 1)<br>
 +
12. "To fear G-d." (Positive 4)<br>
 +
13. "To pray to Him." (Positive 5)<br>
 +
14. "To sanctify G-d's name [in face of death, where appropriate]." (Positive 9)<br>
 +
15. "Against desecrating G-d's name [even in face of death, when appropriate]." (Negative 63)<br>
 +
16. "To study the Torah." (Positive 11)<br>
 +
17. "To honor the scholars, and to revere one's teacher." (Positive 209)<br>
 +
18. "Against blaspheming." (Negative 60)<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Homicide]]===
 +
 
 +
19. "Against any person murdering anyone." (Negative 289)<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Sexual Immorality]]===
 +
 
 +
20. "Against [a man] having union with his mother." (Negative 330)<br>
 +
21. "Against [a man] having union with his sister." (Negative 331)<br>
 +
22. "Against [a man] having union with the wife of his father." (Negative 332)<br>
 +
23. "Against [a man] having union with another man's wife." (Negative 347)<br>
 +
24. "Against [a man] copulating with a beast." (Negative 348)<br>
 +
25. "Against a woman copulating with a beast." (Negative 349)<br>
 +
26. "Against [a man] lying carnally with a male." (Negative 350)<br>
 +
27. "Against [a man] lying carnally with his father." (Negative 351)<br>
 +
28. "Against [a man] lying carnally with his father's brother." (Negative 352)<br>
 +
29. "Against engaging in erotic conduct that may lead to a prohibited union. [That is, petting by persons whose marriage would be illicit.]" (Negative 353)<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Theft]]===
 +
 
 +
30. "Against stealing. [i.e., by stealth]" (Negative 244)<br>
 +
31. "Against committing robbery. [i.e., openly]" (Negative 245)<br>
 +
32. "Against shifting a landmark." (Negative 246)<br>
 +
33. "Against cheating." (Negative 247)<br>
 +
34. "Against repudiating a claim of money owed." (Negative 248)<br>
 +
35. "Against overcharging." (Negative 250)<br>
 +
36. "Against coveting." (Negative 265)<br>
 +
37. "Against desiring." (Negative 266)<br>
 +
38. "A laborer shall be allowed to eat of the fruits among which he works [under certain conditions]." (Positive 201)<br>
 +
39. "Against a laborer eating of such fruit [when certain conditions are not met]." (Negative 267)<br>
 +
40. "Against a laborer taking of such fruit home." (Negative 268)<br>
 +
41. "Against kidnapping." (Negative 243)<br>
 +
42. "Against the use of false weights & measures." (Negative 271)<br>
 +
43. "Against the possession of false weights & measures." (Negative 272)<br>
 +
44. "That one shall be exact in the use of weights & measures." (Positive 208)<br>
 +
45. "That the robber shall return [or pay for] the stolen object." (Positive 194)<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Prohibition of Limb of a Living Creature]]===
 +
 
 +
46. "Against eating a limb severed from a living animal, beast, or fowl." (Negative 182)<br>
 +
47. "Against eating the flesh of any animal which was torn by a wild beast which, in part, prohibits the eating of such flesh as was torn off an animal while it was still alive." (Negative 181)<br>
 +
 
