Q&A: Disseminating the Seven Noahide Commandments
Disseminating the Seven Noahide Commandments
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is there a commandment for an individual, nowadays, to spread the Seven Noahide Commandments to non-Jews? Can this perhaps be inferred from the words of Rabbi Abraham son of Maimonides:
"And you shall be to Me"—the intention is not merely attachment, but the meaning of the phrase "and you" is that it necessarily follows from what came before and what follows from it that you shall be a kingdom of priests.
And the explanation of "a kingdom of priests" is that the priest of every community is its leader, the one distinguished within it, and its exemplar, so that the people of the community follow in his footsteps and find the straight path through him. And He said: "You shall, by keeping My Torah, be leaders of the world; your relation to them will be like the relation of a priest to his community. The world will follow in your footsteps, imitate your deeds, and walk in your ways." This is the meaning that I received regarding the explanation of this verse from my father and teacher of blessed memory"?
Answer
There is no doubt that it is proper to bring a person to fulfill his obligation to his Creator. But if the question is a formal halakhic one—whether there is such a commandment or not—then to the best of my understanding, no.
There may perhaps be room to follow Meiri, who argues that the non-Jews of our time are not like the ancient nations, because they are bounded by the norms of civilized society, and therefore all the halakhic distinctions between them and Jews are nullified (the intention is things like withholding repayment of their loans, charging them interest, saving them on the Sabbath, and the like—not marrying them). According to this, perhaps there is also an obligation of "you shall surely rebuke" and "do not stand idly by your neighbor's blood" toward them, and then perhaps there is also a halakhic source.
Discussion on Answer
I don't know. I only said it as a possibility.
I didn't understand what you were asking about acceptance. Meiri does not claim that they accepted them before a religious court, but that even without that they have the status of a resident alien. And this is also what Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and others inferred from him (that there is no need for acceptance before a religious court when there is a presumption that this is the situation).
I don't know.
According to Meiri, is there "you shall surely rebuke" your *fellow*? Is that talking about Noahides?
According to his view, does that mean they accepted the Seven Commandments upon themselves?
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By the way, how does the Rabbi understand the scriptural support for the Seven Commandments—is it an interpretive derivation that creates the law or upholds an existing law, or does it arise from reasoning, or is it a law given to Moses at Sinai? etc.