JUDAISM

 
Judaism is believed to be an Abrahamic religion -- a faith which recognizes Abraham as a Patriarch. Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3000 years. It is supposed to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions, and the oldest to survive into the present day.
Although Jews comprise only about 0.2% of the human race, Jewish influence on the world has been vast -- far more than their numbers would indicate. 
Judaism is the religion, philosophy, and way of life of the Jewish people. Originating in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh, and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, Jews consider Judaism to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel. According to traditional Rabbinic Judaism, God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of Oral Torah.

God in Judaism

Seven Names of God

In medieval times, God was sometimes called The Seven. Among the ancient Hebrews, the seven names for the Deity over which the scribes had to exercise particular care were:

1. Eloah
2. Elohim
3. Adonai
4. Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh
5. YHWH (i.e. the pronounciation Yahweh is not considered a legitimate name of God by most Jewish scholars)
6. Shaddai
7. Tzevaoth

In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title; it represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relationship of God to the Jewish people. To show men the sacredness of the names of God, the scribes of sacred texts used terms of reverence so as to keep the true name of God concealed.
The most important and most often written name of God in Judaism is the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God, also known as יהוה, or YHWH. "Tetragrammaton" derives from the prefix tetra- ("four") and gramma ("letter", "grapheme"). The Tetragrammaton appears 6,828 times in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition of the Hebrew Masoretic text. This name is first mentioned in the Book of Genesis (2.4) and in English language bibles is traditionally translated as "The LORD".
The numerous names of God have been a source of debate amongst biblical scholars. Some have advanced the variety as proof that the Torah, the main scripture of Judaism, has many authors. It is also held that the only "name of God" in the Tanakh is Yahweh (the English rendering of YHWH), whereas words such as Elohim (God), El (mighty one), El Shaddai (almighty God), Adonai (master), El Elyon (most high God), Avinu (our Father), etc. are not names but titles, highlighting different aspects of YHWH, and the various roles which He has. In the Tanakh, YHWH is the personal name of the God of Israel, whereas the other words are titles which are ascribed to Him.
 (The epithet "The Eternal One" may increasingly be found instead, particularly in Progressive Jewish communities seeking to use gender-neutral language). Because Judaism forbids pronouncing the name outside the Temple in Jerusalem, the correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton may have been lost, as the original Hebrew texts only included consonants. The Hebrew letters are named Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh: יהוה. In English it is written as YHWH, YHVH, or JHVH or Jehovah depending on the transliteration convention that is used. The Tetragrammaton was written in contrasting Paleo-Hebrew characters in some of the oldest surviving square Aramaic Hebrew texts, and were not read as Adonai ("My Lord") until after the Rabbinic teachings after Israel went into Babylonian captivity.
In appearance, YHWH is an archaic third person singular imperfect of the verb "to be", meaning, therefore, "He is". This explanation agrees with the meaning of the name given in Exodus 3:14, where God is represented as speaking, and hence as using the first person — "I am". It stems from the Hebrew conception of monotheism that God exists by himself for himself, and is the uncreated Creator who is independent of any concept, force, or entity; therefore "I am that I am".
The idea of 'life' has been traditionally connected with the name YHWH from medieval times. Its owner is presented as a living God, as contrasted with the lifeless gods of the 'heathen' polytheists: God is presented as the source and author of life.
The prohibition of blasphemy, for which capital punishment is prescribed in Jewish law, refers only to the Tetragrammaton (Soferim iv., end; comp. Sanh. 66a).
The name YHWH is likely to be the origin of the Yao of Gnosticism. A minority view considers it to be cognate to an uncertain reading "Yaw" for the god Yam in damaged text of the Baal Epic. Though the final Heh in YHWH might not have been pronounced in classical Hebrew, the medial Heh would have almost certainly been pronounced thus the roots of the alleged Yaw and "YHWH" are different. Other possible vocalizations include a mappiq in the final Heh, rendering it pronounced — most likely with a gliding Patah (a-sound) before it.

Who is a Jew?
Jews are an ethnoreligious group that includes those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2007, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13 million, of whom about 40% reside in Israel and 40% in the United States. Historically, special courts (Sanhedrin) enforced Jewish law; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the Talmud or Torah and the many rabbis and scholars who interpret these texts.

