2 See Yedioth Ahronot, 27 April 1992.
3 In Hugh Trevor-Roper, Renaissance
Essays, Fontana Press, London, 1985.
4 See Moses Hadas, Hellenistic Culture,
Fusion and Diffusion, Columbia University Press, New York,
1959, especially chapters VII and XX.
Chapter 2: Prejudice and Prevarication
1 The Jews themselves universally described
themselves as a religious community or, to be precise, a religious
nation. 'Our people is a people only because of the Torah
(Religious Law)'-this saying by one of the highest authorities,
Rabbi Sa'adia Hagga'on who lived in the 10th century, has
become proverbial.
2 By Emperor Joseph II in 1782.
3 All this is usually omitted in vulgar
Jewish historiography, in order to propagate the myth that
the Jews kept their religion by miracle or by some peculiar
mystic force.
4 For example, in her Origins of Totalitarianism,
a considerable part of which is devoted to Jews.
5 Before the end of the 18th century,
German Jews were allowed by their rabbis to write German in
Hebrew letters only, on pain of being excommunicated, flogged,
etc.
6 When by a deal between the Roman Empire
and the Jewish leaders (the dynasty of the Nesi 'im)
all the Jews in the Empire were subjected to the fiscal and
disciplinary authority of these leaders and their rabbinical
courts, who for their part undertook to keep order among the
Jews.
7 I write this, being a non-socialist
myself. But I will honor and respect people with whose principles
I disagree, if they make an honest effort to be true to their
principles. In contrast, there is nothing so despicable as
the dishonest use of universal principles, whether true or
false, for the selfish ends of an individual or, even worse,
of a group.
8 In fact, many aspects of orthodox Judaism
were apparently derived from Sparta, through the baneful political
influence of Plato. On this subject, see the excellent comments
of Moses Hadas, Hellenistic Culture, Fusion and Diffusion,
Columbia University Press, New York, 1959.
9 Including the geography of Palestine
and indeed its very location. This is shown by the orientation
of all synagogues in countries such as Poland and Russia:
Jews are supposed to pray facing Jerusalem, and the European
Jews, who had only a vague idea where Jerusalem was, always
assumed it was due east, whereas for them it was in fact more
nearly due south.
10 Throughout this chapter I use the
term 'classical Judaism' to refer to rabbinical Judaism as
it emerged after about AD 800 and lasted up to the end of
the 18th century. I avoid the term 'normative Judaism', which
many authors use with roughly the same meaning, because in
my view it has unjustified connotations.
11 The works of Hellenistic Jews, such
as Philo of Alexandria, constitute an exception. They were
written before classical Judaism achieved a position of exclusive
hegemony. They were indeed subsequently suppressed among the
Jews and survived only because Christian monks found them
congenial.
12 During the whole period from AD 100
to 1500 there were written two travel books and one history
of talmudic studies - a short, inaccurate and dreary book,
written moreover by a despised philosopher (Abraham ben-David,
Spain, c. 1170).
13 Me'or 'Eynayi'n by 'Azarya de Rossi
of Ferrara, Italy, 1574,
14 The best known cases were in Spain;
for example (to use their adopted Christian names) Master
Alfonso of Valladolid, converted in 1320, and Paul of Santa
Marja, converted in 1390 and appointed bishop of Burgos in
1415. But many other cases can be cited from all over west
Europe.
15 Certainly the tone, and also the consequences,
were very much better than in disputations in which Christians
were accused of heresy - for example those in which Peter
Abelard or the strict Franciscans were condemned.
16 The stalinist and Chinese examples
are sufficiently well known. However, it is worth mentioning
that the persecution of honest historians in Germany began
very early. In 1874, H. Ewald, a professor at Goettingen,
was imprisoned for expressing 'incorrect' views on the conquests
of Frederick II, a hundred years earlier. The situation in
Israel is analogous: the worst attacks against me were provoked
not by the violent terms I employ in my condemnations of Zionism
and the oppression of Palestinians, but by an early article
of mine about the role of Jews in the slave trade, in which
the latest case quoted dated from 1870. That article was published
before the 1967 war; nowadays its publication would be impossible.
17 In the end a few other passages also
had to be removed, such as those which seemed theologically
absurd (for example, where God is said to pray to Himself
or physically to carry out some of the practices enjoined
on the individual Jew) or those which celebrated too freely
the sexual escapades of ancient rabbis.
