Introducing the First Covenant
"Judaism for Non-Jews" doesn't begin to convey the power, truth and majesty of the Rainbow Covenant - Earth's Universal Covenant, the Bible's First Covenant, also called the Noahide (or Noachide) Covenant, from Genesis 9 and the Flood story (the story of Noah, or in Hebrew, No'ach)- and the Seven Noahide Commandments.
What we're talking about is a timeless revolutionary program with many parts, beyond Judaism: a permanently operational world-redeeming movement designed to elevate all humanity to ever-higher, more civilized levels of competence, kindness, morality and truth.
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Many teachers and self-proclaimed authorities speak about this subject, but what we lay out here is a unique new paradigm, based on ancient authority and modern scholarship.
As one of our teachers, Rabbi Professor Nahum Rakover, author of Law and the Noahides: Law as a Universal Value (Israel Ministry of Justice, Jerusalem), recognized, as he put his stamp of approval on the method you'll see here, the Seven Commandments offer humanity a framework for righteousness, and sharp insight into the whole Torah, while the nations of the world must determine the details of their laws for themselves.
Anything you've heard about the Seven Laws being primitive or harsh, patriarchal, homophobic, ethnocentric or intolerant is false.
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The Rainbow Covenant's Seven Commandments Law is a much simpler, more straightforward body of instruction than the Ten Commandments of the later Mt. Sinai Covenant between God and Israel. But all Divine Law is related to all other Divine law.
The Seven Noahide Commandments, which are found in the Torah, belong to the same "Teaching," "Way" or "Law" as the Ten.
The Rainbow Covenant and the Seven Commandments came long before Moses and the Ten Commandments. First there was a universal revelation to Adam and Eve, then - ten generations later - to Noah (No'ach) and his family post-Flood, the Bible says; later, Moses and Israel came to Sinai. The Ten Commandments - from Mt. Sinai - lay down the Law only to Israel, the Jewish people, while the Seven Noahide Commandments apply to everybody - to all the descendants of Noah (No'ach) and Adam and Eve; that is, to everyone, Jew and Gentile.
Of course both sets of laws come from the same Deity. And both are designed to accomplish - together - the same result: world redemption.
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The Seven Rainbow Covenant Commandments are, simultaneously, a comprehensive body of law - Heaven's basic rules and instructions for living a moral, fully human life - a moral code, a compelling, logically harmonious eternally-modern worldview, and a philosophy.
We're just getting our feet wet with this new WordPress/GoDaddy-based website, but you can, in two short pages, learn all the basics of the Seven Commandments HERE
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The Rainbow Covenant is the original Biblical covenant with all Earth, particularly including mankind's legendary common ancestors, after the Flood. God specifically connects it, in Scripture, to the rainbow "I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and Earth." (Genesis 9)
A covenant is a formal, solemn, binding agreement - a contract, but on steroids. The Bible says that the Creator, God, first charged Adam and Eve in the Garden, as laid out in the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis. Ten generations later (in Genesis 9) He renewed and extended that charge and entered into the First Covenant, with Noah (in Hebrew, No'ach) and his wife (Na'ama), and with ALL their children and their children forever. We - every human being - is directly descended from Noah and Na'ama: we are ALL "children of Noah" (in Hebrew, b'nei No'ach), and we are all subject to, privileged and ennobled by that covenant.
Many generations later, the people of Israel, led by Moses, came to Mt. Sinai, and entered into the "Mosaic" Covenant, the Covenant of Sinai - the Torah and the Ten Commandments Covenant.
Of all the nations, only Israel, thanks to the miracle of Torah and the Scriptural work of Moses, kept alive so much of the memory and tradition of the First or Rainbow Covenant.
The Rainbow Covenant's Seven Commandments are, simultaneously, a comprehensive body of law, a philosophy, a moral code, and moral standards, and a compelling, logically harmonious, dynamic and ever-modern worldview.
Our chief focus here is on the remarkable Divine rules and instructions established in this system for living a moral, fully human, joyous life.
The God Who lovingly grants us life and free will also blesses us with the gift of His awesome, just, compassionate, and altogether holy guiding instructions, principles, and commandments.
First Covenant was founded by an American Jewish writer and lawyer, Michael Dallen; a Noachide thinker, a former long-time Baptist pastor, Jack E. Saunders, of blessed memory; and a zealous, brilliant Orthodox rabbi, Michael Katz. Rabbi Katz provides rabbinic supervision, trying to ensure the kashrut - the kosher quality - of all our work and particularly every Covenant Connection.
