Is Quoting the Talmud Anti-Semitic?

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Should one be defined as anti-Semitic for quoting from Talmud texts that preach for committing or justifying crimes? Texts that define the Talmud supporters – at least – as collaborators, or even instigators to commit, a crime?

This question is a serious one, since the modern State of Israel forces on its citizens the religious views of the Pharisees descendants, namely the rabbis. The rabbis act according to the Talmud teachings. In such a way, Israel is accepting the Talmud and its teachings. What does that mean?

Who were the Pharisees?

In 539 BC the Persians conquered Babylon, where many Jews were exiled. He let them return to Jerusalem, where the Sadducees – the priests – became the de facto authority of them. While the priests controlled the Temple, the scribes monopolized the study of the Torah, which was read publicly on market-days.

However, after the fell of the Kingdom of Judah and the exile to Babylon – where the people could witness a more developed society – the prestige of the Sadducees was in decline. The scribes took advantage of that and began the process of organizing themselves into a political party that claimed to possess the correct interpretation of the Bible, what they called the Oral Law. They based the claim on their erudition – they were among the few that could read – and on the failure of the priests to restore the splendor of the former kingdom. “Something is wrong with their interpretation,” whispered the Pharisees to the people.

Much later they became the religious leaders of the people and in a brilliant marketing event they changed their title to “rabbi” (“my master,” or literally “my much”).

What is the Talmud?

The Old Testament was considered dangerous by the Pharisees. Simply, many of the Mosaic Laws were uncomfortable – and inconvenient – to fulfil. Moreover, the prophecies regarding Jesus – their archenemy – in the Bible were difficult to ignore.

Facing such a problem, these industrious men operated a two stages plan. First, an Oral Law was created. These were laws that defined how the Mosaic Laws in the Pentateuch should be interpreted. Using them, they could turn around any law to their convenience. They claim the Oral Law was given verbally by Moses to their ancestors. The Bible does not support this claim.

At certain stage – before Jesus was born – the compilation of this Oral Law into books began. The result was the creation of a new layer of books – collectively known as the Talmud – that included all the formal interpretations of the Pentateuch – the Bible’s first five books. All the other books in the Bible were considered little more than fables by the Pharisees.

Nowadays, the rabbis – the Pharisees spiritual descendants – consider the Talmud as the main book of law. Since then, the Pharisees and rabbis can manipulate the law interpretations to their personal benefit.

Jesus and the Talmud

In the times of Jesus the Talmud was still incomplete, but its foundations already managed the Pharisees behaviour. The manipulation of the Mosaic Law for the Pharisees personal profit – the main task of the Talmud – is time and again denounced by Jesus. The strongest text on the issue is the whole of Chapter 23 in the Gospel of Matthew.

But not only there. He also said:

Matt. 15:6-9 ... Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
15:7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

And:

John 8:44: 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.

Soncino

The Talmud – written in Hebrew and Aramaic – was largely ignored by the world until the Jews' College translation was published through Soncino Press between 1935 and 1948. This was the first complete English translation, produced by authoritative Jewish scholars in the world and is considered a reliable text. It is important to keep that in mind while judging the next sections.

Elizabeth Dilling

Once this task was accomplished, the way was open for an international examination of the text. Elizabeth Dilling published the first critique of the Talmud, a book called The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today. She used the Soncino Talmud, and quotes also the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia and other publications. Her analysis is considered serious.

My readers can download here her book and here the bulky exhibits accompanying it.

Before continuing with the answer of the Jewish community to Dilling’s publication, I would like to bring some of the commentaries appearing in her book.

Racism

Moses taught again and again that the stranger is to be treated the same as the Israelites:

Lev 19:34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
19:35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.

Deut 10:19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Numbers 9:14 …ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.

Yet, the oral law, or the Traditions of the Pharisees, as recorded in the Talmud, reverses Moses teachings. In Baba Mezia 108b it says: "Only ye are designated as 'men.'" The Baba Mezia passage is about the graves of Gentiles which rank like the graves of animals. "The graves of Gentiles do not defile," is the edict.

No wonder Christ said:

Matt 15:3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Mark 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Non-Jews Have No Property Rights

The Talmud teaches in Baba Bathra, Folio 54b, that non-Jews have no property rights. Their possessions are "like unclaimed land in the desert." The passage appears on page 222 of the Soncino edition: "Rab Judah said in the name of Samuel: The property of a heathen is on the same footing as desert land; whoever first occupies it acquires ownership."

Doesn’t the occupation of Palestine appear now in a new light?

Bestiality

The Talmud is obsessed with pornographic issues, touching some of them here is unavoidable. Moses commanded that if a woman have intercourse with a beast, both should be killed (Leviticus 20:16), and that a priest must not marry a harlot or woman who is profane (Lev. 21:7), the Talmud inverted that and teaches that "unnatural intercourse does not cause a woman to be forbidden to marry a High Priest," since then "you will find no woman eligible …" (See Exhibit 157, from the Yebamoth, Folios 59a-59b)

Then, the ruling of the rabbis is: "A woman who had intercourse with a beast is eligible to marry a priest — even a High Priest,” and “the result of such intercourse being regarded as a mere wound, and the opinion that does not regard. More