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Jerusalem Court for Issues of Bnei
Noah
Description
Rabbi Yoel Schwartz,
received the blessing of leading hareidi-religious Rabbi Shalom
Elyashiv to engage in the project of creating a court and
infrastructure for B'nai Noah. Rabbi
Schwartz is the Deputy Chancellor, Segan Av Beit Din, of the
nascent Sanhedrin. He is also the Chief Justice, Av Beit Din,
of this court, the Special Court
for Matters
Concerning Bnei Noah, known in Hebrew as Beit Din L'inyanei Bnei
Noach, or BDBN.
This court has been set up to serve
the
needs of
B'nei
Noach worldwide.
Judaism does not view itself as a universal religion, instead it sees
itself as a national faith. This is understood within the context
of the
Jewish teaching that there are seventy nations or groups of people in
the world. Each group of people must develop its own
form
of worship, unique to its own character. There is however a basic
minimum common to all proper faiths, and this is the Noahide
teachings. The Sanhedrin, through this court, is required to play
a role in helping to
clarify these most basic teachings, and each group of people in turn
must set
up its own religious court to expand, develop and adapt these laws to
fit the needs of its community of believers.
At this point, the council will not serve as a
adjudicating
body, and will only serve to clarify halachic issues concerning the
Bnai Noah. A justice on the court said: "One of the goals is to
delineate clearly the seven laws and their applications according to
the
Mishneh Torah of the Rambam." The court
accepts requests for halachic rulings from B'nei
Noach throughout the world.
Rabbi Steinsaltz called for an extensive project to
be undertaken to help B'nai Noah in the nitty-gritty details of the
observance
of the religion. "A Shulhan Arukh [Jewish Law Code] for B'nai Noah must
be
written so that the individual can have guidance as to what to do,"
Steinsaltz said, referring to the compendium of practical Jewish law
written by
Rabbi Yosef Karo of Tzfat in the 1560's that is still used today.
Leading Justices
Rabbi Yoel Shwartz, Av
Beith Ha-Din (Chief Justice) |
Rabbi Yoel
Shwartz An
outstanding Torah scholar and prolific writer has published over 200
seforim. He is a product of the great Yeshivot Poneviz and Mir and
merited to study with the famous Mashgiach of Yeshivat Mir, Rabbi Chaim
Shmuelevitch zt"l. As a past Mashgiach in Yeshivat Itri and currently a
Ram in Yeshivat Dvar Yerushalayim, Rabbi Schwartz brings scores of
years of experience in Torah education to the Nahal Haredi. Rabbi
Schwartz has served as a spiritual advisor and educator since the
inception of the program in 1999. He resides in Jerusalem with his
wife, children and grandchildren.
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Rabbi
Yishayahu
Hollander
Segan Av
Beith Ha-Din
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Rabbi
Yeshayahu [Julius] HaKohen Hollander. Editor of a new publication of Talmud Bavli with Rashi embedded,
previously he was a Ram in Yeshivat Hesder. He learned at Yeshiva Poneviz
and Kollel
Valozin, and merited to study under Rabbi Yitzhak Kolitz z"l, Chief
Rabbi of Jerusalem. He holds a M.Sc. Theoretical Physics at Hebrew University and is a licensed Patent Attorney with twenty
five
years in industry. He was a general manager of Heled Educational
Experiences and taught
in Ricanati School for Economics at Tel Aviv University. Born in New York in 1937, came to Israel
in 1948.
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Rabbi Dov
Avraham Ben-Shorr |
Rabbi
Dov Avraham Ben-Shorr is the
founder and dean of Beith David Yeshiva. He is an author, shohet,
mohel, and sofer stam. Past articles
by this author include "Removing the Labels, Finding Unity" and "A Tale
of Two Camps". He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, lives with his family in the
community of Ma´aleh (Pnei) Hever near Hebron.
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Legal Rulings & Opinions
The Beith Din for Bnei Noah is
working diligently and methodically to research complicated issues
related to the seven laws of Noah, attempting to consult all of the
relevant Rabbinic authorities. The practical application of the
Noachide laws is made difficult by the frequently wide divergence of
opinion found within the various Rabbinic authorities
concerning details of many Noachide laws. A simple example illustrates
this, in the Jerusalem Talmud it recounts that there is no formal
divorce
according to Noachide law.(Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 1:1; see
generally Malachim 2:16.), yet the rishonim understand this in three
completely different ways: no divorce allowed, no divorce required,
only the wife may divorce.
To date, the Beith Din for
Bnei Noah has not issued any halachic ruling. The types of the
issues being considered are:
- The various forms of Brit/Oath
recommend by some Noahide groups
- Which laws require capital
punishment and which require a system of monetary fines
- Regional or national.differences in Noahide legal systems
- Divorce
- Abortion
The Beith Din for Bnei Noah is
at this
time trying to review various
Noahide groups and approaches, and
provide its halachic opinion for Bnei Noah worldwide to
consider.
Legal Rulings & Opinions (most
recent first)
External Links
The Beith Din for Bnei Noah
hopes to compile a list of websites with our official endorsement in
the near future.
Other sites may receive a note of warning over specific content.
It
should not be assumed that the lack of mention of any particular site
implies anything by the Beith Din. Anyone who would
like to submit a site is most welcome.
Councils
This website was
established by "Volunteers for the Sanhedrin Initiative Online" in
consultation with the nascent Sanhedrin.
It is authorized to distribute information. However the material
presented here has not necessarily been
reviewed by the Sanhedrin and may or may not represent the official
position of the Sanhedrin
Copyright © 2006-2008, All rights reserved.
webmaster@thesanhedrin.org
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