90 Laws

Author’s Preface. The purpose of this book is to explain the fundamentals of the legislation, the observance of which is obligatory for everyone. Here will be listed 90 laws, derived from the seven commandments bestowed by the Creator upon all humanity. I have not sought to explain all the details of observance; the goal was only to outline them in general terms and set forth the principles and ideas associated with their implementation. The laws are numbered according to the order in which they are presented and divided into seven categories, corresponding to the commandments on which they are based. I do not mean to imply by this that there is a fixed number of such laws. I also do not rule out the possibility that some aspects of the commandments will not be fully covered here, and that the division into individual laws could be accomplished differently, resulting in a different listing. To facilitate the comprehension of the text, the book provides virtually no references to sources. Most of these references can be found in my book, The Seven Commandments of the Almighty (in Hebrew), where I provide a detailed justification for each conclusion based on the sources and their interpretation. Here, I will cite only the verses of Scripture, as well as the most famous or particularly significant sayings of the Talmudic sages and medieval legislators. I called this book The Ninety Laws, rather than The Ninety Commandments, to clearly distinguish between the two concepts: commandment and law. The commandments, imposed on all humanity, are contained in the words of the Torah. However, many details of their observance are not directly explained in the text of Scripture, but are deduced from it logically, in accordance with the rules of research and interpretation received by our teacher Moses at Sinai and preserved in the Oral Torah. Furthermore, although some commandments are contained directly in the text of the Torah, the sages prefer to trace them back to one or another of the seven universal commandments, which is why I have called this book “The Ninety Laws.” It will discuss the laws that all people must observe, regardless of whether they are directly stated in the text of the Torah or derived from it through rules preserved in the Oral Torah.

Format : Softcover. Volume: 130 pages. Weight: 200 grams