What if you break a Noahide Law and don’t repent?
Here is some information about this from the book The Divine Code, 4th Edition:
“Any Gentile who recognizes the existence of the One True G-d, and accepts upon himself the yoke of the G-d’s Kingship and the responsibility to keep the Seven Noahide Commandments from the Torah of Moses, will merit to be resurrected to receive a portion in the future World to Come. This person has elevated himself to become a Pious Gentile (a Hassid).”
Many people are not familiar with the actual meaning of “the World to Come.” Some may be confusing it with the spiritual afterlife that is presently accessible to souls after physical death. The “World to Come” literally means the everlasting future era of the Resurrection. That is when G-dliness will be openly revealed in the physical creation. The World to Come will begin at some time after the start of the Messianic Era. The Messianic Era will soon be ushered in by the true Messiah. He will be a Torah-observant Jewish leader who is descended father-to-son from Kings David and Solomon.
In the World to Come, all death and spiritual negativity will be removed. Currently, the physicality of this world hides G-dliness from the creations. In the World to Come, G-dliness will be revealed through the physical creation. Then the physical world will be the highest state of spiritual existence. It will be higher than all the spiritual heavenly realms that presently exist.
What happens to a Gentile’s soul?
Sometimes a faithful practicing Noahide may commit an isolated transgression. For example this may happen due to weakness in the face of a severe temptation. But it does not mean that all is lost. If he remains committed to the faith and observance of the Noahide Code, he can remove the sin by repentance. (This is the inner meaning of the Covenant of the Rainbow.) It may be necessary for some difficulty to be Divinely decreed in order to complete the soul’s needed atonement. In that way, the soul can still keep its share in the future World to Come.
What currently happens, before the “World to Come” is established by G-d in the physical world and the Resurrection occurs? A person’s soul enters the spiritual realms after the death of the body. But a soul that doesn’t merit the future World to Come will at some point before then cease to exist. This will happen after it receives its due spiritual reward for any good deeds that were done.
A Gentile is judged by G-d according to the majority of his actions and ways. If his good deeds outweigh his unrepented sins, he will merit a reward for his soul in the Heavenly realm. [Even if a person’s unrepented sins outweigh his good deeds, G-d will grant him a reward for his good deeds. This can be bestowed either during his lifetime, or after his passing (which is more desirable).]
The weighing of a person’s deeds, and deciding what is the majority for his judgment, is done by G-d alone. [1]
When does G-d tilt the balance?
If a Gentile’s good deeds and unrepented sins are exactly balanced, then his soul will be saved from Gehinom [the name for purgatory], but not because he is found righteous in judgment. Rather, G-d will tilt a balanced judgment toward kindness.
Note: However, that only applies to one who does not have the sin of forbidden relations included in his judgment of being half sinful. If unrepented forbidden relations are part of a Gentile’s judgment of being half sinful, his soul is assigned to Gehinom for twelve months of purification, and afterwards it will have a correction [2] (to then receive a reward in the Heavenly realm for the good deeds that the person did).
This is a stringency regarding Divine judgment of the sin of forbidden relations for a Gentile, more than the judgment for deliberate violations of the commandments prohibiting theft or eating meat that was severed from a living animal. But the prohibitions of idol worship, blaspheming G-d’s Explicit Name [in Hebrew], and murder are the most severe of all, in that one who did not repent from deliberately committing any of these three sins has no reward at all for his soul in the Heavenly realm.
The liability to Divine punishment refers to one who did not repent from his sin as required. One who did the correct repentance is forgiven by G-d, as explained in The Divine Code, Part I, Chapter 9.
Footnotes
1. From Part I, footnote 29: Rambam writes in Laws of Kings 10:1 that a Gentile is liable for transgressing the Noahide Commandments due to negligence, since he should have learned them. But it seems that [Rambam] is only referring to a situation in which the general community knows the laws, yet this person excluded himself and didn’t learn them. If most of the members of the community don’t know the laws, one of these individuals is not liable unless he was … warned, since it was impossible for him to learn in his situation.
Since the laws of G-d are true and just, such a person would not be liable under these unavoidable circumstances. It is clear that this only applies to the Noahide commandments that need to be taught (since they are not dictated by logic), such as details of the prohibitions against worshiping idols.
2. There is not an explicit reference to reincarnation in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). But the holy writings of Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah and Chassidus all have many discussions about the fact of reincarnation of souls, including discussions of the reincarnations of individuals and groups throughout history.
