Jewhaters.com began
from these letters, when an Bob replied to a letter from Rabbi Eidensohn. It is
very important to note that many people who hate Jews are decent and moral, and
may have some reason to be angry at Jews. The idea, so prevalent today in some
circles, that anyone who hates must be insane, is wrong, and counterproductive.
Although it allows those who oppose the particular hate to disdain it, it does
nothing to go to the root cause of the hate. We must ask why people hate us, and
reply to them. Many if most of them are interested in our replies. They have
better things to do than instigate against fellow human beings.
SCHOLARLY COMMENTS AND RESPONSE TO FRIENDS
Dear Rabbi,
I may be your mentor on things Christian. I would also like
you to be my mentor. I would like to know more about Judaism. I would like
to know more about the doctrines of your religion. I will never debate them or in
anyway show disrespect for you by trying to evangelize or convert you. I will
never argue religion with you. I only want to understand your faith.
In fact, maybe you could write me a letter telling me all
about the various sects of Judaism similar to the letter I wrote to
you about the sects of Christianity. Tell me about Reconstructionist Judaism
(definitely not Judaism at all I presume) and tell me about Reform Judaism (not
Judaism at all I presume) and tell me about Conservative Judaism ( some
Conservative Synagogues maybe and some may not be genuine Judaism I presume) and
tell me about the many Orthodox sects of Judaism of which I know very little,
from the Neturei Karta to the followers of Kahane to those who are immersed in
the teachings of the Kaballah. Finally tell me about the sect of Judaism that
you adhere to doctrinally and why you think your sects understanding of the
Talmud and the Hebrew scriptures is the correct version.
If you write this letter to me and for me, it will
be a long letter. If you will do this for me, perhaps you can use such
a letter on your website too. Thanks in advance, Bob.
Dear
Bob,
I
would be happy and honored to tell you about Judaism.
You
have mentioned many things you would like to know, and it is easier for me to
begin with the last point, to understand my Jewish sect and why I think it is
the correct one. Then I can work back and show why the other groups did not do
what I think is the right way.
I
am an Orthodox Jew, or rather, ultra-Orthodox, as I dress in a long black coat
and have a long beard. (Those white hairs are just from the snow or a
grandchild’s ice cream, I forget which one.)
Our big principle is to go to the past, and never invent, never change the religion. We derive our religion from the Revelation at Sinai, when G-d taught
Indeed, the idea of worshipping G-d began at Creation, and Adam and Eve worshipped G-d. There were always saints and prophets, even before there were Jews. Thus,
All people are G-d’s creation. They all have holy souls.
G-d
spoke to Adam and Eve, and early prophets, such as Shem, the son of Noah. When
Abraham became Jewish, he offered tithes to Shem, who was G-d’s High Priest.
In those days, the Jews were just like everybody else, and Shem, a gentile, was
the holiest person in the world.
The Torah tells us that G-d saw how Abraham and his family loved G-d, and chose them as His clergy. The Creation was about six thousand years ago. Abraham was born a pagan, but he found G-d, and G-d spoke to Him. This happened two thousand years after the Creation. In those days, and until the beginning of the
Let me just tell you about my mentor, Dr. Shmuel, the dean of Cabalists in
I
was in his house. He was in one side of the apartment, in his office, and I in
the other side, in the guest room. Once I thought to myself: I did that. I
achieved something special. I looked up, and Dr. Shmuel stood there and said,
“Yes, you achieved it.” He was
making fun of me for thinking foolish thoughts. He knew what I thought.
When
I saw how holy he was, I thought, “Say, let’s get some blessings going on
over here.” I of course asked for my children, and I asked that they marry the
right one. You have no idea what a hassle marrying our children is in my
community. The parents have to do it. We have to field so many candidates, and
check out each one, and find out all of the dirt, and then see if they found any
dirt on us! Of course, we don’t have so much dirt, but people will reject you
if you have one relative who is not proper, or if one of you children is funny,
or such things.
Anyway,
I got my blessings, and Bob, you would not believe what happened. I am a plain
family, and the greatest rabbinical families in the world began chasing my
children! People said, “How did that happen?” I told them. I am proud of it.
Dr. Shmuel gave me blessings.
As
you see, in my community, the living rabbi or mentor is the key to Judaism. He
advises us how to live in every area of life. If my wife rats on me, I am
finished. (If I rat on her, the rabbi says, “Do you expect me to believe
that?”)
Jewish
history is filled with movements and sects. They always change or disappear. The
only Jews who remain as Jews are those who live under the influence of a holy
rabbi, and who follow the rabbis who obey the Talmud.
