from The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today
by Elizabeth Dilling

I.
THE PHARISEES, THE TALMUD,
AND MODERN JUDAISM

Chapter Summary

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ible scholars are aware that Jesus Christ denounced the Pharisees. He said they nullified all the Commandments of God by their Tradition, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" ( Mark 7:13; Matt. 15:6-9, etc.). His invective, in truth, cannot be equalled. All of Matthew 23 is like a whiplash. He likened Pharisaism to a whited sepulchre, indeed beautiful outwardly, but "inside full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness." Christ climaxed one condemnation after another with the expletive, "Hypocrites!" He called the Pharisees children of them that killed the Prophets. He foretold they would go on killing, crucifying and persecuting until the guilt for all the righteous blood shed from Abel on down would be upon them. "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Christ asked.

Christ is as utterly devastating of Pharisaism in the record of John 8. Although He admitted that His hearers were descendants of Abraham, He said they were, spiritually, of the devil. Christ told them:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because the truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it ( John 8:44).

The Missing Link

"But," says the disinterested Christian, "what has that to do with us today? What a group of Pharisees did two thousand years ago is over and done with!"

However, the missing link in Christian understanding on the subject of "Pharisees" is best supplied by the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943):

The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single piece of that literature ... and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism.

Concerning the Pharisees, the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia says:

With the destruction of the Temple (70 A.D.) the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition (Abot 1:1). Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future. (See Exhibit 264 herein.)

Historically speaking, scripture believers had accepted Christ as the Messiah foretold. They were no longer "Jews," but called themselves "Christians." They were persecuted as such by the Pharisees. The word "Pharisee" comes from the word "separated." (See Exhibit 300.)

The Babylonian Talmud, Sole Authority

You may ascertain by turning to top Jewish authorities today that the Babylonian Talmud, the written form of the Tradition of the Pharisees, is the sole authority of the so-called "Jewish" religion, or Judaism.

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 (Finklestein), the Communist Commissar and bank robber terrorist; atheist communist Albert Einstein; those indefatigable 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:

Pharasaism became Talmudism ... But 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. From Palestine to Babylonia; from Babylonia to North Africa, Italy. Spain, France and Germany; from these to Poland. Russia and Eastern Europe generally, ancient Pharasaism has wandered. (See Exhibit 1, Exhibit 2, and Exhibit 3 herein.)

In Rabbi Finklestein's history of the Jews, he states:

The Talmud derives its authority from the position held by the ancient academies. (i.e. Pharisee) The teachers of those academies, both of Babylonia and of Palestine. 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.
[page 2] (The Jews - Their History, Culture, and Religion , Vol. 4, p. 1332, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1949).

"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.

Why Was It So Often Burned?

Why is the Talmud kept so unknown to non-Jews? Why was there no usable English translation of the Talmud until the Soncino Edition, 1934-48? Why, in European history, when the laws of the Talmud became commonly known, was it burned over and over by order of the Popes, excoriated by Martin Luther, denounced everywhere, and its followers exiled from one country after another down through the centuries?

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."

Moses, on the contrary, was most insistent upon having one law for the stranger and for the "home-born" and in teaching that the stranger must not be oppressed. ( Exodus 12:49; Lev. 24:22, Num. 9:14; 15:15-16, 29, etc.) In fact, he ordered: "Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." ( Deu. 10:19) It was only the abominators he warned against.

Babylonian Talmud - The Law

The Babylonian Talmud is the law for so-called Judaism. However, its pornographic, anti-Gentile and anti-Christian doctrines have often caused hostility against it. It may then be argued by some Jews that there is a Palestinian Talmud which is innocuous. Nevertheless, you may look up the fact that Jewish authorities state it 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. Note the statement of British Chief Rabbi Hertz in his foreword to the Soncino edition of the Babylonian Talmud ( Exhibit 33):

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.

Was Christ Just to Pharisees?

Without some knowledge of the written form of the "Tradition of the Pharisees," the Babylonian Talmud, one is unable to intelligently judge whether Jesus Christ was fair and just in His acid denunciations of Pharisaism, or not. One needs proof, offered by the irrefutable exhibits from Jewish authorities (set forth elsewhere herein) that the Talmud reverses every one of the Ten Commandments, the teachings of Moses and the Prophets, and enshrines their opposites under a "whited sepulchre" which is a disguise for murder and "all uncleanness," as Christ charged. Murder of non-Pharisees is always permitted; theft, sodomy, incest, rape are all permitted. For example, the righteousness of grown men violating baby girls under three is a favorite topic for discussion in book after book of the Talmud.