 +
===[[Imperative of Legal System]]===
 +
 
 +
48. "To appoint judges and officers in each and every community." (Positive 176)<br>
 +
49. "To treat the litigants equally before the law." (Positive 177)<br>
 +
50. "To inquire diligently into the testimony of a witness." (Positive 179)<br>
 +
51. "Against the wanton miscarriag of justice by the court." (Negative 273)<br>
 +
52. "Against the judge accepting a bribe or gift from a litigant." (Negative 274)<br>
 +
53. "Against the judge showing marks of honor to but one litigant." (Negative 275)<br>
 +
54. "Against the judge acting in fear of a litigant's threats." (Negative 276)<br>
 +
55. "Against the judge, out of compassion, favoring a poor litigant." (Negative 277)<br>
 +
56. "Against the judge discriminating against the litigant because he is a sinner." (Negative 278)<br>
 +
57. "Against the judge, out of softness, putting aside the penalty of a mauler or killer." (Negative 279)<br>
 +
58. "Against the judge discriminating against a stranger or an orphan." (Negative 280)<br>
 +
59. "Against the judge hearing one litigant in the absence of another." (Negative 281)<br>
 +
60. "Against appointing a judge who lacks knowledge of the Law." (Negative 284)<br>
 +
61. "Against incrimination by circumstantial evidence." (Negative 290)<br>
 +
62. "Against punishing for a crime committed under duress." (Negative 294)<br>
 +
63. "That the court is to administer the death penalty by the sword [i.e., decapitation]." (Positive 226)<br>
 +
64. "Against anyone taking the law into his own hands to kill the perpetrator of a capital crime." (Negative 292)<br>
 +
65. "To testify in court." (Positive 178)<br>
 +
66. "Against testifying falsely." (Negative 285)<br>
 +
 
 +
==See also==
 +
* [[Seven Laws as Categories]]
 +
* [[Samuel ben Hophni's Noahide Law]]
 +
* [[Maimonides' Law of Noahides]]
 +
* [[613 mitzvot]]
 +
* [[613 Mitzvos according to Sefer Hamitzvos of Rambam]]
 +
 
 +
[[es:Subdivisión de las Leyes de Noé]]

Latest revision as of 09:05, 28 March 2010

Various rabbinic sources have different positions on the way the seven laws are to be subdivided in categories. Maimonides (Melakhim 10:6) lists one additional Noahide commandment forbidding the coupling of different kinds of animals and the mixing of trees. Maimonides commentator Radbaz expressed surprise that he left out castration and sorcery which were listed in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 56b).

The tenth century Rabbi Saadia Gaon included tithes and levirate marriage. The eleventh century Rav Nissim Gaon states that all religious acts which can be understood through human reasoning are obligatory upon Jew and Gentile alike. According to this reasoning, he included "listening to God's Voice", "knowing God" and "serving God". The fourteenth century Rabbi Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi included the commandment of charity.

The sixteenth century work Asarah Maamarot by Rabbi Menahem Azariah of Fano (Rema mi-Fano) enumerates thirty commandments, listing the latter twenty-three as extensions of the original seven. Another commentator (Kol Hidushei Maharitz Chayess I, end Ch. 10) suggests these are not related to the first seven, nor based on Scripture, but were passed down by oral tradition. The number thirty derives from the statement of the Talmudic sage Ulla in tractate Hullin 92a, though he lists only three other rules in addition to the original seven, consisting of the prohibitions against homosexuality and cannibalism, as well as the imperative to honor the Torah.

Talmud commentator Rashi remarks on this that he does not know the other Commandments referred to. Though the authorities seem to take it for granted that Ulla's thirty commandments included the original seven, an additional thirty laws is also possible from the reading.

Theft, robbery and stealing covers the appropriate understanding of other persons, their property and their rights. The establishment of courts of justice promotes the value of the responsibility of a corporate society of people to enforce these laws and define these terms. The refusal to engage in unnecessary lust or cruelty demonstrates respect for the Creation itself as renewed after the Flood. To not do murder would include human sacrifice.

Thirty Noahide Commandments

The rediscovery in the Cairo Genizah of a biblical-commentary by Samuel ben Hophni, Gaon, endows us with yet another significant statement on the Laws of the Sons of Noah. Father-in-law to the better remembered Hai Gaon, Samuel ben Hophni was head of the academy at Sura, southern Babylonia, in the year 1000. Samuel ben Hophni goes on to compose a list of these thirty commands. Rashi, explicating the Talmud (Hullin 92), about a hundred years later, remarked that the thirty laws are nowhere identified. It was this gap that the Gaon was undertaking to fill. The Gaon also provided each of his laws with a Pentateuchal proof text and as a result, we are in a better position to fathom the meaning and nature of each.