18 Tractate Berakhot, p. 58b.
19 'Your mother shall be sore confounded;
she that bare you shall be ashamed...', Jeremiah, 50:12.
20 Published by Boys Town, Jerusalem,
and edited by Moses Hyamson, one of the most reputable scholars
of Judaism in Britain.
21 The supposed founders of the Sadducean
sect.
22 I am happy to say that in a recent
new translation (Chicago University Press) the word 'Blacks'
does appear, but the heavy and very expensive volume
is unlikely, as yet, to get into the 'wrong' hands. Similarly,
in early 19th century England, radical books (such as Godwin's)
were allowed to appear, provided they were issued in a very
expensive edition.
23 An additional fact can be mentioned
in this connection. It was perfectly possible, and apparently
respectable, for a Jewish scholar of Islam, Bernard Lewis
(who formerly taught in London and is now teaching in the
USA) to publish an article in Encounter, in which he
points out many passages in Islamic literature which in his
view are anti-Black, but none of which even approaches the
passage quoted above. It would be quite impossible for anyone
now, or in the last thirty years, to discuss in any reputable
American publication the above passage or the many other offensive
anti-Black talmudic passages. But without a criticism of all
sides the attack on Islam alone reduces to mere slander.
Chapter 3: Orthodoxy and Interpretation
1 As in Chapter 2, I use the term 'classical
Judaism' to refer to rabbinical Judaism in the period from
about AD 800 up to the end of the 18th century. This period
broadly coincides with the Jewish Middle Ages, since for most
Jewish communities medieval conditions persisted much longer
than for the west European nations, namely up to the period
of the French Revolution. Thus what I call 'classical Judaism'
can be regarded as medieval Judaism.
2 Exodus, 15:11.
3 Ibid., 20:3-6.
4 Jeremiah, 10; the same theme
is echoed still later by the Second Isaiah, see Isaiah,
44.
5 The cabbala is of course an esoteric
doctrine, and its detailed study was confined to scholars.
In Europe, especially after about 1750, extreme measures were
taken to keep it secret and forbid its study except by mature
scholars and under strict supervision. The uneducated Jewish
masses of eastern Europe had no real knowledge of cabbalistic
doctrine; but the cabbala percolated to them in the form of
superstition and magic practices.
6 Many contemporary Jewish mystics believe
that the same end may be accomplished more quickly by war
against the Arabs, by the expulsion of the Palestinians, or
even by establishing many Jewish settlements on the West Bank.
The growing movement for building the Third Temple is also
based on such ideas.
7 The Hebrew word used here - yihud,
meaning literally union-in-seclusion - is the same one
employed in legal texts (dealing with marriage etc.) to refer
to sexual intercourse.
8 The so-called Qedusbab Sblisbit
(Third Holiness), inserted in the prayer Uva Letzion
towards the end of the morning service.Numbers, 29.
9-10 The power of Satan, and his connection with non-Jews,
is illustrated by a widespread custom, established under cabbalistic
influence in many Jewish communities from the 17th century.
A Jewish woman returning from her monthly ritual bath of purification
(after which sexual intercourse with her husband is mandatory)
must beware of meeting one of the four satanic creatures:
Gentile, pig, dog or donkey. If she does meet any one of them
she must take another bath. The custom was advocated (among
others) by Shn'et Musar, a book on Jewish moral conduct
first published in 1712, which was one of the most popular
books among Jews in both eastern Europe and Islamic countries
until early this century, and is still widely read in some
Orthodox circles.
11 This is prescribed in minute detail.
For example, the ritual hand washing must not be done under
a tap; each hand must be washed singly, in water from a mug
(of prescribed minimal size) held in the other hand. If one's
hands are really dirty, it is quite impossible to clean them
in this way, but such pragmatic considerations are obviously
irrelevant. Classical Judaism prescribes a great number of
such detailed rituals, to which the cabbala attaches deep
significance. There are, for example, many precise rules concerning
behavior in a lavatory. A Jew relieving nature in an open
space must not do so in a North-South direction, because North
is associated with Satan.
12 'Interpretation' is my own expression.
The classical (and present-day Orthodox) view is that the
talmudic meaning, even where it is contrary to the literal
sense, was always the operational one.
