Come and Hear

The Roadmap

Let the Rabbis tell us about the Talmud. Why is this fundamental book of Judaism unknown to most Americans?

What is the Talmud? — Quoting Rabbi Michael L. Rodkinson, "The Talmud … is the written form of that which, in the time of Jesus, was called the Traditions of the Elders, and to which he makes frequent allusions."
Structure of the Talmud Files — How these Talmud files work.
Critical Words of Talmud Study — The Talmud's internal logic and vocabulary, explained by the rabbis. Why was the Talmud inaccessible to Western Man for so long? Subjects covered: Exegesis, Pharisee, Pentateuch, Midrash, Torah, Idolater, Divine Law, and Halachah / Halakha.
More Critical Words of Talmud Study — Continuing with Critical Words, this section discusses Oral Law, Mishnah, When Was the Talmud Put in Writing, Haggadah, and Gemara, and includes some history of these terms. The sidebar carries a short pictorial of the history of Judaism.
Appendix: Moses in Heaven
Israel's "One Indigenous Science" — Exegesis is the process of discovering the implications of Scripture. In the words of The Jewish Encyclopedia, "… exegesis in the largest sense of the word is in a way the one indigenous science which Israel has created and developed." Watch as the Sages work through one derivation of the Noahide Laws, this one from the story of the Garden of Eden.
Appendix: Practical Kabbalah, "A Veritable Storehouse for Magicians …"
Is Talmud Law in Order or Disorder? — Rabbis disagree on the Talmud, showing that an honest difference of opinion concerning the Talmud is not necessarily a sign of anti-Semitism.
The Talmud Lives for Jews — The Talmud is more central to Jewish life than most know. "The Talmud is the world's oldest continuously practiced legal code." (Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein)
Appendix: The Lanner Case
What About Gentiles? — Do Jews hold Gentiles in contempt? ADL denials are compared with Talmud doctrines, as seen through the writings of Judaic scholars.

Censoring the Talmud

Censorship damages inter-religious and inter-cultural understanding — no matter who does it.

Do Not Censor the Talmud, Please — The world's religions have been stepping on each other and burning each other's books for millennia. It is time for everyone to put their books on the table. Let's read them exactly as they are written.
Appendix A: ADL Takes Talmud Quotes Out of Context
Appendix B: Rabbi Rodkinson's Censored Talmud
Jesus' Membrum in the Talmud — What did the Jewish priests think of Jesus? This information will supplement Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — a must-read for serious Christians.
Appendix: Deborah Lipstadt Finds Anti-Semitism in the New Testament

Death Penalty

Talmud advocates tell the Supreme Court the Talmud has a better way. Let's check it out.

Sentence and Execution — Can the Talmud death penalty philosophy work in the US? A Supreme Court brief examines the question. Advocates say the ancient rabbis can teach us what we need to know.
Accusation and Trial — Due process, level of proof, formal and informal executions, death penalty for tribes, towns, and cities. — What crimes warrant the death penalty? What of the Quality of Mercy?
Abuse of Context — How retired Israeli Supreme Court Judge Rabbi Menachem Elon and American lawyer Nathan Lewin misled the US Supreme Court by quoting the Talmud out of context.
US v. Talmud Law — The Talmud does not intend Equal Justice Under Law and does not provide it. What then is the system? Here is a fascinating aspect of Jewish law.
Appendix: Talmud Slavery Laws

Blood Ritual

Blood ritual is fundamental to Judaism. Some blood sanctifies, some defiles. Let's see what the Talmud doctrines are.

Holy Atrocities and Judaism — The spilling of human blood in the name of religion ("blood sacrifice") has been part of the fabric of Judaism from the beginning. "Multitudes are decapitated … R. Simeon said: The Holy One, blessed be He, declared, If ye execute judgment upon the seduced city, I will ascribe merit to you as though ye had sacrificed to me a whole offering." (Sanhedrin 111b).
Appendix A: Mishnah of Sanhedrin 2a
Appendix B: Mishnah of Sanhedrin 111b
Animal Sacrifice and the Third Temple — He-goats of the new moon are slaughtered in the north, blood is ritually sprinkled and smeared on the altar. "On completing the flaying, he tore out the heart and squeezed out the blood in it …" The priests "were all standing in a row with the limbs in their hands." (Tamid 31a) What to expect on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem when Muslim shrines are removed to make way for the Third Temple. In the days of the Second Temple, the blood poured out in streams from the altar to the Brook of Kidron …
Appendix: Mishnah of Tamid Chapter IV
Human Sacrifice, the Talmud, and the Moloch Problem — The old "blood libel" claimed that Jews sacrificed Christian children. The Talmud says nothing of this. But what of Jews sacrificing Jewish children? The Talmud says it's OK if done correctly. Dropping the child-sacrifice doctrine could improve Judaism's image.
Appendix: Extract from Sanhedrin 64a and 64b
Circumcision, Talmud Style — After the mohel cuts the foreskin, he must put his mouth on the child's penis and suck blood from the wound. He must and he does, and the practice has spread deadly diseases. Ask your politicians to take a stand on this public health issue.

New America

The Talmud comes to America, and our country is changing. Some people may be happy with the changes, some unhappy. Let's go direct to the Talmud to see how its laws will affect our lives and culture.

America's New Government Church — Finally, a solution to doctrinal diversity. The rabbis have designed a one-size-fits-all religion for Gentiles: we bring you news of the Noahide Laws. Those who proclaim Jesus is their Savior will be put to death for idolatry. Congress has already begun putting the foundation in place.
Appendix: Why Christianity Makes Jews Uncomfortable
Sex with Children by Talmud Rules — Using young children for sex (including homosexual sex) is not forbidden by the Talmud Sages - provided the child is young enough. If older, they may defile the adult. Meanwhile, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a well-known Orthodox Jew, speaks out against pederasty.
Appendix: The Rights of the Child — Italian Case
Talmud Laws of Menstruation — A woman's menstruation is everybody's business: During her period, she defiles everyone and everything she touches. It is an offense for husband and wife to have intercourse during this time. Daughters of Israel insert testing rags into the vagina to confirm fitness for marital duty. Neighborhood Watch makes the system work.
Appendix: Niddah 14a Excerpt
Jewish Harems in Talmud Law — Though a medieval synod discouraged polygamy because it upset Christians, some still do it in Israel. The Word of God in the Talmud provides laws for handling a harem. Up to 48 wives are permitted, perhaps.
Appendix A: The Jewish Encyclopedia on Polygamy
Appendix B: Polygamy and the Slave Hagar
Really, Really Kosher Sex — Tips from the Talmud Sages help you improve your sex life. Things you never thought of …
Talmud Daughters Become Talmud Wives — Under Talmud law, the acquisition of a wife is much like the acquisition of any other property. Curiously, in 50 years of feminism, none of our Jewish feminists have made an issue of the sexual inequalities in the Talmud.
And So a Talmud Marriage Ends — The marriage belongs to the man. He may divorce his wife at will. To avoid paying a settlement, he can claim she has bad breath, moles, her breasts are too far apart, etc. The sidebar continues with the issues of modern feminism.
Life under the Rabbis — Special guest appearance by Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein, editor of the Soncino Talmud.

According to the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, the Very Reverend the late Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, the goal of Judaism is to regulate absolutely everything, public and private: "Religion in the Talmud attempts to penetrate the whole of human life with the sense of law and right. Nothing human is in its eyes mean or trivial; everything is regulated and sanctified by religion. Religious precept and duty accompany man from his earliest years to the grave and beyond it. They guide his desires and actions at every moment. Food and sleep, civic duty and family life — all are under discipline of the Torah, a discipline accepted freely and joyfully. While every religion attempts such regulation, the Talmudic system represents this striving of the religious idea in its perfection. 'In our eyes,' says Arsène Darmsteter, 'this is its greatest title to the respect and consideration of thinkers. In Judaism we have thus the completest, and consequently the most perfect, expression of the religious idea.'" — Rabbi Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, from his Foreword to the Soncino Talmud.

Law brings order, and order brings peace. Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein gives us a view of everyday life when the Talmud is the law of the land.

Title: America under the Talmud
URL: http://come-and-hear.com/editor/index.html#death
Version: July 26, 2017

Text Version
(Printer Friendly)

You May Find These Works of interest

The Wandering Who - Gilad Atzmon

To Be A Jew: A Guide To Jewish Observance In Contemporary Life - Hayim H. Donin

The Incredible Scofield and His Book - Joseph M. Canfield

A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism - Phyllis Goldstein, Harold Evans

History of Anti-Semitism - Carlos Porter

Navigate This Site

Appendix B: Polygamy and the Slave Hagar

In these Biblical passages are shown two incidents from the life of Abraham (known earlier as Abram) and his women. These incidents are reasonably predictable from the Jewish laws on marriage, polygamy, and slavery.

In the first passage, Abraham and his wife Sarai decide that Sarai's slave Hagar, should bear a child for Abraham. Hagar 's consent is not considered and not mentioned. After Hagar becomes pregnant, Sarai and Hagar become polygamy rivals (zarah), and Sarai treats her cruelly. In desperation, Hagar escapes into the wilderness. She is saved from death by an angel.

Genesis 16:1-7 (KJV)

Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

Later Sarai (Sarah) conceives a child. The second passage tells that, after children are born to both the free woman (Sarah) and the slave (Hagar), dissention arises again between the two, and Abraham intervenes. Abraham gives Hagar bread and water and drives her off into the wilderness with her infant son. Hagar has nowhere to go and fully expects to die. An angel assures Abraham that the child will survive; no guarantee is given for the woman.

