Confronting a conservative Protestant Pastor who recommends a Talmudist as a Guide to the Bible
Dear Pastor Xxxx:
With regard to your statement in your blog of August 29 concerning the late Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth of Great Britain from 1991 to 2013:
"And if Jonathan Alter is so good on certain aspects of the psalms, or the life of David, as he is, then why can’t Jonathan Sacks have valuable things to say about the Exodus and Sinai? He can, and he does.”
Maybe so, but if you’re going to endorse him as a Biblical exegete, in light of 2 Cor. 6:14-18 you might wish to warn your readers that Rabbi Sacks placed the rabbis of the Talmud above Yahweh:
From the Babylonian Talmud, tractate (BT) Bava Metzia 59B, we learn that halachic (legal) disputes are resolved not by the Word of God but by a majority vote of the Rabbis.
Bava Metzia 59B relates the tale that generations later, Rabbi Natan met the Old Testament Prophet Elijah. Rabbi Natan asked Elijah about an exchange between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua (who had refused to heed the voice of God). Natan asked him: “What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do at that time when Rabbi Yehoshua refused to heed the heavenly voice?”
In reply, Elijah supposedly said to Rabbi Natan: “God smiled and said: ‘My sons have defeated Me, My sons have defeated Me!”
This brag about defeating God is not something Orthodox Judaism is ashamed of, or even one that Talmudists always deny. “Lord Rabbi” Sacks, who is celebrated in the media as a “liberal, humane, progressive of the highest moral rectitude,” announces that he loves the claim that the rabbis have defeated God.
In his review of Jonathan Rosen’s book The Talmud and the Internet, Chief Rabbi Sacks wrote in the English newspaper The Guardian of December 21, 2001:
“Rosen loves, as do I, that extraordinary moment in the Talmud in which God is outvoted on a point of Jewish law and celebrates the fact that His children have defeated him. In the world of the rabbis, not only do men study the word of God; God studies the words of men.”
Where in our Biblical-Christian civilization is such diabolic pride to be found institutionalized as a dogma of our Faith?
Rabbi Sacks and the “sages” of the Talmud represent the voice of the alien speaking from hell the “Non-Serviam” of its subterranean denizens.
I will anticipate a possible rejoinder: Well, Michael, how was I supposed to know every statement Sacks has ever made?
In considering the object of your recommendation — a teacher of a religion which has as its holiest book the blasphemous, hate speech-riddled Talmud, you might have exercised prudential caution and thought twice about endorsing Sacks as a teacher with insight into the Hebrew scriptures.
The Talmud is malevolent and its malice is contagious. Due diligence is mandatory when approaching any of its votaries.
In the Most Holy Name of Jesus,
Michael Hoffman
michael_hoffman14ATmac.com
(substitute @ for AT in the preceding e-mail address)
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