13 According to an apocryphal story,
a famous 19th century Jewish heretic observed in this connection
that the verse Thou shalt not commit adultery' is repeated
only twice. 'Presumably one is therefore forbidden to eat
adultery or to cook it, but enjoying it is all right.'
14 The Hebrew re'akha is rendered
by the King James Version (and most other English translations)
somewhat imprecisely as 'thy neighbor'. See however II
Samuel, 16:17, where exactly the same word is rendered
by the King James Version more correctly as 'thy friend'.
15 The Mishnah is remarkably free of
all this, and in particular the belief in demons and witchcraft
is relatively rare in it. The Babylonian Talmud, on the other
hand, is full of gross superstitions.
16 Or, to be precise, in many parts of
Palestine. Apparently the areas to which the law applies are
those where there was Jewish demographic predominance around
AD 150-200.
17 Therefore non-zionist Orthodox Jews
in Israel organize special shops during sabbatical years,
which sell fruits and vegetables grown by Arabs on Arab land.
18 In the winter of 1945-6,1 myself,
then a boy under 13, participated in such proceedings. The
man in charge of agricultural work in the religious agricultural
school I was men attending was a particularly pious Jew and
thought it would be safe if the crucial act, that of removing
the board, should be performed by an orphan under 13 years
old, incapable of being, or making anyone else, guilty of
a sin. (A boy under that age cannot be guilty of a sin; his
father, if he has one, is considered responsible.) Everything
was carefully explained to me beforehand, including the duty
to say, 'I need this board,' when in fact it was not needed.
19 For example, the Talmud forbids a
Jew to enjoy the light of a candle lit by a Gentile on the
sabbath, unless the latter had lit it for his own use before
the Jew entered the room.
20 One of my uncles in pre-1939 Warsaw
used a subtler method. He employed a non-Jewish maid called
Marysia and it was his custom upon waking from his Saturday
siesta to say, first quietly, 'How nice it would be if' -
and then, raising his voice to a shout, '... Marysia would
bring us a cup of tea!' He was held to be a very pious and
God fearing man and would never dream of drinking a drop of
milk for a full six hours after eating meat. In his kitchen
he had two sinks, one for washing up dishes used for eating
meat, the other for milk dishes.
21 Occasionally regrettable mistakes
occur, because some of these jobs are quite cushy, allowing
the employee six days off each week. The town of Bney Braq
(near Tel-Aviv), inhabited almost exclusively by Orthodox
Jews, was shaken in the 1960s by a horrible scandal. Upon
the death of the 'sabbath Goy' they had employed for over
twenty years to watch over their water supplies on Saturdays,
it was discovered that he was not really a Christian but a
Jew! So when his successor, a Druse, was hired, the town demanded
and obtained from the government a document certifying that
the new employee is a Gentile of pure Gentile descent. It
is reliably rumored that the secret police was asked to research
this matter.
22 In contrast, elementary Scripture
teaching can be done for payment. This was always considered
a low-status job and was badly paid.
23 Another 'extremely important' ritual
is the blowing of a ram's horn on Rosh Hashanah, whose purpose
is to confuse Satan.
Chapter 4: The Weight of History
1 See, for example, Jeremiah, 44,
especially verses 15-19. For an excellent treatment of certain
aspects of this subject see Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess,
Ktav, USA, 1967.
2 Ezra, 7:25-26. The last two
chapters of this book are mainly concerned with Ezra's efforts
to segregate the 'pure' Jews ('the holy seed') away from 'the
people of the land' (who were themselves at least partly of
Jewish descent) and break up mixed marriages.
3 W.F. Albright, Recent Discoveries
in Bible lands, Funk & Wagnall, New York, 1955, p.103.
4 It is significant that, together with
this literary corpus, all the historical books written
by Jews after about 400 BC were also rejected. Until the 19th
century, Jews were quite ignorant of the story of Massadah
and of figures such as Judas Maccabaeus, now regarded by many
(particularly by Christians) as belonging to the 'very essence'
of Judaism.
5 Acts, 18:15.
6 Ibid., 25.
7 See note 6 to Chapter 2.
8 Concerning the term 'classical Judaism'
see note 10 to Chapter 2 and note 1 to Chapter 3.
9 Nobel Prize winners Agnon and Bashevis
Singer are examples of this, but many others can be given,
particularly Bialik, the national Hebrew poet. In his famous
poem My Father he describes his saintly father selling
vodka to the drunkard peasants who are depicted as animals.
