Everymans Talmud

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Many of the stories from the Talmud shed light, for me, on some of Jesus' parables and on some early Christian traditions. Not to mention improving my understanding of Judaism. Sep 01, Jan Peczkis rated it really liked it. Addresses Talmudic Racism and Universalism. Torah Umbrella Exculpation There is a wealth of information in this detailed work by Talmudic scholar Abraham Cohen, and I focus on a few items of lasting interest. My review is based on the original edition. I have read the verses, in the online Babylonian Talmud Soncino Edition , that I specifically cite below, in order to familiarize myself with them and to see their proper context.

However, not all of the material Addresses Talmudic Racism and Universalism. However, not all of the material mentioned below comes from the Talmud itself. Some comes from other Rabbinical sources. Whenever possible, I have read them also. This criminal act could only be rectified was the prompt and unequivocal restoration of the Polish nation.

According to them, one should not obey the murderer that orders you to kill somebody or else he will kill you , because who knows whose blood is redder? However, he does mention a passage in Numbers Rabbah xiv, The word "Ishmaelites" is identified by Cohen as an obvious code word for Christians, done in order to circumvent the censor. In doing so, I try my best to avoid the extremes of anti-Semitism making false or unsubstantiated accusations against Jews and philo-Semitism treating Jews as incapable of wrong thinking or action.

The Talmud contains both universal and exclusivist concepts, and one does not negate the other. Author Abraham Cohen emphasizes the universal aspects of traditional Judaism. However, he realizes that even the universalism taught in the Talmud was not a given. He comments, quote On the question whether Gentiles will share in the Hereafter there was not an agreed opinion. Joshua disagreed, promoting a universalist view of salvation based on ethical living, and not on whether or not one was Jewish.

This was later picked up by Maimonides, and became the official Jewish doctrine on this matter. He attributes the verses to R. Jochai, and exonerates the statements based on Jochai's life under the Hadrianic persecutions. Jochai is said to have seen his favorite teacher, R. Akiba, fiendishly tortured by the Romans, after which Jochai hid in a cave for 13 years. Clearly, Cohen is attributing the verses to rabbinic personal opinions and to onetime situational events. In this case, his argument is persuasive.

However, he does not explain if these verses have any usage in Jewish life beyond the recollection of onetime historical events. The informed reader realizes that the early Christians were also subject to hideous tortures, and martyrdom, by the Romans.

Yet there are no New Testament verses calling upon Christians to kill the best of the Romans or to kill the best of the non-Christians. The Rabbis were revolted by the low standards of conduct that they saw practiced around them and were thankful for the finer ideals which their religion offered them. In any case, his exculpation, even if valid, is hollow.

Surely the Rabbis, educated as they were and likely more familiar with various gentiles than the more parochial everyday Jews, knew that not all pagans live in debauchery. Finally, the authors of the Talmud certainly knew, or should have known, that Jews are capable of rivalling, and even exceeding, the debauchery of the heathen e. Let us make this clearer. Imagine a white commentator, deliberately overlooking the good people who are African-Americans, and feeling revolted by what he considered the low standards of conduct exhibited by other African-Americans, making the blanket generalization, and racist statement, that "African-Americans are addicted to licentiousness.

Cohen justifies these passages through the Israel-Torah relationship, which is elaborated in the ensuing paragraphs. The issues revolve around the implications of Jewish Chosenness, which are not, as often claimed, limited to Jews having extra duties to God. Cohen writes, quote The main responsibility of Israel is the guardianship of the Torah, the Divine Revelation. Since the purpose of the world's creation was the glorification of God's name through the medium of the Torah, and Israel was to be its recipient, it follows that "Israel was in the thought of God before the creation of the Universe" Gen.

No self-glorification is here meant, since the sayings refer only to Israel as the guardian of the Torah and therefore state a spiritual fact. In addition, the verses confuse the issue. To believe that God wants to favor a particular people, in some general way, as the Chosen People, is one thing.

To believe that this presumed Chosenness goes as far as God creating the world, through the fact of, or the merit of, the Chosen People, is quite another! The latter does not logically follow from the former. It smacks of racist presumption. To believe that there exists a special Torah-Israel relationship is one thing.

To believe that the very existence of heaven and earth is dependent upon the existence of Israel is quite another! It, too, smacks of racist presumption. Instead, it is evident that Jewish supremacist thinking is riding piggyback on the inferred Torah-Israel relationship. Imagine the white supremacist seriously suggesting that the existence of the Universe, including that of Earth, was dependent upon the existence of white people. Framing it in religious terms would not change its racist essence.

Clearly, the Torah-Israel relationship is, or can become, an all-purpose standby explanation or exculpation that can be invoked to justify practically any Jewish supremacist assertion in the Talmud or other rabbinical literature. Author Abraham Cohen cites a series of passages that he contends are universalistic with regards to Jews and non-Jews. He then comments, quote On the other hand, it must be admitted that we do occasionally meet with dicta which breathe a very different spirit.

In all probability such declarations as these were called forth by the rise of the Christian Church whose members also studied the Scriptures and claimed that the Divine Grace rested upon them. The tone of Cohen's statement is clearly speculative and exculpatory.

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In addition, it is a non sequitur. Surely, the justified killing of a Torah-studying gentile does not follow from a concern about what Christians believe. It would make sense to execute a GOY for trying to destroy a Torah scroll, or, given the spirit of the times, even for showing disrespect to the Torah.

But for studying it? It has also been argued that the "deserving of death" verses are nonliteral, and only mean "deserving a severe condemnation". This explanation differs from Cohen's, and the disparity itself illustrates the ad hoc character of Talmudic exculpations.

