The Vatican and its stolen Jewish Possessions

B"H

Almost 2000 years ago, Christianity didn't show any hostility towards Torah believing Jews. Everyone was still Jewish and the only difference was that there were very few Jews who kept the Torah but believed in J.C. as the Meshiach; and there was the majority of Jews keeping the Torah according to their ancestors and tradition. Nevertheless, those Jews believing in J.C. still kept Halacha and it would have never occurred to them abandoning their religion in order to found a new one.

However, everything changed due to the Jewish Hellenistic Apostle Paul. He completely failed in missionizing the Jews and therefore, he thought about a new marketing strategy. His plan was to missionize Gentiles, but how should this work out when the Torah explicitly says that the Jewish people have a special task in this world. That there is a unique covenant between G – d and His chosen people (the Jews). How can someone sell this idea to the Gentiles ?

As Paul's background was a Hellenistic cult, he took over its idea that a person with a unique task in life must first die and then be resurrected. This procedure is only taking place when the person is worthy of fulfilling this task. This idea wasn't the only one Paul took over from Gentile ideologies. Additionally he claimed that people who decided to follow him, would be called the "real Israel". And there would be a "new" Torah for all those followers and G – d would choose them as His "new" chosen people.

At least a thousand times I have asked myself why it seems to be so hard for the Gentiles to accept the Jewish people as G – d's chosen people. Where is the problem ? Jealousy ?

Yes, jealousy is probably the most significant reason of all. However, one has to understand the concept of what it means to be the chosen people. There have countless misinterpretations of the concept. Being chosen by G – d means "being a light onto the nations". And this is the task of the Jews: "Being a light onto the nations and teaching them morality". The concept of being chosen doesn't mean that Jews are superior. On the contrary, being chosen to us means a lot of responsibility and many Jews even try to escape their special task. Not too successfully, as you can surely imagine. And by the way, the task is not a Jewish claim but it comes from G – d and everyone with a little Torah knowledge can read it there.

So, was G – d out of His mind when He appointed the Jews to be His chosen people ? Is there a need for a "new" chosen people, as Paul stated ? The answer is NO because the Torah is eternal and nothing can be changed or added. The Jews will always be the chosen people; if they like it or not.

Just like Paul, Augustine continued inventing anti – Jewish ideas. According to Augustine, the Jews were, and still are, blind because they are unable to accept the truth called J.C. Thus, Augustine added more fuel into the conflict. The same as the Protestant Martin Luther, a cleric admired and respected until today. In his days, however, Luther was one of the greatest anti – Semites and when you read his speeches, you won't see a big difference between him and Hitler. If Hitler, Paul, Augustine and Luther had met, they would have been a great anti – Semitic team. Luther referred to the Jews as the devil (Satan) and Hitler must have really liked such statements.

Almost every year, Israel's two chief rabbis travel to the Vatican in order to convince the pope to return all the Jewish original writings and the Temple Menorah. Until today, the Vatican possess the greatest Jewish library in the world and especially during the Middle Ages, the church stole (or took) many Jewish original writings. The Rambam (Maimonides) may be the most famous case. When the Romans plundered the Second Temple after its destruction, they obviously took the Menorah to Rome. The question is "Where is the Menorah today?" And many people say: "In the Vatican".

For hundreds of years, the church has been living a lie. Stealing Jewish possessions and original literature in order to cover up its secrets. Keeping up a religion and an ideology which isn't true because some heretics just invented it. The intentions of the Vatican keeping all any Temple relics in their catacombs is obvious. If today, the Vatican was returning anything Jewish to the Jews, the truth would come to light and that might be the end of Christianity. Maybe not the end, but thousands of unwanted questions would be asked. That's why it is easier making a claim that there is nothing whatsoever in the Vatican and let the world move on. The only disturbing problem is G – d. One day, He is going to judge the church and its clerics, as at Him they cannot lie.

Before the present pope took over his position, he was the head of a Vatican department which, during the Middle Ages, was called "The Holy Inquisition". If anyone knows all the secrets then it is the present pope. From the Nazi Reich to the Inquisition. I think that Augustine or Luther would have really loved to identify themselves with such a past.


Arutz 7
The Vatican, for example, is said to have the largest repository of Hebrew manuscripts in the world, accumulated over the centuries as a result of church-inspired pogroms and persecutions. These include early medieval copies of the works of Maimonides and Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, along with some of the earliest-known illuminated copies of the Bible.
These treasures are Jewish in content, in history and in origin, and many were ripped from the hands of their owners just moments before their massacre, forced conversion or expulsion. Why they should these stolen pieces of our heritage now sit abandoned in a Vatican basement rather than being returned to their rightful owners, the Jewish people? And how about the 14th century rimonim, the decorative silver ornaments known in English as finials which are placed on the wooden staves of a Torah scroll, that currently sit in the La Seu Cathedral in Spain's Palma de Majorca? What does it say about our sense of national pride that we allow these sacred religious objects to be displayed in a Catholic church?


Jewish artifacts in catacombs

Jewish Treasures in the Vatican

http://www.templemountfaithful.org/News/20030112.htm