Rabbis
have the Oral Law, the keys and code to the Written Law. Without this code one
cannot really understand the Written Law. For instance, the bible says “an eye
for an eye.” This is a problem. If someone with one eye pokes out the eye of
one who has two eyes, is it fair to blind the one-eyed person? Is poking out an
eye the way to deal with this? The Talmud declares that the Bible means not
poking out the eye of the damager, but monetary payments.
However,
when prophecy ceased, some Jews refused to accept the rabbis as the successors
to the prophets. They said, “We have a Written Law. We will not accept
rabbinical Talmudics.” Therefore, these people, called Tsedukim (there were
various sects of these with other names but Tsedukim were the name used for all
of them).
Another element in the Jewish people were the nationalists, the “wild ones.” This was an element that refused to accept the exile. They refused to accept that G-d wanted Jews to obey the nations of the world. This group caused the major tragedies in Jewish history. They rebelled against the Babylonians time and again, until all of the Jews were driven from
Dr. Goldstein, who murdered Arabs in Hebron, was one of this cult. They believe that Jews must achieve nationalist power even if they have to antagonize the gentiles of the world. They rely on G-d. Unfortunately for them and for everyone else, they always end up dead. Rabbi Mayer Kahana is dead and so is his son. I used to debate them on
You mention that these people are connected to Kabala. This is not true. The Kahana person is a simple Jew, not an intellectual. He is not a scholar. He has a burning indignation that Jews suffer. He cannot imagine why G-d does not save His
Another element of Jews in the
After the Destruction of the
In recent centuries with the Enlightenment and secularism, many Jews felt that religion was the enemy, because they suffered so much from the Christians and Moslems. These became secular Jews. They warred with the rabbis and Talmudists for control of the communities. Until the
In
In
earlier generations, a Jew who left the religion left the fold. In the past few
centuries, this was no longer true. People did not leave the fold, because they
could stay Jewish and live as they pleased. This was because of the secular
nature of society. Countries did not demand that someone exist in a specific
religious community any longer.
Millions of Russian Jews came to
Eventually,
a strange thing happened. Conservative Judaism drifted farther and farther to
the left, until it became Reform. Reform, on the other hand, has recently
experienced a renewal in some congregations of a need to return to ritual and
some Orthodox practices. Both of these groups, however, are disappearing
demographically. Jews in these groups intermarry at the rate of fifty percent,
and have few children. At this time, a person with a Jewish name who is not
Orthodox is probably not Jewish by Jewish standards, but somebody whose
grandfather was Jewish.
I
hope this helps you understand our religion. Please let me know if I can help
you further. It is an honor for me.
Sincerely,
David
Robert,
I wrote to you in an e-mail about the genetic study of Jewish priests and Levites. I realize now that you introduced me to an interesting lode, and may I share my thoughts with you?
Let us go back to the moment in Jewish history when the biblical period ended, and the modern period, that is, the Greek period, began. This was at the Building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, after the Seventy Years of Exile following the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple. Around 2300 years ago, the Jews no longer had prophets, but rabbis or Talmudists led them. The Babylonians (Iraq) were gone, the Persians fell to Alexander the Great (although they would never be truly defeated by the West), and now the Greeks entered Jerusalem in triumph with Alexander and Aristotle.
If there are any Jews left in the world today it is because of the High Priests, Ezra the High Priest who brought the Jews from Iraq and Iran back to Israel, and his successor, Shimon the Pious, who greeted Alexander, and impressed him most favorably. At first glance, this was a glorious period, but it was really a sad one. Now prophecy was gone, the bible was finished, and the Greeks after Alexander were opposed to Judaism. There was, however, a bigger problem, something that nobody notices, and which surfaced from my research into your e-mail about the Priests and Levites.
As I mentioned to you then, the Levites remained in exile and refused to return to Israel. The Levites realized that the real Torah academies and presence would remain in the exile, in Iraq especially, which had for centuries been a powerful Torah community, and Iran, where the great rabbis had lived until recently. The Levites also recognized that Ezra had left Babylonia with the lowest element of Jews. Many of them were the sort that nobody would marry. The Levites, the guardian of spirituality, the descendents of Levi and Moses, refused to live in Israel under these circumstances.
However, there was another aspect to this refusal. Remember that Ezra who summoned them was the High Priest, the highest caste of Levites. That is, all priests are descended from Aharon, who descended from Levi, the ancestors of all Levites. Therefore, for the Levites to defy Ezra meant that they defied the High Priest who is the senior Levi.
Ezra did not accept their refusal to come to Israel, and he did not suffer their defiance lightly. He took away their privileges of tithes in Israel, so they could not survive. He roundly censured them, and from then on, the Jews in Israel had no Levites, only a few priests. The priests rose to the occassion in the early years of the Second Temple, but eventually, without a base or Levites, the Priests and the Jews declined. Judaism thus was split between the scholars and those who did not love the rabbis. There were some good High Priests and some who defied the rabbis, the Zadukim.
