Where in the World is B'nai Noach? (Parshat Noach)
The "B'nai Noach" movement disappeared. Or did it just become podcasts?
By Rabbi Patrick Beaulier
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If you like this post, read our previous piece on Parshat Bereishit.
Week 2: Parshat Noach
Torah Portion: Genesis 6:9 - 11:32
Haftarah Portion: Isaiah 54:1 - 55:5
Summary: Noah's story and the Tower of Babel illustrate the consequences of human actions. The Haftarah speaks of God's everlasting love and covenant, connecting to the theme of God's promise and protection.
Thematic Connection: Consequences of Actions
Thirteen years ago I learned about a concept called B’nai Noach. I already knew about it, but the idea was being floated on websites and experimental religious communities that a kind of para-Judaism or Judaism For Non-Jews can (and should) exist.
This is what I noticed at the time.
My inbox is filled with emails about the Noachide Movement (aka B’nai Noach), most recently an article by Gordon Haber in Killing the Buddha.
Noahides are, according to Haber, gentiles who believe that Judaism is the true path but that they don’t have to be Jews to follow it. Thus they refer to God as “Hashem,” study Torah and Talmud, and follow a kind of halakhah-lite—the Seven Laws of Noah, as opposed to the 613 mitzvot for Jews.
If you want to Build-A-Noachide, you need a few basic ingredients:
A Christian who has lost faith in the divinity of Jesus
A passion for Judaism (especially Orthodoxy)
An utter disinterest in becoming Jewish
An honest question: if you enjoy celebrating Shabbat, studying Torah, learning Hebrew, meeting to discuss Talmudic ethics and making sweet promo love with Chabad-Lubavitch, then why not skip the B’nai Noach middle man and become Jewish?
To become a Christian, one simply decides to have faith in Jesus. To become a Buddhist, you simply “take refuge” to the Buddha, his teachings and community. Islam: one phrase, and that’s it.
Judaism takes a year at least (note: Darshan Yeshiva is ten months). There are hurdles to jump through, classes to take, an entire culture to absorb, and even then, you’re a ger tzedek and even though technically no one is supposed to point out you’re a convert…well kid…you are.
So I’m wondering whether the B’nai Noach movement is really about Judaism’s conversion-prevention-stigma. We’re so obsessed with being the religion that “doesn’t proselytize” that we have driven people to create a New Religious Movement that’s basically Judaism-lite.
I guess it comes down to this: if a group of people want to believe Jewish, study Jewish, pray Jewish and do Jewish, yet have to make a new religion that is not Jewish…then what does that say about Judaism today?
The world has certainly changed a lot in thirteen years, with the growth of progressive kiruv, websites like ours, and an entire culture of Jewish influencers (including conversion to Judaism influencers). The doors in American Jewish life are open, at least to most people, and while Europe and other areas are still hands-off when it comes to conversion to Judaism, the overall conversation around Jewish identity is much more open than a decade ago.
So it begs the question: did all the B’nai Noach just become Jewish? I don’t think so.
The milieu of Judaism Without Judaism simply transformed. It became a renewed interest through podcasts in the idea of Biblical Psychology. It became a culture of ex-Christians who began reading the Bible for literary meaning (as opposed to literal meaning) for the first time. It became the world of pop culturally available Biblical scholarship…mostly through YouTube interviews. It became the long form lectures of the Petersons and Shapiros and their like.
B’nai Noach did not become its own religious movement…at least not in a substantial way that I can find. Instead, it became part of the ever growing social media empires being created by spiritual entrepreneurs.
And maybe that’s OK. Not everything needs to be a movement. No everything needs to have a building, a board, and non-profit status. Maybe some things can just be ideas that exist in the world, like fruit that’s ripe for the picking.
As an aside, if you think of yourself as B’nai Noach or at least in that place in life, consider taking our Comprehensive Jewish Studies course, if only for all the biblical studies videos.