Introducing the First Covenant
"Judaism-Lite" and "Judaism for Non-Jews" doesn't begin to bring out the majesty, sublimity and truth of the Universal Covenant - also called the Rainbow Covenant, the Noahide or Noachide Covenant, and the First Covenant - and its Seven Universal Commandments.
Judaism itself isn't just a cult for a people called Jews but a timeless revolutionary world historical movement with many parts, designed to elevate the whole human race - including devotees of every religion - to successively higher levels of competence, kindness, wisdom and morality. The First or Rainbow Covenant that's part of the Jewish system comes from the most ancient universal revelations of Divine truths which are the foundations of all that is Jewish. Its Universal Law, the Seven Commandments, are the precursor and necessary antecedent to Abraham, the first Jew, and to the Revelation in the Sinai wilderness and the Torah of Moses. It's also a wondrously complete and comprehensive body of the deepest legal and moral acuity - the Seven Universal Commandments - which exists alongside and profoundly complements the more-famous Ten Commandments.
The difference is that the Seven Commandments, unlike the Ten, are for everybody, everywhere and always. There's nothing in them commanding any particular theology or any religious practices. The Jews' seventh-day Sabbath isn't part of the Universal Law. For pagans, atheists, Christians, Muslims, pantheists and skeptics, the Seven Commandments apply uniformly to all humanity, while teaching everyone who cares to learn what it takes to build a wholesome, successful civilization and a decent, upright individual.
Despite its ecumenical, non-religious nature, the Seven Commandments' Universal Law system is designed to bring all the inhabitants of the world to truth and blessing. The fact is, the ultimate aim of both legal systems, the Seven Commandments and the Jews' Ten Commandments, is to bring all human beings into conscious, voluntary service of El, or God (borrowing the word for Deity from ancient German paganism), the eternal heavenly Creator and Master of all things, the "King" of Israel and the Shield of Abraham - the holy living Deity Who is also called "Lord."
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The First or Rainbow Covenant is the original Biblical covenant with mankind's legendary common ancestors, the Universal Covenant, associated with 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. El, the Creator, entered into the First Covenant with Adam and Eve in the Garden, as the Bible teaches, in the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis, and then amplified and extended it ten generations later, with Noah (in Hebrew, No'ach) and his wife (Na'ama) and ALL their children and descendants (Genesis 9). Every human being is directly descended from Noah and Na'ama: we are ALL "children of Noah" (in Hebrew, b'nei No'ach) and subject to that covenant.
Our focus here, obviously, isn't just theology - knowledge of "theos," or Deity - but the remarkable Divine rules and instructions established in this system for living a moral, fully human, joyous life.
El, or Yah, God, HaShem, or El-Shaddai, the Lord, holds us all responsible, as the Torah teaches, for upholding and advancing certain fundamental principles.
These principles, "the Commandments of the Descendants of Noach," are said to number seven. Hebrew Tradition (the Torah, the Teaching, or Guidance, which is the Bible, from Genesis to Psalms and Proverbs to the end of Chronicles, NOT including the so-called Christian "New Testament") teaches that all seven flow logically and directly from His great Revelation to all humanity that He created us - all of us, every human being - as uniquely exalted, spiritually promising creatures under Heaven: that we are all fundamentally brothers, of every culture, race and nation, and that each of us is sacred, on a level with every human being, and that He, amazingly, loves us all, individually and together, like a Father.
The main point is that He, the infinite, unknowable, but altogether awesome "Father," an unimaginable eternal super-intelligent living Being Who is the Creator, Judge, and Lord of the whole cosmos, and every point and particle within them - created us all. And that He 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, a Noachide former Baptist pastor and writer, and an Orthodox rabbi, Michael Katz. Rabbi Katz provides rabbinic supervision, trying to ensure the kashrut - the kosher quality - of all our work products, including every Covenant Connection.