Throughout Jewish history, there are rebellions against the rabbis that drag large masses of Jews away from the Torah, and these groups eventually disappear from the Jewish fold, or disappear from the form they originally had as Jews.
Orthodox Jewry is the sole remnant of true Judaism. I practice the exact Torah or Law as my ancestors for thousands of years up to the time of Moses and even earlier, because the early Jewish prophets knew something of the Torah through prophecy.
The Second Temple Period
As mentioned previously, the Second Temple period, four centuries ending in the year 70, began with major changes in the religious environment of Israel.
First of all, prophecy ceased. Until this time, G-d spoke to prophets and the Jews knew that G-d spoke to the prophets, and saw how predictions came true and miracles happened. Now this ended. Would the Jews continue to believe and live as Jews without the miracles? The rabbis declared that studying the Torah or Law brought one to G-d, as did Derech Erets, the Way of the World, honest and good mundane living. Since that time, practicing Jews emphasize sometimes study of the Talmud, and others emphasize prayer and piety, and others emphasize good and honest lifestyles. Prophecy as it was manifested in ancient and biblical times no longer exists, however, the rabbis were close to G-d, and there were still hidden miracles, and quiet revelations to the saints and great rabbis.
The First Temple had open miracles and divine revelations. The Second Temple had hidden miracles and divine revelations. Without prophets, the Jews turned to rabbis and the High Priests to guide them. However, there were some Jews who refused to accept the rabbis in lieu of prophets. They rejected the rabbinical camp, and said that all Jews had was the Written Law. The rabbis countered that the Written Law was a hideous document without rabbinical and Oral Law interpretation. The rabbis claimed authority from Moses and G-d to interpret that Law and Torah.
The Tsedukim, a major clan of Jews who denied the rabbis, would not cure a sick person on the Sabbath. When a woman went into labor, they refused to help her on the Sabbath. The rabbis claimed that their interpretation of the Law permitted saving a life on the Sabbath. The Tsedukim refused to do so.
The Jews enjoyed favor and protection from Persian Kings and Alexander the Great of Greece, but after Alexander died the Greeks began to persecute the Jews. The Romans defeated the Greeks and continued to persecute the Jews. Now arose a new sect of Jews who considered rebelling against the mighty nations. One such rebellion succeeded, that of the Hasmoneans against the Greeks. Here a High Priest of the rabbinical camp drove out the Greeks, and fought bitter fights with Hellenized Jews in Israel. Now began the battle between religious and secular Jew. It was then a battle to the death, and even today it is a bitter struggle.
When Roman persecution became intolerable, some wanted to rebel. The rabbis opposed this. Ultimately, the Jews did rebel, they defied the rabbis and even killed a leading rabbi. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple, but realized that the rabbis opposed the rebellion and gave grants and honor to the rabbis.
The period before the Destruction of the Second Temple, its last century, from 30 BCE to 70 CE, was a time when huge internal struggles plagued the Jewish camp. The Tsedukim opposed the rabbis and the Oral Law. The Biryonim, or "wild ones," called for rebellion against Rome. The rabbis knew that the Temple would soon be destroyed, and they worked feverishly to prepare the Oral Law to survive. After the destruction, the rabbis assumed great power, but only for a while. Eventually, the Romans proscribed the study of the Law, and the rabbis rebelled under Rabbi Akiva, and this led to a huge destruction equalling the misery of the Destruction of the Temple.
The bitter internal battles of the rabbis against other sects then died down in Israel, but some of those who opposed the rabbis went to other countries and made other religions. This was the time of formative Christianity. Anyone who knows Talmud recognizes many things in the New Testament that are fruit that fell from the tree, but utilized to attack the mother religion.
There is no way to know exactly what happened in the first generations of Christianity, but our background of events of the time give some perspective of the tremendous internal and external turmoil that existed at the period.
Recall that the earliest defiance of the Oral Law rabbis was because of the end of prophecy. The rabbis assured the Jews that prophecy continued in their studies. Learning Torah was higher than prophecy, the rabbis taught. Thus, Judaism became a religion for the intellectual. Those who did not study felt inferior and hated the rabbis. These people, the unlearned masses, needed someone to lead them who did not demand advanced study. Influenced by the Greek and Roman systems and social structures, these elements also needed some strong leader, or philosopher-kings who could stand between them and the higher truths.
I find it interesting that the latest research on early Christianity considers its founder to have used sorcery. How perfect a program for those times! By attacking the rabbis, and compelling others to worship him, the founder of Christianity attracted the rabbi-haters, those who wanted a return to prophets, those who wanted a strong leader, those who needed a religion of superstition, and those who longed for freedom from the nations and Messiah.
