A Code of Laws Derived from the Seven Noahide Commandments.
Number of pages: 130
Language: English
Weight: 1200 grams
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Author’s Preface
The purpose of this book is to explain the foundations of the legal framework whose observance is obligatory for every person. Here, ninety laws will be presented, derived from the Seven Commandments that the Creator placed upon all humanity. I did not seek to explain every detail of their observance; rather, the aim was to outline them in general terms and to present the principles and ideas associated with their fulfillment.
The laws are numbered according to the order in which they are presented and are divided into seven categories, corresponding to the commandments upon which they are based.
I do not mean to suggest that there exists a fixed number of such laws. Nor do I rule out the possibility that certain aspects of the commandments may not be fully addressed here, and that the division into individual laws could be arranged differently, resulting in a different enumeration.
For the sake of clarity and ease of reading, the book generally does not include extensive references to sources. Most of these references can be found in my book The Seven Commandments of the Almighty (in Hebrew), where a detailed justification for each conclusion is presented on the basis of the sources and their interpretation. Here, I will cite primarily verses from Scripture, as well as the most well-known or particularly significant statements of the sages of the Talmud and the legal authorities of the Middle Ages.
I have titled this book Ninety Laws, rather than Ninety Commandments, in order to clearly distinguish between the two concepts: a commandment and a law. The commandments placed upon all humanity are contained in the words of the Torah. However, many details of their observance are not explained directly in the text of Scripture but are derived from it through logical interpretation, in accordance with the principles of study and interpretation that our teacher Moses received at Sinai and that have been preserved in the Oral Torah.
Moreover, although some commandments appear explicitly in the text of the Torah, the sages often relate them to one or another of the seven universal commandments. For this reason, I have titled this book Ninety Laws. It discusses the laws that all people are obligated to observe, whether they are stated directly in the text of the Torah or derived from it through the principles preserved in the Oral Torah.