This very popular poem, taught in all Israeli schools, is
one of the vehicles through which the anti-peasant attitude
is reproduced.
10 So far as the central power of the
Jewish Patriarchate was concerned, the deal was terminated
by Theodosius II in a series of laws, culminating in AD 429;
but many of the local arrangements remained in force.
11 Perhaps another characteristic example
is the Parthian empire (until AD 225) but not enough is known
about it. We know, however, that the establishment of the
national Iranian Sasanid empire brought about an immediate
decline of the Jews' position.
12 This ban extends also to marrying
a woman converted to Judaism, because all Gentile women are
presumed by the Halakhah to be prostitutes.
13 A prohibited marriage is not generally
void, and requires a divorce. Divorce is nominally a voluntary
act on the part of the husband, but under certain circumstances
a rabbinical court can coerce him to 'will' it (kofin oto
'ad she yyomar rotzeh ani).
14 Although Jewish achievements during
the Golden Age in Muslim Spain (1002-1147) were more brilliant,
they were not lasting. For example, most of the magnificent
Hebrew poetry of that age was subsequently forgotten by Jews,
and only recovered by them in the 19th or 20th century.
15 During that war, Henry of Trastamara
used anti-Jewish propaganda. although his own mother, Leonor
de Guzman, a high Castilian noblewoman, was partly of Jewish
descent. (Only in Spain did the highest nobility intermarry
with Jews.) After his victory he too employed Jews in the
highest financial positions.
16 Until the 18th century the position
of serfs in Poland was generally supposed to be even worse
than in Russia. In that century, certain features of Russian
serfdom, such as public sales of serfs, got worse than in
Poland but the central Tsarist government always retained
certain powers over the enslaved peasants, for example the
right to recruit them to the national army.
17 During the preceding period persecutions
of Jews were rare. This is true of the Roman Empire even after
serious Jewish rebellions. Gibbon is correct in praising the
liberality of Antonius Pius (and Marcus Aurelius) to Jews,
so soon after the major Bar-Kokhba rebellion of AD 132-5.
18 This fact, easily ascertainable by
examination of the details of each persecution, is not rein~remarked
upon by most general historians in recent times. An honorable
exception is Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Rise of Christian Europe,
Thames and Hudson, London, 1965, pp.173-4. Trevor-Roper
is also one of the very few modern historians who mention
the predominant Jewish role in the early medieval slave trade
between Christian (and pagan) Europe and the Muslim world
(ibid., pp.92-3). In order to promote this abomination, which
I have no space to discuss here, Maimonides allowed Jews,
in the name of the Jewish religion, to abduct Gentile children
into slavery; and his opinion was no doubt acted upon or reflected
contemporary practice.
19 Examples can be found in any history
of the crusades. See especially S. Runciman, A History
of the Crusades, vol I, book 3, chap 1, 'The German Crusade'.
The subsequent defeat of this host by the Hungarian army,
'to most Christians appeared as a just punishment meted out
of high to the murderers of the Jews.'
20 John Stoyc, Europe Unfolding 1
648~8, Fontana, London, p.46.
21 This latter feature is of course not
mentioned by received Jewish historiography. The usual punishment
for a rebellious, or even 'impudent' peasant was impalement.
22 The same can be observed in different
regions of a given country. For example, in Germany, agrarian
Bavaria was much more antisemitic than the industrialized
areas.
23 'The refusal of the Church to admit
that once a Jew always a Jew, was another cause of pain for
an ostentatious Catholic like Drumont. One of his chief lieutenants,
Jules Guérin, has recounted the disgust he felt when the famous
Jesuit, Père du Lac, remonstrated with him for attacking some
converted Jews named Dreyfus.' D.W. Brogan, The Development
of Modern France, vol 1, Harper Torchbooks, New York,
1966, p.227.
