The Truth about the Talmud

A Documented Exposé of Jewish racist Hate Literature

By Michael Hoffman, foremost scholar of Judaism in the English-speaking world

NOTE; YOU WILL NOT FIND THE REAL VERSION OF THE TALMUD, AN ANCIENT, HIGHLY PROTECTED AND SECRETIVE BOOK ANYWHERE BUT HERE!!!

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Introduction

The Talmud is Judaism’s holiest book (actually a collection of books). Its authority takes precedence over the Old Testament in Judaism. Evidence of this may be found in the Talmud itself, Erubin 21b (Soncino edition): “My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah (Old Testament).”

The supremacy of the Talmud over the Bible in the Israeli state may also be seen in the case of the black Ethiopian Jews. Ethiopians are very knowledgeable of the Old Testament. However, their religion is so ancient it pre-dates the Scribes’ Talmud, of which the Ethiopians have no knowledge. According to the N.Y. Times of Sept. 29, 1992, p.4:

“The problem is that Ethiopian Jewish tradition goes no further than the Bible or Torah; the later Talmud and other commentaries that form the basis of modern traditions never came their way.”

Because they are not traffickers in Talmudic tradition, the black Ethiopian Jews are discriminated against and have been forbidden by the Zionists to perform marriages, funerals and other services in the Israeli state.

Rabbi Joseph D. Soloveitchik is regarded as one of the most influential rabbis of the 20th century, the “unchallenged leader” of Orthodox Judaism and the top international authority on halakha (Jewish religious law). Soloveitchik was responsible for instructing and ordaining more than 2,000 rabbis, “an entire generation” of Jewish leadership.

N.Y. Times religion reporter Ari Goldman described the basis of the rabbi’s authority:

“Soloveitchik came from a long line of distinguished Talmudic scholars…Until his early 20s, he devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of the Talmud…He came to Yeshiva University’s Elchanan Theological Seminary where he remained the pre-eminent teacher in the Talmud…He held the title of Leib Merkin professor of Talmud…sitting with his feet crossed in front of a table bearing an open volume of the Talmud.” (N.Y. Times, April 10, 1993, p. 38).

Nowhere does Goldman refer to Soloveitchik’s knowledge of the Bible as the basis for being one of the leading authorities on Jewish law.

The rabbi’s credentials are all predicated upon his mastery of the Talmud. Other studies are clearly secondary. Britain’s Jewish Chronicle of March 26, 1993 states that in religious school (yeshiva), Jews are “devoted to the Talmud to the exclusion of everything else.”

The Talmud Nullifies the Bible

The Jewish Scribes claim the Talmud is partly a collection of traditions Moses gave them in oral form. These had not yet been written down in Jesus’ time. Christ condemned the traditions of the Mishnah (early Talmud) and those who taught it (Scribes and Pharisees), because the Talmud nullifies the teachings of the Holy Bible.

Shmuel Safrai in The Literature of the Sages Part One (p.164), points out that in chapters 4 and 5 of the Talmud’s Gittin Tractate, the Talmud nullifies the Biblical teaching concerning money-lending: “Hillel decreed the prozbul for the betterment of the world. The prozbul is a legal fiction which allows debts to be collected after the Sabbatical year and it was Hillel’s intention thereby to overcome the fear that money-lenders had of losing their money.”

The famous warning of Jesus Christ about the tradition of men that voids Scripture (Mark 7:1-13), is in fact, a direct reference to the Talmud, or more specifically, the forerunner of the first part of it, the Mishnah, which existed in oral form during Christ’s lifetime, before being committed to writing. Mark chapter 7, from verse one through thirteen, represents Our Lord’s pointed condemnation of the Mishnah.

Unfortunately, due to the abysmal ignorance of our day, the widespread “Judeo-Christian” notion is that the Old Testament is the supreme book of Judaism. But this is not so. The Pharisees teach for doctrine the commandments of rabbis, not God.

The Talmudic commentary on the Bible is their supreme law, and not the Bible itself. That commentary does indeed, as Jesus said, void the laws of God, not uphold them. As students of the Talmud, we know this to be true.

Jewish scholar Hyam Maccoby, in Judaism on Trial, quotes Rabbi Yehiel ben Joseph: “Further, without the Talmud, we would not be able to understand passages in the Bible…God has handed this authority to the sages and tradition is a necessity as well as scripture. The Sages also made enactments of their own…anyone who does not study the Talmud cannot understand Scripture.”

There is a tiny Jewish sect which makes considerable effort to eschew Talmud and adhere to the Old Testament alone. These are the Karaites, a group which, historically, has been most hated and severely persecuted by orthodox Jewish rabbinate.

To the Mishnah the rabbis later added the Gemara (rabbinical commentaries). Together these comprise the Talmud. There are two versions, the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud.

The Babylonian Talmud is regarded as the authoritative version: “The authority of the Babylonian Talmud is also greater than that of the Jerusalem Talmud. In cases of doubt the former is decisive.” (R.C. Musaph-Andriesse, From Torah to Kabbalah: A Basic Introduction to the Writings of Judaism, p. 40).

This study is based on the Jewish-authorized Babylonian Talmud. We have published herein the authenticated sayings of the Jewish Talmud. Look them up for yourself.

We publish the following irrefutable documentation in the hope of liberating all people, including Jewish people, from the corrosive delusions and racism of this Talmudic hate literature, which is the manual of Orthodox and Hasidic Jews the world over.

The implementation by Jewish supremacists of Talmudic hate literature has caused untold suffering throughout history and now, in occupied Palestine, it is used as a justification for the mass murder of Palestinian civilians. The Talmud specifically defines all who are not Jews as non-human animals.

Some Teachings of the Jewish Talmud

Where a Jew Should Do Evil

Moed Kattan 17a: If a Jew is tempted to do evil he should go to a city where he is not known and do the evil there.

Penalty for Disobeying Rabbis

Erubin 21b. Whosoever disobeys the rabbis deserves death and will be punished by being boiled in hot excrement in hell.

Hitting a Jew is the same as hitting God

Sanhedrin 58b. If a heathen (gentile) hits a Jew, the gentile must be killed.

O.K. to Cheat Non-Jews

Sanhedrin 57a . A Jew need not pay a gentile (“Cuthean”) the wages owed him for work.

Jews Have Superior Legal Status

Baba Kamma 37b. “If an ox of an Israelite gores an ox of a Canaanite there is no liability; but if an ox of a Canaanite gores an ox of an Israelite…the payment is to be in full.”

Jews May Steal from Non-Jews

Baba Mezia 24a . If a Jew finds an object lost by a gentile (“heathen”) it does not have to be returned. (Affirmed also in Baba Kamma 113b). Sanhedrin 76a. God will not spare a Jew who “marries his daughter to an old man or takes a wife for his infant son or returns a lost article to a Cuthean…”

Jews May Rob and Kill Non-Jews

Sanhedrin 57a . When a Jew murders a gentile (“Cuthean”), there will be no death penalty. What a Jew steals from a gentile he may keep.

Baba Kamma 37b. The gentiles are outside the protection of the law and God has “exposed their money to Israel.”

Jews May Lie to Non-Jews

Baba Kamma 113a. Jews may use lies (“subterfuges”) to circumvent a Gentile.

Non-Jewish Children are Sub-Human

Yebamoth 98a. All gentile children are animals.

Abodah Zarah 36b. Gentile girls are in a state of niddah (filth) from birth.

Abodah Zarah 22a-22b . Gentiles prefer sex with cows.

Insults Against Blessed Mary

Sanhedrin 106a . Says Jesus’ mother was a whore: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.” Also in footnote #2 to Shabbath 104b of the Soncino edition, it is stated that in the “uncensored” text of the Talmud it is written that Jesus mother, “Miriam the hairdresser,” had sex with many men.

Gloats over Christ Dying Young

A passage from Sanhedrin 106 gloats over the early age at which Jesus died: “Hast thou heard how old Balaam (Jesus) was?–He replied: It is not actually stated but since it is written, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days it follows that he was thirty-three or thirty-four years old.”

Jesus in the Talmud:

Horrible Blasphemies Against Jesus Christ

While it is the standard disinformation practice of apologists for the Talmud to deny that it contains any scurrilous references to Jesus Christ, certain Orthodox Jewish organizations are more forthcoming and admit that the Talmud not only mentions Jesus but disparages him (as a sorcerer and a demented sex freak). These orthodox Jewish organizations make this admission perhaps out of the belief that Jewish supremacy is so well-established in the modern world that they need not concern themselves with adverse reactions.

For example, on the website of the Orthodox Jewish Hasidic Lubavitch group–one of the largest in the world–we find the following statement, complete with Talmudic citations:

“The Talmud (Babylonian edition) records other sins of ‘Jesus the Nazarene’:

1) He and his disciples practiced sorcery and black magic, led Jews astray into idolatry, and were sponsored by foreign, gentile powers for the purpose of subverting Jewish worship (Sanhedrin 43a).

2) He was sexually immoral, worshipped statues of stone (a brick is mentioned), was cut off from the Jewish people for his wickedness, and refused to repent (Sanhedrin 107b; Sotah 47a).

3) He learned witchcraft in Egypt and, to perform miracles, used procedures that involved cutting his flesh, which is also explicitly banned in the Bible (Shabbos 104b).

End quote from http://www.noahide.com/yeshu.htm (Lubavitch website) June 20, 2000.

[Note: we have printed and preserved in our files a hard copy of this statement from the Lubavitch”Noah’s Covenant Website,” as it appeared on their website at http://www.noahide.com on June 20, 2000, in the event that denials are later issued and the statement itself suppressed].

Let us examine further some of these anti-Christ Talmud passages:

Gittin 57a. Says Jesus is in hell, being boiled in “hot excrement.”

Sanhedrin 43a. Says Jesus (“Yeshu” and in Soncino footnote #6, Yeshu “the Nazarene”) was executed because he practiced sorcery: “It is taught that on the eve of Passover Jesus was hung, and forty days before this the proclamation was made: Jesus is to be stoned to death because he has practiced sorcery and has lured the people to idolatry…He was an enticer and of such thou shalt not pity or condone.”

Kallah 51a.”The elders were once sitting in the gate when two young lads passed by; one covered his head and the other uncovered his head. Of him who uncovered his head Rabbi Eliezer remarked that he is a bastard. Rabbi Joshua remarked that he is the son of a niddah (a child conceived during a woman’s menstrual period). Rabbi Akiba said that he is both a bastard and a son of a niddah.

“They said, ‘What induced you to contradict the opinion of your colleagues?’ He replied, “I will prove it concerning him.” He went to the lad’s mother and found her sitting in the market selling beans.

“He said to her, ‘My daughter, if you will answer the question I will put to you, I will bring you to the world to come.’ (eternal life). She said to him, ‘Swear it to me.’

“Rabbi Akiba, taking the oath with his lips but annulling it in his heart, said to her, ‘What is the status of your son?’ She replied, ‘When I entered the bridal chamber I was niddah (menstruating) and my husband kept away from me; but my best man had intercourse with me and this son was born to me.’ Consequently the child was both a bastard and the son of a niddah.

