HF111 - Struggles in Israel (Part 4)
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Fri, January 30, 2004
Subject: Bible Study HF111 - Struggles in Israel (Part 4)
Hebraics,
I had thought to conclude this series of "Struggles in Israel" in three parts, but I believe it is important to provide a final fourth part so as to provide a better understanding as to why so many Jews have become non-religious. Something happened in the World War II era that went against everything the Jews had been taught, especially those Jews who followed the Talmudic writers. Let's look into this issue.
This is Bible Study HF111 - Struggles in Israel (Part 4).
It is important to understand that traditional Judaism is somewhat related to what is called Orthodox Judaism, also called Rabbinical Judaism and/or Talmudic Judaism. Reformed and Conservative Judaism also have their place in Judaism, but they do not connect with the Talmud on the same level as to the Orthodox.
In Talmudic Judaism, the peoples were inundated with the idea that they were a divine race but this was only a start. They were also taught to place the rabbis on such a level that even Moses and the prophets and believe it or not, in some instances even God had to take a back seat to the rabbis.
I realize this is hard to believe. However the more you become familiar with Talmudic writings, the more you will see just how much Talmudic Judaism has served to deceive the Jewish peoples over the centuries. Talmudic Judaism created a thinking among its Jewish followers that has little semblance to the Bible itself. It is sort of like the time I wanted to witness to my Jewish driver in Israel and he said, "I don't need to be saved. I'm a Jew."
Talmudic Judaism taught that Gentiles were defiled. To have any contact with Gentiles would render a Jew defiled. This goes back to
the earliest writings of the rabbis and continues on some level throughout all the varied writings of the Jews. However, the rabbis
had to figure out how to deal with the Diaspora, or with any Jew who lived outside the land of Israel, so they gave a special
"holy" status to certain areas, such as that of Babylon. (The Babylonian
Talmud originates in Babylon.)
In any event the rabbis provided "mountains of minutiae" to regulate every single detail of life for Jewish peoples. The high mark in this is that the only way a Jew was to study the Torah was to do so through the lens of the Talmudic writers. Women were generally discouraged from any kind of study. It is this kind of thing that Jesus came against when He said, "But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." (Matthew 15:9)
What happened during the centuries is that the rabbis began to take to themselves a sort of semi-divine status. They were far superior to any of the prophets. (Talmudic Judaism is almost a form of self worship.) It might be noted that a very similar thing took place in the Roman system. Martin Luther and other godly men broke this strangle hold over many Christians during the Reformation.
In Judaism various splinter groups attempted to depart from Talmudic Judaism. Its not that Talmudic Judaism rules all the Jewish people; it simply ruled more than its share. However, the Talmudic "bubble" busted during the WWII era. The peoples had consistently been taught that they were a divine race and that their Deliverer would appear at any moment. Even when the Jews were being rounded up to be exterminated, the message of the rabbis never changed. The peoples were waiting for their "Deliverer." He would come any moment to save them.
It didn't happen. Six million Jews were exterminated in the ovens of Germany. WWII created a fracture in Judaism that caused a great
many Jews not only to reject Judaism but also to depart from any notion of religion at all. They began to write diatribe against God.
Many simply became secular. Others turned to atheism and became anti-God. Still others became communists. Then you had
those who became Christian. A great many simply assimilated
into the vastness of the Gentile peoples. They were tired of being Jews.
What about the Jews in Israel? Of the 5+ million Jews in Israel, the larger part remains secular and care little for Orthodox Judaism. Why then are they there? Are they there because they see the State of Israel as their only haven of protection? I think not. Irrespective of the political scene, the Jews are in Israel because God has brought them there. They are dead bones waiting for the spirit of life. They have come out of their graves but are not spiritually alive. This only happens in Jesus Christ. Their day is yet to come.
We ought not to be surprised. The prophets said this would happen. (I'll not cover the prophetic writings at this juncture since this has been dealt with in part.) Jews are in Israel because the Jewish peoples have a role to complete in the redemption program of God, and no, they are not a divine race. They are just as lost as any other people group who are yet outside Jesus Christ.
Since I don't want to rewrite what has already been covered in this series, what I will to do now is share some more selected writings from the Talmud and other noted rabbinical sources, to let you see how the rabbis have served to deceive the Jewish peoples. Of course they themselves are deceived.
Keep in mind that Talmud is a vast library of many volumes that have never been indexed. While there is good to be found in the Talmud, what I am sharing has to do with the sway that the rabbis had over the people at large.
In reading these quotes from various Judaic sources, think of how these writings may have affected you had you been a Jewish person who knew nothing else to believe (Following the quotes I'll provide some summary remarks.):
(1) (j. Shabb. 14) "The grandson of R. Jehoshua ben Levi had something stuck in his throat. There came a man and whispered to him in the name of Jeshu Pandera [a rabbinic code name for Jesus], and he recovered. When he came out, R. Jehoshua said to him, 'What didst thou whisper to him?' He said to him, 'A certain word.' He said, 'It had been better for him that he had died rather than thus..." Note: The people were taught that death was preferable to being healed in the name of Jesus Christ.
(2) (b. Mem. 42.) "Rolls of the Law, tephillin and mezuzoth, written by a Min [essentially a Christian Jew], a betrayer, an idolater, a slave, a woman, a child, a Samaritan or an apostate Israelite, are ceremonially unfit for use."
(3) (Sephri, 48) "R. Shim'on ben Menasja says, 'Drink waters out of thine own well, [Talmudic writings] drink the waters of thy creator; and do not drink the foul waters [Gospels, etc.], lest thou be drawn with the words of the Minum [Christians].'"
(4) (Shabbat 31a) "There was a certain gentile who came before
Rabbi Shammai. The gentile said to him, 'How many Torahs do you have?' The rabbi replied, 'Two, one in writing, one memorized.'
The gentile then said to him, 'As to the one in writing, I believe you. As to the memorized one, I do not believe you. Convert me on
condition that you will teach me only the Torah that is in writing.' The rabbi rebuked the gentile and threw him out." [This was an
attempt to get the Talmudist to stay strictly with the writings of Moses and the prophets.]
Note: Dr. Israel Shahak of Jerusalem's Hebrew University states:
"The Edition Princepts of the complete Code of Talmudic Law,
Maimonides' Mishnet Torah -- is replete not only with the most offensive precepts against all Gentiles but also with explicit attacks
on Christianity and Jesus ... The Hebrew form of the name Jesus -- Yeshu -- was interpreted as an acronym for the curse, 'may his
name and memory be wiped out.'" [Israel Shahak, 'Jewish History,
Jewish Religion]
(5) (Erubin 21b) - Whoever disobeys the rabbis deserves death and will be punished by being boiled in hot excrement in hell.
(6) (Mishnah Abot 2:7) - "The more possessions the more worry; the more wives, the more witchcraft."
(7) (Maimonides 'Mishnah Torah') - "According, if we see an idolater (gentile) being swept away or drowning in the river, we should not help him. If we see that his life is in danger, we should not save him." Note: Maimonides taught that Christians should be exterminated.
(8) (Rabbi Zalman founder of Lubavitch Hasidim) - "Gentile souls are of a completely different and inferior order. They are totally evil, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever ... Their material abundance derives from supernal refuse ... they themselves derive from refuse, which is why they are more numerous than the Jews..."
(9) (Avodah Zara 3:B) - The day is twelve hours long. During the first three, the Holy One, blessed be he, is engaged in the study of Torah. (This is a reference to God studying the Talmud to learn what the rabbis know.)
(10) In Bava Metzia 86a, Rabbi Nahmani is called to heaven to settle a debate between God and the rest of the fellowship and to teach God who is clean and who is not.
(11) In Berakhot 6a-b, God wears phylacteries on which are inscribed praise for the Jewish people, and in Berakhot 7A, God asks a rabbi for a rabbi's blessing.
(12) The Kabbalistic teaching of Isaac Luria is that non-Jews are Satanic: "Souls of non-Jews come entirely from the female part of the satanic sphere. For this reason souls of non-Jews are called evil..."
