Torah for Gentiles

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Torah for Gentiles, the Messianic and Political Implications of the Bnei Noah Laws
Author: Elisheva Barre
2008, 285 pages, available at Shorashim and Pomeranz bookstores in Jerusalem, or by ordering a dedicated copy directly by emailing the author at shevabar@hotmail.com The price is 140 shekels (or $40) and includes air mailing.

The Bnei Noach Commandments

AT ANY TIME, ever since the day the epitome of humanity was created and in any place, even in as perfect a habitat as the Garden of Eden, man needs to be limited in his most fundamental urges. If uncontrolled and unrestrained, instead of yielding goodness, these basic drives become the cause of mankind’s sufferings and destructions. In the story of Creation, every sin is meant by the prohibition of “eating”, singled out because the need for food is the most urgent and basic of all needs. The prohibition of idolatry limits man’s ambition to possess divine omniscience, as was the snake’s tempting promise to Adam. Such an ambition stems from a presumptuous self-image. The prohibition of blasphemy limits the rebelliousness of the creature towards his Creator – itself an inherent consequence of his having free will. The prohibition of murder limits man’s violence, in itself a vital necessity in his fight for life. The five Ls of murder being Love, Loathing, Lust, Loot, and Lack, any transgression of one of the prohibitions is an opening to murder. Forbidden relations put a limit to man’s sexual drive, which as the luring song has it, is what makes the world go round. The prohibition of theft limits man’s greed and trains him to respect his fellow’s property, which is the stuff societies are made of. The prohibition of eating a limb torn from a living animal inhibits man’s ferocity inherent to hunger, as witnessed in times of distress and starvation when man would feed on anything that is not bread. The obligation to establish courts to judge and punish transgressors not only serves the need to do justice and maintain order, it is the necessary condition which seals the moral intention of those prohibitions into a living reality.

From the Introduction

AN EXTRAORDINARY CHANGE in world affairs happened in our times, when the Jews returned to their homeland to conquer it and settle it and establish there a Jewish state. The step that follows is to reinstate the Sanhedrin, restore the Kingdom and rebuild the Temple and with that, usher in the millennium of peace which is the happy end of History. This is the divine plan as foretold by our prophets and fixed in the Law. No nation and no man can prevent it. Of course, this project cannot come about easily. We know there are many men and many nations who are intent in thwarting the divine project and who will try to do so with all the means available to them. We do not deny that we will have to fight opposition. Like Yehoshua, we offer peace, but we are prepared for war. In the same way as Yehoshua publicized the Law in seventy languages by engraving them on stone monuments when he entered the land (Deut. 27:8), so too, today’s media provide a basis for publicizing the Constitution and Laws of Israel. We are not begging for the support of the world because we are weak or afraid to fight, neither are we stretching our hands to the nations because we plead for recognition and love. We are not selling Yiddishkeit or denying that we are a separate, holy, people. What we are saying is that since the Torah and the Laws it contains also concern Gentiles (because they were dictated by the One who created the world and is Master over all that is in it), they too are part of the divine project in History.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Guiding Principles of our Study
3. Do Gentiles have Torah Obligations?
4. Each Nation in the Name of its God
5. Is the Lord Amongst Us?
6. Permitted and Prohibited Relations
7. The Prohibition of Stealing
8. Murder and the Preservation of Life
9. The Torn Limb Prohibition
10. The Prohibition of Idolatry
11. The Prohibition of Blasphemy
12. The Obligation to Institute Courts
13. Other Obligations
14. Jews and Gentiles – Separation
15. The US Joint Congress Resolution
16. The DNA of History
17. Interview of Vennie Jones and Adam Penrod
18. Mails we Received on our Website
19. Glossary
Bibliography
Illustration Credits

About the author

Elisheva Barre was born in Jerusalem but she grew up in France. There, she worked as translator and interpreter for Unesco and the British Council, and participated in cultural programs sponsored by the French Ministry of Education in high schools – some of which in Louisiana and Martinique. In 1979, she published two booklets of poems PRIERE A UN ABRE SOLITAIRE and FRANCHE CANCAN ET PAS DE QUOI, and created a collection of three hundred illustrated maxims for the newspaper Le Monde that were never published. In 1980, she returned to Israel with her son, learning and teaching Torah in various institutions. She studied with Rabbi Yossef Kappach for 8 years, had a weekly radio show in Hebrew and English sponsored by Shifra Hoffman, analyzing the news in the light of Jewish Law. Somehow, she obtained the Diploma of the Jerusalem Institute of Biblical Polemics directed by Shmuel Golding. A few of her political articles were published in the Bulletin of Yemin Israel in Russian translation. In 2000, Elisheva produced the website TORAH FOR GENTILES for the Evelyn Torah Center which was removed after one year when the money dried out. This book expands and elaborates the articles that were published there. She is currently studying Islam and Talmud at Bar Ilan University and is a regular auditor at the seminars of Halichot Am Israel and Moreshet HaMishpat HaYivri.

What they say about this book

  • Thank you for sharing your manuscript with me. It has great passion and reflects serious research and concern… (Rabbi Yigal Shafran)
  • Mrs. Barre is a special person… One cannot agree with everything she says, but we must value her knowledge and her courage to express her views… (Rabbi Ratzon Arussi)
  • I am a Christian gentile in Texas. I appreciate your combative passion for the truth. Keep it up. (From the emails we received)
  • Your book is a treasure. Opening it is like being seated at a fine meal where all the dishes are ones never enjoyed, new aromas, new tastes. Each page has to be chewed very carefully, and then again. It will take me quite a while to read it at the pace I enjoy. (Dr. John Craig)
  • You did it! I am proud you are my little sister. (Painter Michael Weston)