“It was declared, ‘..Blessed be the God of Israel Who Revealed His Secret to Rabbi Akiba…”

In addition to the theme that God rewards clever liars, the preceding Talmud discussion is actually about Jesus Christ (the bastard boy who “uncovered his head” and was conceived in the filth of menstruation). The boy’s adulterous mother in this Talmud story is the mother of Christ, Blessed Mary (called Miriam and sometimes, Miriam the hairdresser, in the Talmud).

“The Editio Princeps of the complete Code of Talmudic Law, Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah — replete not only with the most offensive precepts against all Gentiles but also with explicit attacks on Christianity and on Jesus (after whose name the author adds piously, ‘May the name of the wicked perish’)… –Dr. Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, p. 21.

“The Talmud contains a few explicit references to Jesus…These references are certainly not complimentary…There seems little doubt that the account of the execution of Jesus on the eve of Passover does refer to the Christian Jesus…The passage in which Jesus’ punishment in hell is described also seems to refer to the Christian Jesus. It is a piece of anti-Christian polemic dating from the post-70 CE period…” –Hyam Maccoby, Judaism on Trial, pp. 26-27.

“According to the Talmud, Jesus was executed by a proper rabbinical court for idolatry, inciting other Jews to idolatry, and contempt of rabbinical authority. All classical Jewish sources which mention his execution are quite happy to take responsibility for it; in the talmudic account the Romans are not even mentioned.

“The more popular accounts–which were nevertheless taken quite seriously–such as the notorious Toldot Yeshu are even worse, for in addition to the above crimes they accuse him of witchcraft. The very name ‘Jesus’ was for Jews a symbol of all that is abominable and this popular tradition still persists…

“The Hebrew form of the name Jesus–Yeshu–was interpreted as an acronym for the curse, ‘may his name and memory be wiped out,’ which is used as an extreme form of abuse. In fact, anti-zionist Orthodox Jews (such as Neturey Qarta) sometimes refer to Herzl as ‘Herzl Jesus’ and I have found in religious zionist writings expressions such as “Nasser Jesus” and more recently ‘Arafat Jesus.” –Dr. Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, pp. 97- 98, 118.

Talmud Attacks Christians and Christian Books

Rosh Hashanah 17a. Christians (minnim) and others who reject the Talmud will go to hell and be punished there for all generations.

Sanhedrin 90a. Those who read the New Testament (“uncanonical books”) will have no portion in the world to come.

Shabbath 116a. Jews must destroy the books of the Christians, i.e. the New Testament.

Dr. Israel Shahak of Hebrew University reports that the Israelis burned hundreds of New Testament Bibles in occupied Palestine on March 23, 1980 (cf. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, p. 21).

Sick and Insane Teachings of the Talmud

Gittin 69a . To heal his flesh a Jew should take dust that lies within the shadow of an outdoor toilet, mix with honey and eat it.

Shabbath 41a. The law regulating the rule for how to urinate in a holy way is given.

Yebamoth 63a. States that Adam had sexual intercourse with all the animals in the Garden of Eden.

Yebamoth 63a. Declares that agriculture is the lowest of occupations.

Sanhedrin 55b. A Jew may marry a three year old girl (specifically, three years “and a day” old).

Sanhedrin 54b. A Jew may have sex with a child as long as the child is less than nine years old.

Kethuboth 11b. “When a grown-up man has intercourse with a little girl it is nothing.”

Yebamoth 59b. A woman who had intercourse with a beast is eligible to marry a Jewish priest. A woman who has sex with a demon is also eligible to marry a Jewish priest.

Abodah Zarah 17a. States that there is not a whore in the world that the Talmudic sage Rabbi Eleazar has not had sex with. On one of his whorehouse romps, Rabbi Eleazar leanred that there was one particular prostitute residing in a whorehouse near the sea, who would receive a bag of money for her services. He took a bag of money and went to her, crossing seven rivers to do so. During their intercourse the prostitute farted. After this the whore told Rabbi Eleazar: “Just as this gas will never return to my anus, Rabbi Eleazar will never get to heaven.”

Hagigah 27a. States that no rabbi can ever go to hell.

Baba Mezia 59b. A rabbi debates God and defeats Him. God admits the rabbi won the debate.

Gittin 70a. The Rabbis taught: “On coming from a privy (outdoor toilet) a man should not have sexual intercourse till he has waited long enough to walk half a mile, because the demon of the privy is with him for that time; if he does, his children will be epileptic.”

Gittin 69b. To heal the disease of pleurisy (“catarrh”) a Jew should “take the excrement of a white dog and knead it with balsam, but if he can possibly avoid it he should not eat the dog’s excrement as it loosens the limbs.”

Pesahim 111a. It is forbidden for dogs, women or palm trees to pass between two men, nor may others walk between dogs, women or palm trees. Special dangers are involved if the women are menstruating or sitting at a crossroads.

Menahoth 43b-44a. A Jewish man is obligated to say the following prayer every day: Thank you God for not making me a gentile, a woman or a slave.

Tall Tales of a Roman Holocaust

Here are two early “Holocaust” tales from the Talmud: Gittin 57b. Claims that four billion Jews were killed by the Romans in the city of Bethar. Gittin 58a claims that 16 million Jewish children were wrapped in scrolls and burned alive by the Romans. (Ancient demography indicates that there were not 16 million Jews in the entire world at that time, much less 16 million Jewish children or four billion Jews).

A Revealing Admission

Abodah Zarah 70a. The question was asked of the rabbi whether wine stolen in Pumbeditha might be used or if it was defiled, due to the fact that the thieves might have been gentiles (a gentile touching wine would make the wine unclean). The rabbi says not to worry, that the wine is permissible for Jewish use because the majority of the thieves in Pumbeditha, the place where the wine was stolen, are Jews. (Also cf. Gemara Rosh Hashanah 25b).

Pharisaic Rituals

Erubin 21b. “Rabbi Akiba said to him, “Give me some water to wash my hands.”

“It will not suffice for drinking,” the other complained, “will it suffice for washing your hands?”

“What can I do?’ the former replied, “when for neglecting the words of the Rabbis one deserves death? It is better that I myself should die than that I transgress against the opinion of my colleagues.” [This is the ritual hand washing condemned by Jesus in Matthew 15: 1-9].

Genocide Advocated by the Talmud

Minor Tractates. Soferim 15, Rule 10. This is the saying of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai: Tob shebe goyyim harog (“Even the best of the gentiles should all be killed”).

This passage is from the original Hebrew of the Babylonian Talmud as quoted by the 1907 Jewish Encyclopedia, published by Funk and Wagnalls and compiled by Isidore Singer, under the entry, “Gentile,” (p. 617).

This original Talmud passage has been concealed in translation. The Jewish Encyclopedia states that, “…in the various versions the reading has been altered, ‘The best among the Egyptians’ being generally substituted.” In the Soncino version: “the best of the heathens” (Minor Tractates, Soferim 41a-b].

Israelis annually take part in a national pilgrimage to the grave of Simon ben Yohai, to honor this rabbi who advocated the extermination of non-Jews. (Jewish Press, June 9, 1989, p. 56B).

On Purim, Feb. 25, 1994, Israeli army officer Baruch Goldstein, an orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, massacred 40 Palestinian civilians, including children, while they knelt in prayer in a mosque. Goldstein was a disciple of the late Brooklyn Rabbi Meir Kahane, who told CBS News that his teaching that Arabs are “dogs” is derived “from the Talmud.” (CBS 60 Minutes, “Kahane”).

University of Jerusalem Prof. Ehud Sprinzak described Kahane and Goldstein’s philosophy: “They believe it’s God’s will that they commit violence against goyim, a Hebrew term for non-Jews.” (NY Daily News, Feb. 26, 1994, p. 5).

Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg declared, “We have to recognize that Jewish blood and the blood of a goy are not the same thing.” (NY Times, June 6, 1989, p.5).

Rabbi Yaacov Perrin said, “One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.” (NY Daily News, Feb. 28, 1994, p.6).

Talmudic Doctrine: Non-Jews are not Human

The Talmud specifically defines all who are not Jews as non-human animals, and specifically dehumanizes Gentiles as not being descendants of Adam. Here are some of the Talmud passages which relate to this topic.

Kerithoth 6b: Uses of Oil of Anointing. “Our Rabbis have taught: He who pours the oil of anointing over cattle or vessels is not guilty; if over gentiles (goyim) or the dead, he is not guilty. The law relating to cattle and vessels is right, for it is written: “Upon the flesh of man (Adam), shall it not be poured (Exodus 30:32]); and cattle and vessels are not man (Adam).

“Also with regard to the dead, [it is plausible] that he is exempt, since after death one is called corpse and not a man (Adam). But why is one exempt in the case of gentiles (goyim); are they not in the category of man (Adam)? No, it is written: ‘And ye my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are man” (Adam); [Ezekiel 34:31]: Ye are called man (Adam) but gentiles (goyim) are not called man (Adam).”

In the preceding passage, the rabbis are discussing the portion of the Mosaic law which forbids applying the holy oil to men.

The Talmud states that it is not a sin to apply the holy oil to Gentiles, because Gentiles are not human beings (i.e. are not of Adam).

Another example from tractate Yebamoth 61a: “It was taught: And so did R. Simeon ben Yohai state (61a) that the graves of gentiles (goyim) do not impart levitical uncleanness by an ohel [standing or bending over a grave], for it is said, ‘And ye my sheep the sheep of my pasture, are men (Adam), [Ezekiel 34:31]; you are called men (Adam) but the idolaters are not called men (Adam).”

The Old Testament Mosaic law states that touching a human corpse or the grave of a human imparts uncleanness to those who touch it. But the Talmud teaches that if a Jew touches the grave of a Gentile, the Jew is not rendered unclean, since Gentiles are not human (not of Adam).

From Baba Mezia 114b: “”A Jewish priest was standing in a graveyard. When asked why he was standing there in apparent violation of the Mosaic law, he replied that it was permissible, since the law only prohibits Jews from coming into contact with the graves of humans (Adamites), and he was standing in a gentile graveyard. For it has been taught by Rabbi Simon ben Yohai: ‘The graves of gentiles [goyim] do not defile. For it is written, ‘And ye my flock, the flock of my pastures, are men (Adam)’ (Ezekiel 34:31); only ye are designated men (Adam).”

Ezekiel 34:31 is the alleged Biblical proof text repeatedly cited in the preceding three Talmud passages. But Ezekiel 34:31 does not in fact support the Talmudic notion that only Israelites are human. What these rabbinical, anti-Gentile racists and ideologues have done in asserting the preceding absurdities about Gentiles is distort an Old Testament passage in order to justify their bigotry.

In Berakoth 58a the Talmud uses Ezekiel 23:20 as proof of the sub-human status of gentiles. It also teaches that anyone (even a Jewish man) who reveals this Talmudic teaching about non-Jews deserves death, since revealing it makes Gentiles wrathful and causes the repression of Judaism.

The Talmudic citation of this scripture from Ezekiel as a “proof-text” is specious, since the passage does not prove that Gentiles are animals. The passage from Ezekiel only says that some Egyptians had large genital organs and copious emissions. This does not in any way prove or even connote that the Egyptians being referred to in the Bible were considered animals. Once again, the Talmud has falsified the Bible by means of distorted interpretation.

