Piotr Majdanik

Sefer ha-chinuch is one of the earliest and most interesting works created after Maimonides which deal more broadly with the issue of Noahide laws (laws given according to the Judaic tradition to all humanity). The purpose of the article is to present the original views of the author of this book on the issue of seven Noahide laws, and in particular on their relations to the 613 commandments of Israel. Discussion on the Noahide laws in Sefer ha-chinuch is not organized in a systematic way. The originality and value of this work lies, firstly, in the very approach to this topic in a general way (the inspiration was certainly Maimonides); secondly, in the concept of Noahide laws as categories, the details of which are comparable, although not identical, to the Israeli commandments. This concept resulted in an innovative construction involving the incorporation of the Noahide commandments into a discussion on individual Israeli commandments. Thirdly, the originality of the work is manifested also in certain halachic concepts concerning aspects of specific Noahide laws, often departing from Maimonides’ solutions.

The end of the classical era marks the period of the expansion of Christianity in the Greek-Roman world which owes its success to the missionary activities combined with religious universalism. In the same period, Judaism formulates a universalistic moral message based on the oral tradition which it addresses to the non-Jews – the so called seven Noahite commandments. It is also a period of consolidation of the oral tradition of Judaism in Talmud, in which one may find a story relating to the Noahite laws. A sizable part of the article is taken up with a translation accompanied by commentary of a fragment of gemara of the Sanhedrin treatise 56a–57a from the Babylon Talmud. The above fragment constitutes the first part of the so called „Noahite digression” and is devoted to a rabbinical debate devoted to the catalog and sources of the Noahite commandments. According to a commonly accepted view, the commandments in question consist of seven laws: a ban to indulge in idolatry, blasphemy, murder, sexual promiscuity, robbery and consumption of any part of a living animal, as well as an injunction to create a legal system. It is commonly assumed that the biblical source of the above commandments is a verse in the Book of Genesis: „Then Yahweh God gave the man this admonition: »You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden«” (Gn 2:16).