DEUT591 There is one other provision in Jewish law for military intervention. As I turn to it, keep in mind that these materials are highly theoretical. I frankly doubt that any Jewish regime would or should act on them. The Bible zealously establishes a strict monotheism for Israel, and it claims that God was dispossessing the seven Canaanite nations because they engaged in idolatry and other “abhorrent things.” (Deuteronomy 12:29-13:1). Extending this thesis through a rather implausible interpretation of Genesis 2:16, the rabbis deduced six laws that, they claimed, had been given to Adam, and Genesis 9:4 provided another, for a total of “seven laws given to the children of Noah.” The first six laws forbid murder, incest and adultery, idolatry, blasphemy, theft, and tearing and eating a limb from a living animal and the seventh requires that a government be instituted to enforce these laws and provide for the general order of society. (Genesis Rabbah 16:6, B. Sanhedrin 56a, and M.T. Laws of Kings 9:1. Compare Novak (1983) The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism: An Historical and Constructive Study of the Noahide Laws. Edwin Mellen Press) for an extensive study of these laws). If a non-Jew fails to follow these laws, he is subject to capital punishment. B. Sanhedrin 57a. Maimonides summarized the law this way: “We kill any non-Jew who is under our power if he does not accept the commandments enjoined upon the children of Noah. Moses, our Teacher, bequeathed the Torah and commandments only to Israel, as Scripture says, ‘An inheritance for the congregation of Jacob,’ [Deuteronomy 33:4] and to anyone from the other nations of the world who wants to convert, as Scripture says, ‘or you as for the stranger [convert].’ Numbers 15:15 But if anyone [of the other nations] did not want [to accept the Torah and commandments,] we do not force him to do so. Moses, our teacher, similarly commanded at God’s bidding to force all inhabitants of the world to accept the laws enjoined upon the children of Noah, and anyone who does not accept them shall be killed.” M.T. Laws of Kings 8:9-10 This does not justify holy wars, much as it might seem to do so. Later on Maimonides himself specified that the death penalty can be imposed only after a trial, albeit with modified evidentiary and procedural rules, Ibid., 9:14 and thus it is unlikely that the Noahide rules provide any basis for military intervention. Several sources in the tradition specifically deny that Jews have the right, much less the duty, to impose the seven Noahide laws militarily outside the land of Israel; They apply only to non-Jews living in a Jewish state. (Compare Rashi on B. Sotah 35b (end), s.v. “v’katbu mi’limtah”; Sefer Mitzvot Gedolot, Negative Command #49; and Lehem Mishneh on M.T. Laws of Kings, 6:1.) Moreover one must remember that even if Maimonides’ dictum provides a rationale for military action, if the offenders make peace and accept the seven commandments, then, according to Maimonides himself, one must not kill a single person. M.T. Laws of Kings, 6:1. Thus it is doubtful that Jewish law would condone military intervention to enforce the seven Noahide Laws.
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