Talmudic literature is one long paean of praise for the very name Babylon, and all that it means to Babylonian Talmudism today, whereas it is a term of reproach in Old and New Testaments.

Note the Foreword to the first English translation of the Babylonian Talmud by the late Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, J.H. Hertz, who, like Rabbi Finklestein, was one of the 120 Jews chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas of the World as best holding up the "lamp of Judaism:"

The beginnings of Talmudic literature date back to the time of the Babylonian Exile in the Sixth pre-Christian Century ... When a thousand years later, the Babylonian Talmud assumed final codified form in the year 500 after the Christian era, the Roman Western Empire had ceased to be. (See Exhibit 30).

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," of whom Moses was even supposedly jealous! (See Exhibit 32). Rabbi Hertz lauds Rabbi Akiba ( Exhibit 32):

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 (See Exhibit 34):

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. ( Exhibit 34)

[page 3] You will note in reproductions of Talmud pages that the word "Gemara" designates the argumentation of the rabbis, the ultimate decision being summarized as the "Mishnah."

Bible Versus Oral Law (Talmud)

The Bible under Talmudic Judaism is considered to be a collection of simple tales fit only for fools, women and children. The Talmud "sages" thus must find new meanings in it by letter and number tricks which reverse the plain meaning and create out of it the permission to do otherwise forbidden crimes and misdeeds. The words of the Bible are continually misused and misquoted for purposes of blasphemy and reversal.

Stealing for themselves the title of "Israelites," the Talmud "sages" teach that "God made a covenant with Israel only for the sake of that which was transmitted orally." (See Exhibit 60) And the Biblical "basis" of this is given as Exodus 34:27. But that verse states, instead: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel" - the opposite! (Talmud, Gittin 60b, See Exhibit 204) The Talmudic reversal of Moses' written words are said to have been transmitted "orally," and through Moses himself - believe it or not!

Bearing in mind that the Scribes were the Pharisee teachers of the Law of Moses, carefully distorted to comprise the Talmud, note: "There is greater stringency in respect to the teachings of the Scribes than in respect to the Torah ... so that a Biblical law may be transgressed." (Talmud, Sanhedrin 88b, see Exhibit 95).

The Torah in its narrow sense is the Old Testament, and in a still narrower meaning the first five books (Pentateuch) of Moses. In its wider Judaistic use it means the Old Testament as misinterpreted by the Pharisaic Talmud. Always with Judaism the Talmud ranks above the Bible in every way.

Not reproduced here is a Talmud passage from the book of Nedarim (vows) of which Exhibit 170 is the title page. The Soncino edition of the Talmud states (page 107):

As will be seen on 37a, Scripture was generally regarded as the study of children only, adults usually investigating the deeper meaning ... From this we see that it was usual to teach the Bible to girls in spite of the Talmudic deduction that daughters need not be educated (Kid. 30a). The opposition of Rabbi Eliezer to teaching the Torah to one's daughter ( Sotah 20a "He who teaches his daughter Torah is as though he taught her lewdness.") was probably directed against the teaching of the Oral Law, and the higher branches of study (V. Maimonides Yad. Talmud Torah) ... The context shows that the reference is to the higher knowledge of Biblical law.

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 59a, See Exhibit 60), states:

A heathen who studies the Torah deserves death for it is written, Moses commanded us a law for an inheritance; it is our inheritance, not theirs.

Reference is also made to the "Noachian laws" which the non-Jew may study "but not laws which do not pertain to them." Also: " ... (the) objection was to the studying of the Oral Law ... Rabbi Johanan feared the knowledge of Gentiles in matters of Jurisprudence, as they would use it against the Jews in their opponents' courts." Understandably, since all Talmud laws discriminate against the non-Jew and rank him a virtual animal, these were apt observations.

The Jewish Encyclopedia is still more open about what is in Sanhedrin 59a of the Talmud, above, threatening death for revelation of "Torah" laws to Gentiles: "for such knowledge might have operated against the Jews in their opponents' courts." This observation follows a dissertation on the laws on cheating and getting the best of Gentiles in trade and in court. (See Exhibit 271, left column)

The Babylonian Talmud

The Babylonian Talmud is composed of "Mishnah" (or "Halacha"), or laws formulated by the Pharisees whose teachings comprise the Talmud, and "Gemara," or argumentative teachings about these laws. There are 63 books in the Babylonian Talmud, largely divided without topical organization.

