Hello, after learning in the first chapter of the book “Brit Shalom” about who are called the sons of Noah, what the acceptance of the seven commandments entails, and how one accepts these commandments, we will now deal with what is referred to in the second chapter as the "Fundamental Principles."
There are several fundamental principles in all the laws that apply to the sons of Noah, and to correctly understand all the laws pertaining to them, one must return to these fundamental principles. That is why I have brought here the verse from the Book of Shmot (Exodus): "And God spoke all these words, saying."
What are "all these words"? Within the fundamental principles, there are many details and sub-details that become numerous commandments. This is one of the reasons that, for example, when a Jew has a question about how to act or how to understand their laws, they turn to a rabbi. Likewise, it would be beneficial for the sons of Noah to have a social layer of wise individuals who understand the intricate details of the laws, so people can turn to them—like spiritual leaders of the sons of Noah.
Now, we must clarify the source from which we derive all this knowledge. The source is the word of the Creator, the word of God, who turned to humanity and revealed His Torah to humans through the prophets. Therefore, I have dedicated several paragraphs here to the question of the prophet.
A person comes and says, "Hello, I am a prophet." Well, then what? "If I am a prophet, you must listen to my words." So, prove it! It's not something simple or self-evident.
That's why I wrote in the first paragraph: "The will of the Creator is revealed to mankind through the channel of prophecy. The pinnacle of prophetic revelation is the giving of the Torah from heaven by God."
In other words, the Torah, the Torah of Moses, constitutes the highest level of prophetic revelation. However, there were also revelations before the giving of the Torah. Therefore, if someone comes today and claims to be a prophet, saying they were sent by God to instruct people in their actions, one must turn to the sages of Israel to determine their reliability and the extent of the obligation to heed their words. Since anyone can come and claim to be a prophet and command people, we cannot always accept this. There is a set of precise criteria to identify whether a person is a prophet who obligates us or not.