Other Talmud passages which expound on Ezekiel 23:20 in this racist fashion are: Arakin 19b, Berakoth 25b, Niddah 45a, Shabbath 150a, Yebamoth 98a. Moreover, the original text of Sanhedrin 37a applies God’s approval only to the saving of Jewish lives (cf. the Hesronot Ha-shas, Cracow, 1894).

Moses Maimonides: Advocate of Extermination

We will now examine the post-Talmudic commentator Rambam (Moses Maimonides). This revered “sage” taught that Christians should be exterminated. He has the highest stature in Judaism:

“Moses Maimonides is considered the greatest codifier and philosopher in Jewish history. He is often affectionately referred to as the Rambam, after the initials of his name and title, Rabenu Moshe Ben Maimon, “Our Rabbi, Moses son of Maimon.” [Maimonides’ Principles, edited by Aryeh Kaplan, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America,, p. 3].

Here is what Maimonides (Rambam) taught concerning saving people’s lives, especially concerning saving the lives of gentiles and Christians, or even Jews who dared to deny the “divine inspiration” of the Talmud:

Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, (Moznaim Publishing Corporation, Brooklyn, New York, 1990, Chapter 10, English Translation), p. 184: “Accordingly, if we see an idolater (gentile) being swept away or drowning in the river, we should not help him. If we see that his life is in danger, we should not save him.” The Hebrew text of the Feldheim 1981 edition of Mishnah Torah states this as well.

Immediately after Maimonides’ admonition that it is a duty for Jews not to save a drowning or perishing gentile, he informs us of the Talmudic duty of Jews towards Christians, and also towards Jews who deny the Talmud. Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, (Chapter 10), p. 184:

“It is a mitzvah [religious duty], however, to eradicate Jewish traitors, minnim, and apikorsim, and to cause them to descend to the pit of destruction, since they cause difficulty to the Jews and sway the people away from God, as did Jesus of Nazareth and his students, and Tzadok, Baithos, and their students. May the name of the wicked rot.”

The Jewish publisher’s commentary accompanying the preceding statement of Maimonides states that Jesus was an example of a min (plural: minnim).

The commentary also states that the students of Tzadok were defined as those Jews who deny the truth of the Talmud and who uphold only the written law (i.e. the Old Testament).

According to Maimonides’ Principles, p. 5, Maimonides “spent twelve years extracting every decision and law from the Talmud, and arranging them all into 14 systematic volumes. The work was finally completed in 1180, and was called Mishnah Torah, or “Code of the Torah.”

Maimonides taught in another part of the Mishnah Torah that gentiles are not human: “Man alone, and not vessels, can contract uncleanness by carriage. …The corpse of a gentile, however, does not convey uncleanness by overshadowing. …a gentile does not contract corpse uncleanness; and if a gentile touches, carries, or overshadows a corpse he is as one who did not touch it.

“To what is this like? It is like a beast which touches a corpse or overshadows it. And this applies not to corpse uncleanness only but to any other kind of uncleanness: neither gentiles nor cattle are susceptible to any uncleanness.” (The Code of Maimonides, vol. 10, translated by Herbert Danby, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1954, pp. 8-9).

Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Rotze’ach 2:11: “A Jew who killed a righteous gentile is not executed in a court of law. It says in Exodus 21:14, ‘If a man schemes against his fellow man and kills the man deliberately, take him away from the altar and put him to death.’ But a gentile is not considered a man, and even more so, a Jew is not executed for killing an unrighteous gentile.”

The Schindler’s List Quote

The Talmud (i.e., the Babylonian Talmud) text of Sanhedrin 37a restricts the duty to save life to saving only Jewish lives.

The book on Hebrew censorship, written by Jews themselves (Hesronot Ha-shas), notes that some Talmud texts use the universalist phrase:

“Whoever destroys the life of a single human being…it is as if he had destroyed an entire world; and whoever preserves the life of a single human being …it is as if he had preserved an entire world.”

However, Hesronot Ha-shas points out that these are not the authentic words of the original Talmud.

In other words, the preceding universalist rendering is not the authentic text of the Talmud and thus, for example, this universalist version which Steven Spielberg in his famous movie, Schindler’s List attributed to the Talmud (and which became the motto of the movie on posters and in advertisements), is a hoax and constitutes propaganda intended to give a humanistic gloss to a Talmud which is, in its essence, racist and chauvinist hate literature.

In the authentic, original Talmud text it states that “whoever preserves a single soul of Israel, it is as if he had preserved an entire world” (emphasis supplied). The authentic Talmud text sanctions only the saving of Jewish lives.

Jewish Deception and Dissimulation

The response of the orthodox rabbis to documentation regarding the racism and hatred in their sacred texts is simply to brazenly lie, in keeping with the Talmud’s Baba Kamma 113a which states that Jews may use lies (“subterfuge”) to circumvent a Gentile.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a multi-million dollar rabbinical propaganda center dispatched Rabbi Daniel Landes in 1995 to deny that the Talmud dehumanizes non-Jews. “This is utter rot,” he said. His proof? Why, his word, of course.

Lying to “circumvent a Gentile” has a long patrimony in Judaism. Take for example the 13th century Talmud debate in Paris between Nicholas of Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity, whom Hyam Maccoby admits had “a good knowledge of the Talmud” (“The Jews on Trial,” p. 26) and Rabbi Yehiel. Yehiel was not under threat of death, bodily injury, imprisonment or fine. Yet he brazenly lied during the course of the debate.

When asked by Donin whether there were attacks on Jesus in the Talmud, Yehiel denied that there were any. Donin, a Hebrew and Aramaic scholar, knew this to be false. Hyam Maccoby, a 20th century Jewish commentator on the debate, defends Rabbi Yehiel’s lying in this way:

“The question may be asked, however, whether Yehiel really believed that Jesus was not mentioned in the Talmud, or whether he put this forward as an ingenious ploy in the desperate situation in which he found himself…It would certainly have been pardonable of the rabbi to attempt some condonation in which he did not fully believe, to prevent such tyrannical proceedings by one religious culture against another.” (Maccoby, “The Jews on Trial,” p. 28).

This is how Jewish denial of the existence of hateful Talmud texts is justified to this day. A fanciful word for Jewish lying is conjured (“condonation”) and deemed “pardonable,” while any scrutiny of Jewish holy books by Christian investigators is characterized as a “tyrannical proceeding.”

In 1994, Rabbi Tzvi Marx, director of Applied Education at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, made a remarkable admission concerning how Jewish rabbis in the past have issued two sets of texts: the authentic Talmudic texts with which they instruct their own youth in the Talmud schools (yeshiviot) and “censured and amended” versions which they disseminate to gullible non-Jews for public consumption.

Rabbi Marx states that in the version of Maimonides’ teachings published for public consumption, Maimonides is made to say that whoever kills a human being transgresses the law.

But, Rabbi Marx points out “…this only reflects the censured and amended printed text, whereas the original manuscripts have it only as ‘whoever kills an Israelite.”(Tikkun: A Bi-Monthly Jewish Critique May-June, 1994).

The Jewish book, Hesronot Ha-shas (“that which is removed from the Talmud”), is important in this regard. (Cf. William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books p. 59).

Hesronot Ha-shas was reprinted in 1989 by Sinai Publishing of Tel-Aviv. Hesronot Ha-shas is valuable because it lists both the original Talmud texts that were later changed or omitted, and the falsified texts cited for Gentile consumption as authentic.

Historian William Popper states: “It was not always that long passages…were censored…but often single words alone were omitted…Often, in these cases, another method of correction was used in place of omission–substitution.” (Cf. William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books pp. 58-59).

For example, the translators of the English Soncino version of the Talmud sometimes render the Hebrew word goyim (Gentiles) under any number of disguise words such as “heathen, Cuthean, Kushite, Egyptian, idolater” etc. But these are actually references to Gentiles (all non-Jews). Footnotes for certain passages in the Soncino Talmud translation state: “Cuthean (Samaritan) was here substituted for the original goy…”

The heirs of the Pharisees often deny the existence of the Talmud passages here cited, in order to brazenly claim that such passages are the “fabrications of anti-Semites.”

In 1994, the 80 year old Lady Jane Birdwood was arrested and prosecuted in a criminal court in London, England for the “crime” of publishing in her pamphlet, The Longest Hatred, the truthful statement that the Talmud contains anti-Gentile and anti-Christian passages. (She was accused of violating the Public Order Act of 1986).

In the course of her Orwellian thought-crime trial, which was ignored by the U.S. media, a rabbi was called as a prosecution witness. The rabbi proceeded to flatly deny that the Talmud contained anti-Gentile or anti-Christian passages and on the basis of the rabbi’s “prestige,” this elderly and ailing woman was sentenced to three months in jail and fined the equivalent of $1,000.

“Judeo-Christian” Response to the Talmud

Neither the modern popes or the modern heads of Protestantism, have ever insisted that the rabbis of Judaism repudiate or condemn the racism in the Talmud or the murderous hate for Christians and gentiles expressed within it. On the contrary, the heads of Churchianity have urged the followers of Christ to obey, honor and support the followers of the Talmud. Therefore, it should be obvious that these Catholic and Protestant leaders are the worst betrayers of Jesus Christ on earth today. (Cf. Matthew 23:13-15; I Thess. 2:14-16; Titus 1:14; Luke 3:8-9; Rev. 3:9).

Non-Jews are “Supernal Refuse”

Moreover, not only Christians but non-Christians of all races are regarded as “supernal refuse” (garbage) by Talmud teachers such as the founder of Habad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Shneur Zalman.

This was analyzed in the Jewish magazine, New Republic: “…there are some powerful ironies in Habad’s new messianic universalism, in its mission to the gentiles; and surely the most unpleasant of them concerns Habad’s otherwise undisguised and even racial contempt for the goyim.

“…medieval Jewish theologians–most notably the poet and philosopher Judah Ha-Levi in twelfth-century Spain and the mystic Judah Loewe in sixteenth-century Prague–sought to define the Jewish distinction racially rather than spiritually…this…view, according to which there is something innately superior about the Jews, was rehabilitated in its most extreme form by Shneur Zalman of Lyady. The founder of Lubavitcher Hasidism taught that there is a difference of essence between the souls of Jews and the souls of gentiles, that only in the Jewish soul does there reside a spark of divine vitality.

“As for the goyim…Zalman’s attitude (was): ‘Gentile souls are of a completely different and inferior order. They are totally evil, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.’

“Consequently, references to gentiles in Rabbi Shneur Zalman’s teachings are invariably invidious. Their (non-Jews) material abundance derives from supernal refuse. Indeed, they themselves derive from refuse, which is why they are more numerous than the Jews, as the pieces of chaff outnumber the kernels…All Jews were innately good, all gentiles innately evil.

“…Moreover, this characterization of gentiles as being inherently evil, as being spiritually as well as biologically inferior to Jews, has not in any way been revised in later Habad writing.” —The New Republic, May 4, 1992. Also cf. Roman A. Foxbrunner, Habad: The Hasidism of Shneur Zalman of Lyady (Northvale, New Jersey, Jason Aronson, Inc., 1993) pp. 108-109.

