Maimonides' Code - Laws of Kings 8

bequeathed - given over as an inheritance; both the obligations and the privileges.

inheritance - Every member of the congregation of Jacob is a full owner/inheritor of the Torah regardless of background or upbringing.

compel - Guidance and persuasion are called for if these are sufficient to convince non-Jews – Noah's children – to obey their Seven Commandments. Compulsion is an option in the Land of Israel under proper Jewish authority. In fact, Jews in the Land of Israel should not permit non-Jews to reside there unless they obey the Seven Noahide Commandments.

to Noah's children - All human beings are subject to G-d's covenant with Noah and his children at Mount Sinai, except that a Jew is subject to the more elaborate and stringent covenant of 613 commandments.

refuses to accept - while in the Land of Israel under proper Jewish authority, or in any jurisdiction where the Seven Commandments are the law of the land.

is sentenced to death - by a court if, and only if, the members of this duly constituted court are themselves observing the Seven Noahide Commandments. However, in the Land of Israel today, Jews are not yet allowed to set up a court of Jewish law to adjudicate issues of criminal justice. Such a court can only be convened by the Messiah. Note that Maimonides relegates the topic of the Seven Noahide Commandments to "The Laws of Kings and Their Wars" in the last part of The Book of Judges which itself is the last book of the Code. Laws concerning the Messianic King are contained in Chapter 11 and Chapter 12, themselves the last chapters and culmination of Maimonides' Code.

to be circumcised - a man's demonstration of commitment. Women are born complete, so they do not need any bodily correction. Conversion of a woman is discussed previously in Law 7: We attempt to educate her so that she would agree to convert. I presume that primarily Jewish women teach her and try to acquaint her with the role of a Jewish woman.

a portion in the World to Come . . . on the condition . . . because G-d commanded them in the Torah and informed us through Moses - a reward after death in the World to Come with the stipulation that a Noahite is obeying the Seven Noahide Commandments because G-d commanded these Seven Noahide Commandments in the Torah and informed us through Moses that Noah's descendants had previously been commanded to observe them. Also, this person enjoys Divine grace while still alive in this world and may live in the Land of Israel.

Two perspectives are at work here. From the Gentile perspective, we Jews cannot expect or demand that they observe their commandments because G-d commanded them. People cherish independent thinking. At the same time, though, they understand that the primary content of the Seven Noahide Commandments is that the world be civilized and as it is supposed to be. This is along the line of what the prophet Isaiah said:

Thus said the L-rd, Creator of the heavens; He is the G-d Who forms the earth and makes it; He sets it in order; He did not create it [the earth] to be wasted, but He formed it to be settled . . . (Isaiah 45:18).

In Hebrew this is called yishoov olahm which I translate as a "civilized world."

People understand that the Universal Laws help to perfect a person's character while also perfecting the entire world. These laws are sensible. They obviously form the basis of justice and morality.

On the other hand, from the Jewish perspective, we don't see a glaring difference between Jews and non-Jews. There is only one human race. Being Jewish is having a different and special covenant with G-d. If a Jew fails to live up to the standards of the Covenant, they should be ashamed of themselves in the face of those non-Jews who maintain high standards of behavior.

However, Jews live and die for the sake of the Torah's Covenant. Somehow, the Covenant permeates Jewish character, life, and culture. Since the Seven Noahide Commandments are G-d's Covenant with humanity from the Torah, everyone has an opportunity for the Torah to permeate their wisdom. This is the highest form of wisdom, where wisdom is anchored in "the Creator of the heavens, in the One Who forms the earth and sets it in order" (paraphrase of Isaiah's words just quoted). Under such conditions, someone who is not wise enought to acknowledge the Seven Noahide Commandments as G-d's will is not wise enough to be considered a wise Gentile.

Returning to the Gentiles' perspective, how common is it for them to be exposed to the Torah? So at the time of Maimonides and even today, ignorance is not blameworthy. Reading from the beginning of this law (halachah 11), we then see that "anyone who . . . is careful to observe them [the Universal Noahide Laws] is one of the pious of the Gentiles." Carefulness and piety go together. Maimonides' initial emphasis here is on the idea of carefulness. Surely, someone who is careful (and consequently pious) is a wise person (but, unfortunately, a rare person).

Now we can read this part of the Code, in this version of the text, as praising and rewarding the wisdom of carefulness. However, to the extent that there is admonition in this law, it is for the high purpose of suggesting to non-Jews that wisdom can be transcended by a higher awareness – awareness of the Creator of the human faculty of wisdom. Without wisdom being part of the Divine plan for humans, there would be no wisdom at all.

(Based on the writings of His Holiness, Grand Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
See his Likutei Sichos [in Yiddish and Hebrew] —

Volume 15, p. 62

Volume 17, p. 327

Volume 20, p. 141

Volume 25, p. 49

(Freely adapted and translated by Nathaniel Segal)

† there is no evidence that the later change was a full rejection of what he had in mind earlier - I'd like to suggest a theory – only a theory – of the reasoning for changing the text of this halachah. When composing his first version of the Code, Maimonides may have had high expectations of the Gentile world around him. Maimonides had been born during the Golden Age of Spain. The Muslim caliphs ruled with benevolence. Cross cultural contact was at a high point.

However, when Maimonides was thirteen years old, a fanatical Muslim sect from North Africa invaded, giving Jews the choice of conversion to Islam or death. Maimonides family chose to flee. They wandered for about seventeen years until settling in Egypt.

Maimonides finished his Code, the Mishneh Torah, when he was forty-five years old as he himself writes in the Code. Since this is the version of the Code that is in our hands, the text is probably the final version. In this version, we see expectations of the Gentile world that reflect the definitive end of Spain's Golden Era and the unlikelihood of a revival anywhere else in Maimonides' world.

This remains only speculation, based on what I know about the history of the age.

Maimonides' Code - The Book of Judges

The Laws of Kings and Their Wars

Chapter 8

Translator's Notes:

Law 10

Law 11

Pronunciation Notes: