Rabbi Tuvia Singer: Why the Church rejects the Talmud

B"H

The big room downstairs at the "Israel Center" (Orthodox Union) is always filled with people when Rabbi Tuvia Singer speaks about the manipulation of the church and Christian missionaries. Last week, he gave his third lecture and this time, the subject was "Why the Church rejects the Talmud".
Jews and Christians come to Tuvia Singer's lectures but there are people at the OU Center complaining that the Christians don't just come to his lectures in order to listen but to learn and missionize Jews afterwards.

Rabbi Tuvia Singer started with a brief introduction:
Christian theology is entirely based on the letters of Paul (The Book of Romans). The New Testament itself doesn't contain any theologies or laws. According to Paul, only the "belief in J." is important and brings salvation. NO ONE in this world would be able to fulfill all the 613 Mitzvot but only J., the superhuman, could do so.
As I explained two weeks ago, only Cohanim (Priests) were and will be able to fulfill all the 613 Mitzvot, as many of those Mitzvot include the Temple service. The Christian Meshiach J. was NOT a Cohen and thus not able to fulfill all the Mitzvot !

The Book of Matthew (Chapter 23) is a true source of anti – Semitism. There the Jews are being accused of being responsible for all the murders happening in the Torah. Furthermore, the author(s) of Matthew are not ashamed of blaming the "Perushim – Pharisees" for anything bad happening.

We Jews have two tasks:

1. Keeping the Mitzvot.

2. Building a personal relationship with G - d. This is happening through Mitzvot and Prayer !

Only believing is not enough because we are commanded to fulfill G – d's will – the Torah Mitzvot.

Paul didn't know about the trinity because this concept was only introduced by the church during the 4th century. However, Paul stated that any Gentile having a Brit Milah (circumcision) won't find any salvation in case he depends on this particular Brit Milah. Meaning, when the Gentiles does so in order to fulfill a Mitzvah. Paul strictly rejected all the Mitzvot and whoever ran after them would not find salvation.

Why does the church reject the Talmud ?

First of all, we have to clarify what the Talmud actually is:
The Talmud consists of two parts: The MISHNA (Oral Law) which Moshe received directly from G – d at Mount Sinai. At first, those laws were handed over from generation to generation. Many years later, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi started to write them down in Hebrew.

The second part of the Talmud is the GEMARA (rabbinic discussions) written mostly in Aramaic with some Hebrew sections. Discussions about the laws and how to fulfill them. Additionally, the Talmud also consists of stories and some mysticism. The church hates the Talmud but doesn't get tired of quoting from it when it comes to prove the "viciousness" of the Jews.

Why do the Jews need the Talmud when all the laws were already stated in the Torah ?

The church announced that it doesn't recognize the Jewish Oral Law.
But is this really true ?
What about the Jewish calendar system ? Doesn't Easter mostly fall on the same date as the Jewish Pessach ? And who stipulates the calendar ? The Rabbis according to the Talmud.
Many Christians love to imitate the Jews in various ways. They even use an Etrog (citrus) on Sukkot. But where does the Etrog come from ? The Torah doesn't speak about it.
The Etrog was introduced by the Rabbis.
How about the Kipa some Christians (and the Pope) also like to wear ?
Introduced by the Rabbis.
How about Shabbat candles and Chanukkah ?
Introduced by the Rabbis and mentioned in the Talmud.
In all these cases, the church acknowledges the Talmud but why do they generally rejects it ?

Those of you looking closer at an original version of the Torah, will notice points below the letters as well as other signs. Those signs were added by the Rabbis in order to ensure that the words were spelled right and not mistakenly used in the wrong way. Today even Christians took over those signs stipulated by the Rabbis.
The making of the Jewish calendar is a science only known to the Rabbis.
G – d promised the Jews in the Torah that a certain knowledge will only be given by Him to the Jews and not to the Gentile nations. The church could never figure out the exact knowledge which makes them upset. This is exactly what G – d promised the Jewish people and the church can do as much as it likes, it will never figure out certain Jewish matters. The Talmud was given to the Jews and even anti – Semites like Martin Luther weren't able to decode Jewish issues.

Furthermore, the Talmud gives us all the details about how to fulfill various Mitzvot. Many procedures of Mitzvot are not mentioned in the Torah at all. For instance, how to write a Ketubah (marriage contract), how to do the sacrifices (Korbanot) or what exactly Rosh HaShana means. The Torah only calls this Jewish holiday "a day of blowing" but not "a day of judgement".

G – d makes it very clear in His Torah that the Jews will never disappear. There will always be Jews, as long as our world exists. Even if His people sins, G – d will always be on the side of His chosen nation.
Ezra criticized the Jews of Jerusalem for marrying Gentile (Canaanite) women and commanded them to leave their non – Jewish wives and children. From here we learn that a child is Jewish when his mother is Jewish.

Tuvia Singer explained that Jews should never use the New Testament proving Christian missionaries wrong. Not in the sense of quoting from the Gospels and proving one Gospel wrong because another Gospel claims something else. "Never use an unholy object for holy purposes !"

Those Jews who try changing the Torah and "modernize" it, as the reform movement did, will take a step towards their own destruction. Where are all the Reformers from a hundred years ago ? Where is their offspring ? Many of their descendants intermarried and disappeared in the Gentile world. The only way of telling who is a Jew is telling if your grandchildren are pious Jews keeping Torah Mitzvot.
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I didn't really participate in Tuvia Singer's last lecture taking place this Sunday. When I arrived at the "Israel Center", I felt like learning something Jewish and not another page of the Book of Matthew. Soon we are going to celebrate Rosh HaShana and , as a Jew, I don't feel like learning Christian messianic stuff.

What I noticed at a few lectures:
A certain convert to Judaism who had been formerly deeply involved in Christianity seemed to enjoy herself hearing all her old theologies. I have noticed quite a few times that converts to Judaism who were extremely believing Christians in their former lives, still love to discuss Christian topics. As soon as they see a Christian, they sit down next to him with the hope that he may speak to them.
Unfortunately, many converts to Judaism never really loose touch with their previous religion. They simply cannot let go and keep on reading messianic sites. They like to justify those acts by claiming that they are now hunting Christian missionaries but with many of those I am having my doubts.