U.S. Government Lays Groundwork for Talmudic Courts

“Our” government under Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton, has provided, under the euphemism of education (for example, House Joint Resolution 173 and Public Law 102-14), a groundwork for the establishment of Talmudic “courts of justice” to be administered by disciples of Shneur Zalman’s Chabad successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Maimonides ruled that it is a Jewish court — or a court appointed by Jewish authority –that enforces obedience and passes judgment on Gentiles, as well as promulgating legislation by court order for that purpose. Maimonides further decreed that any non-Jewish nation “not subject to our jurisdiction” (tahaht yadeinu) will be the target of Jewish holy war. (Cf. Hilkhot Melakhim 8:9-10; 10:11. Also cf. Gerald J. Blidstein, “Holy War in Maimonidean Law,” in Perspectives on Maimonides [Oxford, England: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991].

These courts are to be convened allegedly under the “Noahide Laws” (proscriptions against idolatry supposedly based on the covenant with Noah). The U.S. presidents and Congress urged the adoption of the “Noahide” Laws as interpreted by Chabad-Lubavitch Grand Rabbi Schneerson.

Prof. Easterly of the Southern University Law Center, a Jewish legal expert, has compared this Public law 102-14 to the “first rays of dawn” which “evidence the rising of a still unseen sun.”

The Jewish Encyclopedia envisages a Noahide regime as a possible world order immediately preceding the universal reign of the Talmud.

It has to be understood that we are not dealing with the Noah of the Bible when the religion of Judaism refers to “Noahide law,” but the Noahide law as understood and interpreted by the absolute system of falsification that constitutes the Talmud.

Under the Talmud’s counterfeit Noahide Laws, the worship of Jesus is forbidden under penalty of death, since such worship of Christ is condemned by Judaism as idolatry. Meanwhile various forms of incest are permitted under the Talmudic understanding of the Noahide code. (Enziklopediya Talmudit, note 1, pp. 351-352).

Furthermore, all non-Jews would have the legal status of ger toshav (“resident alien,” cf. Alan Unterman, Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend [London: Thames and Hudson, 1991], p. 148), even in their own land; as for example in occupied Palestine where newly arrived Khazars from Russia have an automatic right to housing and citizenship, while two million Palestinian refugees who either fled or were expelled by the Israelis, are forbidden the right of return.

Resident alien status has been clearly delineated in scholarly articles in leading Jewish publications. For example, Hebrew University Professor Mordechai Nisan, basing his exposition on Maimonides, stated that a non-Jew permitted to reside in a land ruled by Jewish law “must accept paying a tax and suffering the humiliation of servitude.”

If Gentiles refuse to live a life of inferiority, then this signals their rebellion and the unavoidable necessity of Jewish warfare against their very presence. [Cf. Mordechai Nisan, Kivunim (official publication of the World Zionist Organization), August, 1984, pp. 151-156].

At a symposium (“Is Autonomy for Resident Aliens Feasible?”) organized by Israeli Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni, the Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren repeated the Talmudic teaching on resident aliens: that Judaism forbids “granting any national rights” to them. He ruled that such “Autonomy is tantamount to a denial of the Jewish religion.” (Nadav Shraggai, Ha’aretz, Oct. 14, 1992).

American taxpayers’ subsidy of the so-called “U.S. Holocaust Museum” in Washington, D.C., is yet another indicator of the gradual establishment of a Jewish state religion in the U.S. This “Holocaust museum” excludes any reference to holocausts perpetrated by Jewish Communists against Christians in Russia and Eastern Europe, from 1917 onward.

The focus of the museum is almost entirely on Jewish suffering. Holocausts perpetrated by Israelis against Arabs in Lebanon and Palestine since 1948 are nowhere to be found in the exhibits of the U.S. “Holocaust Museum,” which functions more like a synagogue than a repository of objective historical information.

It is through the rapid emergence of this ostensibly secular but all-pervasive “Holocaustianity” — whereby the religion of Judaism is gaining enormous power and influence as mankind’s supreme ethos and the creed of God’s Holy People.

Jewish Law Requires Christians be Executed

Israeli “Torah scholars” have ruled that:

“The Torah maintains that the righteous of all nations have a place in the World to Come. But not all religious Gentiles earn eternal life by virtue of observing their religion…And while the Christians do generally accept the Hebrew Bible as truly from God, many of them (those who accept the so-called divinity of Jesus) are idolaters according to the Torah, punishable by death, and certainly will not enjoy the World to Come.”

—Israeli Mechon-Mamre website, June 26, 2000; 12 Hayyim Vital St., Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine. (“Mechon Mamre is a small group of Torah scholars in Israel…”).

[Note: we have printed and preserved in our files a hard copy of this statement from the Israeli “Mechon-Mamre Torah Scholars,” as it appeared on their website at http://www.mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/gentiles.htm on June 26, 2000, in the event that denials are later issued and the statement itself suppressed].

Jewish Superstitions

It is not for nothing that the authoritative edition of the Talmud is known as the Babylonian Talmud. As Christians misled by their Judaizing preachers and popes are increasingly consulting Jewish rabbinical sources for a “pure” understanding of the Old Testament, they are unknowingly consulting the occult.

Judaism is the religion of the Pharisees and the patrimony of Babylon, from whence the Talmudic and Kabbalistic traditions of Judaism ultimately derive. Orthodox Judaism’s other sacred book, the Kabbalah, is filled with astrological teachings, fortune-telling, gematria, necromancy and demonology.

The photograph on the cover of this publication’s hard copy version shows an orthodox Jew performing a ritual to transfer his sins to the chicken he is waving over his head. This is pernicious superstition.

Furthermore, the Israeli “Star of David,” is actually nothing of the kind, but rather an occult hexagram, a yantra of the androgyne, which became associated with the Khazars in 14th century Bohemia. (The misnamed “state of Israel” was founded in 1948 in an alliance between Jewish Communists and atheistic Zionists, with crucial U.N. recognition provided by Soviet Communist dictator Joseph Stalin).

Christians might find it eye-opening to visit a Hasidic Jewish area during “Purim” and observe the grotesque, Halloween-like cavorting. Though the Purim festival uses the Book of Esther as its supposed proof-text, in practice the Jewish celebration of Purim is little more than a Bacchanal (cf. “Superstitions said legacy from Jewish ancestors,” Canadian Jewish News, Nov. 16, 1989, p. 58).

Orthodox rabbis place curses, cast spells and imagine they have powers greater than God, derived from their study of the Sefer Yezriah, (a book of Kabbalistic magic). Christians are trafficking in Babylonian paganism when they defer to the rabbis of Judaism.

Sodomy in the synagogue

From a report published in the Hebrew language Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz

“…for many years, (Talmud scribe) Yaakov Yitzhak Brizel…sodomized ultra-Orthodox boys. The greatest rabbis knew – and did nothing… “At the age of 11, Moisheleh, the strongest fellow in the talmud torah (school for ultra-Orthodox boys), went up to Shaiya Brizel and said to him: ‘Kid, I want you know that your father is not the holy man you think he is. He is a homo.’ …Brizel was a scion of the Brizel family, which founded …the mysterious organization that imposes moral order on the ultra-Orthodox ghetto… “Had the father, Yaakov Yitzhak Brizel …contented himself with homosexual relations with adults, it is reasonable to suppose that we would never have heard his son’s story. “However, in his book, The Silence of the Ultra-Orthodox, published a few weeks ago, the son claims that for decades his father …sodomized yeshiva students. He committed the act in empty synagogues during the hours between prayers and in other places. “The greatest of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis…like Rabbi Landau and the halachic sage Shmuel Halevi Hausner of Bnei Brak, knew and kept silent. The father was a Hasid heart and soul, and went to a number of rebbes…. the twin brother of the rebbe from Rehovot, the Rebbe of Kretschnif in Kiryat Gat, was happy to accept the father among his followers. Ultimately, claims Brizel, it was not easy for the Rebbe from Kiryat Gat to be picky when he could win such a respected adherent. “…The proud father with the look of an honored rebbe, who observed all the commandments from the slightest to the most important, used to pray at a certain yeshiva with the young boys. There, claims Shaiya Brizel, he hunted his victims. When the head of the yeshiva discovered the true reason that the respected Torah scribe was praying fervently at his yeshiva, he did not contact the police… “Before the publication of his book, Shaiya Brizel met with the yeshiva head. ‘You are right that we covered up for him,’ admitted the man. ‘I and a few other rabbis…I was busy trying to calm things down and hushing up the affair so that it would not get publicized.’ “(The son) published the book using real names. His entire family and almost all the rabbis appear under their own names. Only the names of some of the localities and the head of the yeshiva are disguised. To protect himself from a legal point of view, Brizel held a series of conversations with members of his family and rabbis, in which he demanded explanations of why they had covered up for his father’s misbehavior. He secretly recorded all these conversations, even with his mother. “If I had written without the names it would have been fiction and this certainly did not suit me,” he explained. ‘I wanted things to change, for ultra-Orthodox society to know that it can attempt to hide things and be hidden, but even if it takes 30 years, a Golem will always rise up against its creator and reveal everything. In this case, I was the Golem.’ “When Rachel Brizel, the daughter of a good Bnei Brak family, married an arranged match from the glorious Brizel family, she had no idea that she was destroying her own life. After six months, she caught her husband having sex with another man. In that case, at least it was with an adult. “Shaiya Brizel relates that some of the boys with whom his father had relations sent letters of complaint to their own fathers; in the discreet ultra-Orthodox society they had no one else to whom they could complain. Shaiya Brizel: author of a book telling of sodomy in the synagogue “When she read these letters, my mother went out of her mind,’ writes Brizel. ‘Every such letter made her want to demand a divorce. Again and again batteries of mediators, the Brizel rabbis, would show up, whose job it was to calm her down so that, heaven forbid, she would not destroy the good name of the Brizel family. “They could live with the fact that one of their own had raped minors, but for them divorce was an impossible situation.’ “…Twice, once during prayers in a synagogue, and once during a Gemara (Talmud) study hour at Rabbi Eliezer Shach’s Ponevezh Yeshiva, ultra-Orthodox men who were strangers to him touched his sexual organ, presumably on the assumption that he followed in his father’s footsteps. The first time, he made a fuss, only to discover that the only thing that interested the people there was to hush the whole thing up. The second time, he made do with a whispered warning to the man. “Shaiya Brizel is now 36 and the father of three; he works as an accountant. “His father, 65, was forced to leave home several years ago and return to his elderly parents’ apartment. Shaiya wrote this book after a suicide attempt in June. ‘For all those years I was half dead. For the past five years I have been getting psychological treatment. During my talks with the psychologist I decided that I was going to spew out all this ugliness in the form of a book.’ “He took into account that there would be violent reactions to the book…which only came out a few weeks ago…Brizel suffers from a serious heart defect, which could cause his death. As a way of protecting himself, he has deposited a letter with three lawyers that contains serious allegations about the Eda Haredit, and he has informed the relevant people. “Recently, he has moved to a new apartment, and he lives in the National Religious sector of a mixed community of National Religious and ultra-Orthodox families. Naturally, he started praying at the only Hasidic synagogue in the settlement. After the book came out, associates of the local rebbe (rabbi) informed him that he was persona non grata. “Ironically, this same rebbe had come to the area after being compelled to leave several other communities on suspicion of having sodomized his pupils. In ultra-Orthodox society, revealing that acts of sodomy have been committed is a far graver offense than committing them. “On the day the book was published, Brizel met with the head of the Hachemei Lublin Yeshiva, Rabbi Avraham Vazner. ‘He told me that publishing the book was a million times worse than what my father had done…’ “Ha’aretz has been unable to obtain a response from Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhak Brizel. At his parents’ home, a woman replied: “We don’t care. Shaiya is a liar and there is nothing more to be said.” “Ha’aretz also requested the Brizels’ response through the Eda Haredit activist Yehuda Meshi- Zahav. By the time the article went to press, there was no response through this channel either. “Several weeks ago the father responded to the women’s magazine La’isha, saying that he would sue the publishers, which has not yet happened. It is unlikely that it will happen. “Shaiya Brizel was ready to put off publication of the book, on condition that the family sue him in a rabbinical court, in which the affair would be aired. He has said that no one in the family was prepared to take up the challenge. “In the conversation with La’isha, the father said that he was indeed a homosexual, ‘But I have had treatment and today I am no longer like that. All this is behind me.’ “In reply to a question as to whether he had sexual relations with minors, he replied: ‘Perhaps I will talk about that some other time.’ He accused his son Shaiya of being ‘the only one who is after me. He has destroyed my life…He wrote this only for the money. He wanted money from me…Because of him I separated from my wife.’ “Shaiya’s sister, Rivka Hubert, spoke with great anger to the La’isha reporter about the fact that her brother had revealed the names of the persons involved, and declared: ‘We deny everything it says in the book.” [End quote] Source: Ha’aretz, “Israel’s Leading Daily Newspaper,” Shevat 25, 5760 (Feb. 1, 2000).