24 Ibid..
25 Let me illustrate the irrational,
demonic character which racism can sometimes acquire with
three examples chosen at random. A major part of the extermination
of Europe's Jews was carried out in 1942 and early 1943 during
the Nazi offensive in Russia, which culminated in their defeat
at Stalingrad. During the eight months between June 1942 and
February 1943 the Nazis probably used more railway wagons
to haul Jews to the gas chambers than to carry much needed
supplies to the army. Before being taken to their death, most
of these Jews, at least in Poland, had been very effectively
employed in production of equipment for the German army. The
second, rather remote, example comes from a description of
the Sicilian Vespers in 1282: 'Every Frenchman they met was
struck down. They poured into the inns frequented by the French
and the houses where they dwelt, sparing neither man nor woman
nor child ... The riots?s broke into the Dominican and Franciscan
convents, and all the foreign friars were dragged out and
told to pronounce the word ciciri, whose sound the
French tongue could never accurately reproduce. Anyone who
failed in the test was slain.' (S. Runciman, The Sicilian
Vespers, Cambridge University Press,1958, p. 215.) The
third example is recent: in the summer of 1980 - following
an assassination attempt by Jewish terrorists in which Mayor
Bassam Shak'a of Nablus lost both his legs and Mayor Karim
Khalaf of Ramallah lost a foot - a group of Jewish Nazis gathered
in the campus of TeI-Aviv University, roasted a few cats and
offered their meat to passers-by as 'shish-kebab from the
legs of the Arab mayors'. Anyone who witnessed this macabre
orgy - as I did - would have to admit that some horrors defy
explanation in the present state of knowledge.
26 One of the early quirks of Jabotinsky
(founder of the party then led by Begin) was to propose, in
about 1912, the creation of two Jewish states, one
in Palestine and the other in Angola: the former, being poor
in natural resources, would be subsidized by the riches of
the latter.
27 Herzl went to Russia to meet von Plehve
in August 1903, less than four months after the hideous Kishinev
pogrom, for which the latter was known to be responsible.
Herzl pro- posed an alliance, based on their common wish to
get most of the Jews out of Russia and, in the shorter term,
to divert Jewish support away from the socialist movement.
The Tsarist minister started the first interview (8 August)
by observing that he regarded himself as 'an ardent supporter
of zionism'. When Herzl went on to describe the aims of zionism,
von Plehve interrupted: 'You are preaching to the converted'.
Amos Elon, Herzel, 'Am 'Oved, 1976 pp.415-9,
in Hebrew.
28 Dr Joachim Prinz, Wirjuden, Berlin,
1934, pp. 150-1.
29 Ibid., pp. 154-5.
30 For example see ibid., p. 136. Even
worse expressions of sympathy with Nazism were voices by the
extremist Lohamey Herut Yisra'el (Stern Gang) as late
as 1941. Dr Prinz was, in zionist terms, a 'dove'. In the
1970s he even patronized the US Jewish movement Breira,
until he was dissuaded by Golda Meir.
Chapter 5: The Laws Against Non-Jews
1 Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, 'Laws
on Murderers' 2, 11; Talmudic Encyclopedia, 'Goy'.
2 R. Yo'el Sirkis, Bayit Hadash, commentary
on Beyt Josef, yoreh De'ah' 158. The two rules just
mentioned apply even if the Gentile victim is ger toshav,
that is a 'resident alien' who has undertaken in front
of three Jewish witnesses to keep the 'seven Noahide precepts'
(seven biblical laws considered by the Talmud to be addressed
to Gentiles).
3 R. David Halevi (Poland, 17th century),
Turey Zahav" on Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Yoreh De'ah'
158.
5 Talmudic Encyclopedia, 'Ger'
(= convert to Judaism).
6 For example, R. Shabbtay Kohen (mid
17th century), Siftey Kohen on Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Yoreh
De'ah, 158: 'But in times of war it was the custom to kill
them with one's own hands, for it is said, "The best of Gentiles
- kill him!"' Siftey Kohen and Turey Zahay (see
note 3) are the two major classical commentaries on the Shulhan
'Arukh.
7 Colonel Rabbi A. Avidan (Zemel), 'Tohar
hannesheq le'or hahalakhah' (= 'Purity of weapons in the light
of the Halakhah') in Be'iqvot milhemet yom hakkippurim
- pirqey hagut, halakhah umehqar (In the Wake of the Yom Kippur
War - Chapters of Meditation, Halakhah and Research), Central
Region Command, 1973: quoted in Ha'olam Hazzeh, 5 January
1974; also quoted by David Shaham, 'A chapter of meditation',
Hotam, 28 March 1974; and by Amnon Rubinstein, 'Who
falsifies the Halakhah?' Ma'ariv", 13 October 1975.
Rubinstein reports that the booklet was subsequently withdrawn
from circulation by order of the Chief of General Staff, presumably
because it encouraged soldiers to disobey his own orders;
but he complains that Rabbi Avidan has not been court-martialled,
nor has any rabbi - military or civil - taken exception to
what he had written.