Genesis 21:9-16 (KJV)

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

Title: Jewish Harems in Talmud Law
URL: http://come-and-hear.com/editor/america_4.html#appendix_b
Version: July 26, 2017

America Under the Talmud: Will It Work for US?
by Carol A. Valentine

Howdy!

These essays are best if read in sequence.

Howdy!

Carol Valentine look-alike

Let's read the Talmud together: By finding out about each others' faiths, Jews and non-Jews can build bridges to understanding.

What We're About — The Very Reverend the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, Professor Jonathan Sacks, has made a brilliant suggestion that we most heartily applaud. Let us learn about each others' faiths.
We're ADL Compatible — Some people may feel that by inquiring about or commenting upon the Jewish religion, they may give offense to a widely persecuted group. At Come and Hear™, there are no grounds for those concerns.
Nomenclature of Come-and-Hear™ — How we use the words Jew and Jewish.

The Babylonian Talmud
edited by Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein
of Jews’ College, London

More than fifteen years in the making, more than 5 1/2 million words, this monumental task of scholarship called on the best brains in Judaism and won the approval of the world's top rabbis. Yet few Christians today even know it exists, and you will probably not find it in your local public library. The Come and Hear™ hypertext version, currently on line at this web site, represents approximately 1431 folios (produced as accurately as possible). We hope this presentation will provide the necessary context for understanding ancient and modern rabbinical teachings. We hope the larger context will also enable you to evaluate how fairly various commentators interpret the text.

Passages censored in previous editions of the Talmud were restored, and the translators amplified the text with extensive footnotes that form a running commentary. The publication was completed as a 35-volume set in 1952, and republished in 18 volumes in 1961. Each tractate was accompanied by a glossary, a table of abbreviations, an index of Biblical references, and a general subject index. In 1952, Soncino published a comprehensive Index volume collating the indices from all tractates, and included an index to the statements of each of the Sages. The Jew's College/Soncino English translation of the Babylonian Talmud has remained the gold standard of English Talmuds for six decades.

Table of Contents — What's On Line: SEDER ZERA‘IM — Introduction; Tractate Berakoth; SEDER MO‘ED — Foreword — Introduction; Tractate Shabbath; SEDER NASHIM — Foreword — Introduction; Tractate Yebamoth; Tractate Kethuboth; Tractate Nedarim; Tractate Nazir; Tractate Sotah; Tractate Gittin; SEDER NEZIKIN — Foreword — Introduction; Tractate Baba Kamma; Tractate Baba Mezi‘a; Tractate Baba Bathra; Tractate Sanhedrin; Tractate ‘Abodah Zarah; Tractate Horayoth; SEDER KODASHIM — Foreword — Introduction; SEDER TOHOROTH — Introduction; Tractate Niddah; Tractate Tohoroth
Structure of Files for Come and Hear™ Hypertext
Soncino Talmud Glossary
Abbreviations Used in the Soncino Talmud
Search the Babylonian Talmud
Kudos for Soncino

Navigate This Site

Come and Hear™ Home

Footnotes: Full specifics for each of the printed sources are provided in the Bibliography. Outside URLs were valid at the time this article was written. However, be mindful that URLs do change.

"The Tophet and the rite of human sacrifice," Comune di Castelvetrano-Selinunte, http://www.centrocomp.it/castelvetrano/selinunte/thetophet.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/br-thetophet
Soncino Tractate Sanhedrin 64b, page 438, note 5 available in Come and Hear™ hypertext as Sanhedrin 64b, note 2
Soncino Tractate Sanhedrin 64a, page 437 (printed on 438), note 5 available in Come and Hear™ hypertext as Sanhedrin 64a, note 21
Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "Moloch," available at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10443b.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cath-ency-moloch
See The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today, Chapter 8, page 51: http://www.come-and-hear.com/chapt08.html#Children
The New Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Moloch,"
Come and Hear™ is indebted to Ursa Major (http://www.angelfire.com/ga/ursamajor/index.html) for pointing out this passage
Agamemnon, by James Hunter http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/agamemnon.html
The "Agamemnon" Mask, Gold, from Tomb V at Mycenae, 16th Century BC, National Archeological Museum, Athens
Jewish Ritual Murder, a Historical Investigation, by Hellmut Schramm, Ph.D., available at http://www.regmeister.net/schramm/schramm.htm
Animal Sacrifice and the Third Temple is available at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/br_2.html
Isabella of Spain by William Thomas Walsh, London, Sheed & Ward, 1931

NEXT: Blood Ritual 4: Circumcision

Navigate This Site

Home

Search

Valentine

Dilling

Talmud

The Rabbis

Supplement

Glossary

Download

Admin

Text Version
(Printer Friendly)

Blood Ritual
3: Human Sacrifice, the Talmud, and the Moloch Problem

Blood Ritual: — Blood ritual is fundamental to Judaism. Some blood sanctifies, some blood defiles. Let's see what the Talmud doctrines are.

Navigate This Site

	Home
	Search
	Valentine
	Dilling
	Talmud
	The Rabbis
	Supplement
	Glossary
	Download
	Admin
Text Version (Printer Friendly)

Moloch as pictured by an unknown artist (6)

Moloch was an idol worshipped by the Hebrews and some other people of the area. The priests burned a large fire within the idol, and according to a number of Biblical and Talmudic references, the Hebrews sacrificed their children to the god by throwing them — live — into the fire (the children were termed "thy seed," and the act, "pass[ing them] through the fire" in KJV). Accounts vary in details, e.g., the god was Canaanite in origin and only intermittently adopted by the Hebrews; the children were killed before they were burned (Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. Moloch); the god was Carthaginian and the children were cast into the fire by priests, not parents (Gustave Flaubert [5]); etc.

Molk defined as "the practice of human sacrifice"

"The rite of the human sacrifice 'Molk' as a [sacrificial] offering is peculiar of a mentality which didn't exist in the Greek or Roman society.

"If Phoenicians thought that a God wanted the destruction of a town or a country, they didn't [hesitate] to offer him human lives, avoiding in this way the anger and the curse of the god and blaming on few people.

"As they believed no other sacrifices better than this could appease the anger of that god, Carthaginians vowed themselves to the human sacrifices and in order to increase the value of the sacrifice, they offered even their children's life." — City of Castelvetrano-Selinunte (1)

Thus we see that according to the above scholar, Molk (= Moloch?) was a word describing the practice of human sacrifice, rather than a specific deity. This conforms with the Catholic Encyclopedia's statement that the ancient Hebrews may have thought they were sacrificing their children to LORD God. (4)

The writer for the City of Castelvetrano-Selinunte, (1) in saying that human sacrifice "didn't exist in the Greek or Roman society," was limiting his statement to the Classical Greeks, of course. Mask of Agamemnon, 16th Century BC

Homer records the dilemma of Mycenaean king Agamemnon, who must either sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia, or give up his ambition to fight the Trojan War. Agamemnon chooses the sacrifice, but the daughter is saved by the goddess Artemis. (8) In retelling the story, Classical Greek playwright Aeschylus (Agamemnon) allows the girl to die. However, Aeschylus surrounds the incident with the strongest expressions of disapproval:

"The chorus disapprove of his decision, and describe the sacrifice in sickening detail, as a murder repugnant to any normal human being. Agamemnon's feelings are perverted from the norm, as are those of all the characters in the trilogy (esp. Atreus, Thyestes, Clytemnestra, Orestes). The sacrifice is not only morally wrong, but futile: the sacrificer becomes the victim. Agamemnon is killed by Clytemnestra who is killed by Orestes." — James Hunter (9)

The Book of Jeremiah, King James Bible

30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD.

31 For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,

32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

33 And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.

34 But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.

35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. — Jeremiah 32:30-35

You can help in the battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way! Fight the forces of censorship and suppression of the Talmud, and bring about understanding between peoples of different faiths.

Download this site to your desktop computer. Make CDs and distribute them to friends, neighbors, ministers, and community leaders. Email your favorite essay to your email list. Post your favorite essay to discussion forums. Print your favorite essays and give them to those not on the Internet. Flyers advertising Come-and-Hear.com can be distributed throughout your community.

Genuine Come and Hear™ CDs do not contain executable programs. When making CDs, do not include any files that end in .exe, .com, .bat, .vbs, .doc, .pif, .sit, or .scr. The person receiving the CD should use his own browser to view the files. This helps to protect him from harmful programs and viruses.

No one today seriously suggests present-day Jews sacrifice children to Moloch. Moloch (sometimes spelled "Molech") was an Old Testament god whom the Hebrews worshipped from time to time, and to whom they sacrificed their children. The Babylonian Talmud, however, still permits Jews to sacrifice children to Moloch — under certain conditions.

LORD God Accepts Human Sacrifice

First, let's get perspective. Some mistakenly believe human sacrifice is forbidden in the Old Testament. Certainly, some of the prophets railed against it. But in at least one book, LORD God accepts human sacrifice. And in another book, LORD God is appeased by human sacrifice.

In the following account from the Book of Judges, the Israelite warrior Jephthah is about to set off to make war on the Ammonites. In payment for victory, Jephthah promises LORD God he will sacrifice the first "whatsoever" that comes from his house to greet him upon his return. Unless Jephthah keeps oxen, sheep, goats, or chickens in his living room, he must expect the promised victim will be a human being. Notice that Jephthah does not promise to sacrifice "an ox" or "a goat," etc. (7)

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

— Judges 11:30-31 (KJV)

The first to pass through the doors of Jephthah's house upon his return is his only child, his beloved daughter.

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.

— Judges 11:34-35 (KJV)

Let us reflect for a moment. We know Jephthah vowed to LORD God to sacrifice "whatsoever" first came out of the door of his house. We suspect Jephthah plans to sacrifice one of his servants. But when the "whatsoever" turned out to be Jephthah's daughter, Jephthah is surprised. Notice his daughter's reaction:

And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.

