Monday, December 18, 2006
NOACHIDE LAWS, CARDINAL MEJIA, AND ROME'S CHIEF RABBI
UPDATES ON THE NOAHIDE LAWS
"The Noachides & Rome's Chief Rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni"
"In Rome, on January 17, 2002, in the Lecture hall of the Major Roman Pontifical Seminary, a meeting was organized by the Diocese of Rome, part of the Day of Jewish-Christian dialogue. Present on the Catholic side were Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia and Msgr. Rino Fisichella, and on the Jewish side, Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, who replaced Rabbi Elio Toaff as Chief Rabbi of Rome...
"Rabbi Di Segni...explains [the seven precepts that all noachides must respect]:
"These rules are: interdiction of all worship except monotheism, interdiction on blasphemy, the obligation to form tribunals, the interdiction on homicide, theft, adultery, and incest, and the interdiction on eating food torn from living animals.
"...The Rabbi's attention is completely fixed on the first precept, that of monotheism: 'As to the monotheist cult, apparently, it poses no doubt for the major religions.' Aren't Judaism, Christianity and Islam defined, in post-conciliar language that has become colloquial today, as 'the three major monotheist religions? In fact, Di Segni sees no difficulty in defining Muslims as strict and even circumcised monotheists. But, as to Christians, he has some doubts....
christians: monotheists or idolators?
"This is where Di Segni---who is the author of the re-publication of the Toledoths Jehsu, under the new title, Il Vangelo del Ghetto [The Gospel of the Ghetto], with the Toledoths Jehsu being the most inflammatory Jewish legends against Jesus (1)---'speaks clearly' to the prelates who heard him:
"At the point we have now reached, it is necessary to make a clarification on Jewish theology, which, on the subject of monotheism and how it is lived by Christianity, gives rise to a debate that is essentially a dilemma. The point in question is in view of establishing whether Jesus' divinity can be compatible, for a non-Jew (because for a Jew it is absolutely not) with the monotheistic concept.
"In other words: The Jew who would become a Christian, thus then believing in the divinity of Jesus, would cease to be a monotheist in order to become an idolater. Must one say the same thing of a non-Jew? Is believing in Jesus' divinity a sin of idolatry, a violation of the first precept of the Noachide law? Rabbi Di Segni advises:
"'As to be expected, in Jewish theology, the answer to this question is not unanimous: some firmly deny it, others place certain conditions on it. The consequence is that, according to the literal opinion, the Christian would not be on the path of salvation' since he is guilty of idolatry...
"Di Segni concludes: 'If one must literally apply the Noachide system of laws, it [the punishment of death] would be applied to all, so that the Noachides might observe it. Likewise, the punishment of death would apply to what treats forbidding the worship of strange gods,' in view of monotheism."
There is also an explanation at the website of the relationship between Noahides and Freemasonry. In that explanation is a reference to the "eight persons saved in [the Ark], as the Ogdoad or sacred number..." Just recently I reported on a Mill Valley Mason who has formed his own Commandery of the Green Lion practicing the magic of the Ogdoadic Tradition. What is the relationship between the Ogdoadic Tradition and the Noahide Laws?