8 R. Shim'on Weiser, 'Purity of weapons
- an exchange of letters' in Niv" Hammidrashiyyah Yearbook
of Midrashiyyat No'am, 1974, pp.29-31. The yearbook is
in Hebrew, English and French, but the material quoted here
is printed in Hebrew only.
9 Psalms, 42:2.
10 'Thou shalt blot out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven', Deuteronomy, 25:19. Cf.
also I Samuel, 15:3: 'Now go and smite Amalek, and
utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but
slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep,
camel and ass.'
11 We spare the reader most of these
rather convoluted references and quotes from talmudic and
rabbinical sources. Such omissions are marked [...]. The rabbi's
own conclusions are reproduced in full.
12 The Tosafot (literally, Addenda)
are a body of scholia to the Talmud, dating from the 1 lth-13th
centuries.
13 Persons guilty of such crimes are
even allowed to rise to high public positions. An illustration
of this is the case of Shmu'el Lahis, who was responsible
for the massacre of between 50 and 75 Arab peasants imprisoned
in a mosque after their village had been conquered by the
Israeli army during the 1948-9 war. Following a pro forma
trial, he was granted complete amnesty, thanks to Ben-Gurion's
intercession. The man went on to become a respected lawyer
and in the late 1970s was appointed Director General of the
Jewish Agency (which is, in effect, the executive of the zionist
movement). In early 1978 the facts concerning his past were
widely discussed in the Israeli press, but no rabbi or rabbinical
scholar questioned either the amnesty or his fitness for his
new office. His appointment was not revoked.
14 Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Hoshen Mishpat'
426.
15 Tractate 'Avodah Zarah, p.
26b.
16 Maimonides, op. cit., 'Murderer' 4,
11.
17 Leviticus, 19:16. Concerning
the rendering 'thy fellow', see note 14 to Chapter 3.
18 Maimonides, op. cit., 'Idolatry' 10,
1-2.
19 In both cases in section 'Yoreh De'ah'
158. The Shulhan 'Arukh repeats the same doctrine in
'Hoshen Mishpat' 425.
20 Moses Rivkes, Be'er Haggolah on
Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Hoshen Mishpat' 425.
21 Thus Professor Jacob Katz, in his
Hebrew book Between Jews and Gentiles as well as in
its more apologetic English version Exclusiveness and Tolerance,
quotes only this passage verbatim and draws the amazing
conclusion that 'regarding the obligation to save life no
discrimination should be made between Jew and Christian'.
He does not quote any of the authoritative views I have cited
above or in the next section.
22 Maimonides, op. cit., 'Sabbath' 2,
20-21; Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Orab Hayyim' 329.
23 R 'Aqiva Eiger, commentary on Shulhan
'Arukh, ibid. He also adds that if a baby is found abandoned
in a town inhabited mainly by Gentiles, a rabbi should be
consulted as to whether the baby should be saved.
24 Tractate Avodah Zarah, p. 26.
25 Maimonides, op. cit., 'Sabbath' 2,
12; Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Orah Hayyim' 330. The latter text
says 'heathen' rather than 'Gentile' but some of the commentators,
such as Turey Zahav, stress that this ruling applies
'even to Ishmaelites', that is, to Muslims, 'who are not idolators'.
Christians are not mentioned explicitly in this connection,
but the ruling must a fortiori apply to them, since
- as we shall see below - Islam is regarded in a more favorable
light than Christianity. See also the responsa of Hatam
Sofer quoted below.
26 These two examples, from Poland and
France, are reported by Rabbi I.Z. Cahana (afterwards professor
of Talmud in the religious Bar-Ilan University, Israel), 'Medicine
in the Halachic post-Talmudic Literature', Sinai, vol
27, 1950, p.221. He also reports the following case from 19th
century Italy. Until 1848, a special law in the Papal States
banned Jewish doctors from treating Gentiles. The Roman Republic
established in 1848 abolished this law along with all other
discriminatory law against Jews. But in 1849 an expeditionary
force sent by France's President Louis Napoleon (afterwards
Emperor Napoleon III) defeated the Republic and restored Pope
Pius Ix, who in 1850 revived the anti-Jewish laws. The commanders
of the French garrison, disgusted with this extreme reaction,
ignored the papal law and hired some Jewish doctors to treat
their soldiers. The Chief Rabbi of Rome, Moshe Hazan, who
was himself a doctor, was asked whether a pupil of his, also
a doctor, could take a job in a French military hospital despite
the risk of having to desecrate the sabbath. The rabbi replied
that if the conditions of employment expressly mention work
on the sabbath, he should refuse. But if they do not, he could
take the job and employ 'the great cleverness of God-fearing
Jews.' For example, he could repeat on Saturday the prescription
given on Friday, by simply telling this to the dispenser.