— Judges 11:36 (KJV)

She expresses no surprise that LORD God would accept a human sacrifice, nor does she protest; she does not say, "Father, let's use some common sense. You know LORD God is dead set against human sacrifice. He must have thought an ox would meet you on your return, or perhaps a goat, or one of the chickens. There must be a misunderstanding." Instead, she urges her father to keep his promise. She says:

And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.

—

Jephthah agrees:

And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,
That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

— Judges 11:38-40 (KJV)

None but perfect animals are permitted to be ritually sacrificed in Judaism. Notice that Jephthah's daughter, too, is a perfect sacrifice — she is a virgin. Notice that LORD God does not stop this human sacrifice, as he stopped the sacrifice of Abraham's son.

The Old Testament does not specify how Jephthah sacrifices his daughter, but following the correct methods for animal sacrifice, he would slit her throat first and drain her blood into a Temple service vessel; cut off her arms, legs, and head; cut the torso in sections, remove her entrails and wash them; pour, sprinkle, and smear her blood at prescribed points around the altar; and burn the flesh. Or of course, a priest might do this for him. Read Animal Sacrifice and the Third Temple for details. (11)

LORD God is Appeased by Human Sacrifice

In 2 Samuel 21, David is king over Judah. A famine oppresses the land; King David learns that LORD God is punishing Israel for King Saul's sin (Saul attacked the Gibeonites in violation of Joshua's treaty Joshua 9:15). Therefore, in order to relieve the famine, David must appease the Gibeonites. On negotiation, the Gibeonites demand to be given seven descendants of Saul to be hanged "unto the LORD." David picks two of Saul's sons and five of Saul's grandsons. Coincidentally, the five grandsons are the children of Michal, the woman David had wanted to marry (see 1 Samuel 18:25). David gives these Israelites to the Gibeonites so the Gibeonites can hang them.

Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)
Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?
And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,
Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:
And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

— 2 Samuel 21:1-11 (KJV)

LORD God did not explicitly request the hangings. But LORD God imposed an insufferable famine on the Israelites, LORD God named the Gibeonites as the people to be appeased, and the Gibeonites named the penalty. When it was done, LORD God apparently found the human sacrifice to be satisfactory: the chapter continues with accounts of battles, and the famine is not mentioned further. This sequence — an angry god causes a natural disaster, innocent life is slain to appease the god's anger, and the hardship ceases — this is the same sequence of events found in the human sacrifice rites of other primitive religions.

The Moloch Prohibition

With these precedents in mind, let us now look at two passages from the Old Testament concerning child sacrifice to the idol Moloch (or "Molech"). In the following passages, the words "seed" and "children" are synonymous. First, from Leviticus 18:

King James Version

And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

— Leviticus 18:21 (KJV)

English Standard Version

You shall not give any of your children to offer them (1) to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.

— Leviticus 18:21 (ESV)

An ESV footnote gives a literal translation of the original Hebrew phrase: "1. Hebrew to make them pass through [the fire]." Now let's look at Second Kings 23:

King James Version

And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

— 2 Kings 23:10 (KJV)

English Standard Version

And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech. (1)

— 2 Kings 23:10 (ESV)

An ESV footnote gives a literal translation of the original Hebrew phrase: "Hebrew might cause his son or daughter to pass through the fire for Molech."

Now let's look at the relevant cite from the Babylonian Talmud.

(When excerpting the Talmud, we sometimes omit footnotes and non-germane text. The omission of text is indicated by an ellipsis […]. The full text and footnotes may be found by following the hot link at the end of the excerpt. It is our pleasure to make available the text of the complete tractates cited in this article, so you may read the Talmud in full context.)

MISHNAH. HE WHO GIVES OF HIS SEED TO MOLECH INCURS NO PUNISHMENT UNLESS HE DELIVERS IT TO MOLECH AND CAUSES IT TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE. IF HE GAVE IT TO MOLECH BUT DID NOT CAUSE IT TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE, OR THE REVERSE, HE INCURS NO PENALTY, UNLESS HE DOES BOTH.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 64a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 437

Following the Mishnah is a discussion among the sages. One of the Talmud Sages, Rabbi Ashi, comments as follows:

GEMARA. R. Ashi propounded: What if one caused his blind or sleeping son to pass through, (3) or if he caused his grandson by his son or daughter to pass through? — One at least of these you may solve. For it has been taught: [Any men … that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall he put to death … And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people;] because he hath given of his seed unto Molech. Why is this stated? — Because it is said, there shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire. From this I know it only of his son or daughter. Whence do I know that it applies to his son's son or daughter's son too? From the verse, [And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man] when he giveth of his seed unto Molech [and kill him not: Then I will … cut him off.]

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 64b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 439

Rabbi Dr. Freedman, one of the translators of the Soncino Tractate Sanhedrin, clarifies the passage. In a footnote, Rabbi Dr. Freedman confirms that the Talmud Sages use "seed" to denote living children, in the same sense as the Biblical translators understand the term in the above Biblical quotes. In this footnote, Rabbi Dr. Freedman paraphrases the question from Rabbi Ashi:

Is 'thou shalt not cause to pass' applicable only to a son who can naturally pass through himself, but not to a blind or sleeping son, who must be led or carried, or does it apply to all?

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman

Other footnotes within the same context clarify the fine point of distinction being drawn in the Mishnah and subsequent debates among the sages:

Lev. XVIII, 21. This proves that the offence consists of two parts; (i) formal delivery to the priests, and (ii) causing the seed to pass through the fire.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman (2)

As two separate offences, proving that giving one's seed to Molech is not idolatry. The differences [sic] is, that if one sacrificed to Molech, or caused his son to pass through the fire to some other deity, he is not punished.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman (3)

Following the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 64a and 64b contain a rousing debate between the Sages concerning:

the circumstances under which worshipping an idol is idolatry,
which idols may be worshipped without indulging in idolatry,
which parts of child sacrifice in what combination are punishable, and
how children may be sacrificed without violating Leviticus.

Interested students should look up Sanhedrin 64a and 64b and read the entire text, including footnotes. The complete version of Come and Hear™ contains Sanhedrin 64a-64b at htp://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_64.html. For those to whom Tractate Sanhedrin is not available, the relevant text is included in the Appendix: Extract from Sanhedrin 64a and 64b.

The 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia contains an entry on Moloch that is of interest. The Catholic Encyclopedia states that the children were burned "after the victims had been put to death" — without citing any authority. This statement is directly contradicted by Rabbi Ashi and by Rabbi Dr. Freedman in the passages quoted above, wherein they consider the case of "a blind or sleeping son, who must be led or carried" to the fire. (Paragraphing has been added to this Catholic Encyclopedia excerpt to aid in readability).

The chief feature of Moloch's worship among the Jews seems to have been the sacrifice of children, and the usual expression for describing that sacrifice was "to pass through the fire", a rite carried out after the victims had been put to death.

The special centre of such atrocities was just outside of Jerusalem, at a place called Tophet (probably "place of abomination"), in the valley of Geennom. According to III (I) Kings, xi, 7, Solomon erected "a temple" for Moloch "on the hill over against Jerusalem", and on this account he is at times considered as the monarch who introduced the impious cult into Israel. After the disruption, traces of Moloch worship appear in both Juda and Israel.

The custom of causing one's children to pass through the fire seems to have been general in the Northern Kingdom [IV (II) Kings, xvii, 17; Ezech. xxiii, 37], and it gradually grew in the Southern, encouraged by the royal example of Achaz (IV Kings, xvi, 3) and Manasses [IV (II) Kings, xvi, 6] till it became prevalent in the time of the prophet Jeremias (Jerem. xxxii, 35), when King Josias suppressed the worship of Moloch and defiled Tophet [IV (II) Kings, xxiii, 13 (10)]. It is not improbable that this worship was revived under Joakim and continued until the Babylonian Captivity …

… Of late, numerous attempts have been made to prove that in sacrificing their children to Moloch the Israelites simply thought that they were offering them in holocaust to Yahweh. In other words, the Melech to whom child-sacrifices were offered was Yahweh under another name. To uphold this view appeal is made in particular to Jer., vii, 31; xix, 5, and to Ezech., xx, 25-31. But this position is to say the least improbable. The texts appealed to may well be understood otherwise, and the prophets expressly treat the cult of Moloch as foreign and as an apostasy from the worship of the true God. The offerings by fire, the probable identity of Moloch with Baal, and the fact that in Assyria and Babylonia Malik, and at Palmyra Malach-bel, were sun-gods, have suggested to many that Moloch was a fire- or sun-god.

— Catholic Encyclopedia (4)

Lessons Learned

It is indeed unfortunate that the Jewish religion has not repudiated the doctrine that children may be sacrificed to Moloch. That doctrine, along with prayers in the Jewish liturgy calling for the return of ritual blood sacrifice (see Animal Sacrifice and the Third Temple), surely adds credence to charges that Jews engage in the ritual blood sacrifice of children. (See, for example, William Thomas Walsh's Isabella of Spain (12) concerning the ritualistic murder of a four-year-old Spanish boy; and a historical overview of the subject, Jewish Ritual Murder, a Historical Investigation, written in 1941 by Hellmut Schramm, Ph.D. (10)

Many societies and religions have practices in their histories of which they are not proud. Certainly the United States had slavery, as did many other countries. Catholicism had the persecution of Protestants, and Protestants had the persecution of Catholics; Europe had feudalism, Mexico had human sacrifice, and India had widow burnings (sati, the practice of burning a widow at her late husband's funeral). Scandinavia had the Vikings and reavers, Italy had the excesses of the Roman Empire, and China had foot-binding. Among all those people there came the admission, eventually, that those practices were not appropriate, and as hard on the pride as it was, they accepted responsibility and repudiated their former behaviors.

