A Talmud Question from Sweden

Evil Contents of the Talmud

Editor's note: One of the obligations of an author is to reply to readers when they ask questions. Not all authors would agree with me, but that is how I see my duty. I often receive queries about Judaism and if they are sincere and demonstrate that the questioner has conducted some research on his or her own first, then I try to find the time to answer. Some weeks it makes for a considerable correspondence.  I probably anger or offend some people when I answer with just a brief missive, or not at all.  Here is an e-mail received May 1 from a man in Sweden, and my response.

On May 1, 2013, at 12:26, Lasse K. wrote:

Dear Michael Hoffman 

I am trying to convince a rabbi to try to debunk the late professor Shahak's understanding of the Talmud as well as your compilation of Talmud-quotes, instead of just crying out "Antisemites"!

I've been absolutely correct in my manners in the email-correspondance with the rabbi, but he has not stopped using abusive language towards me.

He promotes the idea that you and Shahak have not understood the Talmud, so I have offered him to state the amount of money he needs to tutor me/debunk your and professor Shahaks understaning/explanations of the Talmud. To debunk, I've explained to him is to use Talmud-quotes to prove your explanations wrong. He has not responded to my latest mail, but before I publish the e-mail correspondance here in Sweden, to a number of people that I have on an e-mail-list (journalists, parliamentarians, Expo (Swedish version of ADL), synagogues in Sweden) I wanted to ask him if he can't tutor me because it is forbidden to tutor a gentile in the Talmud.

I've searched at your web page, http://revisionisthistory.org/talmudtruth.html and found this sentence, but I believe that you're incorrect here:

"In Berakoth 58a the Talmud uses Ezekiel 23:20 as proof of the sub-human status of gentiles. It also teaches that anyone (even a Jewish man) who reveals this Talmudic teaching about non-Jews deserves death, since revealing it makes Gentiles wrathful and causes the repression of Judaism."

I think you've made a mistake here. I cannot find anything in Berakoth 58a that supports this. Is there any other place in the Talmud that forbids the teaching of gentile in the Talmud?

Dear Mr. K:

I have not erred. Perhaps you are using a redacted version of the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud - hereafter "BT"); most English versions are redacted. The only reliable, uncensored English translation is the Steinsaltz.

Please note that I mainly cite BT Berakoth 58a to give evidence of the sub-human status of goyim (gentiles) in Judaic halacha (law).  Rabbinic halacha holds that goyim are animals and 58a is one of the readiest means by which this can be verified. The gentile woman with whom the Jew has sexual relations is equated with a "female donkey." Elijah the prophet is called to serve as a corroborating witness to this Talmudic "fact." Later, in Berakoth 58a it is affirmed that all gentiles are donkeys.

This doctrine that gentiles are animals remains current in our time, having been taught as recently as 2010 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, senior Sephardic posek and head of the Israeli Shas Council of Torah Sages (cf. Judaism's Strange Gods, p. 206).

In reply to your claim that I have misquoted BT Berakoth 58a, if you have an uncensored copy of that text at hand, you will see that at the very end of Berakoth 58a, Rabbi Sheila's antagonist threatens to inform the Persian authorities that the rabbi has called the Persians, "donkeys." The rabbi then declares that this would-be informant is a rodef (pursuer). A rodef is subject to being killed on sight.  

If you persist in claiming I have this wrong, then I can send you a photocopy of the original Aramaic text of  BT Berakoth 58a (contrary to popular opinion, the Talmud Bavli is written mostly in Aramaic, not Hebrew).

If you are seeking a more blatant declaration of what happens to truth-tellers in the rabbinic universe, turn to the uncensored English translation of BT Sanhedrin 59a concerning gentiles who study the Talmud: "A non-Jew who engages in the study of the Torah is liable for execution." 

Lest you imagine that the allusion to "Torah" excludes the Gemara (Talmud), be aware that the man-made oral law and traditions of the rabbis is called the Torah sheBeal peh. 

The Talmud is a lawyer's manual of situation ethics and these are adopted or altered as circumstances change. Loopholes and escape clauses abound. One of these, a supplement to Sanhedrin 59a, modifies the original statement, as follows: "According to Meiri, a non-Jew is only forbidden to study the Torah if his intention is to gain knowledge in order to vex Jews."

In other words, the Talmud can be studied, in this modern age, by post-Renaissance Catholic Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard at the Yeshivat Chovevei, because with the knowledge Ricard gains he will use it to "vex" Christians like Bishop Richard Williamson and that is of course permissible. It is however, a death penalty offense for Williamson, or Michael Hoffman, to study the Talmud because they will use the knowledge they gain to "vex" the synagogue of the Pharisees. 

Judaism is not a religion of plain talk or unambiguous and eternal dogma (except in a few areas such as the racial and spiritual superiority of the Judaic male, or the supreme halachic status of the sacred texts of Chazal, which surpass even God in authority; both of these are non-negotiable). Most everything else is subject to adjustment, modification, equivocation, casuistry, and dissimulation, according to the zeitgeist. Not even some rabbis fully grasp the depths of exegetical deception and misdirection entailed by gezarah shava and ve’ain morin kain. Here we enter the domain of triple six.

It is a standard response to my work on the part of rabbis and other adversaries, to dismiss this writer's research on the basis that I have "misquoted the Talmud." This allegation is tendered without evidence, solely on the basis of the supposed prestige of the rabbi or other establishment-certified "expert" who levels the accusation; which is put forth merely on the basis of their personal say so (ipse dixit). Usually that's enough to convince most goyim that I am a hateful propagandist. In case you haven't noticed, in the twenty-first century there is not a very high premium on truth, even among "our" people. How many are willing to die for it? How many are even willing to pay anything for it?

I have written an 1100 page book, (Judaism Discovered) and a 382 page book (Judaism's Strange Gods), and these can provide further research leads of possible use to you. It helps save valuable time and energy if you would consult these works before querying me. Nonetheless, if you have a question, I will do my best to endeavor to answer it, as my other obligations and duties allow.

Sincerely in Christ,

Michael Hoffman

PO Box 849

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83816 USA