And yet, despite all of the ingredients for success, the church in Israel disappeared quickly. The early Christians then invented a new religion, far from Judaism, and yet never forgot the rejection and program of the rabbis. From this came the enormous hatred that span thousands of years. The particulars of this hatred are detailed in the modern classic Constantine, by a Catholic Priest. His thesis is that anti-Semitism is not incidental to Christianity, but a major force in its theology. Indeed, nothing in the theology of Christianity is sacred including the understanding of its deity. The only theology that lasted very long without dissent was anti-Semitism.
Thus is the West prone to hate Jews. The Moslems made a religion that claims to supplant Israel, and of course, the Jews deny this. Israel maintains, to this day, that G-d created the world, gave us the land of Israel, exiled us from it, and will one day restore us to it and build the Third Temple. Then, those who made Jews suffer will answer to G-d.
The anti-Semitic lie is surrounded by <> and followed by Rabbi Eidensohn's response.
Responses to a named person are generally of a friendly nature.
Letter to a Friend of Hitler
A Friend of Hitler wants to know about Jewish dominance. A Friend of Hitler is not the only person who hates Jews because he imagines that they hate him. This is a common concept. Subdue Jews because they want to subdue you. Hate Jews because they hate you. This is a major theme of hate literature out there today and of course, yesterday.
Let's talk about this, the only way I know, in a scholarly way. I am not going to puff off some advocacy phrases, but I want to examine the issue. First, dominance, and secondly, hate.
Historically, we Jews have been around a long time. We go back to Abraham, almost 4,000 years ago. During that time, we have almost always been a despised minority, and travelers in exile. In fact, the bible tells us that G-d appeared to Abraham and made a Covenant with him. He told Abraham, "Your seed will be strangers in a land not their own." Jews would be persecuted, said G-d, but He would redeem them in the end and bring them to Israel.
Thus, Jewish history is a history of exiles, cycles of slavery, and redemption. There is very little in Jewish history about dominating anyone else. Even when Jews lived in Israel, the bible tells us how, for most of the time, they suffered from the larger surrounding nations, such as Egypt and Assyria.
On the other hand, the Jews have a divine mission, to be a light unto the nations. We are a "kingdom of priests, a holy nation," at least, that is what we are supposed to be. If we fail, if we turn to material pursuits and fail spiritually, the punishment is more exile, and more suffering. Ultimately, however, the Jews will be gathered back into Israel, and the Era of Evil will end. Then, the Jews will be the priestly tribe, in the merit of all of the suffering they had in this world, and their constant striving to serve G-d despite all of the opposition.
This role of Israel is given by G-d. It is not an invention of some mortal, or a group of rabbis or prophets. The entire bible is this theme. Therefore, one who denies the Jews a holy and priestly role in this world and the next denies the Will of G-d. However, being a priest is no picnic. It means serving G-d and not serving ourselves. It is hard work, and rewarding spiritually but not materially, necessarily.
The rabbis had a tradition that the world will last about 6,000 years, and we are now in the year 5,765. Towards the end time, the rabbis taught, the Jews would rise up from the dust, and have their own land. Anyone who knows Jewish history knows just how ridiculous that sounded. Remember, the State of Israel came about just a few years after the Final Solution. However, the rabbis taught that the greatest darkness would be followed by the beginning of Redemption. Of course, we don't know the paths of G-d, but we are satisfied that He will guide Israel to redemption, as He had in the past.
The rabbis taught that just before the Messiah will come, the Jews will repent. This, again, is a phenomena of our time. Hundreds of thousands of secular Jews are becoming Orthodox. Anyone who grew up as I did, in a secular Jewish world 50 years ago, knows that this is a great miracle. So, the miracles will continue. The haters, please, take notice. You are not hating a helpless and small people, although we are now very helpless and small. You are hating the ecclesiastical people of G-d, and you will answer to His anger. That is the theme of the bible. If you believe in the bible, you must believe in the ultimate Redemption of Israel.
The Zohar tells us that just as the brothers of Joseph hated him because his father, Jacob, favored him, so will the nations of the world hate Israel because of G-d's favor. This hate is a stain on mankind. We must rise above it. All people can serve G-d, and we don't have to hate Jews in order to love G-d. We don't have to hate Jews in order to be close to G-d, and if we do hate Jews, we are far from G-d, who chose Israel as priests. All good people who love G-d and goodness are beloved by G-d. They will merit the Future World and bask in the light of heaven. There is no place there for haters and the powerful that viciously crush the helpless.
Bob asks,
“My friend Jim asked me what is your stance towards Christianity? I said
"I hope he is like Rabbi Daniel Lapin."
My Reply.
Bob, tell Jim that I am happy and
grateful to live in
Bob, some of the people who write to me from your
e-mail list have questions about the Talmud and its statements. So, I would like
to reply to them.