There is an esoteric tradition in Judaism (Kabbalah), Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as "normal mysticism," because it involves a personal experience of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews. This is played out through the observance of the halakhot and given verbal expression in the Birkat Ha-Mizvot, the short blessings that are spoken every time a positive commandment is to be fulfilled.
Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is imminent or transcendent, and whether people have free will or their lives are determined, Halakha is a system through which any Jew acts to bring God into the world.
Ethical monotheism is central in all sacred or normative texts of Judaism. However, monotheism has not always been followed in practice. The Jewish Bible (Tanakh) records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods in ancient Israel (YAHWH, Baal ). In the Greco-Roman era, many different interpretations of monotheism existed in Judaism.
Moreover, as a non-creedal religion, some have argued that Judaism does not require one to believe in God. For some, observance of Jewish law is more important than belief in God per se. In modern times, some liberal Jewish movements do not accept the existence of a personified deity active in history.

Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which have met with criticism. The most popular formulation is Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith, developed in the twelfth century.
13 Principles of Faith:

1. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the Creator and Guide of everything that has been created; He alone has made, does make, and will make all things.
2. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is One, and that there is no unity in any manner like His, and that He alone is our God, who was, and is, and will be.
3. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, has no body, and that He is free from all the properties of matter, and that there can be no (physical) comparison to Him whatsoever.
4. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the first and the last.
5. I believe with perfect faith that to the Creator, Blessed be His Name, and to Him alone, it is right to pray, and that it is not right to pray to any being besides Him.
6. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true.
7. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, was true, and that he was the chief of the prophets, both those who preceded him and those who followed him.
8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that is now in our possession is the same that was given to Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.
9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be exchanged, and that there will never be any other Torah from the Creator, Blessed be His Name.
10. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, knows all the deeds of human beings and all their thoughts, as it is written, "Who fashioned the hearts of them all, Who comprehends all their actions" (Psalms 33:15).
11. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them.
12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah; and even though he may tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day for his coming.
13. I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, Blessed be His name, and His mention shall be exalted for ever and ever. -Maimonides

In modern times, Judaism lacks a centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. Because of this, many different variations on the basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism. Even so, all Jewish religious movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible and various commentaries such as the Babylonian Talmud and Midrash. Judaism also universally recognizes the Biblical Covenant between God and the Patriarch Abraham as well as the additional aspects of the Covenant revealed to Moses, who is considered Judaism's greatest prophet. In the Mishnah, a core text of Rabbinic Judaism, acceptance of the Divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential aspect of Judaism and those who reject the Covenant supposedly forfeit their share in the World to Come.

Jewish religious texts

Rabbinic literature

Judaism has at all times valued Torah study, as well as other religious texts. The following is a basic, structured list of the central works of Jewish practice and thought.

• Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and commentaries
• Mesorah
• Targum
• Jewish Biblical exegesis (also see Midrash below)
• Works of the Talmudic Era (classic rabbinic literature)
• Mishnah and commentaries
• Tosefta and the minor tractates
• Talmud:
• The Babylonian Talmud and commentaries
• Jerusalem Talmud and commentaries
• Midrashic literature:
• Halakhic Midrash
• Aggadic Midrash
• Halakhic literature
• Major Codes of Jewish Law and Custom
• Mishneh Torah and commentaries
• Tur and commentaries
• Shulchan Aruch and commentaries
• Responsa literature
• Jewish Thought and Ethics
• Jewish philosophy
• Kabbalah
• Hasidic works
• Jewish ethics and the Mussar Movement
• Siddur and Jewish liturgy
• Piyyut (Classical Jewish poetry)