[…]

Copyright ©2000-2006 by Michael A. Hoffman II All Rights Reserved.

The Truth About the Talmud is copyrighted material excerpted from Michael A. Hoffman’s book, “Judaism’s Strange Gods.”

Below is a more detailed piece on the Talmud;

THE TALMUD (Article From RadioIslam.com)



The Talmud gets its name from the word Lamud – taught, and means The Teaching. By metonymy it is taken to mean the book which contains the Teaching, which is called Talmud, that is, the doctrinal book which alone fully expounds and explains all the knowledge and teaching of the Jewish people.

As to the origin of the Talmud, the Rabbis regard Moses as its first author. They hold that, besides the written law which Moses received from God on Mount Sinai on tables of stone, which is called Torah Schebiktab, he also received interpretations of it, or the oral law, which is called Torah Shebeal Peh. They say that this is the reason why Moses remained so long on the mountain, as God could have given him the written law in one day.

Moses is said to have transmitted this oral law to Joshua; Joshua in turn to the seventy Elders; the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets to the Great Synagogue. It is held that it was later transmitted successively to certain Rabbis until it was no longer possible to retain it orally.

Whatever may be said about this story of the Rabbis, it is sufficiently known to us that before the birth of Christ, schools existed in Palestine in which sacred literature was taught. The commentaries of the Doctors of the law were noted down on charts and lists as an aid to memory, and these, when collected together, formed the beginnings of the Jewish Talmud.

In the second century after Christ, Rabbi Jehuda who, because of the sanctity of his life, was called The Saint, and The Prince, realizing that the learning of the Jews was diminishing, that their oral law was being lost, and that the Jewish people were being dispersed, was the first to consider ways and means of restoring and preserving their oral law. He collected all the lists and charts and from them he made a book which was called the Sepher Mischnaioth, or Mischnah – a Deuterosis, or secondary law. He divided it into six parts, each of which was divided into many chapters. We shall consider these later.

The Mischnah is the foundation and the principal part of the whole Talmud. This book was accepted by the Jews everywhere and was recognized as their authentic code of law. It was expounded in their Academies in Babylon – at Sura, Iumbaditha and Nehardea – and in their Academies in Palestine – at Tiberias, Iamnia and Lydda.

As their interpretations increased with the passing of time, the disputations and decisions of the doctors of the law concerning the Mischnah were written down, and these writings constituted another part of the Talmud called the Gemarah.

These two parts are so disposed throughout the whole Talmud that the Mischnah serves first as a kind of text of the law, and is followed by the Gemarah as an analysis of its various opinions leading to definite decisions.

All the precepts of the Mischnah, however, were not discussed in the Jewish schools. Those whose use was nullified by the destruction of the Temple, and those whose observation was possible only in the Holy Land were not commented upon. Their explanation was left until the coming of Elias and the Messiah. For this reason some parts of the Mischnah are lacking in the Gemarah.

In interpreting the Mischnah of Rabbi Jehuda, the schools of Palestine and Babylon followed each their own method, and by thus following their own way gave rise to a twofold Gemarah – the Jerusalem and the Babylonian versions. The author of the Jerusalem version was Rabbi Jochanan, who was head of the synagogue in Jerusalem for eighty years. He wrote thirty-nine chapters of commentaries on the Mischnah which he compiled in the year 230 A.D.

The Babylonian Gemarah, however, was not compiled by any one person, nor at any one time. Rabbi Aschi began it in 327 A.D and labored over it for sixty years. He was followed by Rabbi Maremar about the year 427 A.D., and it was completed by Rabbi Abina about the year 500 A.D. The Babylonian Gemarah has thirty-six chapters of interpretations.

This twofold Gemarah, added to the Mischnah, makes also a twofold Talmud: The Jerusalem version, which, on account of its brevity and obscurity, is not much used; and the Babylonian version, which has been held in the highest esteem by Jews of all times.

The Gemarah is followed by additions called Tosephoth. It was thus that Rabbi Chaia first styled his opinions on the Mischnah which were made by the doctors outside the schools were called Baraietoth, or extraneous opinions.

These Commentaries were further supplemented by other decisions called Piske Tosephoth, short theses and simple principles.

For nearly five hundred years after the Babylonian Talmud was completed, the study of literature was greatly hampered partly due to public calamities and partly owing to dissensions among the scholars. But in the eleventh century others wrote further additions to the Talmud. Chief among these were the Tosephoth of Rabbi Ascher.

Besides these there appeared the Perusch of Rabbi Moische ben Maimon, called by the Jews Rambam for short, by the Christians Maimonides, and by Rabbi Schelomo, Iarchi or Raschi.

Thus, the Mischna, Gemarah, Tosephoth, the marginal notes of Rabbi Ascher, the Piske Tosephoth and the Perusch Hamischnaioth of Maimonides, all collected into one, constitute a vast work which is called the Talmud.

The main parts of the Talmud, which we mentioned above, are six:

ZERAIM: concerning seeds. It treats of seeds, fruits, herbs, trees; of the public and domestic use of fruits, of different seeds, etc. MOED: concerning festivals. It treats of the time when the Sabbath and other festivals are to begin, ended and celebrated. NASCHIM: concerning women. It treats of marrying and repudiating wives, their duties, relations, sicknesses, etc. NEZIKIN: concerning damages. It treats of damages suffered by men and animals, penalties and compensations. KODASCHIM: concerning holiness. It treats of sacrifices and various sacred rites. TOHOROTH: concerning purifications. It treats of the soiling and purifying of vessels, bedclothes and other things.

Each of these six parts, which the Jews call Schishah Sedarim – six orders or ordinances – is divided into books or tracts, called Massiktoth, and the books into chapters, or Perakim.

ZERAIM. Contains eleven books or Masechtoth.

1. BERAKTOTH – Benedictions and prayers. Treats of liturgical rules.

2. PEAH – Corner of a field. Treats of the corners and gleanings of the filed…The olives and grapes to be left to the poor.

3. DEMAI – Doubtful things. Whether or not tithes must be paid on such.

4. KILAIM – Mixtures. Treats of various mixings of seeds.

5. SCHEBIITH – the Sevents. Treats of the Sabbatical Year.

6. TERUMOTH – Offerings and Oblations. The Heave offerings for the priests.

7. MAASEROTH – the Tithes, to be given to the Levites.

8. MAASER SCHENI – the Second Tithe.

9. CHALLAH – the Dough, the portion to be given thereof to the Priests.

10. ORLAH – the Uncircumcised. Treats about the fruits of a tree during the first three years after its plantings.

11. BIKKURIM – the First Fruits to be brought to the Temple. MOED. Contains twelve Books or Masechtoth.

1. SCHABBATH – the Sabbath. Treats of kinds of work prohibited on that day.

2. ERUBHIN – Combinations. Contains precepts about food for the Sabbath eve.

3. SCHEKALIM – Passover. Treats of the laws relating to the Feast of Passover and the Paschal Lamb.

4. SCHEKALIM – Shekel. Treats of the size and weight of the shekel.

5. IOMA – the Day of Atonement. Treats of prescriptions for that Day.

6. SUKKAH – the Tabernacle. Treats of the laws concerning the feast of Tabernacles.

7. BETSAH – the Egg of the Day of Feast. Treats of the kind of work prohibited and permitted on the festivals.

8. ROSCH HASCHANAH – New Year. Treats of the Feast of New Year.

9. TAANITH – Fasts. Treats of public fasts.

10. MEGILLAH – the Scroll. Treats of the reading of the Book of Esther. Contains the description of the Feast of Purim.

11. MOED KATON – Minor Feast. treats of laws relating to the days intervening between the first and last days of Pesach and Succoth.

12. CHAGIGAH – Comparison of rites on on the three feats of Pesach, Sukkoth and Tabernacles. NASCHIM. Contains seven Books or Masechtoth.1. JEBBAMOTH – Sisters in Law. Treats of Levirate marriage.

2. KETHUBOTH – Marriage Deeds. Treats of dower and marriage settlements.

3. KIDDUSCHIN – Betrothals.

4. GITTIN – booklet on Divorces.

5. NEDARIM – Vows. Treats of vows and their annulment.

6. NAZIR – the Nazarite. Treats of the laws concerning the Nazarites and those who separate themselves from the world and consecrate themselves to God.

7. SOTAH – the Woman suspected of adultery. NEZIKIN. Contains ten Books or Masechtoth.

1. BABA KAMA – First Gate. Treats of Damages and Injuries and their remedies.

2. BABA METSIA – Middle Gate. Treats of laws concerning found property, concerning trust, concerning buying and selling, lending, hiring and renting.

3. BABA BATHRA – Last Gate. Treats of laws concerning real estate and commerce, mostly based on the traditional law. Also concerning hereditary succession.

4. SANHEDRIN – Courts. Treats of the courts and their proceedings, and the punishment of capital crimes.

5. MAKKOTH – Stripes. The 40 stripes (minus one) inflicted on criminals.

6. SCHEBUOTH – Oaths. Treats different kinds of oaths.

7. EDAIOTH – Testimonies. Contains a collection of traditional laws and decisions gathers from the testimonies of the distinguished teachers.

8. HORAIOTH- Decisions. Treats of the sentences of Judges and the punishment of transgressors.

9. ABHODAH ZARAH – Idolatry.

10. ABHOTH – Fathers. Treats of laws of the fathers. It is called also PIRKE ABHOTH. KODASCHIM. Contains eleven Books or Masechtoth.