First of all, none of the Talmuds published in recent
centuries have anything remotely suspicious because the Church censored anything
it didn’t like. I have seen some of the censored material and would like to
explain it. Some people have seen some of this material in various English
translations and want an answer from me about them.
Let us begin with the general feeling among those who
censored the Talmud that YESHU in the Talmud was a Christian. This cannot be.
The YESHU mentioned in the Talmud Sanhedrin 107b was a disciple of Rabbi Joshua
ben Perachiya. King Yanei, an early Hasmonean King, became angered at the sages
and murdered them. Rabbi Joshua be Perachiyo and his prize disciple YESHU fled
The two of them came to an inn where the hostess
hastened to provide the two honored rabbis with every consideration. “How
lovely is this woman,” said Rabbi Joshua to YESHU. “But rebbe,” said YESHU,
“her eyes are droopy.” “Wicked man,” said Rabbi Joshua. “Is this how
you speak?” He drove YESHU away and pronounced the ban upon him, so that no
Jew would respect him. YESHU begged for forgiveness, but Rabbi Joshua would not
receive him. YESHU returned time and again, until Rabbi Joshua decided that
enough was enough. He motioned to YESHU to wait a moment until he finished his
prayers, but YESHU mistook the motion to mean that Rabbi Joshua was finished
with him. YESHU, who felt driven away from the Jews, then became a priest for
pagans. Rabbi Joshua came to him and begged him to return to the Jews, but YESHU
replied, “Rabbi, did you not teach me that one who causes the community to sin
has no penitence?” YESHU therefore remained outside of the fold.
This is the basic text there. This cannot have
anything to do with Christianity, and the church censors obviously did not know
anything about Jewish history if they made such a grievous era to think that
YESHU was a Christian.
Rabbi Joshua lived centuries before Christianity.
Christianity began in the final century of the Second Temple, around the year
one. Rabbi Joshua lived two centuries before that. The Talmud clearly mentions
Rabbi Shimon ben Shotach and King Yanei as living in the time of YESHU. Both of
these were early figures in the
By the way, the name YESHU is a common nickname for
YEHOSHUA, which happened to be the name of Rabbi Joshua, because Joshua is
YEHOSHUA. Because people have a hard time pronouncing four syllables, they say
YESHU. Many Hebrew names are shortened in this style. YESHAYOHU, or Isaiah, is
usually shortened to SHIYA. The ignorant censors decided that YESHU was a
curseword!
Is YESHU a curseword, or
is it a common Jewish name? In the classic and modern book GET MESUDOR,
Laws of Jewish Divorce, we have a listing of names, which are very important in
writing the Bill of Divorce. Names and nicknames must be written exactly. Here
is what it says about Joshua and its nicknames:
YOSHKA is a nickname for Joshua. Also YOSHI. Also SHIA. Also YOESHKO.
In the times of the Talmud the name was YESHU. After
the church censors decided that YESHU was a Christian, Jews stopped using YESHU
but kept other names such as YOSHKO or SHIA. YESHU is very similar to YOSHKA and
YOSHI. At any rate, nobody who knows a drop of Jewish history can confuse
someone who lived at the time of Rabbi Joshua ben Perachiya with Christianity
which began after the dynasty of Hillel, centuries later.
Another common misconception probably invented by the
ignorant censors is that Bilaam in the Talmud is a Christian. Since Bilaam is
reviled, this, they felt, meant that a Christian was being reviled. This is
ridiculous. Who was Bilaam?
Bilaam is right there in the Bible, dueling with
Moses and finally blessing the Jews. Bilaam, a sorcerer of renown in the time of
the Exodus from Egypt, about 1400 years before Christianity, has many passage
devoted to his deeds and teachings in the Old Testament. The Talmud and
especially the other areas of Jewish learning are filled with talking about
Bilaam. He challenged Moses in greatness of mind and abilities, except that he
went in a different direction.
Bilaam hated Jews, but G-d forced him to bless the
Jews. This blessing is a great treasure, because it shows that even a hater can
come to love. Jews begin the morning prayers with the words of Bilaam, the
famous, “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwelling places Israel.”
Bilaam prophecied about the Messiah, “A star shall shoot forth from Jacob.”
And yet, Bilaam had his vices. He was an evil genius who made a living by
cursing people! Therefore, Bilaam is a symbol of genius and spiritual powers
gone in the opposite direction. Of course the Talmud lambasts Bilaam. What proof
did the censors have that Bilaam means anything but Bilaam?
There is so much ignorance of Jews and their
teachings. Christians believed and Moslems still do that Jews kill babies and
drink their blood. The bible is filled with the sin of eating blood. Hate does
not recognize scholarship.
Sincerely yours,
David Eidensohn
Letter to Bob about Lies in an Article
Dear Bob,
Your letter from November 3 is an article from Bruce entitled "All Hail the Jewish Master Race!"