Justice, the eighteenth item, does not actually appear in the Genizah manuscripts, but was supplied as likely. That is, each surviving manuscript is defective between the seventeenth and nineteenth positions, but since justice is the only one of the basic seven Laws of Noah which would otherwise be absent from the Gaon's thirty, and since we have every reason to expect that the Gaon recognized the basic seven, justice must have originally featured in the eighteenth position.

The following is a listing of Samuel ben Hophni's thirty laws, re-arranged in the order following Maimonides listing of the seven laws. For the original ordering and further discussion see Samuel ben Hophni's Noahide Law.

Prohibition of Idolatry

1. No idolatry
2. To pray
3. To offer ritual sacrifices only to God

Prohibition of Blasphemy

4. To believe in the singularity of God, see, Monotheism
5. No blasphemy
6. No witchcraft
7. No soothsayers
8. No conjurers
9. No sorcerers
10. No mediums
11. No demonology
12. No wizardry
13. No necromancy
14. To respect father & mother

Prohibition of Homicide

15. No murder
16. No suicide
17. No Moloch worship (infant sacrifice)

Prohibition of Sexual Immorality

18. No adultery
19. Formal legal marriages
20. No incest with close relatives
21. No sodomy (i.e. homosexuality)
22. No bestiality
23. Not to crossbreed animals
24. No castration

Prohibition of Theft

25. No stealing

Prohibition of Limb of a Living Creature

26. Not to eat a limb of a living creature
27. Not to eat or drink blood
28. Not to eat carrion (for those recognised by a Beth Din)

Imperative of Legal System

29. To establish courts and a system of justice
30. No false oaths

The Sixty Six Noahide Laws

Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein, following the general consensus of halacha, sees the Seven Laws as Categories. In Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein's opinion it is possible to look at all seven laws with the view towards establishing the extent to which they, severally, correspond to the Jewish law directed at Jews. His study seeks to resolve the question raised in the correspondence as to the categorization of the Laws of Noah. He sought to prove that the earliest sources on Noahism, and the writers who deal with these sources conscientiously, view the seven categories as subject heads for a mass of legal dicta.

His intention was not to define Noahide law in terms of an expanded list of sixty six laws, rather only to prove that the volume of Noahide Law is greater - when compared to the volume of Israelite Law - than a ratio of 7 to 613 would indicate. His book "The Seven Laws of Noah" demonstrates the breadth of Noahic legislation.[1]

Prohibition of Idolatry

1. "Against entertaining the thought that there exists a deity except Hashem." (Negative 1)
2. "Against making any graven image [& against having anyone else make one for us]." (Negative 2)
3. "Against making idols for use by others." (Negative 3)
4. "Against making any forbidden statues [even when they are for ornamental purposes]." (Negative 4)
5. "Against bowing to any idol [& not to sacrifice nor to pour libation nor to burn incense before any idol, even where it is not the customary manner of worship to the particular idol]." (Negative 5)
6. "Against worshipping idols in any of their customary manners of worship." (Negative 6)
7. "Against causing our children to pass [through the fire] in the worship of Molech." (Negative 7)
8. "Against practicing Ov." (Negative 8)
9. "Against practicing Yiddoni." (Negative 9)
10. "Against turning to idolatry [in word, in thought, in deed, or by any observance that may draw us to its worship]." (Negative 10)

Prohibition of Blasphemy

11. "To acknowledge the existence of G-d." (Positive 1)
12. "To fear G-d." (Positive 4)
13. "To pray to Him." (Positive 5)
14. "To sanctify G-d's name [in face of death, where appropriate]." (Positive 9)
15. "Against desecrating G-d's name [even in face of death, when appropriate]." (Negative 63)
16. "To study the Torah." (Positive 11)
17. "To honor the scholars, and to revere one's teacher." (Positive 209)
18. "Against blaspheming." (Negative 60)