Repudiating the Talmud doctrines that approve of ritually sacrificing children (under certain conditions) would go a long way to creating good will between Judaism and people of other religious faiths. Christians and Muslims, too, should reexamine the Old Testament Scriptures. Is this really the church/mosque they want their children attending?

Thank you for your consideration of the above,
Carol A. Valentine, Ear at come-and-hear dot com
July 14, 2003 ( This article is on line at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/br_3.html )

NEXT: Blood Ritual 4: Circumcision

Navigate Carol Valentine's America Under the Talmud — Will It Work for US?
Howdy!	The Roadmap	Censorship	Death Penalty	Blood Ritual	New America

Navigate This Site

	Home
	Search
	Valentine
	Dilling
	Talmud
	The Rabbis
	Supplement
	Glossary
	Download
	Admin
Text Version (Printer Friendly)

Endnotes:

This and other Come and Hear™ Studies on Talmudic Judaism can be found online:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor
The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today by Elizabeth Dilling, complete with all 300 exhibits, can be found online:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling
Soncino Babylonian Talmud tractates, with Forewords, Introductions, Glossary, List of Abbreviations, and footnotes. Now you can study the Babylonian Talmud in full context and with the running commentary of the finest scholars of Judaism:: Tractate Berakoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/berakoth; Tractate Shabbath: http://www.come-and-hear.com/shabbath; Tractate Yebamoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/yebamoth; Tractate Kethuboth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/kethuboth; Tractate Nedarim: http://www.come-and-hear.com/nedarim; Tractate Nazir: http://www.come-and-hear.com/nazir; Tractate Sotah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah; Tractate Gittin: http://www.come-and-hear.com/gittin; Tractate Baba Kamma: http://www.come-and-hear.com/babakamma; Tractate Baba Mezi'a: http://www.come-and-hear.com/babamezia; Tractate Baba Bathra: http://www.come-and-hear.com/bababathra; Tractate Sanhedrin: http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin; Tractate Abodah Zarah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/zarah; Tractate Horayoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/horayoth; Tractate Niddah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/niddah; Tractate Tohoroth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/tohoroth; Search the Talmud http://www.come-and-hear.com/tindex.html
Download all the above resources for local study, CD, or mirror web site:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/download

Appendix: Extract from Sanhedrin 64a and 64b

The full folio can be found at http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_64.html
Note:

The 1961 Soncino footnotes have been renumbered for this hypertext presentation.
The symbol [H] represents an unprintable Hebrew character, word, or phrase.
Unusual terms and abbreviations are defined in the Soncino Talmud Glossary.
Molech is an alternate spelling of Moloch.
The sages frequently use "it" when referring to the progeny considered for sacrifice to Moloch. It may be this is only a grammatical device to keep the pronoun in agreement with the word "seed," or it may be a part of the depersonalization process in considering the children for sacrifice.

Sanhedrin 64a
[…]
MISHNAH. HE WHO GIVES OF HIS SEED TO MOLECH INCURS NO PUNISHMENT UNLESS HE DELIVERS IT TO MOLECH AND CAUSES IT TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE. IF HE GAVE IT TO MOLECH BUT DID NOT CAUSE IT TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE, OR THE REVERSE, HE INCURS NO PENALTY, UNLESS HE DOES BOTH.
GEMARA. The Mishnah (1) teaches idolatry and giving to Molech. (2) R. Abin said: Our Mishnah is in accordance with the view that Molech worship is not idolatry. For it has been taught, [if one causes his seed to pass through the fire,] whether to Molech or to any other idol he is liable [to death]. R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon said: If to Molech, he is liable; if to another idol, he is not.
Abaye said: R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon and R. Hanina b. Antigonus said the one and same thing. R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon, that which has just been stated. R. Hanina b. Antigonus — as it has been taught: R. Hanina b. Antigonus said: Why did the Torah employ the word Molech? To teach that the same law applies to whatever they proclaimed as their king, even a pebble or a splinter. (3) Rabina (4) said: The difference between them is in respect of a temporary Molech. (5)

On 53a.
As two separate offences, proving that giving one's seed to Molech is not idolatry. The differences [sic] is, that if one sacrificed to Molech, or caused his son to pass through the fire to some other deity, he is not punished.
Molech is connected with the idea of kingship. This shews that he too regards any fetish as a Molech.
In his view they did not say the one and the same thing.
I.e., anything which was only temporarily worshipped as Molech, such as a pebble which would obviously not be a permanent idol.] According to R. Hanina b. Antigonus, he is executed even then. But R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon holds that the law applies only to a permanent idol worshipped as Molech.

Sanhedrin 64b

R. Jannai said: Punishment is not incurred unless one delivers his seed to the acolytes of Molech, (1) for it is said, And thou shalt not give of thy seed to pass through the fire to Molech. (2) It has been taught likewise: I might think, that if one caused his seed to pass through the fire to Molech, without first delivering it to the priests, he is liable: therefore the Writ teaches, Thou shalt not give. If he gave it to the priests, but did not cause it to pass through the fire, I might think that he is liable: therefore the Writ states, to pass through. If one delivered it [to the priests of Molech], but caused it to pass through to some other deity, I might think that he is punished: therefore the Writ teaches, to Molech. Now, if he delivered it to the priests and caused it to pass to Molech, but not through the fire, I might think that he is liable: but, as here is written, to pass through; and elsewhere it is stated, There shall not he found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire: (3) just as there, the reference is to fire, so here too; and just as here the reference is to Molech, so there too.
R. Aha the son of Raba said: If one caused all his seed to pass through [the fire] to Molech, he is exempt from punishment, because it is written, of thy seed implying, but not all thy seed. (4)
R. Ashi propounded: What if one caused his blind or sleeping son to pass through, (5) or if he caused his grandson by his son or daughter to pass through? — One at least of these you may solve. For it has been taught: [Any men … that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall he put to death … And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people;] because he hath given of his seed unto Molech. (6 ) Why is this stated? (7) — Because it is said, there shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire. (8 ) From this I know it only of his son or daughter. Whence do I know that it applies to his son's son or daughter's son too? From the verse, [And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man] when he giveth of his seed unto Molech [and kill him not: Then I will … cut him off.] (9)
Now the Tanna commences with the verse, 'because he hath given of his seed', but concludes with 'when he giveth of his seed'? — This is to intimate another deduction. (10) Thus: [because he hath given] of his seed: From this I know only that the law applies to legitimate seed [that being the normal meaning of the word]; whence do I know that it also applies to illegitimate seed? (11) — From the verse, when he giveth of his seed. (12)
Rab Judah said: He is only liable to punishment if he causes his seed to pass through in the normal way. How is that? — Abaye said: There was a loose pile of bricks in the middle, and fire on either side of it. (13) Raba said: It was like the children's leaping about on Purim. (14) It has been taught in support of Raba. Punishment is incurred only for causing one's seed to pass in the normal fashion; if he caused him to pass through on foot, he is exempt. (15) He is liable only for his own issue; e.g., for his son and daughter, he is punished; but for his father or mother, brother or sister, he is not. If he passed through himself, he is free from punishment. (16) R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon ruled that he is liable. Further, whether to Molech or to any other idol, he is liable. R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon said: If to Molech, he is liable; if to another idol, he is not.
'Ulla said: What is R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon's reason? — Scripture saith, There shall not be found among thee … (17) 'among thee' means in thyself. (18) And the Rabbis? Do they not interpret 'among thee' thus? Surely we have learnt: If one must search for a lost article of his own and of his father's, priority is given to his own. And we observed thereon: Why so? — To which Rab Judah replied: Scripture saith, Save that there shall be no poor among thee, (19) teaching that one's own loss has priority over that of any other man? (20) There the deduction follows from 'save that'. (21)
R. Jose, son of R. Hanina said: Why is extinction thrice threatened for idolatry? (22) — One teaches extinction for the normal worship of idols; one for abnormal; and one for the service of Molech. (23) But on the view that Molech worship is included in general idolatry, why is extinction mentioned in its case? — To apply to one who causes his son to pass through to an idol [not Molech], where such is not the normal mode of worship. Now, on the view that a megaddef (24) is a worshipper of idols, (22) why is extinction stated for it? (25) — Even as it has been taught: (26) That soul shall surely be cut off from among his people; (27) he shall be cut off in this world and in the next: this is R. Akiba's view. (28) R. Ishmael said: But the verse has previously stated 'that soul shall be cut off': (29) are there then three worlds? (30) But [interpret this:] 'and [that soul] shall be cut off' — in this world: 'he is to he cut off' — [of the following verse, and denoted by the infinitive] (31) in the next; whilst as for the repetition [the finite form of the verb], (32) that is because the Torah employs human phraseology. (33)