Bruce writes that Jews think, "compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races…"
In other words, as Bruce articulates, Jews are Nazis. What proofs does he bring to this?
First, Bruce begins with a bald lie. He says that Menachem Begin did not make peace with Egypt. Begin did make peace with Egypt and returned to it the Sinai Desert. On this basis, Egypt created diplomatic relations with Israel. This was considered a fantastic thing by all observers. What Jimmy Carter did, in his book, was to show how much he personally disliked Begin and liked Sadat the Egyptian. But Carter made peace, with all of his personal dislike of Begin. Therefore, Bruce’s remarks are simply untrue. Bad beginning, Bruce.
Next we have Bruce quoting Rabbi Shneerson to the effect that "Bodies of Gentiles are in vain." Bodies of gentiles are in vain? What does that mean? Are gentile bodies real or unreal? Just because Bruce makes it up as he goes along doesn’t mean that anyone else says that bodies are unreal when they are real.
Bruce then claims that the rabbi said that the soul of gentiles is "from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness." I have studied Kabbala for many years under a sage from Jerusalem, and there are not three satanic spheres without holiness. Secondly, no rabbi would ever say that a gentile does not have a pure soul, because a good gentile enters the World of the Souls along with Jews when he dies. If the gentile had a Satanic soul, what would that soul do in heaven?
Bruce next tells us like it isn’t. Elie Wiesel "whose lies about his holocaust experiences seem to be legion" etc. Please, if you love or hate Jews, don’t tell me that someone who was a slave to the Nazis had "lies" to tell. One person who came from the Nazis wrote his family, "Don’t think that the stories you hear are the whole picture. It was much worse. There is not one part of my body that was not beaten and tortured." Or, let me put it this way. If Bruce was a guard over Wiesel, would Weisel’s complaints be "lies" that are "legion"? If you really hate somebody, and they are your slave, you are very, very unkind.
Next Bruce tells us that "Because they are convinced that they are the Master Race, superior, gods living amongst inferior beasts, Israel does not sanction or allow mixed marriages." That is interesting because there are thousands of mixed marriages in Israel. The New York Times recently had a front page article about an Israeli whose father was Arab and his mother Jewish. The majority of Russians who came to Israel are mixed marriages.
Bruce then complains that "In the U.S.A. liberal Jews scream out for more mixed marriages." What does this mean? Liberal Jews scream out that who should marry whom? The context would seem to say that liberal Jews "scream out" for whites to marry blacks. I know a lot of Jews, but I never saw anyone "scream out" that whites should marry blacks.
Bruce tells us that "It is common for Jewish authorities to brand all Gentiles by the derogatory Yiddish term "goy" a term akin to a curse word." I found the word "goy" in the bible referring to Jews, so what does that mean? "Goy" is a Hebrew, not Yiddish word, and it is used many times in the bible to mean "nation," even when referring to Israel.
The first "goy" is Genesis 35.11. "And G-d said to him [Jacob], ‘I am A-lmighty G-d. Be fruitful and multiply. A GOY [nation] and a community of GOYIM [nations] will come from you, and kings will issue from your loins."
The next "goy" in the bible is Deuteronomy 4.7, the farewell address of Moses to Israel before his death. He said, "Because what great GOY [nation] has a G-d close to it, as the L-d our G-d, whenever we call upon Him." In these two cases, the first two mentions of "goy" in the Old Testament, GOY means Jews, and the term is highly favorable, even endearing.
Again, in the following passage Moses says, "And what great GOY has such righteous statutes and judgments." He refers to Israel.
Deut. 4.34 we have the first mention of GOY as a neutral term, regarding G-d taking Israel from Egypt, "a GOY [nation – Israel] from a GOY [nation-Egypt]."
Finally, we come to the word GOY to mean a gentile nation, even an oppressor, in Deut. 6 when G-d threatened Israel that if they sinned He would exile them to a strange GOY or nation. The context of the passage, a curse to Israel, is not at all an insult to the gentiles. Similar usage is found in ibid. 28.49, twice, ibid.50, and is used in insulting context calling the Jews a "goy" without wisdom in Deut. 323.28.
I have a list of 64 uses of GOY in the bible, and what I have read convinces me that GOY without an adjective is simply "nation." Jew and gentile can be GOY with a good adjective or a bad one, but the word GOY is simply "nation."
I have gone to the trouble of listing the above because I note that this lie is very popular among haters of Jews. Look, we Jews are far from perfect, as the bible and Talmud make clear. If you want to say bad things about us, why make up lies? Just go to my mother-in-law.
Bruce tells us that "In fact, the Jew is said to be the equal of G-d." Said by who? Do Jews claim to be deities?
