Embrace the Relevance of Oneness
Seven Laws for a Beautiful Planet, The Noahide Tradition
By Tzvi Freeman
The first principle of Noah is that the Essence of Being cares about what we are doing and wants something from us.
Noah looked upon Planet Earth and saw that every life upon it breathes with purpose and meaning. He saw himself and his children as its stewards, charged with a duty and a mission.
To have purpose, the universe must have a singular core—a conscious and deliberate Essence of Being that chooses to care about the reality that extends from it.
Every culture has its names for this essential oneness behind reality. One thing is agreed by all:
We are not talking about a being, physical or spiritual, that can be known or defined in any way. After all, this essence is responsible for all being and all form—so it itself transcends all being and form. Even the terms of “existence” or “non-existence” could not apply.
Nevertheless, the Noah tradition insists that this unknowable oneness cares about our reality and is accessible to us through prayer and deeds; that reality is not an accident —every detail of life is deliberate and is filled with purpose and meaning.
The Essence desires to be found in each thing. Why? It is a passion beyond reason. Reason, after all, is just another idea that this Essential Oneness sustains.
That essential consciousness spoke from within the first members of humanity. From its voice, we learned that acts of kindness, caring, prayer, wisdom and enlightenment put us in harmony with the universe. Murder, theft, adultery, incest and wanton cruelty to living creatures—all these and everything associated with them are destructive to that relationship. And we were told to administer justice.
How were these laws forgotten? As time progressed, people came to rely more on their own meek understanding and less on that voice from beyond. They understood that there is only one Supreme Essence, but they decided that the many forces of nature were also worth considering as conscious, semi-autonomous beings. “After all,” they said, “how can you talk to the Essence of Being? How could such a being care about us? We need something we can relate to.”
That’s how the idea of a pantheon of gods first became popular. It wasn’t long before temples were raised to those many forces and beings. Soon there were physical representations, so that people could focus their minds and hearts on manipulating the cosmic flow. Later, another generation arose that only knew the outer rituals, completely blind to the inner meaning.
Eventually, humanity deteriorated to the point that the common man and woman knew only the wood and stone and believed these to be the gods who controlled their lives. Those seekers and hermits who knew the truth dared not share it save with their closest disciples.
With idolatry, came the downfall of human dignity. Rulers claimed to be gods and treated their subjects as inferior beings. The only lives that were valued were those that were considered close to the gods.
Until a lofty soul entered the world and turned the tide. His name was Abraham and he too was raised in the idolatry and superstition of the time. But he took these practices seriously, pondered their meaning, and realized they were lies.
With no teacher to guide him, he perceived that all the forces of nature worked in synchronous harmony. He chose to bond his soul not with the fire and not with the sun, not with the sky and not with the wind, not with the heavenly constellations and not with the invisible spirits, but with the singular divinity that breathes within them all. Eventually, he came to understand that this great force of nature, as well, was only a manifestation of the all-transcendent Source of Being from which all existence originates.
Abraham's ideas threatened the authority of the god-kings and their appointed priests. He defied them openly, declaring that every human being could call directly upon the Ultimate Authority for all his needs, for compassion and for justice.
The ancient Greeks and Egyptians mention Abraham as a great sage and astronomer. Three great religions consider him their patriarch.
Some Jewish teachings trace the monotheistic concept of Brahman—which seems closely related to his name—derives from his teachings. Without his conviction that there is harmony in the many opposites of nature, the quest of science would not be possible.
After Abraham's passing, the world slipped back into darkness. His children carried on his path in a hostile world. Eventually they, too, as slaves in Egypt, became steeped in falseness and the seedling Abraham had planted almost withered and died.
It was then that another revolutionary arose. Moses liberated the children of Abraham and brought them to the desolate peninsula of Sinai. There, he arranged a meeting of heaven and earth, so that all the people would not only understand, but also see for themselves that all of reality is sustained by a single Being, one that imbues all life with meaning. They received laws by which to guide their lives and the lives of their children after them. And they were appointed to a mission: to preserve Noah’s teaching and Abraham’s message, spreading it to all peoples and nations wherever their travels would take them.
Mount Sinai was a watershed event for humankind. Until that point, Abraham’s message was the conviction of a single man, arrived at by his own intuition. Abraham was a man reaching upward, to connect with the light beyond. At Sinai, it was that Infinite Light itself that reached inward, touching humankind, asking us to let It in.
The difference is crucial: The foundation was no longer human reason, but the will of that which transcends all reason. Human reason provides a shifting foundation; eventually it must fail—as Abraham’s message withered after his passing. The foundation of Sinai came from beyond space and time.
Today, over 50% of the world acknowledges Abraham as the father of their belief systems. Yet Abraham’s vision has still yet to ripen. We are standing on the threshold of that dream. The rest is up to us.
Source Text:
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4157474/jewish/Seven-Laws-for-a-Beautiful-Planet.htm#Power
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