1. ZEBBACHIM – Sacrifices. Treats of animal sacrifices and the mode of their offering.

2. CHULIN – Profane things. Treats of the traditional manner of slaughtering animals for ordinary use.

3. MENACHOTH – Meat-offerings. Treats of meat-and-drink offerings.

4. BEKHOROTH – the First Born. Treats of the laws concerning the first born of man and animals.

5. ERAKHIN – Estimations. Treats of the mode in which persons dedicated to the Lord by a vow arel legally appraised in order to be redeemed.

6. TEMURAH – Exchange. Treats of the laws concerning sanctified things having been exchanged.

7. MEILAH – Trespass, Sacrilege. Treats of the sins subject to the punishment of excision, and their expiation by sacrifices.

8. KERITHUTH – Excisions – Treats of the sins subject to the punishment of excision, and their expiation by sacrifices.

9. TAMID – the Daily Sacrifice- Describes the Temple services connected with the daily morning and evening offerings.

10. MIDDOTH – Measurements. Describes the measurements and description of the Temple.

11. KINNIM – the Birds’ Nests. Treats of the sacrifices consisting of fowls, the offerings of the poor, etc. TOHOROTH. Contains twelve Books or Masechtoth.

1. KELLIM – Vessels. Treats of the conditions under which domestic utensils, garments, etc. receive ritual cleanness.

2. OHOLOTH – Tents. Treats of tents and houses, and how polluted and purified.

3. NEGAIM – Plagues. Treats of the laws relating to Leprosy.

4. PARAH – the Heifer. Treats of the laws concerning the red heifer and the use of its ashes for the purification of the unclean.

5. TOHOROTH – Purifications. Treats of some lesser degrees of uncleanness lasting only until sunset.

6. MIKVAOTH – Wells. Treats of the conditions under which wells and reservoirs are fit to be used for ritual purifications.

7. NIDDAH – Menstruation. Treats of the legal uncleanness arising from certain conditions in women.

8. MAKSCHIRIN – Preparations. Treats of liquids that prepare and dispose seeds and fruits to receive ritual uncleanness.

9. ZABHIM – Concerning nightly pollution and gonorrhea. Treats on the uncleanness arising from such secretions.

10 TEBHUL IOM – Daily washing.

11. IADAIM – Hands. Treats of the ritual uncleanness of hands, according to the traditional law, and of their purification.

12. OKETSIN – Stalks of fruit. Treats of stalks and shells of fruit as conveying ritual uncleanness.

The complete Talmud contains 63 books in 524 chapters.

Added to these are four other shorts tracts, which have not been included in the regular Talmud. They have been added by later writers and exponents.

These four are:

MASSEKHETH SOPHERIM – the Tract of Scribes. Treats of the mode of writing the books of the law. Has 21 chapters.

EBHEL RABBETI – a large treatise on Mourning. Has 14 chapters.

KALLAH – the Bride. On the acquisition of the bride. Has one chapter.

MASSEKHETH DEREKH ERETS – the Conduct of Lide. Divided into RABBAH – major parts, and ZUTA – the minor parts. Has 16 chapters. At the end is added a special chapter – PEREK SCHALOM – on Peace.

Since the Talmud was such a voluminous and disordered work, there was a need of a compendium which would facilitate its study. To supply this need, therefore, Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob Alphassi, in 1032, published a Shorter Talmud, which he called Halakhoth – Constitutions. He omitted all lengthy discussions and preserved only those parts which had to do with the practical things of life. Since this work, however, had no order to it, it was not considered of great worth.

The first to issue a well ordered work on Jewish Law was Maimonides, styled the “Eagle of the Synagogue.” In 1180 he produced his celebrated work Miscnhah Torah – Repetition of the Law, also called Iad Chazakah – the Strong Hand. It contains four parts or volumes and 14 books and includes the whole Talmud. Maimonides also included much philosophical discussion in this work and attempted to establish many laws of his own. Because of this he was excommunicated by his people and condemned to death. He fled to Egypt where he died in the year 1205.

In spite of this, the value of his work increased in time, and for a while an expurgated version was held in the highest esteem by the Jews. A drawback to this work is that it contains many laws which were of no value after the destruction of the Temple.

An edition of the work of Maimonides, expurgated of all his philosophical innovations and of all the old, useless laws, was edited in 1340, in strict accord with the ideas of the Rabbis, by Jacob ben Ascher, to which he gave the name Arbaa Turim – The Four Orders, which are:

ORACH CHAIIM: The seeds of Life, and treats of the daily life in the home and in the Synagogue. IORE DEAH: which teaches knowledge about foods, purifications and other religious laws. CHOSCHEN HAMMISCHPAT: private judgments about civil and criminal laws. EBHEN HAEZER: The Rock of Help, which treats of the laws of marriage.

Since Alphasi, Maimonides and Jacob ben Ascher disagreed on many points, which gave rise to different interpretations of the same law, there was great need of a book which would contain short, concise solutions to controversies, and which would supply to the Jewish people a law book worthy of the name.

Joseph Karo, a Rabbi of Palestine (born 1488, died 1577), supplied this need by his celebrated commentary on the Arbaa Turim, which he called Schulchan Arukh – the Prepared Table. Since, however, the customs of oriental Jews differed greatly from those of western Jews, even the Schulchan Arukh, of Joseph Karo did not suffice for Jews everywhere. And for this reason Rabbi Mosche Isserles wrote a commentary on the Schulchan Arukh, entitled Darkhe Mosche, the Way of Moses, which received the same acceptance in the West as the work of Joseph Karo in the East.

At the present time, the Schulchan Arukh is regarded as the obligatory Law Code of the Jews, and they use it principally in their studies. Many commentaries have been written on each part of this book.

An important point to note is that this work has always been regarded by the Jews as holy. They have always held it, and still hold it, as more important than the Sacred Scriptures.The Talmud itself shows this very clearly:

In the tract Babha Metsia, fol. 33a, we read:

“Those who devote themselves to reading the Bible exercise a certain virtue, but not very much; those who study the Mischnah exercise virtue for which they will receive a reward; those, however, who take upon themselves to study the Gemarah exercise the highest virtue.”

Likewise in the tract Sopherim XV, 7, fol. 13b:

“The Sacred Scriptures is like water, the Mischnah wine, and the Gemarah aromatic wine.

The following is a well-known and highly praised opinion in the writings of the Rabbis:

“My son, give heed to the words of the scribes rather than to the words of the law.”

The reason for this is found in the tract Sanhedrin X, 3, f.88b:

“He who transgresses the words of the scribes sins more gravely than the transgressors of the words of the law.”

Also when there are differences of opinion between the Law and the doctors, both must be taken as the words of the Lord God.

In the tract Erubhin, f.13b, where it is related that there was a difference of opinion between the two schools of Hillel and Schamai, it is concluded that:

“The words of both are the words of the living God.”

In the book Mizbeach, cap. V, we find the following opinion:

“There is nothing superior to the Holy Talmud.”

Contemporary defenders of the Talmud speak of it almost in the same way.

What Christians have thought of the Talmud is amply proved by the many edicts and decrees issued about it, by which the supreme rulers in Church and State proscribed it many times and condemned this sacred Secondary Law Code of the Jews to the flames.

In 553 the Emperor Justinian forbade the spread of the Talmudic books throughout the Roman Empire. In the 13th century “Popes Gregory IX and Innocent IV condemned the books of the Talmud as containing every kind of vileness and blasphemy against Christian truth, and ordered them to be burned because they spread many horrible heresies.”

Later, they were condemned by many other Roman Pontiffs – Julius III, Paul IV, Pius IV, Pius V, Gregory XIII, Clement VIII, Alexander VII, Benedict XIV, and by others who issued new editions of the Index of Forbidden Books according to the orders of the Fathers of the Council of Trent, and even in our own time.

At the beginning of the 16th century, when the peace of the Church was disturbed by new religions, the Jews began to distribute the Talmud openly, aided by the art of printing then recently invented. The first printed edition of the whole Talmud, containing all its blasphemies against the Christian religion, was published in Venice in the year 1520. And almost all Jewish books published in that century, which was favorable to them, are complete and genuine.

Towards the end of the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th, when many famous men undertook diligently to study the Talmud, the Jews, fearing for themselves, began to expunge parts of the Talmud which was published at Basle in 1578 has been mutilated in many places.

And at Synod in Poland, in the year 1631, the Rabbis of Germany and many other countries declared that nothing which would annoy the Christians and cause persecution of Israel, should be printed. For this reason there are signs of many things missing in the Jewish books which were published in the following century and thereafter. The Rabbis explain from memory what these things mean, for they possess the genuine books which Christians rarely see.

However, Jewish books were published later with very few mutilations in Holland – where the Jews who were expelled from Spain were kindly received. The Talmud published there in 1644 – 1648 is almost similar to the Venetian edition.

The latest device invented to deceive the censors was to insert the word haiah (was) with the genuine text, as if to indicate that the matter in question once had its place there. But by so doing they only cleanse the outside of the cup. For in many places they do show what they mean, ex.gr. by the words gam attah, “even now,” viz. “this law obliges”; and aphilu bazzeman hazzeh, “even to this day” viz. “this law holds,” and such like.

We must add a few remarks about that other very well known book of the Jews, called the ZOHAR.

According to some Rabbis, Moses, after he had been instructed in the interpretation of the law on Mount Sinai, did not pass this information to Joshua nor he to the Elders, but to Aaron, Aaron to Eleazer, and so on until the oral teachings had been put into book form called the ZOHAR, so called from the name ZEHAR, meaning to shine forth. For it is an illustration of the books of Moses, a commentary on the Pentateuch.

The author is said to have been R. Schimeon ben Jochai, a disciple of R. Akibha who, fifty years after the destruction of the Temple, ended his life as a martyr about the year 120 A.D. in Hadrian’s war against the Jews. Since, however, names of men appear in this book who lived many centuries after the year indicated, and since neither Rambam (R. Mosche ben Nachman), nor R. Ascher, who died about the year 1248 A.D., make no mention of it, it is more likely that those are nearer the truth who say that the book of Zohar first saw the light about the 13th century. Especially is this considered likely since about this time a book was produced which is similar in argument and style to the Chaldaic type of writing.

It consists of three volumes in large octavo.

Many other works have been published by the Jewish teachers which are used in the study of Jewish law, and which are held in high esteem since they explain many obscure passages in the Talmud. Some of them are cited in this book, and are as follows:

BAR – Declaration, elucidation, Commentary on another Commentary. These declarations differ from one another.

HALAKOTH – usually written HILKHOTH – Decisions or Dissertations. Separate books of Holy Scriptures and of the Talmud by different Rabbis: Maimonides, Beshai, Edels, Moses of Kotzen, Kimchi and others. In most cases citations are given from HILKOTH AKUM by Maimonides. These contain dissertations on stars and planets and the status of nations.

There is another –

HILKOTH MAAKHALOTH ASAVOROTH – dissertation about forbidden foods.

IUCHASIN or SEPHER IUCHASIN – dissertations on lineage. Treats of Sacred and Jewish history from the beginning of the world until 1500. Printed at Cracow, 1580.

JALKUT – a collected commentary from various ancient books. Supposed to have not a literal but allegorical meaning. Author: Rabbi Shimeon of Frankfurt.

KED HAKKEMACH – Barrel of flour. Contains places of theological communities in alphabetical order. Author: Rabbi Bechai of Lublin.

MAGEN ABRAHAM – Shield of Abraham. Author: Perizola.

