The Universal Commandment

A study of the universal commandment as given to Adam, as given to Noah, as given to Mashiach.

The Universal Commandment

Hashem Elohim said to the Adam, you may freely eat of all the trees of the Garden...

A Study of The Light of Torah For The Nations

If all the nations were to agree that there is a universal commandment given from above that all people everywhere ought to obey they would, no doubt agree that this universal commandment would be the principle called the golden rule.  This rule is expressed in various forms in virtually all the nations of the world.  Even if all the nations to agree that this rule might be a commandment from Above, what would not be known or understood is that this rule was actually, according to the first book of the Torah of Israel, given in its primary form as a commandment in the Garden of Eden to all the human race.

According to the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Torah, the one who gave this commandment to Adam, and thus to the human family, is called, in the Hebrew language, Hashem Elohim.  The Hebrew word, "Hashem," means, "The Name", and Hashem Elohim is translated in English versions of the Book of Genesis as, The Lord God.  In the Torah and in the Jewish faith, in using the Hebrew language, Hashem, The Name, which is a four letter name spelled using the three Hebrew letters, yod, and heh and vav, is both written and sometimes pronounced, but cannot accurately or rightly be translated or transliterated into other languages.  Nevertheless, it is this one, Hashem Elohim, who the Book of Genesis reveals gave the universal commandment to Adam and the human family.  In this book I will talk about the universal commandment as it is revealed in the Torah book of Genesis.

Freewill And The Universal Commandment

It is important before looking at the primary form of the universal commandment to understand its relation to freewill.  According to the record of the Torah in the first book of the Torah, Beresheet, or Genesis in English, freewill was given to Adam through the universal commandment.  The commandment was not given to someone who already possessed the power of freewill.  Rather, the commandment was given to one whose will was priviously restricted by necessity and gave him the opportunity of obedience to God.  It was in being given the possibility of obedience to the commandment of God that Adam was given freewill.  Without the commandment Adam did not have the possiblity of freewill.  And should Adam disobey or break the commandment he would no longer have the possibility of the power of freewill obedience to God. If this should happen, it would only be by an act of God's grace restoring the commandment to Adam through a new or renewed giving of the commandment that the power of freewill could be restored to him.

According to the Bible, the power and right of human choice is not unrestricted and inalienable.  One is not free and empowered to choose to do anything they would like, whether it is good or evil.  Someone might aruge that even according to the Bible, people are free and empowered to do evil, if the choose, as well as good, but if they do evil they will pay  for the consequences.  This arguement only goes so far.  If people choose to do evil before too long the consequences themselves will lead to death and universal destruction.  Thus, the choice not to obey God's commandment will itself take away people's freedom of will and bring them back under the control of necessity, in this case, the necessity of death.

It will be necessary to understand this relationship between the universal commandment and freewill in order to understand the way in which the form of the universal commandment changes from its primary form in which it was given in the Garden of Eden, before Adam broke it, to the form it has taken in the world since then.  This will be explained.

See Sanhedrin 56a  and following.