Prohibition of Homicide

19. "Against any person murdering anyone." (Negative 289)

Prohibition of Sexual Immorality

20. "Against [a man] having union with his mother." (Negative 330)
21. "Against [a man] having union with his sister." (Negative 331)
22. "Against [a man] having union with the wife of his father." (Negative 332)
23. "Against [a man] having union with another man's wife." (Negative 347)
24. "Against [a man] copulating with a beast." (Negative 348)
25. "Against a woman copulating with a beast." (Negative 349)
26. "Against [a man] lying carnally with a male." (Negative 350)
27. "Against [a man] lying carnally with his father." (Negative 351)
28. "Against [a man] lying carnally with his father's brother." (Negative 352)
29. "Against engaging in erotic conduct that may lead to a prohibited union. [That is, petting by persons whose marriage would be illicit.]" (Negative 353)

Prohibition of Theft

30. "Against stealing. [i.e., by stealth]" (Negative 244)
31. "Against committing robbery. [i.e., openly]" (Negative 245)
32. "Against shifting a landmark." (Negative 246)
33. "Against cheating." (Negative 247)
34. "Against repudiating a claim of money owed." (Negative 248)
35. "Against overcharging." (Negative 250)
36. "Against coveting." (Negative 265)
37. "Against desiring." (Negative 266)
38. "A laborer shall be allowed to eat of the fruits among which he works [under certain conditions]." (Positive 201)
39. "Against a laborer eating of such fruit [when certain conditions are not met]." (Negative 267)
40. "Against a laborer taking of such fruit home." (Negative 268)
41. "Against kidnapping." (Negative 243)
42. "Against the use of false weights & measures." (Negative 271)
43. "Against the possession of false weights & measures." (Negative 272)
44. "That one shall be exact in the use of weights & measures." (Positive 208)
45. "That the robber shall return [or pay for] the stolen object." (Positive 194)

Prohibition of Limb of a Living Creature

46. "Against eating a limb severed from a living animal, beast, or fowl." (Negative 182)
47. "Against eating the flesh of any animal which was torn by a wild beast which, in part, prohibits the eating of such flesh as was torn off an animal while it was still alive." (Negative 181)

Imperative of Legal System

48. "To appoint judges and officers in each and every community." (Positive 176)
49. "To treat the litigants equally before the law." (Positive 177)
50. "To inquire diligently into the testimony of a witness." (Positive 179)
51. "Against the wanton miscarriag of justice by the court." (Negative 273)
52. "Against the judge accepting a bribe or gift from a litigant." (Negative 274)
53. "Against the judge showing marks of honor to but one litigant." (Negative 275)
54. "Against the judge acting in fear of a litigant's threats." (Negative 276)
55. "Against the judge, out of compassion, favoring a poor litigant." (Negative 277)
56. "Against the judge discriminating against the litigant because he is a sinner." (Negative 278)
57. "Against the judge, out of softness, putting aside the penalty of a mauler or killer." (Negative 279)
58. "Against the judge discriminating against a stranger or an orphan." (Negative 280)
59. "Against the judge hearing one litigant in the absence of another." (Negative 281)
60. "Against appointing a judge who lacks knowledge of the Law." (Negative 284)
61. "Against incrimination by circumstantial evidence." (Negative 290)
62. "Against punishing for a crime committed under duress." (Negative 294)
63. "That the court is to administer the death penalty by the sword [i.e., decapitation]." (Positive 226)
64. "Against anyone taking the law into his own hands to kill the perpetrator of a capital crime." (Negative 292)
65. "To testify in court." (Positive 178)
66. "Against testifying falsely." (Negative 285)

See also

  • Lichtenstein, Aaron. "The Seven Laws of Noah". New York: The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press and Z. Berman Books, 2d ed. 1986