MIZBEACH HAZZAHABH – the Golden Altar. A Cabalistic book. Author: R. Schelomon ben Rabbi Mordechai. Printed at Basle, in 1602.

MACHZOR – a Cycle. Book of Prayers used on great festivals.

MENORATH HAMMAOR – Candlestick of light. A Talmudic book. Contains Aggadoth and Medraschim. i.e., allegorical and historical comments on the entire Talmud. Author: Rabbi Isaac Abhuhabh. Printed in 1544.

MAIENE HAIESCHUAH – Fountains of the Savior. An exquisite Commentary on Daniel by Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel. There are numerous disputations against Christians. Printed in 1551.

MIKRA GEDOLAH – the Great Convocation. A Hebrew Bible with commentaries by R. Salomon Iarchi and R. Ezra.

MASCHMIA IESCHUAH – The Preacher of Salvation. Explanations on all the Prophets. On future redemption. Author: R. Abarbanel.

NIZZACHON – Victory. Attacks on Christians and on the Four Gospels. Author: Rabbi Lipman. Printed in 1559.

SEPHER IKKARIM – Book on fundamentals or articles of faith. It contains one very bitter attack against the Christian faith.

EN ISRAEL – the Eye of Israel. A celebrated book. Has a second part – BETH JAKOBH – the House of Jacob. Embraces the most delightful Talmudic histories. Printed in Venice, in 1547.

SCHAARE ORAH – the Gates of Light. A most celebrated Cabalistic book. Author: Ben Joseph Gekatilia.

SCHEPHAA TAL – Abundance of Dew. A Cabalistic book. A key to the book of Zohar and other similar books. Author: Rabbi Schephtel Horwitz of Prague.

TOLDOTH IESCHU – the Generations of Jesus. A little pamphlet full of blasphemies and maledictions. Contains the history of Christ. Full of false and deceiving manifestations.

In preparing this booklet I have used the following source material:

The TALMUD. Edition of Amsterdam, 1644-48, in 14 volumes.

SCHULKHAN ARUKH, by Rabbi Joseph Karo. Edition of Venice, 1594. Without commentaries.

IORE DEAH. Numerous quotations. Edition of Krakow.

ZOHAR. Edition of Amsterdam, 1805. 3 volumes.

MIKRA GEDOLAH. Edition of Amsterdam, 1792, 12 volumes, edition of Basle, 1620, 2 volumes, edition of Venice.

HILKHOTH AKUM, of R. Maimonides, edition by Vossius, 1675

As auxillary works I have used:

JOANNES BUXDORFIUS. a Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum et Rabbinicum, Base, 1640. b. De Abreviaturis Hebraicis; Operis Talmudis Recensio; Biblicothea Rabbinica. Basle, 1712. c. Synagoga Judaica. Basle, 1712.

JOH. CHRISTOPHORI WAGENSEILII, Sota. Aldtorfi Noricum, 1674.

GEORGII ELIEZ EDZARDI: Tractatus talmudici “AVODA SARA.” Hamburg, 1705.

JACOBI ECKER: “Der Judenspiegel im Lichte der Wahrheit,” (The Jewish Mirror in the Light of Truth). Paderborn, 1884.

AUGUST ROHLING: Die Polemik und das Manschenopfer des Rabbinismus. (The Polemics and Human Sacrifice of Rabbinism).Paderborn, 1883.

I have only used the works of those who are held in the highest esteem by the Jews themselves, and to whom the Jews appeal when disputing with Christians, by quoting impartially the opinions of these learned men. Their great dilligence in quoting from the texts of books which I was able to examine, has been a proof to me that I used the same diligence even in quoting from less known sources to which they have much greater access than I.





PART ONE

THE TEACHING OF THE TALMUD

CONCERNING CHRISTIANS

First we shall see what the Talmud teaches

about Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity;

and secondly, about his followers, the Christians.





CHAPTER I

JESUS CHRIST IN THE TALMUD

Many passages in the Talmudic books treat of the birth, life, death, and teachings of Jesus Christ. He is not always referred to by the same name, however, but is diversely called “That Man,” “A Certain One,” “The Carpenter’s Son,” “The One Who Was Hanged,” etc.

Article I. – CONCERNING THE NAMES OF JESUS CHRIST

1. The real name of Christ in Hebrew is Jeschua Hanotsri – Jesus the Nazarene. He is called Notsri from the city of Nazareth in which he was brought up. Thus in the Talmud Christians also are called Notsrim – Nazarenes.

Since the word Jeschua means “Savior,” the name Jesus rarely occurs in the Jewish books. It is almost always abbreviated to Jeschu, which is maliciously taken as if it were composed of the initial letters of the three words Immach SCHemo Vezikro – “May his name and memory be blotted out.”

2. In the Talmud Christ is called Otho Isch – “That man,” i.e. the one who is known to all. In the tract Abhodah Zarah, 6a, we read: “He is called a Christian who follows the false teachings of that man, who taught them to celebrate the feast on the first day of the Sabbath, that is, to worship on the first day after the Sabbath”

3. Elsewhere he is simply called Peloni – “A Certain One.” In Chagigah, 4b, we read: “Mary…the mother of a certain one, of whom it is related in Schabbath…” That this Mary is none other than the mother of Jesus will be shown later.

4. Out of contempt, Jesus is also called Naggar bar naggar – “the carpenter son of a carpenter”, also Ben charsch etaim – “the son of a wood worker.”

5. He is also called Talui – “The one who was hanged.” Rabbi Samuel, the son of Mair, in the Hilch. Akum of Maimonides, refers to the fact that it was forbidden to take part in the Christian feats of Christmas and Easter because they were celebrated on account of him who was hanged. And Rabbi Aben Ezra, in a commentary on Genes. also calls him Talui, whose image the Emperor Constantine reproduced on his banner. “…in the days of Constantine, who made a change of religion and placed the figure of the one who was hanged on his banner.”

Article II. – THE LIFE OF CHRIST

The Talmud teaches that Jesus Christ was illegitimate and was conceived during menstruation; that he had the soul of Esau; that he was a fool, a conjurer, a seducer; that he was crucified, buried in hell and set up as an idol ever since by his followers.

1. ILLEGITIMATE AND CONCEIVED DURING MENSTRUATION

The following is narrated in the Tract Kallah, 1b:

“Once when the Elders were seated at the Gate, two young men passed by, one of whom had his covered, the other with his head bare. Rabbi Eliezer remarked that the one in his bare head was illegitimate, a mamzer. Rabbi Jehoschua said that he was conceived during menstruation, ben niddah. Rabbi Akibah, however, said that he was both. Whereupon the others asked Rabbi Akibah why he dared to contradict his colleagues. He answered that he could prove what he said. He went therefore to the boy’s mother whom he saw sitting in the market place selling vegetables and said to her: “My daughter, if you will answer truthfully what I am going to ask you, I promise that you will be saved in the next life.” She demanded that he would swear to keep his promise, and Rabbi Akibah did so – but with his lips only, for in his heart he invalidated his oath. Then he said:

“Tell me, what kind of son is this of yours”? To which she replied: “The day I was married I was having menstruation, and because of this my husband left me. But an evil spirit came and sleptwith me and from this intercourse my son was born to me.” Thus it was proved that this young man was not only illegitimate but also conceived during the menstruation of his mother.

And when his questioners heard this they declared: “Great indeed was Rabbi Akibah when he corrected his Elders”! And they exclaimed: “Bleddes be the Lord God of Israel who revealed his secret to Rabbi Akibah the son of Joseph”!

That the Jews understand this story to refer to Jesus and his mother, Mary, is clearly demonstrated in their book Toldath

Jeschu – “The Generations of Jesus” – where the birth of our Savior is narrated in almost the same words.

Another story of this kind is narrated in Sanhedrin, 67a:

“Of all who are guilty of death by the Law, he alone is caught by a ruse. How is it done? They light a candle in an inner room and place witnesses in an adjoining room outside where they can see him and hear his voice, but where they cannot be seen by him. Then the one whom he tried to seduce says to him “Please repeat here privately what you told me before.” If the seducer repeats what he said, the others ask him “But how shall we leave our God who is in heaven and serve idols?” If the seducer repents, then all is well. But if he says “This is our duty and it is right for us to do so,” then the witnesses outside, who have heard him, bring him before the judge and stone him to death. This is what they did to the son of Stadi in Lud, and they hanged him on the eve of the Passover. Forthis son of Stada was the son of Pandira. For Rabbi Chasda tells us that Pandira was the husband of Stada, his mother, and he lived during the time Paphus the son of Jehuda. But his mother was stada, Mary of Magdala (a ladies’ hairdresser) who, as it is said in Pumbadita, deserted her husband.”

The meaning of this is that his Mary was called Stada, that is, a prostitute, because, according to what was taught at Pumbadita, she left her husband and commited adultery. This is also recorded in the Jerusalem Talmud and by Maimonides.

That the mention here is of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is verified in the Tract Chagigah, 4b:

“When Rabbi Bibhai was visited once by the Death Angel (the devil), the latter said to his assistant: “Go and bring to me Mary the hairdresser” (that is, kill her). He went and brought Mary the children’s hairdresser – in place of the other Mary.”

A marginal note explains this passage as follows:

“This story of Mary the Ladies’ hairdresser happened under the Second Temple. She was the mother of Peloni, “that man,” as he is called in the tract Schabbath.”

In Schabbath the passage referred to says:

“Rabbi Elizer said to the Elders: “Did not the son Stada practice Egyptian magic by cutting it into his flesh?” They replied: “He was a fool, and we do not pay attention to what fools do. The son of Stada, Pandra’s son, etc.” as above in Sanhedrin, 67a.

This magic of the son of Stada is explained as follows in the book Beth Jacobh, fol. 127 a:

“The Magi, before they left Egypt, took special care not to put their magic in writing lest other peoples might come to learn it.

But he devised a new way by which he inscribed it on his skin, or made cuts in his skin and inserted it there and which, when the wounds healed up, did not show what they meant.”

Buxtorf says:

“There is little doubt who this Ben Stada was, or who the Jews understood him to be. Although the Rabbis in their additions to the Talmud try to hide their malice and say that it is not Jesus Christ, their deceit is plainly evident, and many things prove that they wrote and understood all these things about him. In the first place, they also call him the son of Pandira. Jesus the Nazarene is thus called in other passages of the Talmud where express mention is made of Jesus the son of Pandira. St. John Damascene also, in his Genealogy of Christ, mentions Panthera and the Son of Panthera. “Secondly, this Stada is said to be Mary, and this Mary the mother of Peloni “that certain one,” by which without doubt Jesus is meant. For in this way they were accustomed to cover up his name because they were afraid to mention it. If we had copies of the original manuscripts they would certainly prove this. And this also was the name of the mother of Jesus the Nazarene.

“Thirdly, he is called the Seducer of the People. The Gospels testify that Jesus was called this by the Jews, and their writings to this day are proof that they still call him by this name.

“Fourthly, he is called “the one who was hanged,” which clearly refers to the crucifixion of Christ, especially since a reference to the time “on the eve of the Passover” is added, which coincides with the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. In Sanhedrin they wrote as follows:

“On the eve of the Passover they hanged Jesus”

“Fifthly, as to what the Jerusalem Talmud says about the two disciples of the Elders who were sent as witnesses to spy on him, and who were afterwards brought forward as witnesses against him: This refers to the two “false witnesses” of whom the Evangelists Matthew and Luke make mention.

