The Talmud Unmasked
The Talmud unmasked (Latin: Christianus in Talmud Iudaeorum: sive, Rabbinicae doctrinae Christiani secreta) is book written in 1892 by Justinas Bonaventure Pranaitis (1861–1917). The book, generally regarded as antisemitic, is a collection of quotes from the Talmud and Zohar which purports to demonstrate that Judaism despises non-Jews and promotes the murder of non-Jews. While most of the quotes are accurate, some are fabricated, and others are taken out of context. Pranaitis was not able to read Aramaic, the primary language of the Talmud, and so he relied primarily on the works of Jakob Ecker and August Rohling.[1] Various elements tend to prove that the author, whose incompetence was established unambiguously at the time of the Beilis trial, ignores the rabbinical literature which he intends to describe, unlike other Christian polemists from which he largely borrows.
Presentation of the book
The book is a compilation of selective quotes from the Talmud, the Zohar, and other talmudic works. The book claims that the Talmud urges Jews to do a variety of harms to Christians, such as murder and theft, and that each death of a Christian serves as a substitute for the Temple sacrifices, which would then hasten the arrival of the Jewish messiah. The Talmudic prohibitions about consuming blood were circumvented, according to the book, by boiling the blood.[2]
Accuracy and fabrication
The Talmud unmasked, is actually a misleading and inaccurate book, presenting false quotations of the Talmud, intended inter alia making believe that the Jews would not regard the non-Jews as human beings and that it would conceal blasphemous towards Jesus Christ and offensive passages towards the Christians. This work is comparable with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which it precedes by a few years. The book, generally regarded as antisemitic, is a collection of quotes from the Talmud and Zohar which purports to demonstrate that Judaism despises non-Jews and promotes the murder of non-Jews. While most of the quotes are accurate, some are fabricated, and others are taken out of context. Pranaitis could not read Aramaic or Hebrew (the languages of the Talmud), and probably used works by August Rohling and others as his sources.
Structure and themes
Pranaitis organized the book as a compilation of extracts from the Zohar and Talmud that contained material that could be construed as disparaging to Christrians. A portion of the book's outline is:[3]
- Chapter I. Christians are to be Avoided
- Art. 1. Christians Unworthy to Associate with Jews
- Art. 2. Christians are Unclean
- Art. 3. Christians are Idolaters
- Art. 4. Christians are Evil
- Chapter II. Christians are to be Exterminated
- Art. 1. Christians to be Harmed Indirectly
- 1. By not helping them
- 2. By interfering in their work
- 3. By deceit in legal matters
- 4. By harming them in things necessary for life
- Art. 2. Christians to be Harmed Directly
- 1. Renegades to be killed
- 2. Apostates
- 3. Princes especially the Prince of Rome (the Pope) to be exterminated
- 4. All Christians to be killed
- 5. Killing a Christian is an acceptable sacrifice to God
- 6. Heaven promised to those who kill Christians
- 7. A Christian may be beheaded on the most solemn festivals
- 8. The Messiah expected will be revengeful
- 9. Jewish prayers against Christians
- 10. Christian prayers for the Jews
Antisemitism
Scholars classify The Talmud Unmasked as an antisemitic and anti-Talmudic work, comparable to Der Talmud Jude by August Rohling (1871) and The Traditions Of The Jews by Johann Eisenmenger (1711).
This text is widely used for antisemitic purposes on the Internet and it regularly is translated or republished nowadays and put online by various antisemitic websites such as negationnists,[4][5] islamist,[6][7] altermondialists,[8] far right neo-Nazis,[9] fundamentalist catholics.[10][11] Extracts from this book or the whole book are published in pdf on these websites or on other, similar ones.