He explains this to be the meaning of the Mishnah UNLESS HE GIVES IT TO MOLECH.
Lev. XVIII, 21. This proves that the offence consists of two parts; (i) formal delivery to the priests, and (ii) causing the seed to pass through the fire.
Deut. XVIII, 10.
Probably because this would not be accounted a normal mode of Molech worship: cp. pp. 438, 440.
Is 'thou shalt not cause to pass' applicable only to a son who can naturally pass through himself, but not to a blind or sleeping son, who must be led or carried, or does it apply to all?
Lev. XX, 2f.
Since the passage commences by explicitly referring to this offence, why is it repeated?
Deut. XVIII, 10.
Lev. XX, 4. Hence the law applies also to grandsons.
I.e., from the first verse, because etc. we learn that the law applies to one's grandsons too; when he giveth is stated in order that another law may be deduced.
Not in the modern sense, but seed from a woman forbidden to him.
This is superfluous, since it has already been stated twice in that passage that the reference is to this effect. Hence it indicates the application of the law to illegitimate seed.
The victim walked along that pile to Molech, but was not burnt. The statement that Hezekiah was smeared with the blood of the salamander to render him fireproof (63b), shewing that the victim was actually burnt, does not refer to Molech, but to the divinities of Sepharvaim (Rashi).
Probably referring to a game played on Purim when children jump over a fire lit in a pit. According to this, a pit was dug and a fire lit therein, and the victim leaped over it (So Rashi). Jast. translates: 'like the stirrup (a ring suspended from a frame) thrust over a bonfire on Purim;' cp. Aruch.
This proves that the victim did not walk, but leaped to it.
This too proves that the victim was not burnt in passing through the fire to Molech.
Deut. XVIII, 10.
Hence his view that one is liable if he passes through himself.
Deut. XV, 4.
The questioner understood this to be deduced from 'among thee' — in thyself. Since this is not taught in the name of any particular Tanna, it should agree with the Rabbis too.
Heb. [H], implying an admonition to avoid any action which may lead to poverty. Naturally, this is not to be interpreted as permitting dishonesty, but merely insists that poverty must not be courted.
Twice in Lev. XX, 2-5: Whosoever be he … that giveth of his seeds to Molech … I will cut him off from among his people … And if the people of the land … kill him not: Then I will set my face against that man … and will cut him off. Once in Num. XV, 30f. But the soul that doeth aught presumptuously … the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord. This refers to idolatry.
Which is not included in general idolatry, as stated above.
In Num. XV, 30, the Heb. for 'he reproacheth' is megaddef.
The meaning of megaddef is disputed in Ker. 7b. By a 'worshipper of idols' is meant, e.g., one who sings hymns in a heathen Temple.
Since, being a normal part of idolatry, it is understood.
Num. XV, 31. Continuing the verses quoted in note 3. In the Heb, as usual, this emphasis is denoted by the repetition of the verb, [H]
He interprets the doubling of the verb as referring to two worlds.
Ibid. 30.
Rashi explains that this question is not put to R. Akiba, because he interprets megaddef in that previous verse as referring to blasphemy, not idolatry. But this question is rhetorically stated by R. Ishmael on his own assumption that megaddef means an idol worshipper.
[H]
[H]
In ordinary human speech, such repetition is quite common.

Title: Human Sacrifice, the Talmud, and the Moloch Problem
URL: http://come-and-hear.com/editor/br_3.html
Version: July 26, 2017

You May Find These Works of interest

The Indestructible Jews - Max I. Dimont

Blood Passover (English transl., censored) - Ariel Toaff, Bryrick

Complete original text (English transl.).

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy - John J. Mearsheimer, Stephen M. Walt

Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years - Israel Shahak, Gore Vidal, Edward Said

The Incredible Scofield and His Book - Joseph M. Canfield

Footnotes: Full specifics for each of the printed sources are provided in the Bibliography. Outside URLs were valid at the time this article was written. However, be mindful that URLs do change.

"Endorsement of adult-child sex on rise," Washington Times, April 9, 2002: http://www.washtimes.com/culture/20020419-75530376.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-wt-04-19-02
"Loved and hated, 'Dr. Laura' receives award," Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, republished from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/010323/laura.shtml cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-laura-loved
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah, page 311, note 10 available in Come and Hear™ hypertext as Niddah 45a footnote 27 http://www.come-and-hear.com/niddah/niddah_45.html#45a_27
The study, "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples;" see for example http://www.ilja-schmelzer.de/Rind/Rind1998.html
"Orthodox Group Honors Dr. Laura," Forward: http://www.forward.com/issues/2001//01.03.02/news6.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-forward-01-03-02n
James Trimm exchanged emails with Seek God Ministries, who published his arguments on their web page, "James Trimm Responds," at http://www.seekgod.ca/jtrimm.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-trimm
See for example, StopDrLaura.com: http://www.stopdrlaura.com/laura/
"While the Messiah Tarries," Forward, Rabbi A. James Rudin, February 22, 2002: http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.02.22/oped2.html cached at: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/forward
America's Real War, page 40
Young Boy by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Le Brun, 1817, oil on canvas 52x46cm, National Museum of Women in the Arts, DC
Babylonian Talmud, "Introduction," Seder Nezikin, Vol. I, page xxxiii available at http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/nezikin.html#xxxiii
"World Congress of Families Convenes in Washington," Concerned Women for America, 10/30/2001: http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=1134&department=CWA&categoryid=family cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/ca-cwa1
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, page 371, footnote 2, appears in Come and Here™ hypertext as Sanhedrin 54b footnote 24, http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_54.html#54b_24
"The Distilled Wisdom of Human Nature," Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club: http://www.bbrc.net/REVEILLE_ARCHIVES/v14n32-021102/v14n32-021102/v14n32-021102.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-bbrc
"Methodist minister defends performing gay marriage," CNN, March 26, 1999: http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/26/gay.marriage.trial/
"An Archetypal Interpretation Jung and Kabbalah," The New Kabbalah http://www.newkabbalah.com/Jung3.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/freuds-gold-mine
"Fromm, Freud, and Midrash," Find Articles, The American Jewish Congress, (http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0411/4_48/59120278/p1/article.jhtml cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ajc-freud-gertel See also Freud and Kabbalah (http://www.newkabbalah.com/Freud.html) for a discussion of other connections between Freud's writings and Judaism
"'This Is Gold': Freud, Psychotherapy and the Lurianic Kabbalah," The Lurianic Kabbalah, http://www.newkabbalah.com/KabPsych.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/freud-with-zohar
"Controversial Studies Push Change in Society's View of Pedophilia," Newhouse News, March 26, 2002, http://www.newhouse.com/archive/story1c032602.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-newhouse
European Traces of the History of Psychology, http://www.ric.edu/dcousins/europsych/sfreud.html
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 54b, page 371, available in Come and Hear™ hypertext as Sanhedrin 54b footnote 24 http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_54.html#54b_24
"Ask the Rabbi," Union of American Hebrew Congregations: http://uahc.org/ask/orthodo.shtml
cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/uahc-ortho-vs-reform
Babylonian Talmud, "Introduction," Seder Nezikin, Vol. I, page xxxiii available at http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/nezikin.html#xxxiii
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, page 371 footnote 5, in Come and Here™ hypertext as Sanhedrin 55a footnote 2, available at: http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_55.html#55a_2
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth, page 54 footnote 17, in Come and Here™ hypertext as Kethuboth 11a footnote 4, http://www.come-and-hear.com/kethuboth/kethuboth_11.html#11a_4
New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Vol. 8: "Sanhedrin," Chapter VII, page 166, shown in facsimile as Exhibit 7 in Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today. Also available at Sacred Texts http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t08/t0810.htm#fn_52 cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/rodkinson/t0810.htm#fn_52
See Social Legislation in the Talmud by Soncino Editor Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein, at http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/babamezia.html
"Healthy sex or unhealthy ideas?," CNN, April 24, 2002: http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/04/23/book.young.sex/
"AARP Lurches Left," Concerned Women for America, 2/20/2003: http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3344&department=CWA&categoryid=family cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-cwa3
"Regional Meetings: Washington, D.C.," The Howard Center: World Congress of Families, http://worldcongress.org/WCF/WCF%20Reg/wcf_reg_dc_ufi.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-wcf
"Jewish law institute launched in DC," Jerusalem Post, November 9, 2002, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1036830287246, now moved to http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/index.html?ts=1042784008 cached at: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jp-11-09-2002
Also: "Jewish Law Comes to D.C.," The Jewish Week, January 8, 2003, http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=7074 cached as http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jw-01-08-03
In the United States, cohabitation means only "living together" or "living together in an assumed sexual relationship outside marriage." In the Soncino, the word seems to be used to denote sexual intercourse
"In Defense of Dr. Laura," The Jewish homemaker, http://www.ok.org/homemaker/tishrei61/person.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-jh-defense
Oedipus Complex Analysed, http://www.vuw.ac.nz/psyc/vornikFreud/oedip.htm
The Essential Talmud, page 3. Rabbi Steinsaltz's credentials formerly at http://www.steinsaltz.com/ravsacks.htm cached at: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/steinsaltz-honors
Toward Tradition, http://towardtradition.org/, link page at http://towardtradition.org/Links.asp cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-lapin-links
"Jewish Law and the Supreme Court: Happy Millennium From an Ancient Legal Tradition," Project Next Step by Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, http://projectnextstep.org/adlerstein-articles/jewish-law-supreme-court.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-adlerstein2
Babylonian Talmud, "Foreword," Seder Nezikin Vol. I, pages xxv-xxvi available in Come and Hear™ hypertext as http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/nezikin_h.html#xxv
"Mortara Affair Revisited," Baltimore Jewish Times, February 4, 2000 cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-bjt-02-04-00
Sentence and Execution is available at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/capunish_1.html
"Mortara Affair Revisited," Jewish Media Resources from Baltimore Jewish Times http://www.jewishmediaresources.org/article/264 cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-bjt-02-04-00
"Nathan Lewin's Definitive Letter to the Italian Government," Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, previously at http://www.ou.org/public/statements/1999/dulberglewin.htm (no longer available at original location, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20020210022633/http://www.ou.org/public/statements/1999/dulberglewin.htm) cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-italiancase
"Sample Letter," Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, http://www.ou.org/public/statements/1999/dulbergsample.htm (no longer available at original location) cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-italiancase3
"Contact List for Dulberg Case," Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, http://www.ou.org/public/statements/1999/dulbergcontacts.htm (no longer available at original location, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20020215071117/http://www.ou.org/public/statements/1999/dulbergcontacts.htm) cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-italiancase2
"Dulberg Case Information Center," Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, http://www.ou.org/public/statements/1999/dulberginfo.htm (no longer available at original location, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20020215071117/http://www.ou.org/public/statements/1999/dulberginfo.htm)
"In the name of God/Lies, Frauds, Atrocities," David Icke http://www.davidicke.net/religiousfrauds/judaism/rabbisexabuse.html
See also footnote 47
More information on the Rabbis Lanner/Butler case: "By showing dangers, Lanner case broke down Orthodox wall of silence," JTA, http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=8080&intcategoryid=4 cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-jta-lanner/
and "O.U. scandal: Top official resigns," Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, http://www.jewishsf.com/bk010126/usouresignation.shtml cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-jsf-butler
According to many Rabbinical experts, the Talmud is the Word of God, the basic book of Jewish law, and the foundation of Jewish culture. See What Come-and-Hear™ Is About, Critical Words of Talmud Study, and More Critical Words of Talmud Study at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/about.html http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/critwords_1.html and http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/critwords_2.html respectively.