Jewish legal literature

The basis of Jewish law and tradition (halakha) is the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses). According to rabbinic tradition there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women, some only to the ancient priestly groups, the Kohanim and Leviyim (members of the tribe of Levi), some only to farmers within the Land of Israel. Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and fewer than 300 of these commandments are still applicable today.
While there have been Jewish groups whose beliefs were claimed to be based on the written text of the Torah alone (e.g., the Sadducees, and the Karaites), most Jews believed in what they call the oral law. These oral traditions were transmitted by the Pharisee sect of ancient Judaism, and were later recorded in written form and expanded upon by the rabbis.
Rabbinic Judaism (which derives from the Pharisees) has always held that the books of the Torah (called the written law) have always been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition. To justify this viewpoint, Jews point to the text of the Torah, where many words are left undefined, and many procedures mentioned without explanation or instructions; this, they argue, means that the reader is assumed to be familiar with the details from other, i.e., oral, sources. This parallel set of material was originally transmitted orally, and came to be known as "the oral law".
By the time of Rabbi Judah haNasi (200 CE), after the destruction of Jerusalem, much of this material was edited together into the Mishnah. Over the next four centuries this law underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylonia), and the commentaries on the Mishnah from each of these communities eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the two Talmuds. These have been expounded by commentaries of various Torah scholars during the ages.
Halakha, the rabbinic Jewish way of life, then, is based on a combined reading of the Torah, and the oral tradition - the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud and its commentaries. The Halakha has developed slowly, through a precedent-based system. The literature of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers, is referred to as responsa (in Hebrew, Sheelot U-Teshuvot.) Over time, as practices develop, codes of Jewish law are written that are based on the responsa; the most important code, the Shulchan Aruch, largely determines Orthodox religious practice today.

What makes a person Jewish?

According to traditional Jewish Law, a Jew is anyone born of a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism in accord with Jewish Law. American Reform Judaism and British Liberal Judaism accept the child of one Jewish parent (father or mother) as Jewish if the parents raise the child with a Jewish identity. All mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts, although conversion has traditionally been discouraged. The conversion process is evaluated by an authority, and the convert is examined on his or her sincerity and knowledge. Converts are given the name "ben Abraham" or "bat Abraham", (son or daughter of Abraham).
Traditional Judaism maintains that a Jew, whether by birth or conversion, is a Jew forever. Thus a Jew who claims to be an atheist or converts to another religion is still considered by traditional Judaism to be Jewish. However, the Reform movement maintains that a Jew who has converted to another religion is no longer a Jew, and the Israeli Government has also taken that stance after Supreme Court cases and statutes.
The question of what determines Jewish identity in the State of Israel was given new impetus when, in the 1950s, David Ben-Gurion requested opinions on mihu Yehudi ("who is a Jew") from Jewish religious authorities and intellectuals worldwide in order to settle citizenship questions. This is still not settled, and occasionally resurfaces in Israeli politics.

Jewish demographics

After Centuries long captivity in Egypt and later among the Babylonians, frequent emigrations, escapes, divisions and destructions of their empire or state, in their kingdom Israel, established after the escape: So, is the balance of the first 2000 years of the Jewish history.

In 132 A.D. the Jews began a revolt, and for four years carried on a bloody war against Hadrian, Emperor of the Roman World empire from 117 A.D. to his death, 138 A.D.
The reason for this revolt is told by Rodkinson in his History of the Talmud:
One of the causes of the great revolt against the Romans at this time was the prohibition by the Roman government of the study of the Torah [Talmud] … they rebelled, led by Bar Kochba. Rabbi Aqiba (Akiba) was the first to become his adherent, who journeyed from town to town, inciting the Jews to rebel … It is not surprising, therefore, that Hadrian was not contented barely with the massacre of the sages of the Talmud, but was intent also on the destruction of the Talmud itself … he decreed that if any of the old rabbis should qualify a young rabbi … both should be put to death … believing that with the death of the elder generation the Talmud would be forgotten and Israel would blend with the nations and its memory be obliterated; because he very well knew that as long as the Talmud existed there was little hope for the assimilation of the Jews with other nations.

After Jewish rebellion against the Roman power, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans and the Jews were killed or were expelled. Since then, no Jewish state exists anymore. Migrating across North Africa and central Europe the great majority of Jews who had lived in Babylon for almost 16 Hundred years now began to find their destinies in the cities of the West yet in coming to the West.” The fled Jews became assimilated in the next century in their refuge-countries. Many Jews hiked after the Jewish rebellions through the entire Roman Empire and settled themselves particularly at its borders, as for example, Worms, Speyer, Mainz and Cologne in many Rhineland cities.

After the Bar Kochba revolt in 135, large numbers of Jews were exiled from Roman Palestine. The Jewish community in Palestine revived. Under Muslim rule, is estimated to have numbered as many as 300,000 prior to the Crusades, about 1000 AD. The Crusaders killed most of the Jewish population of Palestine or forced them into exile, so that only about 1,000 families remained after the re-conquest of Palestine by Saladin. The Jewish community in Palestine waxed and waned with the vicissitudes of conquest and economic hardship. A trickle of Jews came because of love of Israel, and were sometimes encouraged by invitations by different Turkish rulers to displaced European Jews to settle in Tiberias and Hebron. At different times there were sizeable Jewish communities in Tiberias, Safed, Hebron and Jerusalem, and numbers of Jews living in Nablus and Gaza.  A few original Jews remained in the town of Peki'in, families that had lived there continuously since ancient times.