Zohar and Talmud
The book includes numerous quotes from the Talmud and the Zohar, and Pranaitis presents the Zohar as if it were part of the Talmud, however the Zohar is a thirteenth century Kabbalistic work and is not part of the Talmud.[12] It is also written in a sensibly different and more difficult aramaic than the Talmud and there are no sources supporting that Pranaitis knew it. His ignorance of some simple Talmudic aramaic concepts and definitions, such as "hullin" has been demonstrated during the Menahem Mendel Beilis blood libel case in which he testified as a "Talmud expert".[13][14]
Use by apocalyptic cults
Jeffrey Kaplan describes how the book was used by cults to support apocalyptic theories, particular relating to the end-of-times.[15]
See also
Notes
- ^ Levy, Richard, Antisemitism: a historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p 564
- ^
- Levy, Richard, Antisemitism: a historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p 564:
- "By means of numerous citations in Hebrew and Latin translations, he sought to demonstrate that the Talmud obliged Jews to injure Christians in multifarious ways, and to work for their elimination. Pranaitis drew on the works of the German anti-Talmudists Jakob Ecker and August Rohlong. The book received the imprimatur of the church and was published by the press of the Academy of Sciences. "
- Michael, Robert, Dictionary of antisemitism from the earliest times to the present, Scarecrow Press, 2007, p 369:
- "According to Pranaitis, the Talmud urged Jews to murder Christians, as each death of a Christian serving as a substitute for the Temple sacrifices, would hasten the arrival of the Jewish messiah. The Talmudic and Torah prohibitions about consuming blood were circumvented, according to Pranaitis, by boiling the blood."
- ^ Taken from Pranaitis, Justinis, The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians, from the English translation online
- ^ "aaargh-international.org". aaargh-international.org. http://aaargh-international.org/fran/livres/pranitis.pdf. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ (French) http://www.codeig.net/Pranaitisfr.pdf
- ^ "1000 citations sur les juifs – Que pensent-ils des juifs ? Deux cents citations sur les juifs des grands hommes et femmes de l'Histoire". Radioislam.org. http://radioislam.org/juifs/index.htm. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ "le talmud demasqué". Bladi.net. http://www.bladi.net/forum/79315-talmud-demasque/. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ "Judaïsme : Une conspiration contre juifs et humanité ?". Alterinfo.net. http://www.alterinfo.net/Judaisme-Une-conspiration-contre-juifs-et-humanite_a4570.html. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ "Paroles de paix extraites du Talmud et de la Torah". Der-stuermer.org. http://der-stuermer.org/french/Paroles-Talmud-Torah.htm. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ by Rev. I. B. Pranaitis. "The Talmud Unmasked". Catholicapologetics.info. http://www.catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/judaism/talmud.htm. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Kaplan, pp 119–120, 205.
- ^ Blood Accusation: The Strange History of the Beiliss Case, Samuel, Maurice, Alfred A. Knopf, 1966.
- ^ Scapegoat on Trial: The Story of Mendel Beilis – The Autobiography of Mendel Beilis the Defendant in the Notorious 1912 Blood Libel in Kiev, Beilis, Mendel, Introd. & Ed. By Shari Schwartz, CIS, New York, 1992, ISBN 1-56062-166-4
- ^ Kaplan, Jeffrey, Radical religion in America: millenarian movements from the far right to the children of Noah, Syracuse University Press, 1997, pp 119–120:
- Kaplan quotes Pranaitis, p 83: "VII. Those who Kill Christians Shall Have a High Place in Heaven In Zohar (I, 38b, and 39a) it says: 'In the places of the fourth heaven are those who lamented over Sion and Jerusalem, and all those who destroyed idolatrous nations ... and those who killed off people who worship idols are clothed in purple garments so that they may be recognised and honored" ... VIII. Jews must never cease to Exterminate the Goim; they must never leave them in peace and never submit to them.... In Hilkoth Akum (X, 1) it says: 'Do not eat with idolaters, nor permit them to worship their idols; fo rit is written: Make not covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them (Deut. ch 7), … Either turn them away from their idols or kill them' .... In Zhohar (I,25) it says: 'The People of the Earth are idolaters, and it has been written about them: Let them be wiped off the face of the earth. Destroy the memory of the Amalekites. They are with us still in the Fourth Captivity, namely, the Princes [of Rome] . . . who are really Amalekites."
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