NEXT: New America 3: Talmud Laws of Menstruation

Navigate This Site

	Home
	Search
	Valentine
	Dilling
	Talmud
	The Rabbis
	Supplement
	Glossary
	Download
	Admin
Text Version (Printer Friendly)

New America
2. Sex with Children by Talmud Rules

There are changes in the wind. Some people may be happy, some may be unhappy. Let's go directly to the Talmud to see its laws on some social concerns.

Navigate This Site

	Home
	Search
	Valentine
	Dilling
	Talmud
	The Rabbis
	Supplement
	Glossary
	Download
	Admin
Text Version (Printer Friendly)

Judith Levine, author of Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex, is a Jewish "bad guy." Critics attacked Ms. Levine's book, saying it advocated sex between children and adults. Newhouse News quoted Ms. Levine on the Roman Catholic pedophilia scandal: "'Yes, conceivably, absolutely' a boy's sexual experience with a priest could be positive."(19) Ms. Levine later said the reporter had misunderstood her.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, radio talk show host, is a Jewish "good guy." She is one of the most prominent Orthodox Jews in America, and famous for her denunciation of homosexuality. From her radio show, Dr. Laura attacked a study of pederasty, published in Psychological Bulletin in 1998, claiming it advocated sex between children and adults. The US House of Representatives went on to pass a resolution unanimously rejecting the study.(19)

Dr. Laura with her husband, Dr. Louis Bishop, and her rabbi, Dr. Moshe Bryski at the Chabad of Conejo in Agoura Hills, California. An article in defense of Dr. Laura published in the Jewish Homemaker states:

"Her approach has earned her the respect of her largely Christian audience, which sees in her a kindred spirit. 'People have a newfound respect and understanding for Judaism,' she says … How does she reconcile Jewish law with her largely non-Jewish audience? 'I always say to callers, according to Jewish law, this is the law; let's see how we can extrapolate to your situation.' Dr. Laura admits that she is a novice when it comes to the Jewish view of things. 'Sometimes during a break I call Rabbi Bryski and say, "I have ten seconds; here's the situation. What's the law?"' … She professes astonishment at her lack of support from Orthodox Jewish quarters. 'I have been disappointed at how silent the Orthodox community has been. The people to come to my defense, and in defense of G-d's laws, have been basically Christian Protestant.'"(33)

Perhaps the explanation for Dr. Laura's lack of Orthodox support is that Jewish law permits and condones many of the behaviors Dr. Laura and her Christian listeners condemn.

Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin, author of America's Real War and director of Toward Tradition, presents himself as a Jewish "good guy" to conservative Christian audiences. He is a favored speaker with Concerned Women for America (CWA), the Christian Coalition, and similar groups. Those groups condemn homosexuality and child-adult sex.

"For over three thousand years Jewish tradition and Jewish law have been unambiguous about homosexuality: it is a sin,"(9) states Rabbi Lapin. However, Rabbi Lapin fails to quote the Talmud law, which makes it clear that male homosexuality is not an offense if the adult man uses a boy below the age of nine years and a day. Homosexuality is only a capital offense when committed between consenting adult males. Talmud law also authorizes adult men to have sexual intercourse with girls three years old and younger.

Homosexual Couple.(15) Married in 1999, these consenting adults would be put to death under Talmud law.

HE WHO COMMITS SODOMY WITH A MALE OR A BEAST, AND A WOMAN THAT COMMITS BESTIALITY ARE STONED. (Sanhedrin 54a)

However, if a grown man were to have sexual relations with a boy younger than nine, the man would incur no guilt.

Young Boy by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Le Brun, 1817(10)

Leviticus 18:22 prohibits a man lying with a man, but not with a young boy. Thus the Talmud Sages reason:

Pederasty with a child below nine years of age is not deemed as pederasty … Sanhedrin 54b

Rabbi Dr. Freedman, Talmud scholar and translator, explains in his running commentary that "… if one committed sodomy with a child of lesser age, no guilt is incurred."(13)

Young Girl

In the world of the Talmud Sages, grown men have sexual intercourse with girls younger than three years old. The young girls are wounded and bleed from the activity, but the Talmud Sages were of the opinion that in one so young, virginity comes back: "Intercourse with her is like putting a finger in the eye," (Niddah 44b) and the tears come back again and again.

Apparently the Sages attributed the repeated bleeding during copulations to the repeated rupture of the regenerated hymen.

Another Sweet Baby

Come and hear! A maiden aged three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by coition, and if her deceased husband's brother cohabits with her, she becomes his. — Sanhedrin 55b

MISHNAH A girl of the age of three years and one day may be betrothed by intercourse … (Niddah 44b)

Fillette à la Gerbe by Renoir, 1888

Regardless how young, the Talmud wife is required to carry out her "marital duties" regularly and normally. Any problems are consigned to the lap of G-d.

One who is under [eleven] or over [twelve] must carry on her marital intercourse in a normal manner; so R. Meir. But the Sages ruled: The one as well as the other carries on her marital intercourse in a normal manner and mercy will be vouchsafed from heaven, for it is said in Scripture, The Lord preserveth the simple. — Niddah 45a

Man Holding Baby, showing relative sizes

R. Simeon b. Yohai stated: A proselyte who is under the age of three years and one day is permitted to marry a priest, for it is said, But all the women children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves, and Phinehas [a High Priest] surely was with them …

There was a certain town in the Land of Israel the legitimacy of whose inhabitants was disputed, and Rabbi sent R. Romanos who conducted an enquiry and found in it the daughter of a proselyte who was under the age of three years and one day, and Rabbi [Judah the Prince] declared her eligible to live with a priest.

Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki adds in a footnote: "I.e., permitted her to continue to live with her husband." — Yebamoth 60b

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is the director of Project Next Step of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and a professor of Jewish Law and Ethics at Loyola Law School. Rabbi Adlerstein writes:

"… many of the pressing moral, ethical, and legal issues that are front-burner today were already painstakingly and lovingly considered by savants of the past. Jewish law in particular surprises and delights moderns, because it not only suggests solutions, but teaches how complex moral issues can be attacked and dissected. Within its ancient legal code are deep and detailed considerations of issues like privacy, allocating medical resources, the causes of violence, and many more. So much of the future stands to be illuminated by the minds of those who specialized in pondering deeply and subtly." — Rabbi Adlerstein(37)

Homosexuality between women is not forbidden in the Talmud. Some Sages disapprove, but the Talmud contains no ruling against it, and no punishment, save this:

Women who practise lewdness with one another are disqualified from marrying a priest. — Yebamoth 76a, Shabbath 65a

One wonders: Does Rabbi Bryski withhold these facts from Dr. Schlessinger, or does Dr. Schlessinger know and withhold it from her Christian listeners?

Jennifer Oneill and her son

The purity of the relationship between mother and child is implicit in a portrait like this. To Americans, there is no suggestion of eroticism. Yet the Talmud indicates that eroticism between mother and son is not unexpected. It is not an actionable offense and the Sages have only the slightest condemnation for the mother. Depending on the son's age — is he older than eight years? — the mother may be ineligible to marry a priest.

Our Rabbis taught: If a woman sported lewdly with her young son [a minor], and he committed the first stage of cohabitation with her — Beth Shammai [Sages] say, he thereby renders her unfit to the priesthood. Beth Hillel [Sages] declare her fit. … All agree that the connection of a boy aged nine years and a day is a real connection; whilst that of one less than eight years is not: their dispute refers only to one who is eight years old … — Sanhedrin 69b

Such practice is foreign to the standards of most Americans. It will take some getting used to.

Robert Knight is the director of the Culture and Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America. Knight told CNN that Judith Levine's book, Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex, gives "academic cover to child molestation."(28) However, Knight has high praise for Rabbi Daniel Lapin's Toward Tradition organization, which he describes as "revolutionizing relations between Christians and Jews and fueling a rebirth of traditional Judaism."(29) Rabbi Lapin was a featured speaker at the October 26-27, 2002 World Conference of Families meeting in Washington, DC, which was co-sponsored by CWA, Toward Tradition and others.(30) Lapin was quoted in CWA's commemorative news article.(12)

Orthodox Judaism, to which Rabbi Lapin subscribes, teaches that the Talmud is the Word of God. The Talmud authorizes and sanctifies sexual intercourse between adults and very young children, including homosexual intercourse. Has Rabbi Lapin neglected to tell Concerned Women for America about those Jewish doctrines? Americans must get beyond fear of rejection and be open and frank with each other if we are to have real understanding between different religious faiths.