(13) (The Zohar III. 282a) "From the side of idolatry Shabbethaj (Saturn) is called Lilith, mixed dung, on account of the filth mixed from all kinds of dirt and worms, into which they throw dead dogs and dead asses, the sons of Esau and Ishmael, and there Jesus and Mohammed, who are dead dogs, are buried among them."
(14) In Talmud tractate Baba Mezia 59b a sly rabbi debates God and through trickery defeats Him. The Talmud has God admitting that the rabbi bested him.
(15) (Sefer Chasdim p80) "After death, the soul continues to exist as it did in life. And so, the Sages said, 'He who had intercourse with a gentile woman, after death his foreskin is drawn so that he appears uncircumcised."
(16) The Brit Olam commentary to Safer Chasidim, answers the question why the righteous suffer. It states that most present-day generations are reincarnations of earlier generations. It also says that Job was made to suffer because he was the reincarnation of Terach, the idolatrous father of Abraham.
(17) (Sefer Chasdim p374; based on Sanhedrin 72a) - "It happened once that a group of Jews who were on a journey were attacked by
a band of marauders. But the Jews overpowered their assailants and killed them. There were
some non-Jews present who witnessed the battle, and now the Jews were afraid that they would report that
it was the Jews who killed the robbers. ... In a case like that, the Jews are permitted to kill the gentile witnesses, even if they
promise not to tell anyone. They cannot be believed, for 'their mouths speak lies, and their oaths are false.'"
...............
Summary -- The importance in all this is how the Talmudic writers have defaced the Bible record. Out of the ashes of 70 A.D., came a new religion. While its roots trace back to before the destruction of the temple, as a recognizable religion, rabbinic Judaism took its true religious form with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
Statistically speaking there are about 14 million Jews in the world. Of this number a little over 2 million are considered committed wholly to the Orthodox branch. This line of Judaism has been in decline since the late 19th century. For whatever other reason, you can be certain that more and more Jews are having their eyes opened to the fallacy of Talmudic Judaism.
I shared a bit at the beginning of this part of our study in how WWII became a defining moment for the Jews. There are added dimensions to this which includes an anomaly among the Jews. Judaism is much concerned over why more and more Jewish men in particular are marrying Christian women, and of those who marry Christian women, the greater part wish their children to be raised as Christians. (According to Jewish demographics.)
What is happening is that more Jews are being exposed to the faith of true Christianity than ever before. Biblical Christianity is not the Christianity of the Romans or the Greeks or even a single Protestant faith. Biblical Christianity is what the Lord came to give us. It is a walk of reality with Jesus Christ, and it is Biblical Christianity that is beckoning to the Jewish heart. Now when a Jewish man meets a Christian woman, something stirs up in them.
To give you an idea of what is happening, let me share a story in closing the study -- A few years back a gentleman began showing up for our Friday evening service. He would come in just after the worship began and would slip out at the end of my ministry. He would always leave before anyone had a chance to greet him. What I didn't know but found out later was that he was an officer of the local Jewish temple, but he was a man whose heart was filled
with longing for His Messiah. To make a long story short, this gentleman came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Out of this came the break up of his family. Eventually he married a Christian lady, and now they are involved in a ministry to reach out to other Jewish folk. Last year I was asked to sing at their Passover seder.
How does all this fit the scenario of "Struggles in Israel"? It fits quite well. This issue of finding Jesus is a prelude to the great turning of Israel to Jesus Christ. The story of this Jewish gentleman is being retold time after time after time. On our Ask the Pastor site at Christian Challenge, I get a a number of inquiries from people who are easily identified as Jews. They are asking right questions.
What does Jesus say about all this? He said, "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (Matt 7:8)
And so what is the best thing you can tell a traditional Jew? Tell him to read his own Bible with an open heart and mind. He will find his answers there. Jesus will speak to him from the book.
Just some things to think about. This concludes our final part of the study on "Struggles in Israel."
The study is open.
Blessings,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)