In addition, the "non-literalness" argument is a facile one. If the objectionable verses in the Talmud are nonliteral, then why cannot the esteemed verses also be nonliteral? Finally, even if "deserving of death" only means "deserving a severe condemnation", for a gentile studying the Torah, it is obviously softer. However, the essential Jewish supremacist thinking and antigoyism, communicated by the verse, remain intact.

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Editorial Reviews

The Earth is several thousand years old. The sins of the fathers may or may not be visited on descendants depending upon whether or not the sinful behavior persists over a number of generations.

Everyman's Talmud

This resolves an apparent contradiction in the Bible. Women are prone to witchcraft. As in the Old Testament, polygamy is tolerated in the Talmud. For instance, it would be impossible for a blind person, who put out someone else's eye, to be literally punished with the loss of the sight of his own eye.

As much as possible, animals are to be treated with compassion. On the other hand, the School of Hillel allows divorce for even the most trivial of reasons, such as when the man no longer finds his wife attractive, or if she has spoiled his meal while cooking it. One was political, and the other religious. The author cites Talmudic, and other Rabbinical, passages on shopkeeping and usury being "thieving occupations". Oct 19, Takethat rated it it was amazing.

This is the most important book one can read on the apochrypha, the secrets, the redactions of the Hebrew Bible which impacts the credibility of Christianity. Here you can read hundreds of redacted Old Testament passages, removed from the written Torah by Rabbi Judah HaNazi in the 2nd century. Nazi means prince in Hebrew and the term is derived from his name because he was 'the prince' and the 'great redactor' of the Pentateuch. Removed, redacted passages reveal the censorship in-play to keep Ju This is the most important book one can read on the apochrypha, the secrets, the redactions of the Hebrew Bible which impacts the credibility of Christianity.

Removed, redacted passages reveal the censorship in-play to keep Judaism safe from the gentile world. Many describe the redactions as material for on the cutting room floor but this is not the case. As Deuteronomy says, one can not remove one word, nor add one word, to the Five Books of Moses.

This is why the oral tradition is still in force along with the written Torah, thus the Hebrew Bible does not end with just the Five written Books. So, use your imagination, if there are Five written Books there might be five oral books not written down that affect everyone's lives whether they are Hebrew or Christian or Muslim. I would bet there are 10 books of law in total.

Just an educated guess. Jul 11, Tia rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Jews who are too lazy to read the whole Talmud, over and over again. This book is kind of boring, but it does serve as a brief introduction to the Talmud.

It basically addresses questions like "what is a good life," "what is the difference between men and women," "does Judaism believe in an afterlife," and "what is God," from a Talmudic perspective. This book isn't actually the Talmud--instead, for each question, the book has selected some relevant quotation by Rabbi Yossi Ben Bladiba, etc. The book is therefore quite dry, and al This book is kind of boring, but it does serve as a brief introduction to the Talmud.

The book is therefore quite dry, and also not really "well-written" per se, but it does offer a quick and dirty run down of Talmud. Aug 18, Jake Berlin rated it it was ok Shelves: This is a classic for anyone to learn about Jewish thought and the development of the categories of Jewish law. What Maimonides did with his codification, Cohen does in our days with this simplification. Jul 14, Katie Anne rated it really liked it. A dense but interesting book. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

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Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. Mishnah and the Words of Jesus. A Selection Penguin Classics. The Complete Works 31 Books. A Visual Introduction For Beginners. Also like the Bible, the Quran, and the Bhagavad Gita, the Talmud is a powerful source of allusion in large part even though so few people have really read it. People don't read the Talmud because they think it's inaccessible--the sprawling collection of rabbinic writings is added to in each generation, and its significance is nothing less than the summary of Judaism.

The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages --a monumental work of scholarly summary that describes all the basic doctrines of Judaism. Everyman's Talmud includes concise chapters on everything from sin to superstitions to a Jew's duty to animals. You probably won't be able to read it straight through--doctrine, even elegantly distilled, is hard to take in big doses--but you'll be led back to it again and again, by questions that arise in daily life, at dinner parties, and from the pages of the daily newspaper.

But people want to know about a book that, they are told, defines Judaism. In time to come, Cohen's book will find its companion-though I do not anticipate it will ever require a successor for what it accomplishes with elegance and intelligence: See all Editorial Reviews. Product details File Size: November 21, Language: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 97 reviews.

Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. What I can I say? It's the Talmud separated into chapters with a reasonably good index. It's hard to rate this book: If this review is for the Talmud itself, the Talmud is a legendary and epic revelation of theology. I'm a Christian and have learned an enormous amount from these writings.

For those unfamiliar, the Talmud contains commentary on scripture with references , traditional stories, and famous quotes of rabbinic scholars. It was compiled around AD, with a rich historical background. If this review is for this particular edit of the Talmud, it's a great copy. The whole Talmud is about 6, pages long, so obviously this book does not contain the whole thing.

This book reduces the Talmud to the essential writings for the character of God and man's relationship to God. For those unfamiliar with the Talmud, this copy is an excellent starting point. Not the actual Talmud but much in relation to or partner of. I highly recommend it. A great study source you cannot go without. This is a "Big Book". By that I mean that you read a passage once and you think you understand it. However, when you go back to that same passage some time later, you start to find deeper meaning in it.

It does seem to fill in the "holes" that might exist in the Tanakh, if there are any.

It is the pepper to the Tanakh's salt, the chocolate to its vanilla, the Frick to its Frack. They go together like hand in glove. Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase.

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When Nero killed off the very early Jewish church leadership we also lost the early Talmud. We lost critical thinking. We lost some of the understanding of what the Apostles spoke. When one speaks of the children of the book that book is as much the Talmud as the Old Testament. Suggest getting Talmud for Idiots first if this is your first venture.

If you want a lucid, thoughtful, and well-organized approach to the Talmud, this is the book for you.

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