Moral Relativism, the Taliban and the 7 Laws of Noah

Rabbi Melanie Aron

October 20, 2001

The last quarter of the 20th century was marked by the influence of the philosophical position of moral relativism, in which it is often argued that what is wrong for me, may still be right for you. I have observed people becoming more and more reluctant to make value judgments about the actions of others, deferring to the argument that it is all relative, that every culture, and possibly every action, is legitimate from its own vantage point.

Even before September 11th, the acceptance of this moral relativism was strained for feminists by the Taliban's treatment of women. From a logical standpoint, if it's just a matter of different cultures, and one culture is just as good as another, then it shouldn't matter that the literacy rate among women in Afghanistan, 15% and declining, is incredibly low, and that Afghanistan is one of a very few countries in the world where the life expectancy for women is lower than the life expectancy for men, even though the life expectancy for men in Afghanistan is unusually low because of war, poverty, and poor medical care.

Feminist found themselves realizing that this is not just a matter of you say tomato and I say tomato. They discovered within themselves a strong commitment to an absolutist position, that all human beings, woman included, are entitled to certain rights, even in a different culture, even halfway around the world.

Notwithstanding Thomas Freedman's view that all our problems will be solved by the universal proliferation of McDonald's restaurants, we know that imposing American culture in all parts of the world would not be welcome. Still, as we attempt to put together an international coalition against terrorism, we are arguing by implication, that there should be some things that all the nations of the world would be able to agree upon, some minimal standard that all nations will accept, some kind of universal natural law of human relations.

Ryan's Torah portion speaks to this issue in the section after the flood and before the Tower of Babel. When Noah comes out of the ark he makes a sacrifice and enters into a covenant with God. This covenant is understood by our tradition to be universal in its outlook, to make certain demands on all humanity, just as the covenant at Sinai, the particularistic Jewish covenant, made numerous demands upon the Jewish people. It showed that the God of the Bible cares not just for the Jewish people but for all humanity. The universal covenant of Noah is understood to include the seven laws of Noah, which are listed in the Tosefta as:

1. the establishments of courts of justice and the rule of law

2. the prohibition of idolatry

3. the prohibition of blasphemy

4. the prohibition of sexual immorality

5. the prohibition of the taking of a life

6. the prohibition of theft

7. the prohibition of tearing a limb from a living animal

These seven laws are fundamental expectations that God has for all humanity. The ban on idolatry and blasphemy were not understood as a requirement that non-Jews convert to Judaism. In fact, Judaism accepted the two major religions in which it came in contact in post-rabbinic times, Christianity and Islam, as being forms of monotheism. But this ban on idolatry and blasphemy does allow for the possibility that not everything which calls itself religion is truly the worship of God.

Concerning the ethical laws, later scholars developed these Noahide laws into a system of natural laws, laws that reason would arrive at in the absence of any divine revelation. These laws are pretty simple- thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not rape, thou shalt not practice cruelty, even to animals, but also pretty sophisticated in requiring, as they do, the rule of law and the administration of justice. These laws were meant to prevent the world from falling back into the state which precipitated the flood, a state of corruption and violence- described in the Bible as chamas. As I look out at the world and at the coalition we are putting together, these seven laws of Noah, if adopted by all the nations, could only be an improvement upon the chamas, the violence and lawlessness with which we are living.