Editing Seven Laws of Noah (section)

=== Maimonides' view and its critics ===
The [[Medieval Jewry|medieval]] Jewish philosopher and [[rabbi]] [[Maimonides]] (1135–1204) wrote that gentiles must perform exclusively the Seven Laws of Noah and refrain from [[Torah study|studying the Torah]] or resting on the [[Shabbat]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Moses |last=Maimonides |author-link=Maimonides |year=2012 |chapter-url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.10?lang=bi |chapter=Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars) |title=[[Mishneh Torah]] |page=10:9 |translator-last=Brauner |translator-first=Reuven |publisher=[[Sefaria]] |access-date=10 August 2020}}</ref> He also states that if gentiles want to perform any Jewish commandment besides the Seven Laws of Noah according to the correct halakhic procedure, they are not prevented from doing so.<ref name="JVL"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Moses |last=Maimonides |author-link=Maimonides |year=2012 |chapter-url=https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.10?lang=bi |chapter=Hilkhot M'lakhim (Laws of Kings and Wars) |title=[[Mishneh Torah]] |page=10:10 |translator-last=Brauner |translator-first=Reuven |publisher=[[Sefaria]] |access-date=10 August 2020}}</ref> According to Maimonides, teaching non-Jews to follow the Seven Laws of Noah is incumbent on all Jews, a commandment in and of itself.<ref name="Kress">{{cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-modern-noahide-movement/ |title=The Modern Noahide Movement |last=Kress |first=Michael |date=2018 |website=My Jewish Learning |access-date=9 November 2020}}</ref> Nevertheless, the majority of [[Rabbinic Judaism|rabbinic authorities]] over the centuries have rejected Maimonides' opinion, and the dominant halakhic consensus has always been that Jews are not required to spread the Noahide laws to non-Jews.<ref name="Kress"/>

Maimonides held that gentiles may have a part in the [[World to Come#Jewish eschatology|World to Come]] just by observing the Seven Laws of Noah and accepting them as divinely revealed to Moses.<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="Sefaria"/><ref name="JVL"/><ref name="Lemler 2011">{{cite journal |last=Lemler |first=David |date=December 2011 |title=Noachisme et philosophie: Destin d'un thème talmudique de Maïmonide à Cohen en passant par Spinoza |editor-last=Grieu |editor-first=Étienne |journal=Archives de Philosophie: Recherches et documentation |publisher=Centre Sèvres |location=Paris |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=629–646 |language=fr |doi=10.3917/aphi.744.0629 |doi-access=free |eissn=1769-681X |issn=0003-9632 |via=[[Cairn.info]]}}</ref> According to Maimonides, such non-Jews achieve the status of ''Chassid Umot Ha-Olam'' ("Pious People of the World"),<ref name="Sefaria"/> and are different from those which solely keep the Noahide laws out of moral/ethical [[reason]]ing alone.<ref name="Sefaria"/> He wrote in ''Hilkhot M'lakhim'':"<ref name="Sefaria"/>