Bruce may be a fine and good person, moral and religious, decent and scared of the various forces of evil in the world. He wants to blame the Jews for them. He reads a lot of things based upon quotes in Hebrew and Aramaic, and he doesn’t know Hebrew and Aramaic. He probably quotes from some hater who twisted here and there, and it becomes "facts" for so many haters.
Tragically, I understand Bruce. That is why I write these words. I want Bruce to consider my response. I want to hear from him what he says. He is a human being with a divine soul, just as I have. Why can’t we talk together?
Sincerely,
David Eidensohn
Lie #1 - Jews don't use Christian doctors
Bob,
I am really shocked by the mistakes here. This is a quote from the website you
were kind enough to show me.
<Death from Snakebite Preferable The Talmud says that Rabbi Ishmael (sage)
has a nephew who is bitten by a snake and wants to let Jacob, a Disciple of
Jesus, heal him, but dies in the middle of the sentence. The Rabbi thereupon
exclaims: "Happy art thou Ben Dama for thou wert pure in body and thy soul
likewise left thee in purity … ." His joy was because, of course, it was
preferable to die of snakebite than to be healed by a Christian. (Talmud, Abodah
Zarah 27b, see Exhibit
187)>
Tell me, Bob, did you ever hear of a Jew who refused to be healed by a
Christian? My first doctor was a devout Catholic, Dr. Pese in Washington. All of
my life I have not only been cured by Christians, but I have worked with them
hand in hand for moral issues and other matters. The senior rabbis in the world
told me to make a dinner to honor a Bishop, and I did it right in the center of
my community, where all the weddings and joyful events are celebrated. It is a
crying shame that somebody can just get up and tell so many lies, and nobody
challenges it.
Many other quotes are also completely wrong. I surely have to get organized in
this, and reply. I would most appreciate it if you bug me in that direction,
because you are really helping me.
The above statement in the Talmud referred
to cures not with medicine, but with sorcery or praying involving the acceptance
of a foreign religion. A Jew must die rather than accept a foreign religion, and
may not use sorcery if it is linked with a foreign religion, even if there is a
matter of life and death. But to build from this, as the website does, that a
Jew would rather die than be cured by a Christian, violates an entire history of
the greatest rabbis going to Vienna to the best Christians doctors. The
exception would be if the cure was a purely religious ritual, sorcery, or if it
involved denying tenets of religion. Perhaps if an atheist doctor wanted to cure
someone by teaching them denial of the Law, a Jew must die instead of being
cured.
Most sincerely,
David Eidensohn
Lie #2 - Jewish Law Permits Stealing from Non-Jews
Robert,
Your e-mail was G-d's kindness to me. I was bugging Bob to get this kind of
questioning going, but it just didn't start, until now.
So, I grab these questions "with two hands," and I will answer them.
I am a 61 years old scholar who has studied Jewish law for fifty
years. I have written books on some of the subjects discussed here. I will
answer you as I understand it honestly.
First of all, there is, in the e-mail here, and this is quoted extensively
elsewhere, that a Jew may steal from a non-Jew. This is a complete lie.
Here are some direct quotes. Maimonides, the major codifier, writes in his
MISHNEH TORAH, laws of stealing, chapter one, paragraph one: "Whoever
steals ... sins against a Torah prohibition, as it is said, 'You shall not
steal.'... This applies to stealing from a Jew or stealing from a pagan,
stealing from an adult or a child."
This applies to stealing called GENEIVA, such as robbing someone when the person
is not aware. Open robbery is called GEZEL, and there, too, Maimonides states
clearly that GEZEL from a pagan, certainly a gentile, is forbidden. See MISHNEH
TORAH, laws of GEZEL stealing, chapter one, paragraph 2: "It is forbidden
to steal the smallest amount of money according to Torah Law. One may not even
rob a pagan or refuse to repay money owed him."
This applies, however, to the lower level of thievery, physical stealing. A
higher or worse level of stealing is fraud, when you violate trust. One who does
this has sinned hideously. See MISHNEH TORAH Laws of GENEIVA stealing (stealing
when the victim is unaware) chapter 7 paragraph 8: One who commits fraud to a
Jew or even a pagan with a false weight is a sinner. He writes, "It is
forbidden to fool a pagan with the accounting of a transaction, but one must be
scrupulous... One who cheats a pagan is in the category of "It is an
abomination before the L-d your G-d all who do these" (false weights,
etc.). This applies to all cheating done in any manner.
Note that this applies even to a pagan. A biblical pagan cooked his children in
metal images for the gods. And yet, even such a person may not be robbed,
certainly decent people.
The early Talmud, a Tosefto, teaches that "stealing from a non-Jew is worse
than stealing from a Jew, because you profane G-d's Name."