R. Cahana's rather frank article, which contains many other
examples, is mentioned in the bibliography of a book by the
former Chief Rabbi of Britain, R. Immanuel Jakobovits, Jewish
Medical Ethics, Bloch, New York, 1962; but in the book itself
nothing is said on this matter.
27 Hokhmat Shlomoh on Shulhan
'Arukh, 'Orah Hayyim' 330, 2.
28 R. Unterman, Ha'aretz, 4 April
1966. The only qualification he makes - after having been
subjected to continual pressure - is that in our times any
refusal to give medical assistance to a Gentile could cause
such hostility as might endanger Jewish lives.
29 Hatam Sofer, Responsa on Shulhan
'Arukh, 'Yoreh De'ah' 131.
30 Op. cit., on Shulhan 'Arukh,
'Hoshen Mishpat' 194. 31 R. B. Knobelovitz in The Jewish Review
(Journal of the Mizrachi Party in Great Britain), 8 June 1966.
32 R. Yisra'el Me'ir Kagan - better known
as the 'Hafetz Hayyim - complains in his Mishnah Berurah,
written in Poland in 1907: 'And know ye that most doctors,
even the most religious, do not take any heed whatsoever of
this law; for they work on the sabbath and do travel several
parasangs to treat a heathen, and they grind medicaments with
their own hands. And there is no authority for them to do
so. For although we may find it permissible, because of the
fear of hostility, to violate bans imposed by the sages -
and even this is not clear; yet in bans imposed by the Torah
itself it must certainly be forbidden for any Jew to do so,
and those who transgress this prohibition violate the sabbath
utterly and may God have mercy on them for their sacrilege.'
(Commentary on Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Orah Hayyim' 330.)
The author is generally regarded as the greatest rabbinical
authority of his time.
33 Avraham Steinberg MD (ed.), Jewish
Medical Law, compiled from Tzitz Eli 'ezer (Responsa of
R. Eli'ezer Yehuda Waldenberg), translated by David B. Simons
MD, Gefen & Mossad Harav Kook, Jerusalem and California,
1980.
34 Op. cit., p. 39. Ibid., p.41.
35 Ibid., p. 41.
36 The phrase 'between Jew and gentile'
is a euphemism. The dispensation is designed to prevent hostility
of Gentiles towards Jews, not the other way around.
37 Ibid.,p.412;my emphasis.
38 Dr Falk Schlesinger Institute for
Medical Halakhic Research at Sha'arey Tzedeq Hospital, Sefer
Asya (The Physician's Book), Reuben Mass, Jerusalem, 1979.
39 By myself in Ha'olam Hazzeh, 30
May 1979 and by Shullamit Aloni, Member of Knesset, in Ha'aretz,
17 June 1980.
40 Ezekiel, 23:20.
41 Tractate Berakhot, p. 78a.
42 Talmudic Encyclopedia, 'Eshet
Ish' ('Married Woman').
43 Exodus, 20:17.
44 Genesis, 2:24.
45 Maimonides, op. cit., 'Prohibitions
on Sexual Intercourse' 12; 10; Talmudic Encyclopedia, 'Goy'.
46 Maimonides, op. cit., ibid., 12, 1-3.
As a matter of fact, every Gentile woman is regarded
as N.Sh.G.Z. - acronym for the Hebrew words niddah,
shifhah, goyah, zonah (unpurified from menses, slave,
Gentile, prostitute). Upon conversion to Judaism, she ceases
indeed to be niddah, shifhah, goyah but is still considered
zonah (prostitute) for the rest of her life, simply
by virtue of having been born of a Gentile mother. In a special
category is a woman 'conceived not in holiness but born in
holiness', that is born to a mother who had converted to Judaism
while pregnant. In order to make quite sure that there are
no mix-ups, the rabbis insist that a married couple who convert
to Judaism together must abstain from marital relations for
three months.