Rodkinson speaks of the disputations which the Popes and Kings held in which the accusers of the Talmud were answered by its defenders. The results were always that when the criminality of the Talmud was revealed in all its horror, the Talmud was ordered burned, expunged, or censored.

"Aaron ben Samuel is credited with bringing the mysterious doctrine of Pharisaic Judaism from Babylonia to Italy about the middle of the Ninth Century; thence it spread to almost all over Europe." The most of them still hold at the religion of their Forefathers (Pharisaic Cabalism), and their traditional ocult practices firm. So, they formed a religious and ethnic minority until the present time in many states of the world.

The total number of Jews worldwide now is difficult to assess because the definition of "who is a Jew" is problematic; not all Jews identify themselves as Jewish, and some who identify as Jewish are not considered so by other Jews. According to the Jewish Year Book (1901), the global Jewish population in 1900 was around 11 million. The latest available data is from the World Jewish Population Survey of 2002 and the Jewish Year Calendar (2005). In 2002, according to the Jewish Population Survey, there were 13.3 million Jews around the world. The Jewish Year Calendar cites 14.6 million. Jewish population growth is currently near zero percent, with 0.3% growth from 2000 to 2001. Intermarriage and the declining birthrate have influenced Jewish population figures, although conversion to Judaism may help to offset this slightly.

 

The Jews of First Century Palestine: Pharisees, Sadducees and Sanhedrin

First century Palestinian culture was based upon historical and religious conditions of a people who had absorbed and imposed upon the religion of Moses the traditions, beliefs and rituals of their Babylonian captors, their Persian liberators and their Greek and Roman occupiers. The result was a syncretic belief system which was so complicated that it had to be interpreted by specialists. These religious specialists were split over theological disputes into two warring factions; the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees were legalists who insisted on a strict interpretation of the law and excluded from their doctrine all escatological beliefs. The Pharisees subscribed to a legal system in which the laws of Moses were interpreted to accommodate Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman beliefs and Philosophies.

 The Pharisees and Babylonian Talmudism

The Pharisees were the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. The origin of the Pharisees is uncertain, but their movement is believed to have grown from the Assideans (i.e. the "pious"), who began in the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Greek/Syrian ruler Antiochus IV, or "Antiochus Epiphanes," around 165 B.C. It was during that roughly 4 centuries between the end of the Old Testament record and the birth of Jesus Christ, prior to the rise of the Roman Empire that the idolatrous Greek influence was at its peak in Jerusalem. The first direct mention of the Pharisees was by the Jewish/Roman historian Flavius Josephus in describing the three sects, or schools, into which the Jews were divided in 145 B.C. Of the three major religious societies of Judaism at the time of the New Testament (the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes), the Pharisees were often the most vocal and influential.

The name Pharisee in its Hebrew form means separatists, or the separated ones. They were also known as chasidim - extremely ironic in view of the fact that by His time, they made themselves the most bitter, and deadly, opponents of Jesus Christ and His message.

The Sanhedrin

A Jewish legal body important to Jewish society of first century Palestine was the Sanhedrin, a group of seventy-one scholars drawn from both the Sadducees and Pharisees. They made up a court which meted out life and death under the Talmudic law. The Pharisees controlled the Sanhedrin from 30 BC to 70 AD when Jerusalem was abolished and the Sanhedrin passed out of existence. According to the Gospels, it was before this court that Jesus was charged with blasphemy and condemned to death. Since the Roman occupiers of Jerusalem did not allow the Jews to execute criminals, the case of blasphemy was changed by the Sanhedrin to subversion against the Roman occupation. This was an offense that demanded the death penalty under Roman law.