May I add the teaching of Rabbi Moshe of Cousy, France, about 800 years ago, (In
his classic code SEMAG ESEH chapter 74) who taught the Jews wherever he went:
"Messiah will not come if the gentiles think Jews are dishonest." He
called upon the Jews to bring the Messiah by being utterly honest, even more
than legally necessary, in dealing with gentiles. He said that G-d will not
redeem Israel if the gentiles complain that G-d redeemed thieves.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the
Hassidic movement, taught that a pious man once cheated a gentile. In heaven, a
black dog entered the chambers of the Heavenly Court. The saints drove out the
dog, but the dog called out to G-d and said, "I want to speak." G-d
said, "Let him in. He has the sin of a Jew who stole from a gentile, and he
can do what he wants." The Heavenly Court then ruled that the Jew should
either lose his son or go into exile.
Rabbi Yehuda the Pious said that when a Jew
steals from a gentile, a curse descends on his family. He tells of a man who
cheated his worker. When the worker died, the family of the Jew died and he lost
his money. He went to a rabbi who asked him, "Did you cheat a
gentile?" He said he had, and when the worker he cheated died, all of the
trouble started. The rabbi told him, "When the gentile died, he complained
to G-d when he found out a Jew cheated him, and the heavenly court was
furious."
I have to finish now, but I hope this will get things going. Please let me know
your opinion of this.
Sincerely yours,
David
Lie #3 - Jews Believe in Raping Children
Lie
#4 - Jews Believe in Murdering Gentiles
Bob,
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to reply to some hideous lies about the Talmud and Jews. The quote is, regarding child rape and whether Jews permit it:
“One cannot help
but wonder: Was it Judaism's most holy book, the Talmud, that put it in the
hearts of those monsters to commit such brutish and evil crimes against
children? After all, their Talmud says that if a grown man rapes a young girl
under three years of age, ‘it is nothing.’"
Bob, as one who has studied the Talmud for fifty years, this is
completely wrong. Allow me to explain what the Talmud says. First of all, the
Talmud says that it is forbidden even to torment an animal, because “the Torah
prohibits causing pain to animals.” Certainly, raping children is forbidden,
Jew or non-Jew.
In a previous comment I quoted the strict law against stealing from a
gentile, even a pagan. Surely, stealing one’s virginity, rape, and torture is
surely forbidden. For those who have read the bible, there is a clear law that
when Jews make war and lust for a woman, if he touches her, he must marry her.
The Talmud says that anyone who does this has cursed children. In other words,
any rape, even in the heat of battle, where men are in flame with excitement, is
a great evil, and the greatest punishment, cursed children, comes for it. The
Talmud says that some men in great heat cannot control themselves in battle,
especially as the ancient pagan tribes had the women come out in full glory to
excite the men. A Jew who saw such a woman could sometimes not control himself.
The Talmud says, If you can’t control yourself, you must marry her. If
afterwards, you don’t like her, you must let her go free and you will suffer
from G-d for your sin. If this is evil, surely raping children is evil.
Why then did somebody read the Talmud or some translation and take
something out of context to get confused? The answer is that the Talmud
considers the age of three as an age where the first level of carnal relations
is possible. Until then, probably following Greek science, the Talmud considers
a penetration not a sexual act, but a wounding or other grievous injury, but not
intercourse. The Talmud wrote, also, probably following contemporary Greek
thought, that a rape of a child before three is not a threat to virginity,
because the material of virginity and the structure of sexuality does not exist.
Today, either because people have changed or because science has changed, we may
have other ideas about these things. I am no expert in baby structure. However,
to take the above statements, and twist them into the terrible lie that Jews
allow rape of someone is ridiculous.
Virginity was very prized and important in the Jewish people, and perhaps
in other nations as well. Even the pagans would enforce virginity with various
devices and clothing. Therefore, a child raped, and indeed, children are even
today raped by parents, and in ancient times, with all of the wars, people were
always getting raped, it was important to declare that a woman who came of age
was still a virgin if her rape took place before the age of three. The Talmud
says such intercourse is “nothing,” not that the rape is nothing, but
nothing has happened to destroy the virginity of the woman.
The idea tossed off by the writer that Jews can kill gentiles at will is
also wrong. The leading rabbi of the past generation told me that the command in
the Ten Commandments “You shall not kill” applies to all people, because it
does not say, “Do not kill Jews.” It says, “Do not kill,” meaning all
people.
The above quote began with a story about a Jew who raped a child, or a
group of pornographers who took pictures of child-rape. Does anyone really think
that child pornographers do what they do because they feel that Judaism permits
it? These filthy scum do what they do to make big bucks. If they do it, does
this mean that what some filthy, rotten, pig-people who may be Jewish has
anything to do with Judaism? We have Jews in history who converted to other
religions and killed Jews in fire. Is that a proof that the Talmud says we must
kill Jews?