“Sixthly, concerning what they say about the son of Stada that he practiced Egyptian magical arts by cutting into his flesh: the same accusation is made against Christ in their hostile book Toldoth Jeschu.

“Lastly, the time corresponds. For it is said that this son of Stada lived in the days of Paphus the son of Jehuda, who was a contemporary of Rabbi Akibah. Akibah, however, lived at the time of the Ascension of Christ, and for some time after. Mary is also said to have lived under the Second Temple. All this clearly proves that they secretly and blasphemously understand this son of Stada to be Jesus Christ the son of Mary.

“Other circumstances may seem to contradict this. But that is nothing new in Jewish writings and is done on purpose so that Christians may not easily detect their trickery.”

2. Furthermore, “In the secret books, which are not permitted to fall easily into the hands of Christians, they say that the soul of Esau came into Christ, that he was therefore evil and that he was Esau himself.”

3. By some he is called a FOOL and INSANE

In Schabbath, 104b:

“They, [the Elders] said to him [Eliezer]: “He was a fool, and no one pays attention to fools.”

4. A CONJURER AND MAGICIAN

In the infamous book Toldoth Jeschu, our Savior is blasphemed as follows:

“And Jesus said: Did not Isaiah and David, my ancestors, prophesy about me? The Lord said to me, thou art my son, today I have begotten thee, etc. Likewise in another place: The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand. Now I ascend to my father who is in heaven and will sit at his right hand, which you will see with your own eyes. But you, Judas, will never reach that high.

Then Jesus pronounced the great name of God (IHVH) and continued to do so until a wind came and took him up between earth and sky. Judas also pronounced the name of God and he likewise was taken up by the wind. In this way they both floated around in the air to the amazement of the onlookers. Then Judas, again pronouncing the Divine Nane, took hold of Jesus and pushed him down to earth. But Jesus tried to do the same to Judas and thus they fought together. And when Judas saw he could not win out over the works of Jesushe pissed on Jesus, and both thus being unclean they fell to earth; nor could they use the Divine name again until they had washed themselves.”

Whether those who believe such devilish lies deserve greater hatred or pity, I cannot say.

In another place in the same book it is related that in the house of the Sanctuary there was a stone which the Patriarch Jacob anointed with oil. On this stone were carved the tetragrammatic letters of the Name (IHVH), and if anyone could learn from them he could destroy the world. They therefore decreed that no one must learn them, and they placed two dogs upon two iron columns before the Sanctuary so that if anyone should learn them the dogs would bark at him coming out and he would forget the letters through fear. Then it is related: “Jesus came and entered, learned the letters and wrote them down on parchment. Then he cut into the flesh of his thigh and inserted them there, and having pronounced the name, the wound healed.”

5. IDOLATER

In the Tract Sanhedrin (103a) the words of Psalm XCI, 10: “No plague shall come near thy dwelling,” are explained as follows:

“That thou mayest never have a son or a disciple who will salt his food so much that he destroys his taste in public, like Jesus the Nazarene.”

To salt one’s food too much or to destroy one’s taste, is proverbially said of one who corrupts his morals or dishonors himself, or who falls into heresy and idolatry and openly preaches it to others.

6. SEDUCER

In the same book Sanhedrin (107b) we read:

“Mar said: Jesus seduced, corrupted and destroyed Israel.”

7. CRUCIFIED

Finally as punishment for his crimes and impiety, he suffered an ignominious death by being hanged on a cross on the eve of the Passover (as we have seen above).

8. BURIED IN HELL

The book Zohar, III, (282), tells us that Jesus died like a beast and was buried in that “dirt heap…where they throw the dead bodies of dogs and asses, and where the sons of Esau [the Christians] and of Ismael [the Turks], also Jesus and Mahommed, uncircumcized and unclean like dead dogs, are buried.”

9. WORSHIPPED AS GOD AFTER HIS DEATH BY HIS FOLLOWERS

George El. Edzard, in his book Avoda Sara, quotes the following words of the commentator on the Hilkoth Akum (V,3) of Maimonides:

“In many passages of the Talmud mention is made of Jesus the Nazarene and of his disciples, and that the Gentiles believe that there is no other God besides him. In the book Chizzuk Emunah, part I, ch. 36, we read: “The Christians build up an argument from this [Zachary XII, 10] and say: Behold how thew Prophet testified that in future ages the Jews would would lament and weep because they crucified and killed the Messiah who was sent to them; and to prove that he meant Jesus the Nazarene, possessing both the divine and human nature, they quote the words: And they looked upon him whom they transfixed and they wept over him as a mother over her first born child.””

Maimonides attempts to prove how much Christians err in worshipping Jesus in his book Hilkoth Melakhim (IX, 4):

“If all the things he did had prospered, if he had rebuilt the Sanctuary in its place, and had gathered together the dispersed tribes of Israel, then he would certainly be the Messiah….But if so far hew has not done so and if he was killed, then it is clear he was not the Messiah whom the Law tells us to expect. He was similar to all the good and upright rulers of the House of David who died, and whom the Holy and Blessed Lord raised up for no other reason but to prove to many, as it is said (in Dan. XI, 35):

And some of them who understand shall fall, to try and to purge them and to make them white, even till the end of time, because the appointed time is not yet. Daniel also prophesised about Jesus the Nazarene who thought he was the Christ, and who was put to death by the judgment of the Senate: (Dan. V.14): …and the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fail.

What could be plainer? For all the Prophets said that the Christ would set Israel free, would bring it salvation, restore its dispersed peoples and confirm their laws. But he was the cause of the destruction of Israel and caused the rest of them to be dispersed and humiliated, so that the Law was changed and the greater part of the world was seduced to worship another God. Truly no one can understand the designs of the Creator, nor are his ways our ways. For all that has been built up by Jesus the Nazarene, and by the Turks who came after him, tend only to prepare the way for the coming of Christ the King, and to prepare the whole world equally for the service of the Lord, as it is said: For then I shall give a clean moth to all peoples that all may call upon the name of the Lord, and bow down in unison before him. How is this being accomplished? Already the whole world is filled with the praise of Christ, the Law and the Commandments, and his praises have spread to far distant lands and to peoples whose hearts and bodies are uncircumcized. These discuss with one another about the Law that was destroyed – some saying that the commandments were once true, but have ceased to exist; others that there is a great mystery about it, that the Messiah-King has come and that their doctrine has revealed it. But when the Christ truly comes and is successful, and is raised up and exalted, then everything will be changed and these things will be shown to be false and vain.”

10. AN IDOL

In the Tract Abhodah Zarah, (21a Toseph), we read:

“It is of importance to inquire the reasons why men nowadays even sell and rent their houses to Gentiles. Some say this is legal because it is said in Tosephta: No one shall rent his house to a gentile either here [in the land of Israel] or elsewhere because it is known that he will bring an idol into it. It is nevertheless allowed to rent them stables, barns and lodging houses, even though it is known that they will bring idols into them. The reason is because a distinction can be made between a place into which an idol will be carried in order to leave it there permanently, and a place where it will not be left permanently, in which case it is allowed. And since the gentiles, among whom we now live, do not bring their idol into their homes to leave it there permanently, but only for a time – while someone is dead in the house or when someone is dying, nor do they even perform any

religious rites there – it is therefore permitted to sell and rent them houses.”

Rabbi Ascher, in his Commentary on Abhodah Zarah (83d) speaks not less clearly on this matter: “Today it is permitted to rent houses to Gentiles because they bring their idol into them only for a time, when somebody is sick.” And in the same place he says “Today they have a practice of incensing their idol.””

All this, and much more like it, proves beyond a doubt that when the Rabbis speak of the idols of the Gentiles among whom they lived at that time, when no idols were worshipped, they clearly meant the Christian “idol,” namely, the image of Christ on the crucifix and the Holy Communion.

NOTE ABOUT THE CROSS

In Jewish writings there is no directly corresponding word for the Christian Cross. The cross T on which those condemned to death were crucified, was called Tau by the Phoenicians and the Hebrews, and this name and sign for it was afterwards taken over into the alphabet of the Jews and of the Greeks and the Romans. The Cross honored by the Christians, however, is called by the following names:

1. Tsurath Haattalui – the image who was hanged.

2. Elil – vanity, idol.

3. Tselem – image. Hence the Crusaders in Jewish books are called Tsalmerim (ein Tsalmer)

4. Scheti Veerebh – warp and woof, which is taken from the textile art.

5. Kokhabh – star; on account of the four rays emanating from it.

6. Pesila – a sculpture, a carven idol.

But whenever it is mentioned it is always in the sense of an idol or of something despicable, as can be seen from the following quotations:

In Orach Chaiim, 113,8:

“If a Jew when praying should meet a Christian [Akum] carrying a star [a crucifix] in his hand, even if he has come to a place in his prayer where it is necessary to bow down to worship God in his heart, he must not to so lest he should seem to bow down before an image.”

In Iore Dea, 150,2:

“Even if a Jew should get a splinter in his foot in front of an idol, or if he should drop his money before it, he must not stoop down to remove the splinter or to gather his money lest he should seem to adore it. But he should either sit down or turn his back or his side to the idol and then remove the splinter.”

But whenever it is not possible for a Jew to turn away like this, the following rule must be observed (in Iore Dea, 3, Hagah):

“It is not permitted to bow down or to remove one’s hat before princes or priests who wear a cross on their dress, as is their custom. Care must be taken, however, not to be noticed in failing to do so. For instance, one can throw some coins on the ground and stoop down to pick them up before they pass by. In this way it is permitted to bow down or to remove one’s hat before them.” A distinction is also made between a cross which is venerated and a cross which is worn around the neck as a souvenir or as an ornament. The former is to be regarded as an idol, but not necessarily the latter. In Iore Dea, 141, 1, Hagah, it says:

“The image of a cross, before which they bow down, is to be treated as an idol, and it is not to be used until it is destroyed. However, a ‘warp and woof’ if hung around the neck as a souvenir is not to be regarded as an idol and can be used.”

The sign of the cross made with the hand, by which Christians are wont to bless themselves, is called in Jewish “the moving of

the fingers here and there” (hinc et hinc).

Article III. – THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST

The Seducer and Idolator could teach nothing but falsehood and heresy which was irrational and impossible to observe.

1. FALSHOOD

In Abhodah Zarah (6a) it says:

“A Nazarene is one who follows the false teachings of that man who taught them to worship on the first day of the Sabbath.”

2. HERESY

In the same book Abohah Zar. (Ch.I, 17a Toseph) mention is made of the heresy of James. A little further on (27b) we learn

that this James was none other than the disciple of Jesus:

“…James Sekhanites, one of the disciples of Jesus, of whom we spoke in chapter 1.”

But James taught, not his own doctrine, but that of Jesus.

3. IMPOSSIBLE TO OBSERVE

The author of Nizzachon argues as follows on this point:

“A written law of the Christians is: If a Jew strike you on one cheek, turn the other also to him and do not in any way return the blow. And ch. VI, v. 27 says: Love your enemies; do good to them who hate