All Talmud books have "Mishnah" (plural "Mishnaim"). Some lack a "Gemara." The "Mishnah" or law of one or another Pharisee may be referred to, for example, as the "Mishnah of Rabbi Akiba," or of "Eliezer ben Jacob."

"The name Mishnah is applied in particular to the collection of Halachoth, or laws, made by Judah Hanasi (generally known as Rabbi) and his colleagues at the beginning of the 3rd Century C.E." (Note: "CE." stands for "Common Era," to avoid "AD" or "Year of Our Lord," from the Latin, Anno Domini.) (See Jewish Encyclopedia "Mishnah")

Continuing to quote from the Jewish Encyclopedia:

The Mishnah represents the culmination of a series of attempts to bring order into the vast mass of traditions which had been transmitted orally for many centuries ... The compiliation of the Mishnah is not, however, the work of one man, or even of the scholars of one age, but rather the result of a long process extending over a period of two centuries.

Also:

In the Palestine Pharisee Talmudic center at Jabneh (for it was never in Jerusalem but at Jabneh where the Jerusalem Talmud was composed) there was a concerted effort on the part of the sages of Jabeneh (about 90 CE.) to assemble and harmonize the Halachah ... Akiba (died about 135 CE.) arranged the Halachoth in logical order and probably constructed the framework of the present day Mishnah; (4) the collection of the Akiba was enlarged and brought up to date by his disciple Meir [Note: Who, the Talmud says, was a descendant of Nero, a convert to Talmudism.] (5) it became the custom, after the time of Akiba, for every head of an academy to compile his own Mishnah so that the confusion that resulted ... motivated Judah Hanasi to compile a standard [page 4] authoritative Mishnah; (6) although it is reported that Judah made use of thirteen different collections of Halachoth in his work, his Mishnah is based largely upon the collection of Meir, and indirectly, therefore, upon that of Akiba. (Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, "Mishnah")

Judah Hanasi, who compiled the Mishnah, was born about A.D. 135 and died after A.D. 200 (same authority, "Judah Hanasi"). "Nasi," meaning "prince" of Jewry, was the title given the head of the Sanhedrin court, which meted out life and death under Talmudic law.

Talmud - Six Main Divisions

The Talmud is divided into six main divisions called "Sedarim" (orders), but each division and each volume is a hodge-podge of every subject imaginable. The main and overall characteristics of the Talmud are: pomp, silliness, obscenity and more obscenity, a setting up of laws seemingly for the purpose of inventing circumventions, and evasions; delight in sadistic cruelty; reversal of all Biblical moral teachings on theft, murder, sodomy, perjury, treatment of children and parents; insane hatred of Christ, Christians and every phase of Christianity.

The Six Divisions of the Babylonian Talmud, called "Seder" (plural Sedarim), are:

1. ZERAIM (seeds), composed of the following books:

  1. Berakoth. The name of this book supposedly means benedictions, but is as foul a collection of obscenity as one could find, with 405 pages of what is nothing but "privy talk."
    The following 10 books occupy one 406-page volume in the Soncino edition:
  2. Pe‘ah (corner)
  3. Demai (doubtful)
  4. Kil‘ayim (mixtures)
  5. Shebi‘ith (seventh)
  6. Termuah (heave offerings)
  7. Ma‘aseroth (tithes)
  8. Ma‘aser Sheni (second tithe)
  9. Hallah (dough)
  10. ‘Orlah
  11. Bikkurim (first fruits)

    There are 11 books in Zeraim.

2. SEDER MOED (festivals):

  1. Sabbath (laws of; endless silly regulations and their evasions)
  2. Erubin (mingling)
  3. Pesahim (passover)
  4. Shekalin (shekels)
  5. Yoma (Yom Kippur)
  6. Sukkah (booths)
  7. Yom Tob (feast day)
  8. Rosh Hashona (New Year)
  9. Ta‘anit (fasting)
  10. Megillah (Scroll of Esther, read on Purim)
  11. Moed Katan (half feasts)
  12. Hagigah (feasting)
The Megillah is a sadistic celebration of drunkenness and bloodlust, the Talmudic admonition being that it is the duty of the Jew to be so drunk on Purim he doesn‘t know the difference between "Blessed be Mordechai" and "Cursed be Haman." (See Exhibit 299)

There are 12 books in Moed.

