JUDAISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The phrase 'human rights' itself being of juridic coinage, is of course not employed by classical sources of the Jewish religious tradition. But the system of values and ideas which constitutes the concept 'human rights' is hardly absent from the Jewish worldview (Polish, 1982, p. 40).

It would be easy to judge the Ten Commandments as being the first written and documented form of a declaration of, and for, human rights. However, the very basis for a statute of Human Rights predates Abraham, acknowledged as the first Jew. According to Rabbi Jonathan Klein, the basis for a Jewish tradition of Human Rights stems from the seven laws of B'nei Noach. These are "Laws for all humanity, according to the Rabbis, because they predate Abraham" (Klein, 2003, p. 1).

These seven Laws state that (1) Idolatry is forbidden, (2) Incestuous and adulterous relations are forbidden, (3) Murder is forbidden, (4) Cursing the name of God is forbidden, (5) Theft is forbidden, (6) Eating the flesh of a living animal is for bidden, and "(7) Mankind is commanded to establish courts of justice and a j

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Category: Philosophy - J