{{Blockquote|Anyone who accepts upon himself and carefully observes the Seven Commandments is of the Righteous of the Nations of the World and has a portion in the World to Come. This is as long as he accepts and performs them because (he truly believes that) it was the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Who commanded them in the Torah, and that it was through Moses our Teacher we were informed that the Sons of Noah had already been commanded to observe them. But if he observes them because he convinced himself, then he is not considered a Resident Convert and is not of the Righteous of the Nations of the World, but merely one of their wise.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |title=TRANSLATION OF THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE RAMBAM'S MISHNEH TORAH |first=Reuven |last=Brauner |publisher=Halakhah.com |year=2012 |access-date=26 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111015524/http://halakhah.com/rst/kingsandwars.pdf |archive-date=11 November 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Some later editions of the ''Mishneh Torah'' differ by one letter and read {{qi|Nor one of their wise men}}; the latter reading is narrower. In either reading, Maimonides appears to exclude philosophical Noahides from being "Righteous Gentiles".<ref name="Sefaria"/> According to him, a truly "Righteous Gentile" follows the seven laws because they are divinely revealed, and thus are followed out of obedience to God.<ref name="Sefaria"/><ref name="m1"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UY2GAAAAQBAJ&q=Maimonides+laws+of+kings+wise+men&pg=PA253 |title=Maimonides: Life and Thought |first=Moshe |last=Halbertal |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |page=253 |year=2013 |access-date=26 May 2014 |isbn=978-1-4008-4847-8 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Rabbi [[Yosef Caro]] (15th century) rejected Maimonides' denial of the access to the World to Come to the gentiles who obey the Noahide laws guided only by their reason as [[Anti-rationalism|anti-rationalistic]] and unfounded, asserting that there is not any justification to uphold such a view in the Talmud.<ref name="Lemler 2011"/> The 17th-century Sephardic philosopher [[Baruch Spinoza]] read Maimonides as saying "nor one of their wise men", and accused him of being narrow and particularistic.<ref name="Lemler 2011"/> Other Jewish philosophers influenced by Spinoza, such as [[Moses Mendelssohn]] and [[Hermann Cohen]], also have formulated more inclusive and universal interpretations of the Seven Laws of Noah.<ref name="Lemler 2011"/><ref name="m1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OISKHHuUIkC&q=nor+of+%27the+pious+among+the+gentiles%2C%27+nor+of+their+wise+men&pg=PA179 |title=Maimonides |first=T. M. |last=Rudavsky |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |pages=178–179 |year=2009 |access-date=26 May 2014 |isbn=978-1-4443-1802-9 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Mendelssohn, one of the leading exponents of the [[Haskalah]] (Jewish enlightenment), strongly disagreed with Maimonides' opinion, and instead contended that gentiles which observe the Noahide laws out of ethical, moral, or philosophical reasoning, without believing in the Jewish monotheistic conception of God, retained the status of "Righteous Gentiles" and would still achieve [[World to Come#Jewish eschatology|salvation]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kogan |first=Michael S. |year=2008 |chapter=Three Jewish Theologians of Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aE8SDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |title=Opening the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity |location=New York City |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=77–80 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112597.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-19-511259-7 |s2cid=170858477 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> 

According to [[Steven Schwarzschild]], Maimonides' position has its source in his adoption of [[Aristotle]]'s skeptical attitude towards the ability of reason to arrive at moral truths,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schwarzschild |first=Steven S. |author-link=Steven Schwarzschild |date=July 1962 |title=Do Noachite Have to Believe in Revelation? (Continued) |journal=[[The Jewish Quarterly Review|Jewish Quarterly Review]] |volume=53 |issue=1 |location=[[Philadelphia]] |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |pages=44–45 |doi=10.2307/1453421 |jstor=1453421 |quote=the basic philosophical reason which compelled Maimonides to take this restrictive position toward the Noachides was the fact that he had learned from his teacher Aristotle and was ready also for religious reasons to believe that ethics are not a purely rational, philosophic or scientific discipline. Only the barest outline of general ethical principles can be defined by logical methods. The substance of the matter which resides in its details can be obtained only through positive statutes, traditions, or divine commands, none of which are produced by conscious, rational processes}}</ref> and {{qi|many of the most outstanding spokesmen of Judaism themselves dissented sharply from}} this position, which is {{qi|individual and certainly somewhat eccentric}} in comparison to other Jewish thinkers.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schwarzschild |first=Steven S. |author-link=Steven Schwarzschild |date=July 1962 |title=Do Noachite Have to Believe in Revelation? (Continued) |journal=[[The Jewish Quarterly Review|Jewish Quarterly Review]] |volume=53 |issue=1 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |pages=46–47 |doi=10.2307/1453421 |jstor=1453421}}</ref>

A novel understanding of Maimonides' position in the 20th century, advanced by the Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi [[Abraham Isaac Kook]], is that a non-Jew who follows the commandments due to philosophical conviction rather than revelation (what Maimonides calls {{qi|one of their wise men}}) ''also'' merits the World to Come; this would be in line with Maimonides' general approach that following philosophical wisdom advances a person more than following revelatory commands.<ref>''Iggerot HaReiyah'' 1:89, quoted in [https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/vl/noahides/noahides01.pdf Law and the Noahides], p.35</ref>