Turning to Torah

This fascinating book explains the search by a group of people, the Noachides, for a satisfactory religious belief. The Noachide movement, which has been growing for about 50 years, is based upon the seven ancient laws proclaimed by Noah in the Torah. Whereas there are over 600 laws in Torah governing only Jews, the seven laws of Noah were given to humanity in general--both to Jews and to Gentiles who wish to live religiously under Torah. As is true in any religion, hardships accompany the path of contemporary Noachides; and the author, herself a Noachide, deals with these sympathetically as well as autobiographically. Noachides do not have the support of communities, rituals or prayer books, for instance. One of the seven laws of Noah is a prohibition against idolatry. In their interpretation of this prohibition, the Noachides, who are monotheists, view worship of Jesus as idolatrous. Similarly, they believe the Torah to be the truth as revealed by God and the New Testament to have been written by human beings. The author's own spiritual quest, which has led her from the fundamentalist Christianity, through a near-conversion to Judaism and finally to Noachidism, seems at times to have caused her to substitute a literal belief in the Old Testament for a former one in the New. (Dec.)