Beverly LaHaye (left) is the founder of Concerned Women for America. Her husband, Tim LaHaye (right), is co-author of the Left Behind novels, fictionalized accounts of End Times and the Rapture of true believers.

One wonders: Does Rabbi Lapin withhold these facts from the LaHayes, or do the LaHayes know and withhold it from their CWA members?

Dr. Sigmund Freud

Of all the complexes Dr. Freud allegedly found in the human subconscious, the Oedipus complex is probably the most well-known. According to Freud, a child lusts carnally for the flesh of his mother and yearns to replace his father in the marriage bed. The world was deeply shocked by Freud's statement when he published it. Freud said the world's denial was really an affirmation of his theory, but some scholars have a different perspective.

"One of the cornerstones of psychoanalysis is the Oedipus complex. According to the generally accepted version during a session of self-analysis Freud unearthed a childhood memory of being sexually aroused by seeing his mother naked (Ernest Jones, 1961). However, as Webster pointed out there is no evidence whatsoever that this episode ever occurred. What Freud wrote about his discovery to Fliess was that he remembered a long train journey, and because it was so long he deduces that he might have had the opportunity of seeing his mother naked. He then deduced further that he might have been aroused by the scene. Although the incident might have happened, there is a good probability that the memory Freud recovered was in fact false (Webster, 1996). Soon after Freud uncovered these memories from his own childhood he postulated a universal law — the Oedipus complex."(34)

Dr. Freud's work loses the sparkle of originality when seen in the light of the Talmud doctrines that formed a part of his cultural background.

Oedipus gouges out his own eyes (unidentified dramatic production).

Sophocles (the playwright, 496-406 BC), his Greek audience, and the hundred generations of audiences since that time have viewed the life of Oedipus as a profound tragedy. His unintentional marriage with his mother is not the fulfillment of a subconscious wish for either of them, but an accident ordained by the Fates. When they learn the truth, Oedipus blinds himself in grief and horror, and his mother, Jocasta, commits suicide.

In contrast, the Talmud Sages discuss Oedipal intercourse casually as though it were a common occurrence in family life. The issue of concern for the Sages is whether such a woman is still fit to marry a priest:

If a woman sported lewdly with her young son [a minor], and he committed the first stage of cohabitation with her, — Beth Shammai say, he thereby renders her unfit to the priesthood. Beth Hillel declare her fit. — Sanhedrin 69b

House of Freud's birth, 1859, in Pribor, Czech Republic, formerly known as Freiberg, Moravia.(20)

Freud came from a Hasidic family and always asserted his Jewishness, joining B'nai B'rith in his later years. Using a search string such as "Freud Hasidic" with an Internet search engine brings up a wealth of information. The American Jewish Congress publishes an article that states, "Freud saw psychoanalysis as a 'metamorphosed extension of Judaism'."(17) As Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz tells us, "In many ways the Talmud is the most important book in Jewish culture, the backbone of creativity and of national life. No other work has had a comparable influence on the theory and practice of Jewish life, shaping spiritual content and serving as a guide to conduct."(35) The Talmud discusses sexual activity between mother and son as a commonplace.

Some of Freud's borrowings from Judaism seem to have been even more direct — During his lifetime, a guest once found seminal books on Jewish mysticism in Freud's personal library.(18) The links between psychoanalysis and Judaic religion, both direct and indirect, are recognized by many scholars.

"The Lurianic Kabbalah represents the most complex and sophisticated variant of Jewish mystical theosophy. As transmitted by his disciples (notably Chayyim Vital, 1542-1620, see Menzi and Padeh, 1999), and later interpreted by the Hasidim, Isaac Luria's dynamic understanding and reformulation of the symbols of the Zohar, provides a theological scheme which cries out to be interpreted in psychological terms. Freud is reported to have exclaimed 'This is gold!' when presented with a German translation of one of the Lurianic works (Bakan, 1971), and Jung once wrote that 'a full understanding of the Jewish origins of psychoanalysis would carry us beyond Jewish Orthodoxy into the subterranean workings of Hasidism and then into the intricacies of the Kabbalah which still remain unexplored psychologically' (Jung, 1975, p. 358-9)." — Dr. Drob (16)

Upon learning of these things, one is confronted with two questions: Why didn't Freud tell us the source of his doctrines, and why didn't rabbis who were familiar with Jewish mysticism, point out the similarities at the time?

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, "national radio talk show host on political, economic, and cultural values, and the author of two best sellers … Rabbi Lapin was recently appointed by President Bush to a three-year term on the Government's Commission on U.S. Heritage."(14)

"Rabbi Daniel Lapin is President of Toward Tradition, a national educational movement of Jews and Christian Americans seeking to advance the nation toward traditional, faith based principles of government, the rule of law, and a moral public culture."(30)

In reading this, a Christian might not inquire to which traditions and laws Rabbi Lapin would advance the country. Christian traditions and laws concerning sex and children are very different from Jewish law.

The Very Reverend The Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, the late Dr. Joseph H. Hertz

"This is not the place to speak of the influence of the Talmud; how throughout the centuries of persecution and darkness, it saved Israel from intellectual and moral degradation. My purpose is merely to give a brief presentation of the Talmud as a book. I shall therefore conclude with the words of I. Abrahams. ‘The Talmud,’ he says, ‘is one of the great books of the world. Rabbinism was a sequel to the Bible; and if, like all sequels, it was unequal to its original, it nevertheless shares its greatness. The works of all Jews up to the modern period were the sequel to this sequel. Through them all may be detected the unifying principle that literature in its truest sense includes life itself; that intellect is the handmaid to conscience; and that the best books are those which best teach men how to live. The maxim, Righteousness delivers from death, applies to books as well as to men. A literature whose consistent theme is Righteousness, is immortal." — Rabbi Hertz(32)

We are told there is a movement afoot to make pederasty (child-adult sex) socially acceptable and legally permissible. Researching the issue, we find that many dominant voices on both sides of the controversy are Jewish.

How is this possible? Which voices speak for the core values of Judaism? Our questions are not prompted by idle curiosity, but by social concern. America is rapidly becoming Talmudized, and we should understand the direction in which our social policies are moving.

Let us start with an article in the Washington Times, a major newspaper that espouses conservative Christian values. The Times provides a useful starting point because they name names. Let us borrow the Times' viewpoint.

Jewish Bad Guys

Feminist writer Judith Levine's book Not Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Kids from Sex has been condemned by those who say she excuses sexual abuse of children — a charge she strongly denies.

Ms. Levine says she was "misunderstood" after a news article last month quoted her saying a boy's sexual experience with a priest "conceivably" could be positive.

— Washington Times(1)

The Washington Times depicts Harris Mirkin as follows:

Harris Mirkin, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, published a 1999 article in the Journal of Homosexuality complaining that boys who have sex with men "are never considered willing participants, even if they are hustlers." He has also written that "children are the last bastion of the old sexual morality."

— Washington Times(1)

The Washington Times cites a controversial psychology research study:

A 1998 "meta-analytic" study in an American Psychological Association (APA) journal argued, among other things, that "value-neutral" language such as "adult-child sex" should be used to describe child molestation if it was a "willing encounter."

— Washington Times(1)

The study was conducted by Bruce Rind, Robert Bauserman, and Philip Tromovitch, and was published in the Psychological Bulletin in 1998 under the editorship of Nancy Eisenberg.(4)

Jewish Good Guys

Here come the good guys. Meet Joy Silberg.

Ms. Levine's book favorably cites the Rind study and, in a telephone interview, she defended the study as "methodologically meticulous." But Baltimore psychologist Joy Silberg, whose clinical practice involves treating child-abuse victims, says the study is "horribly flawed."

"I can't call it science," she said.

… Ms. Silberg, the Baltimore psychologist, agrees that the "whole academic movement" to legitimize sex with children "is growing."

— Washington Times(1)

Now comes Dr. Laura Schlessinger:

Radio host Laura Schlessinger led a campaign against that study by Temple University psychology professor Bruce Rind and two other academics. Congress eventually voted unanimously to condemn the Rind study — which has already been used as evidence to defend accused child molesters in at least three court cases.

— Washington Times(1)

Dr. Laura is, of course, widely considered a shining example of moral rectitude. She is famous for her denunciation of homosexuality,(7) and very popular with those who call themselves fundamentalist Christians. As one of America's best-known Orthodox Jews, Dr. Laura received the 2001 National Heritage Award from the National Council of Young Israel, an organization of 150 Orthodox synagogues in the US. The executive vice president of Young Israel is Rabbi Pesach Lerner. The following report comes from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The program for the National Council of Young Israel dinner described Schlessinger as "a powerful source of inspiration and pride for all Jews." The mainly right-leaning Orthodox Jews filling the large room applauded her, and many approached her afterward to ask for autographs and declare their admiration …

— Jewish Telegraphic Agency(2)

We are told that Schlessinger is a member of a Lubavitch synagogue, Chabad of Agoura, in suburban Los Angeles. Then:

Schlessinger's rabbi, Moshe Bryski, insists that his most famous congregant is serious about the moral questions she receives, researching Jewish ethics and frequently calling him to consult on issues that arise on her show.

"There is a sense of responsibility because at times she'll call me about specific questions, and I realize the answer is going to be broadcast to 20 million people, and I better get it right," Bryski says.

— Jewish Telegraphic Agency(2)

The Jewish publication, Forward, also covered Dr. Laura's Young Israel award.

The executive director of Young Israel, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, said Ms. Schlessinger was chosen because of her success "in changing the moral compass of this country," on issues such as abortion, abstinence and homosexuality. He also cited her personal religious journey that eventually led her to adopt an Orthodox lifestyle.