3. SEDER NASHIM (women). This section includes a 13-page introduction to the Soncino edition by Rabbi J.H. Hertz. These books are principally distinguished by their sub-sewer filth and obscenity:

  1. Yebamoth (the dead brother's widow) occupies 2 volumes, 871 pages in the Soncino edition
  2. Kethuboth (on the sum due a wife who is divorced) occupies 2 volumes and 728 pages of Talmudic sex filth (e.g. a baby girl being fair prey for adult men).
  3. Nedarim (vows); 282 pages of filth and immorality, illustrative of what Christ denounced when attacking the Pharisees.
  4. Kethuboth(more vows); 253 pages in the Soncino edition, hairsplitting, immoral twaddle, and including the Kol Nidre.
  5. Sotah (the suspected woman), 271 pages in the Soncino edition.
  6. Kiddushin (bethrothal)
  7. Gittin (on getting the "Get" or divorce) with space allotted for such things as placing Christ and all Christians in Hell, 439 pages in the Soncino edition.

There are 7 books in the Nashim.

4. SEDER NEZIKIN (damages):

  1. Baba Kamma (the first gate): 719 pages of Talmudic ramblings, a general law on damages being that hurting Gentile property is permissible; injuring Jewish property is like assaulting the Divine, for only "Jews" are "men" and non-Jews rank as animals. This is "brotherhood" as advocated in the Talmud.
  2. Baba Mezia (Middle gate): 676 pages in Soncino edition and of similar import.
  3. Baba Bathra (last gate): 779 pages in two volumes. and replete with anti-Gentile preachings.
  4. Sanhedrin (781 pages): States the introduction in the Soncino edition of the Talmud (see Exhibit 43): "It forms, along with Makkoth, the chief repository of the criminal law of the Talmud." This section includes the most virulent calumnies of Jesus, including His imaginary stoning, burning in dung. His decapitation, His strangling in dung, His hanging, or crucifixion for "blaspheming" the Pharisee "sages."
  5. Makkoth (beatings), 175 pages in the Soncino edition.
  6. Shebuoth (oaths - more vows), 309 pages.
  7. Eduyyoth (testimonies)
  8. Abodah Zarah on treatment of the presumably nonhuman non-Jew, 366 pages. See Exhibit 173
  9. Aboth (sayings of the fathers of Talmudism).
  10. Horayoth (rulings)

There are 10 books in Seder Nezikin.

[page 5]

5. SEDER KODASHIM (sacrifices):

  1. Zebahim (bloody sacrifices)
  2. Menahot (meal offering)
  3. Hullin (killing)
  4. Bekorot (first born)
  5. ‘Arakin (estimation)
  6. Temurah (exchange)
  7. Keritot (extermination)
  8. Me‘ilah (trespass)
  9. Tamid (daily offering)
  10. Middot (measures)
  11. Minnim (birds' nests)

There are 11 books in Kodashim.

6. SEDER TOHOROTH (cleanness)

  1. Niddah (the menstruant woman) is the prize part in this alleged religious section, devoting 509 pages to discussing smell, color, and examination by the rabbis of menstruation, without apparent medical or any other purpose except wallowing in the repulsive; pomp and asininity also abound.
  2. Kelim (vessel, utensil cleanness) illustrates through "nit-picking" rules the "straining at a gnat" cited by Christ (Matthew 23:24); also; "Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." (Luke 11:39)
  3. Oholoth (tents)
  4. Nega‘im (plagues)
  5. Parah (young cow)
  6. Tohoroth (purification)
  7. Mikawaoth (ritual bath - such as the menstruant woman should take before having intercourse with her husband, thus ridding her of the evil eye).
  8. Makshirin (kosher, proper)
  9. Zabim (flux)
  10. Tebul Yom
  11. Yadayim (hands)
  12. The last book of Tohoroth is Ukzin (stems).

There are 12 books in Tohoroth. The last 11 of these (excepting Niddah) occupy one 589-page volume in the Soncino edition. The 1,098 pages on "cleanness," filled with the foulest obscenities of thought, once again justify Christ's disdain for this hypocrisy and serve to illustrate the justification for his attitude toward the Talmudic Pharisee

Next: Chapter II. The Talmud Reviled

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