The Talmud

The repository for this mixture of paganism and Mosaic law is the Babylonian Talmud which was compiled and redacted over a thousand years (from the Babylonian exile to circa 500 AD). The Talmud supplanted and superseded the Torah as an authority for Jewish law. For instance, sorcery is forbidden in the Torah, Exodus 22: 18 (“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”) as well as in many other books of the Old Testament. However, according to the Talmud, the Book of Sanhedrin, as quoted in the 1935 Soncino edition:
Abaye said: The laws of sorcerers are like those of the Sabbath:
Certain actions are punished by stoning, some are exempt from
Punishment, yet forbidden, whist others are entirely permitted…
What is entirely permitted?-Such as was performed
By Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Oshaia, who spent every Sabbath Eve?
in studying the Laws of Creation, by means of which they
created a third-grown calf and ate it.

The laws of creation studied by these two rabbis were those of the pagan numerologists, Pythagoras, who supposedly learned to manipulate alphabets and numbers for magical effects during his travels in Babylon and Egypt. The Jews of first century Palestine adapted his system to their alphabet whose most sacred letters, YHWH (the mystical, taboo name of God) the Rabbis Hanina and Oshaia supposedly manipulated to create a calf. This incident illustrates the methods the Pharisees employed to allow the paganism of their captors and occupiers to infiltrate and subvert the Torah of Moses. According to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, the “Talmud is a veritable storehouse of information connected with life, customs, beliefs and superstitions of both Jews and non Jews”. It is a source of history, medicine, astronomy, commerce and agriculture, demonology and other forms of magic…”

Rabbi Hertz extolls the Babylonian Exile, saying: "The Babylonian Exile is a momentous period … During that Exile Israel found itself. It … rediscovered the Torah and made it the rule of life …"
What he really means is that it was discovered how the Torah or Bible could be used as a "whited sepulchre" for Babylonian degeneracy, as even a cursory study will reveal.

One Rabbi Akiba was a First Century Talmud "sage." Rabbi Hertz lauds Rabbi Akiba:
Akiba was the author of a collection of traditional laws out of which the Mishna actually grew. He was the greatest among the rabbis of his own and of succeeding times … His keen and penetrating intellect enabled him to find a Biblical basis for every provision of the Oral Law.
Still enthusing over the Babylonian derivation of Pharisaism, Rabbi Hertz continues:
When we come to the Babylonian Gemara, we are dealing with what most people understand when they speak or write of the Talmud. Its birthplace, Babylonia, was an autonomous Jewish center for a longer period than any other land; namely from soon after 586 before the Christian era to the year 1040 after the Christian Era — 1626 years.
The commonest statements of all Jewish authorities attribute many customs and doctrines of “Judaism” to Persian, Babylonian, Assyrian sources. The leading paganisms of all the centuries have been gathered up and treasured by Pharisaic Talmudism.

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (55 mi) south of Baghdad. All that remains
of the original ancient famed city of Babylon today is a mound, or tell, of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Babylonia, and particularly its capital city Babylon, has long held a place in Abrahamic religions as a symbol of excess and dissolute power. Many references are made to Babylon in the Bible, both literally and allegorically. The mentions in the Tanakh tend to be historical or prophetic, while New Testament references are more likely figurative, or cryptic references possibly to pagan Rome, or some other archetype. The legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Tower of Babel are seen as symbols of luxurious and arrogant power respectively. A main festival for Babylonians was the Mishtkaru Buylshu, used to ward off evil spirits. Many Babylonians, mostly males, attended this festival at a young age. At this festival, priests would kill, or sacrifice, an animal, usually an ox, in order to make the gods happy. In return, the gods would give permission to the people at the festival to each obtain an amulet that would protect them for the rest of their lives.

“Babylon the Great” means to the cult of Judaistic Pharasaism, just as the Cross means to Christianity. Babylon was the “Vatican,” center, and spiritual homeland of Pharasaic Babylonian Talmudism, as Chief Rabbi Hertz has put it, from 586 B.C. to 1040 A.D., when the last of the Talmud “academies” moved out into Europe, Asia and Africa from Babylonia. The “glory” of Babylon is referred to in the Talmud. Babylon is the very symbol of moral filth in the whole Old Testament. But those who call themselves “People of the Book” exalt it in every way. Pharisaism today lives by the Babylonian calendar, keeps the Babylonian festivals and Fast of Tammuz, and enshrines its anti-Biblical immorality, including sodomy and burning children to Molech, necromancy, and other execrable practices.

Pharasaism became Talmudism … And the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the Jew … studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies. Ancient Pharasaism has wandered from Babylonia to Palestine, North Africa, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Russia and generally Eastern Europe.