47 Characteristically, an exception to
this generalization is made with respect to Gentiles holding
legal office relating to financial transactions: notaries,
debt collectors, bailiff~ and the like. No similar exception
is made regarding ordinary decent Gentiles, not even if they
are friendly towards Jews.
48 Some very early (1st century BC) rabbis
called this law 'barbaric' and actually returned lost property
belonging to Gentiles. But the law nevertheless remained.
49 Leviticus, 25:14. This is a
literal translation of the Hebrew phrase. The King James Version
renders this as 'ye shall not oppress one another'; 'oppress'
is imprecise but 'one another' is a correct rendering of the
biblical idiom 'each man his brother'. As pointed out in Chapter
3, the Halakhah interprets all such idioms as referring exclusively
to one's fellow Jew.
50 Shulhan 'Arukh, 'Hoshen Mishpat'
227.
51 This view is advocated by H. Bar-Droma,
Wezeh Gvul Ha'aretz (And This Is the Border of the Land),
Jerusalem, 1958. In recent years this book is much used
by the Israeli army in indoctrinating its officers.
52 Maimonides, op. cit., 'Idolatry' 10,
3-4.
53 See note 2.
54 Exodus, 23:33.
55 Maimonides, op. cit., 'Idolatry' 10,
6.
56 Deuteronomy, 20:16. See also
the verses quoted in note 10.
57 Numbers 31:13-20; note in particular
verse 17: 'Now there- fore kill every male among the
little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying
with him.'
58 R. Sha'ul Yisra'eli, 'Taqrit Qibbiya
Le'or Hahalakhah' (The Qibbiya incident in the light of the
Halakhah'), in Hattorab Wehammedinah, vol 5, 1953/4.
59 This is followed by a blessing 'for
not making me a slave'. Next, a male must add a blessing 'for
not making me a woman', and a female 'for making me as He
pleased'.
60 In eastern Europe it was until recent
times a universal custom among Jews to spit on the floor at
this point, as an expression of scorn. This was not however
a strict obligation, and today the custom is kept only by
the most pious.
61 The Hebrew word is meshummadim,
which in rabbinical usage refers to Jews who become 'idolators',
that is either pagan or Christians, but not to Jewish converts
to Islam.
62 The Hebrew word is minim, whose
precise meaning is 'disbelievers in the uniqueness of God'.
63 Tractate Berakhot, p. 58b.
64 According to many rabbinical authorities
the original rule still applies in full in the Land of Israel.
65 This custom gave rise to many incidents
in the history of European Jewry. One of the most famous,
whose consequence is still visible today, occurred in 14th
century Prague. King Charles IV of Bohemia (who was also Holy
Roman Emperor) had a magnificent crucifix erected in the middle
of a stone bridge which he had built and which still exists
today. It was then reported to him that the Jews of Prague
are in the habit of spitting whenever they pass next to the
crucifix. Being a famous protector of the Jews, he did not
institute persecution against them, but simply sentenced the
Jewish community to pay for the Hebrew word Adonay (Lord)
to be inscribed on the crucifix in golden letters. This word
is one of the seven holiest names of God, and no mark of disrespect
is allowed in front of it. The spitting ceased. Other incidents
connected with the same custom were much less amusing.
66 The verses most commonly used for
this purpose contain words derived from the Hebrew root shaqetz
which means 'abominate, detest', as in Deuteronomy,
7:26: 'thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly
abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.' It seems that the insulting
term sheqetz, used to refer to all Gentiles (Chapter
2), originated from this custom.
67 Talmud, Tractate Beytzah,
p. 21a, b; Mishnah Berurah on Shulhan 'Arukh,
'Orah Hayyim' 512. Another commentary (Magen Avraham)
also excludes Karaites.
68 According to the Halakha, a Gentile
slave bought by a Jew should be converted to Judaism, but
does not thereby become a proper Jew.
69 Leviticus, 25:46.
70 The Hebrew form of the name Jesus
- Yeshu - was interpreted as an acronym for the curse
may his name and memory be wiped out', which is used as an
extreme form of abuse. In fact, anti-zionist Orthodox Jews
(such as Neturey Qarta) sometimes refer to Herzl as 'Herzl
Jesus' and I have found in religious zionist writings expressions
such as 'Nasser Jesus' and more recently 'Arafat Jesus.'
