What Are the Seven Noahide Laws, and Who Must Observe Them?

1. Non-Jews are obligated to observe the seven Noahide laws, just like the Jewish people are commanded to observe the 613 mitzvot (commandments).

2. According to the Rambam, the seven Noahide laws include the following prohibitions and commandments:

- The prohibition of idolatry (it is forbidden to worship idols).

- "Blessing" Hashem (this is a euphemism): One is forbidden to curse the name of Hashem.

- The prohibition of murder

- The prohibition of forbidden sexual relations

- The prohibition of theft

- The prohibition of eating a limb from a living animal (meaning an animal must be dead before it can be consumed). 

- The commandment to establish courts of law (meaning, a justice system).

3. There is a common denominator between the Ten Commandments and the seven Noahide laws, and they both include the three major prohibitions of idolatry, bloodshed, and forbidden sexual relations (which have the status of yeihareig ve'al ya'avor, which indicates that it is preferable to die than transgress these prohibitions). 

4. According to the Rambam, Adam was commanded to observe six commandments, while the prohibition that forbids eating a limb from a living animal, the seventh commandment, was given to Noach after he was granted the right to eat meat (as opposed to just plants and vegetation). Rashi disagrees and maintains that Adam was also prohibited from consuming a limb from a living animal.

6. The prohibition of murder and the prohibition of eating a limb from a living animal are both commandments that are explicitly mentioned in the Torah. The Talmud (Sanhedrin, page 56a) lists the other five commandments that, according to tradition, were commanded to Noach's children: The Rabbis taught: Seven commandments were commanded to the children of Noah: establishing courts, blessing Hashem, idolatry, forbidden sexual relations, bloodshed, theft, and eating a limb from a living animal.

7. The seven Noahide laws are general principles that branch out into many important details of law, which the Rambam compiled in the Laws of Kings (Chapter 9). According to Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano, the seven Noahide laws include a total of thirty commandments.

8. Some Talmudic sages maintain that other commandments were included in the Noahide laws. For example, Rabbi Chanania ben Gamliel maintains that non-Jews were also forbidden to eat blood from living animals, and Rabbi Shimon maintains that they were forbidden from engaging in sorcery, among other things.

9. "Any non-Jew who does not accept the commandments that the children of Noah were commanded to observe is put to death if he is under our authority. Anyone who accepts the seven commandments and is careful to observe them is considered one of the pious among the nations and has a share in the World to Come. This applies when he accepts them and performs them because Hashem commanded them in the Torah and informed us through Moshe, our teacher, that the descendants of Noach had been commanded to observe them previously. But if he observes them because of logical reasoning, he is not considered a ger toshav (resident alien) and is not one of the pious among the nations, but rather one of their wise men."

(Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars, Chapter 8).

10. According to the Rambam's ruling, at a time when the Jewish people are the governing authority, they should enforce the seven Noahide laws in the Land of Israel, and any resident non-Jew who does not observe these laws is put to death: "Moshe, our teacher, commanded by Divine word that all people of the world should be compelled to accept the commandments given to Noach's descendants, and whoever does not accept them shall be put to death" (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars, Chapter 8, Law 13).