In Rabbi Finklestein's history of the Jews, he states: The Talmud derives its authority from the position held by the ancient “literati” or academies. (i.e. Pharisee) The teachers of those academies of Babylonia were considered the rightful successors of the older Sanhedrin . . . At the present time, the Jewish people have no living central authority comparable in status to the ancient Sanhedrins or the later academies.

Therefore, any decision regarding the Jewish religion must be based on the Talmud as the final resumé of the teaching of those authorities when they existed.
(The Jews — Their History, Culture, and Religion , Vol. 4, p. 1332, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1949).

Rabbi Louis Finklestein was chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas (Jewish communities) of the World as one of the top 120 Jews best representing "a lamp of Judaism" to the World, together with Maxim Litvinov, the Communist Commissar and bank robber terrorist; atheist communist Albert Einstein; those untiring Marxist reds, Harold Laski and his friend Felix Frankfurter (U.S. Supreme Court Justice) who shared honors with Rabbi Finklestein and others. Finklestein has long headed the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, with branches in New York and Los Angeles.

In his two-volume work "The Pharisees." Rabbi Finklestein writes:

"The Talmud: Heart's Blood of the Jewish Faith," was the heading of a November, 1959, installment of a bestselling book by the Jewish author, Herman Wouk, which ran serially in the New York Herald-Tribune.
To quote:
“The Talmud is to this day the circulating heart's blood of the Jewish religion. Whatever laws, customs or ceremonies we observe — whether we are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or merely spasmodic sentimentalists — we follow the Talmud. It is our common law.”

The Babylonian Talmud is the law for so-called Judaism. However, its pornographic, anti-Gentile doctrines have often caused hostility against it. It may then be argued by some Jews that there is a Palestinian Talmud which is inoffensive. Nevertheless, one may look up the fact that Jewish authorities state Palestinian Talmud was lost for a thousand years, has missing parts and lacks the "Gemara" and other essentials, and is only used as a scholar's curiosity.

British Chief Rabbi Hertz in his foreword to the Soncino edition of the Babylonian Talmud stated: The Palestinian Talmud … was for many centuries almost forgotten by Jewry. Its legal decisions were at no time deemed to possess validity, if opposed by the Babylonian Talmud.

Talmud unknown to non-Jews

Talmud was kept unknown to non-Jews. There was no usable English translation of the Talmud until the Soncino Edition, 1934-48? When the laws of the Talmud became commonly known in Europe, it was burned over and over by order of the Popes (From the time of Pope Innocent III), excoriated by Martin Luther, denounced everywhere, and its followers exiled from one country after another down through the centuries. The Talmud was burned at the stake in nearly every century from the 11th to the 18th in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and many other countries …"
The Talmud's basic law is that only the Pharisee Jew ranks as a man, or human being. All others rank as animals, "the people who are like an ass — slaves who are considered the property of the master." The attitude resulting from such teachings has been resented by non-Jews in all countries and centuries. Such resentment, however, is always portrayed by Jews as "persecution of the Jews."
Jews found their Christian neighbours extremely intolerant and the anti-social dedication Jews had taken for granted in Babylon. In order to survive and it was necessary to abandon such Babylonian traditions but that was not that easy as it sounds, for thousand years the Pharisees had commended such dedications.
In the Christian Middle age, the Jews admittedly stood under the protection of the host states, lived even in own quarters, so-called, “Ghettos "however, this concept has become known particularly through the national-socialism. The Christians tried to isolate them also in their work-life; the Membership for the Jews were forbidden in guilds as not-Christians. Consequently they could take up no craft-like occupation, and they were ousted also from the agriculture. Since Christians were denied in the Middle age for religious reasons to take interests, the money-businesses often remained the Jew reservations. This led to it that many Christians were indebted with Jews. So remained them only the money-business and the small-trade.

In the 11th Religious prejudices led century to anti-Jewish legend-formations, which were also up again-grasped into the national- socialism. This, until now as almost harmlessly to marking things however still followed in the same century, in the year 1096, an all- European persecution of the Jews. Thousands of Jews died, in some cities, even whole Jewish communities were wiped out.

During the 12th and 13th Century with its countless regional prosecutions and the14th Century with their temporary climax at the time of the big plague, a continuous immigration of Jews occurred to Poland. Then they settled in the cities nearby, located the German empire and provinces.
Maimonides pillar of Talmudism in the Middle Ages, knew that no Jew who practice Babylonian perversions could remain alive in Christian Lands. He attempted to harmonise Greek Philosophy with the best points of Judaism. He hoped his rationalisation would enable Jews to abandon their anti-social customs.
Maimonides was only partly successful. He was ex-communicated by the Jewish community on a charge of making New Laws.

