Noah 7
A Universal Code of Ethics

The Seven Laws
of Noah

שֶׁבַע מִצְווֹת בְּנֵי נֹחַ

What does God actually ask of you?

Not much, it turns out — and everything.

Long before the Torah was given to the Jewish people at Sinai, long before Moses, long before Abraham — there was a covenant made with all of humanity. After the great flood, God spoke to Noah and his children. And through them, to every person who would ever live.

The rabbis called these the Sheva Mitzvot Bnei Noach — the Seven Commandments of the Children of Noah. Seven laws. Not six hundred and thirteen. Seven. And yet within them, the whole architecture of a moral life.

"Any human being who accepts upon himself the seven commandments and is careful to observe them — this person is of the righteous of the nations of the world, and has a share in the World to Come."— Maimonides, Mishneh Torah

You don't have to be Jewish. You don't have to convert. You don't have to take on a single additional obligation. These seven laws are yours already — by birthright, by covenant, by the simple fact that you are human.

What do they ask of you? To believe in something beyond yourself. To treat human life as sacred. To be honest. To be just. To be kind — even to animals. And to build a world where these things are not just personal virtues, but the law of the land.

Based on Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 56a  ·  Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 9