[Avodah] Mitzvot bnai noach

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 06:18:52PM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
: The Minchat Chinuch discusses from time to time whether a mitzvah is
: applicable to Bnai Noach or not. If it is not one of the classic seven,
: might it be subsumed under dinim (laws)?..

I think the intent is that they're subsumed under one of the 7. R/Dr
Aharon Lichtenstein in his book "The Seven Laws of Noah" (RJJ press, 1981)
count out a subdivision of the 7MBN into 52 lavin and 14 mitzvos asei.
So, for example, RAL writes that geneivah includes lo sachmod.

While the MC (#414-415) says that the mitzvos describing the proper
functioning of beis din apply to their courts too, that may just be
because that's the appropriate mitzvah of the 7 for these tolados (to
borrow a term). And IMHO he too holds that all 7 mitzvah has such
"tolados".

:           Does the Bnai Noach king have unlimited power to make his own
: law as long as it doesn't contradict the seven?

I believe so. Discussions of dina demalkhusa dina disagree over the
source of that authority, but they take for granted that some kind of
authority is granted.

There is a related question that you come close to... What's the role of
a Noachide court under dinim:

The Ramban says (Bereshis 34:14) it is to keep an orderly society.
This would be the civil gov't's source of authority to legislate; once
we figure out how halakhah decides what is a real government -- who is a
king and who is an illegal pretender to the throne. The Rama (shu"t #10)
and the Chasam Sofer (CM 91) hold that where meaningful, that law should
be made consistent with halakhah (the 613). In contrast the AhS haAsid
(Malekhim 79:14), RIESpektor (Nachals Yitzchaq CM 91), the CI (Melakhim
10:10) and ROY (Yechaveh Daat 4:65) hold that they "merely" need to be
fair and just. But all of these disputants are assuming that "dinim"
includes civil law, they are arguing over what the resulting civil law
needs to look like.

But it could also be that dinim is meant to be the means of enforcing the
other 6. This is shitas haRambam  (Melachim 10:14). The Rambam, in shu"t
Chakhmei Provance (#48) has nafqa minos between the laws they pass in
relation to the Noachide laws and other laws of the land.

See https://www.jlaw.com/Articles/noach2.html

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It's nice to be smart,
micha at aishdas.org        but it's smarter to be nice.
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