In fact, most Jews are eager of the Talmud itself that they do not even know that such teachings exist within their sacred literature. Yet the fact remains, that when the Jews came to the West in the middle age and attempted to accommodate the Talmud to Christian society, a tremendous conflict was created.

In Christian lands of the West it became necessary to pretend at many of these teachings did not exist. Even today religious Jews continue to venerate the Pharisees and the Talmud as their greatest source of light of Judaism will ever know.

The present day Talmud

Babylon was the “Vatican,” center and spiritual homeland of Pharasaic Babylonian Talmudism, Chief Rabbi Hertz has put it, from 586 B.C. to 1040 A.D., when the last of the Talmud “academies” moved out into Europe, Asia and Africa from Babylonia.

And from Babylon, to Africa, Europe and all over the world, Pharisaism and its Traditions (Talmud) went, so that the Jew today repeats Pharisaic arguments when he studies Talmud, says Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, of the Jewish Theological Seminary, one of Jewry ‘s world top Jews.
From Talmud “academies” in Babylon, at Sura, Hehardea, Nisibis, Pumbeditha, Talmudic ideas and decisions went out and were accepted by the “Jews” of the world.

The Jewish Encyclopaedia, considering “the general influence of Babylonia upon European Judaism,” states: “The West received both the written and the oral Law from Babylonia,” and even after the close of the Talmudic “glories” in Babylon (1040 A.D.): “Babylonia, however still continued to be regarded with reverence by the Jews in all parts … in the Ninth Century … Jews of Abyssinia placed ‘the sages of Babylon’ first in their prayers … a similar prayer, although it has quite lost its application, is extant today in many congregations. Rabbi Paltiel of Cairo contributed one thousand gold pieces to the schools of Babylonia … in accordance … with a custom prevalent in all places where Jews dwelt … . Toward the end of the Twelfth Century Benjamin of Tudela … relates that the ‘nasi’ of Damascus received his ordination from the academic head of Babylonia so that this country was still predominant in the minds of the Jews of the Moslem world.” (Jewish Encyclopedia, “Babylonia,”

The complete devotion to Babylon of the Pharisee Jewish religion may be seen if only by reading the Jewish Encyclopedia. Reproduced herein are two pages of the Jewish Encyclopedia section on “Babylonia.” These illustrate the proud and devoted attitude of Pharisaism toward Babylonia, which is the glory and source of their Pharisee tradition, the Talmud. Until 1040 A.D., we read, the Talmud-Cabala academies in Babylonia shone — then finally closed to spread Talmudic “learning” to the rest of the world, moving up through Spain and across Europe. We also read that “the Academy of Sura … reached a point of unprecedented splendor … Pumbedita … in 1040 also passed away after an existence of 800 years … Babylonian learning should be transplanted to Europe … This forms an appropriate point at which to consider the general influence of Babylonia upon European Judaism … the West received both the written and the Oral Law from Babylonia.”

"The colleges for the study of the Talmud are increasing almost in every place where Jews dwell, especially in the USA where millions are gathered for the funds of the two great colleges, the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, in which the chief study is the Talmud and its post-Talmudical literature."
This was written early in the present century. Is what Rodkinson wrote true today?

The answer is "yes." Not only are Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America more active than ever, but a network of schools to teach the Talmud to young Jews now exists from coast to coast. For example, in the Chicago area, the Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago oversees some 57 schools where the Talmud is taught to young Jews, commencing with their tender years.
If you are told by anyone that the Jewish Talmud is merely ancient history concerning Judaism, don't be fooled.

“Judaism” is nothing but Babylonian Talmudic Phariseeism, which at base is crass paganism, pantheistic atheism, a rounded mass of all the forms of paganism prepared through the centuries. The Babylonian Talmud, the written form of the Tradition of the Pharisees, is the sole authority of the so-called "Jewish" religion, or Judaism today, which can be ascertained by turning to top Jewish authorities. The Talmud is present-day Judaism and without it so-called Judaism would not exist.

 

 

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Created by:	Salauddine Mohammed Faruque on July 25,2007, last updated on 12.08.2009