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General List and Short Description of Seven Laws
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"Everybody who accepts upon himself Seven Laws and carefully observes them - belongs to righteous among peoples of the world and he has part in the World to Come. But this is providing he accepts and observes them coz G-d commanded so in Tora and informed us through prophet Moses that Noah descendants got those laws long ago. But one who observes those laws coz of their reasonability - belongs to neither "settler" nor righteous among the nations nor their sage"
"Mishne Tora" Religious Code - Maimonides (RAMBAM)
Seven Noah descendants Laws are obligatory for observance by each and all of us with no exception. Their observance is the guarantee of existence, peace and prosperity for all of our planet population. Besides, it endows life of each single person with success and blessing. And on the contrary, Tora tells us it's exactly coz of disregard with Seven Laws that the world is taken with wars, cataclysms, epidemics and disasters. Each region - to a certain degree of its fault. Thus, observing Seven Laws by the bigger part of some country population leads to blessing, affluence and prosperity of the whole nation, disregarding - causes vice versa decline, calamities and social-economic shocks.
1. Courts
How is establishment of courts and appointment of judges Law observed? The peoples of the world must appoint judges and deans for each region and each town so that they judged on the basis of Six undermentioned Laws and warned people from infringement upon them. And the one who breaks one of those Seven Laws is to be sentenced to the death penalty with sword. That is the one who worshipped idols, and the one who cursed the name of G-d, and the one who deliberately killed somebody, and the one who had banned sexual affair by one of six appropriate ways, and the one who robbed, even at the rate of fewer than the smallest coin value, and the one who ate flesh of any size from living creature, and the one who saw another infringe upon one of these Laws but didn't bring him to the court - those are to be sentenced to the death penalty with sword. The capital sentence can be passed on the testimony of a single witness, by a single judge, and without the warning about punishment, and even on the testimony of relatives; only not by the testimony of woman, and woman may not be judge. Read more...
2. No Blasphemy
The prohibition to curse the name of G-d is meant by No Blasphemy Law. That means any name used to call G-d in any language. The meaning of the prohibition refers to man who must accept humbly and thankfully everything that happens in his life and remember Hashem is merciful and long-patient. His providence never leaves any of us. He's the One Who leads and supports us. And each detail in our life is a part of His special plan regarding each of us. And if something's going wrong and not the way we'd like it to be - it's necessary to clearly understand this is Hashem's will. He sure has some serious reasons why everything should be like this, not different way. And that all is for our sake. Read more...
3. No Idolatry
Worshipping idols is called Avoda Zara in Biblical language - that means serving to something different. Sometimes Tora uses other terms - Avodat Elilim (serving to powers) and Avodat Kokhavim (worshipping stars). In the most general outline it all can be defined as serving and worshipping anything except G-d. In other words - the recognition there are some different powers, except for Hashem, that can somehow influence our fate. With this it means some definite rituals used in a given religion like kneeling, lighting the candle, crossing, bowing etc. Any form of such actions, with that or other intensity, causes a destruction in human soul. Read more...
4. No Bloodshed
A murderer is considered to be the one who deliberately took life from another person, that also means the one who killed a fetus in mother's womb (abortion), the one who killed a fatal case person (euthanasia), the one who bound and threw somebody to animals for laceration, the one who starved somebody to death - if he is a direct reason of somebody's death, he is considered to be a murderer. The same when one person chased another to murder him - if a chased one or somebody else (for instance, a policeman) could stop the chaser by crippling, for example shooting him at leg or injuring him in shoulder, but didn't do that and killed him right away - according to Tora law he is considered to be a murderer. Read more...
5. No Lechery
No Lechery Law means banned sexual affairs which include six separate cases: with mother, with father's wife, with married woman, with sister by mother, homosexuality and bestiality. Each of them is the consequence of said in Tora (Bereshit 2:24): "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh". It seems to be just one non-committal phrase, however sages of ancient time managed to see here accurate instructions regarding what is allowed and what is forbidden as for intimate affairs. They gave a concrete explanation to almost each word in the sentence. Read more...
6. No Robbery
The prohibition is much more difficult and deeper than it may seem at first sight. The robber is considered to be both the one who took away with force and the one who stole possession and the one who abducted a person and the one who delays the salary of a hired worker etc. Trivia that lead deep down to the ocean of details refer to definition of robbery, which is, according to Tora, any action that results in causing damage to the other part even at the rate of fewer than the smallest coin value. With this, the pure robbery is going to be such ordinary actions like being late for work (if not to stay there for proper time after the working day is over), driving in public transport without having a ticket (even for one stop distance), using working-materials for personal purposes without permission of authorities and the like. Read more...
7. No Limb from Living Creature
The Law originally sounds as Ever Min ha-Hai in Bible, what means No Limb from Living Creature if translated directly. That means the prohibition to eat any limb or flesh taken from animal still having signs of life after the slaughter executed. In some wider sense it's what is called cruelty regarding animal, coz in this case, according to Tora law, the animal is considered to be still alive, and it's strictly prohibited to accomplish any actions of dressing its carcass into separate parts with the purpose of using them for food afterwards. Read more...
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