The Church and the Talmud

B"H

According to our great Sages, it was the "oral law" making the Jewish people unique. And we read in a Midrash that once, in the future, the nations will make the claim that they are "Jewish". A claim which I can only confirm without any hesitation. Countless Christian tourists arriving in Jerusalem already claim their Jewishness after a few days or so. In Israel we know that 99 % of such tourists are total nutcases and the inhabitants of Jerusalem are used to religiously mad tourists from all over the world.

But let's look back at the quoted Pasuk (verse) from the Midrash:

"And G – d will say: "The one holding my mystery in his hands is truly Israel".

And what is that mystery ?

The Mishna (the oral law from Mount Sinai).


The Sages considered the Talmud to be the bulwark of Judaism. An opinion the Christian world looked at with suspicion and hostility. Already in the seventh and eighth century, leading Christians made some attempts to prohibit Talmud study. Those attempts, however, failed.

Especially the Catholic Church very early saw a danger in the Talmud. Jewish converts to Christianity tried to prove Jewish Talmudic Sages wrong. The converts loved to organize public discussions but after a short time they realized that the Rabbi cannot be beaten. His arguments and knowledge were too much for the Christian converts and they failed in giving the proof. The most famous public dispute took place in Barcelona in 1263. A Jew who had converted to Christianity, Pablo Christiani, challenged the Ramban (Nachmanides). And, as you can probably imagine, who won the Talmudic argument ? Right, the Ramban, of course. How could anyone at all think about challenging the Ramban ? And, by the way, already in those days, certain Catholic clergy as the Dominicans acted in anti – Semitic ways against the Jews.

In the course of time, the church started to realize the importance of the Talmud to the Jewish world, and decided to destroy Talmudic writings. Another important point why the church rejected the Talmud was that the pope and his followers thought that the Talmud included anti – Christian elements, and this would cause the Jews hating Gentiles. And here again are the Dominicans who took care that certain Talmudic passages were taken out of Jewish literature. In 1240, Pope Gregory IX. ordered the burning of the Talmud. Similar Talmud burnings also took place in the course of the 13th century. In 1264, Pope Clement IV., for instance, ordered the burning of thousands of Talmud copies. At that time, the Talmud wasn't available in printed editions but only in loose copies of different tractates.
The Jews were shocked and considered these anti – Semitic actions as a "national catastrophe". Rabbi Me'ir of Rothenburg composed a special lament which we say in our Kinot (lamentations) on Tisha Be' Av (9th of Av, the day of the destruction of both Jerusalem Temples) until today.

But not everywhere in Europe the Talmud was burned. On the Iberian Peninsula, for instance, it was enough to take out "endangering" Talmudic passages. Passages, the church didn't like. In 1431, the church synod in Basel (Switzerland) reaffirmed the ban on the Talmud. A few years later, in 1509, the convert Johannes Pfefferkorn screamed for a new Talmud burning. Pfefferkorn, a former Jew, got associated with the Dominicans. However, a trial took place in where Johann Reuchlin took the part of defending Judaism. Although new burnings took place afterwards, Reuchlin's arguments had impressed the pope and in 1520, Pope Leo X. allowed the printing of the Talmud. For the duration of a few decades, some Talmudic editions were distributed. In 1553, however, Pope Julius III. made another decree and more Talmud burnings took place. At another church synod in 1564, Pope Pius IV., alleviated the harshness of the former decree and, again, allowed the distribution of the Talmud. Of course, there was a snare. The distribution could only take place where certain passages were removed from the Talmud. And thus, the Talmud could be printed in Basel; but only under the supervision of Catholic monks.

Can you imagine such an absurd decree ?
On the other hand, the Jews obviously had to adjust themselves to the different time periods and maybe thought that "a little is better than nothing".

Nevertheless, everything changed in 1592 when Pope Clement II. put a new ban on the Talmud. His ban wasn't kept all over Europe and mostly only in Italy. Anywhere else it seemed to be acceptable only taking hostile passages to the church out of the Talmud. The main supervision of the printing process in Basel had a monk called Marco Marino.

First of all, Marino replaced the unwanted word "Talmud" with the words "Gemara" or "Shass". The next word being replaced was "Min – Heretic". "Min" was changed into "Sadducee". The Talmudic heretic "Min" was mainly used for certain Gnostics hardly for Christians. However, the church considered it as hostile.

Furthermore, the word "Rome" was replaced by "Aram – Mesopotamia" or by "Paras – Persia". Rome is mentioned all over in the Talmud, as the Romans occupied Palestine and introduced their idols. Just have a look into the Tractate Avodah Zarah (idol worship) and you will find Rome plenty of times. The church saw in the word "Rome" the Vatican. Of course, this is not true but they surely understood the hint. Vatican and idol worship.

A very difficult word for the church was "Goy". For some time, "Goy" was replaced by "Akum". The Hebrew translation for "Goy" is "people" and not only Gentile. "Goy" is even mentioned in the Torah when G – d calls the Jews "Goy Kadosh – Holy People".

"Akum" is a Talmudic abbreviation and stands for "Oved Kochavim – idol worshipper". Someone worshipping the planets, stars or the sun and the moon. Another convert to Christianity, however, informed the church that "Akum" is also a hostile word for Gentiles and the church then replaced "Goy" by "Kuti – Samaritan". In the Basel edition, "Goy" was replaced by "Kushi – African, Kushite".

Today, "Akum" is mostly used in Kashrut (kosher laws). Food is regarded as AKUM when is doesn’t meet the basic kosher rules. For instance, if a Gentile prepares food and does forbidden things. But this is a different subject.

Wherever the church saw a hidden hint to J. or Christianity, the passage had to be taken out entirely. Even when the context was not hostile or negative in any way. Additionally, the monks in Basel decided to take out passages which stood not in accordance with Christianity. It says in the Talmud that a human is born without sin. This is a basic Jewish concept. The church, on the other hand, considered this concept as a danger to Christianity. The result was that the passage had to be removed.

Another example:
It says in the Talmud that a man without a wife is not called a man. Judaism is family oriented and, therefore, a man should have a wife. And now guess how much the church liked this statement. They loved it so much that it had to be removed as well. Or is the Pope married ?

But not only the church interfered in Jewish or "G – dly" affairs; even the Russian authorities demanded from the Jews to replace certain words. Such as "Greeks" for instance, as Russian culture was very much influenced by Greek culture. The word "Goy" was replaced by "Ishmael".

And although the Jews tried to add former removed passages, the original prints are only being published in our times. The above facts I have given are only a few and don't show the whole Jewish dilemma with the church. It is unbelievable what the Popes did and still do. If the church is so sure that Christianity is the true religion why then do they want to destroy Judaism ? Why do they fake the Torah and fake literature and documents ? Let alone hiding Jewish Temple items in the Vatican. Is the clergy afraid that their "sheep" might run away as soon as they study more about Judaism ? Judaism, the true religion.

The truth is always coming out one day and if I may quote another forbidden passage from the Talmud (Avodah Zarah):

"The day will come when G – d is going to punish those nations which repressed His people, the Jews".

The nations have to take responsibility for their anti – Semitic actions and I would really like to know what the Popes or Martin Luther have to say.
Maybe they appear talking with subtitles, as all the passages are being removed …

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Sources:

"The Essential Talmud" by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (Jerusalem)