— Forward(5)

No doubt Rabbi Bryski listens to Dr. Laura' show to see how his student is doing. Given her fame as an Orthodox Jew, we might expect that some of the rabbis affiliated with the 150 Orthodox synagogues in the Young Israel organization would listen in, too.

Jewish law, of course, is based primarily on the Talmud, which Jews often call the "Torah."(48) Let's follow Dr. Laura, Rabbi Bryski, and Young Israel directly to the source of their doctrines, the Talmud. We will ask the reader to be patient and tolerant when reading this material, even though some of these ideas may be very new.

(Note: When excerpting quotations from the Talmud, we sometimes omit non-germane text and footnotes. Omission of text is indicated by an ellipsis (…). To see the full text and footnotes, follow the hot link at the end of the excerpt. It is our pleasure to make available on line a number of Talmud tractates, so that you can see the excerpt in full context. We indicate unprintable Hebrew characters, words, and phrases with the symbol [H].)

Talmud Permits Child-Adult Sex

Talmud law permits sexual intercourse between children and adults. This doctrine is contained in a number of Mishnahs. Before we examine them, however, it is necessary that the reader be familiar with the word kethubah.

According to the Soncino Talmud Glossary:

KETHUBAH (Lit., 'a written [document]'); (a) a wife's marriage settlement which she is entitled to recover on her being divorced or on the death of her husband. The minimum settlement for a virgin is two hundred zuz, and for a widow remarrying one hundred zuz; (b) the marriage contract specifying the mutual obligations between husband and wife and containing the amount of the endowment and any other special financial obligations assumed by the husband.

— Babylonian Talmud, Soncino Talmud Glossary

Zuz is a unit of currency. We see, then, that a dollar (or zuz) value is put on virginity.

Now let's look at a Mishnah from Kethuboth 11a:

MISHNAH. WHEN A GROWN-UP MAN (7) HAS HAD SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH (8) A LITTLE GIRL, (9) OR WHEN A SMALL BOY (10) HAS INTERCOURSE WITH A GROWN-UP WOMAN, OR [WHEN A GIRL WAS ACCIDENTALLY] INJURED BY A PIECE OF WOOD (11) — [IN ALL THESE CASES] THEIR KETHUBAH IS TWO HUNDRED [ZUZ] …

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 11a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 57

The translator, Rabbi Dr. Samuel Daiches, amplifies the text with footnotes:

A man who was of age.
Lit., 'who came on'.
Less than three years old.
Less than nine years of age.
Lit., 'One who was injured by wood', as a result of which she injured the hymen.

— Rabbi Dr. Daiches

Let's review the above-cited Mishnah: "When a grown-up man has had sexual intercourse with a little girl, or when a small boy has intercourse with a grown-up woman …" It is obvious that sex activity between a grown man and a little girl, and between a grown woman and a little boy, is a part of the woof and the warp of everyday Talmud life; such relationships, in the eyes of the Sages, are unremarkable. There is no prohibition on sexual activity between adults and young children — it is simply regulated. Recall the words of the Very Reverend the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire the late Dr. Joseph Herman Hertz:

Religion in the Talmud attempts to penetrate the whole of human life with the sense of law and right. Nothing human is in its eyes mean or trivial; everything is regulated and sanctified by religion. Religious precept and duty accompany man from his earliest years to the grave and beyond it. They guide his desires and actions at every moment.

— Rabbi Dr. Hertz(38)

Thus, if the Talmud permits girls three years old and younger to be sexually used by adults, that is the law. The concern of the Sages is to ensure that the adult is not, technically speaking, in violation of any of the rules.

Regenerating Virginity

In the Gemara that follows the Mishnah of Kethuboth 11a (cited above), the Sages discuss the issues. They say having intercourse with a girl younger than three is like putting a finger in the eye. Rabbi Dr. Daiches explains in the footnotes that, just as tears come to the eye again and again, so does virginity come back to the little girl under three years.

GEMARA. Rab Judah said that Rab said: A small boy who has intercourse with a grown-up woman makes her [as though she were] injured by a piece of wood. (1) When I said it before Samuel he said: 'Injured by a piece of wood' does not apply to (2) flesh. Some teach this teaching by itself: (3) [As to] a small boy who has intercourse with a grown-up woman, Rab said, he makes her [as though she were] injured by a piece of wood; whereas Samuel said: 'Injured by a piece of wood' does not apply to flesh. R. Oshaia objected: WHEN A GROWN-UP MAN HAS HAD INTERCOURSE WITH A LITTLE GIRL, OR WHEN A SMALL BOY HAS INTERCOURSE WITH A GROWN-UP WOMAN, OR WHEN A GIRL WAS ACCIDENTALLY INJURED BY A PIECE OF WOOD — [IN ALL THESE CASES] THEIR KETHUBAH IS TWO HUNDRED [ZUZ]; SO ACCORDING TO R. MEIR. BUT THE SAGES SAY: A GIRL WHO WAS INJURED ACCIDENTALLY BY A PIECE OF WOOD — HER KETHUBAH IS A MANEH! (4) Raba said, It means (5) this: When a grown-up man has intercourse with a little girl it is nothing, for when the girl is less than this, (6) it is as if one puts the finger into the eye; (7) but when a small boy has intercourse with a grown-up woman he makes her as 'a girl who is injured by a piece of wood,' and [with regard to the case of] 'a girl injured by a piece of wood,' itself, there is the difference of opinion between R. Meir and the Sages.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 11b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 57-58

Rabbi Dr. Samuel Daiches amplifies the text with footnotes (page 58):

Although the intercourse of a small boy is not regarded as a sexual act, nevertheless the woman is injured by it as by a piece of wood.
Lit., 'is not in'.
I.e., the difference of opinion between Rab and Samuel with regard to that question was recorded without any reference to R. Judah.
The Sages differ only with regard to a girl injured by a piece of wood, but not with regard to a small boy who has intercourse with a grown-up woman. This shows that the latter case cannot be compared with the former case. The Mishnah would consequently be against Rab and for Samuel.
Lit., 'says'.
Lit., 'here', that is, less than three years old.
I.e., tears come to the eye again and again, so does virginity come back to the little girl under three years. Cf. Nid. 45a.

— Rabbi Dr. Daiches

To a person unaccustomed with the Talmud culture, it may seem that discussion of sexual intercourse between grown men and very young girls is merely theoretical. But as we shall see, cases are cited, judgments are weighed and debated, and the Sages discuss the wounds suffered by the young girls as a result of the intercourse.

More on Regenerating Virginity

We know that the amount of a woman's kethubah depends on her virginity on her wedding day. But what of a woman who, as a little girl below the age of three years, was raped or otherwise subjected to sexual intercourse? The Sages rule that the kethubah of such a woman is set as if she were still a virgin.

MISHNAH. A WOMAN PROSELYTE, A WOMAN CAPTIVE, AND A WOMAN SLAVE, WHO HAVE BEEN REDEEMED, CONVERTED, OR FREED [WHEN THEY WERE] LESS THAN THREE YEARS AND ONE DAY OLD — THEIR KETHUBAH IS TWO HUNDRED [ZUZ]. AND THERE IS WITH REGARD TO THEM THE CLAIM OF [NON-]VIRGINITY. (17)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 11a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 54

This seems like a generous and humanitarian ruling, the creation of a legal fiction of virginity when the woman is no longer physiologically a virgin. But Dr. Daiches corrects us. He tells us that, according to the Sages, the hymen of a girl younger than three literally grows back again.

If they had sexual intercourse before they were three years and one day old the hymen would grow again, and they would be virgins. V. 9a and 11b and cf. Nid. 44b and 45a.

— Rabbi Dr. Daiches(25)

See also the discussion of Niddah 44b and 45a, below.

As we continue to explore the Talmud doctrines on child-adult sex, we will see further confirmation that the Talmud Sages believed that the hymen regenerates in a girl younger than three.

"… Of Lesser Age, No Guilt is Incurred"

In modern America, sex between an adult and a child is condemned in proportion to the youth of the child. That is, Americans generally consider sex with a fifteen year old, a twelve year old, a six year old, and a three-year-old on a continuous scale of condemnation. The younger the child, the greater the condemnation.

Talmudic law works on the reverse scale: sex with younger children is less significant than sex with older children. How did this doctrine come about?

Scripture states thus:

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

— Leviticus 18:22 (KJV)

The Old Testament prohibits a man lying with a man; but notice, the Old Testament does not prohibit a man lying with a boy. Thus, the Talmud Sages arrive at their position on pederasty. In the following, bestiality said to be committed "naturally" when a man uses the vaginal passage of the beast, and "unnaturally" when a man uses the anal passage of the beast. The Sages make a similar distinction for the couplings of a woman with a beast.

GEMARA. … Rab said: Pederasty with a child below nine years of age is not deemed as pederasty with a child above that. Samuel said: Pederasty with a child below three years is not treated as with a child above that. (2) What is the basis of their dispute? — Rab maintains that only he who is able to engage in sexual intercourse, may, as the passive subject of pederasty throw guilt [upon the active offender]; whilst he who is unable to engage in sexual intercourse cannot be a passive subject of pederasty [in that respect]. (3) But Samuel maintains: Scripture writes, [And thou shalt not lie with mankind] as with the lyings of a woman. (4)

It has been taught in accordance with Rab: Pederasty at the age of nine years and a day; [55a] [he] who commits bestiality, whether naturally or unnaturally; or a woman who causes herself to be bestially abused, whether naturally or unnaturally, is liable to punishment. (5)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 54b - 55a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 371

The translator, Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, amplifies the text with footnotes. Note particularly footnote 2: "… but if one committed sodomy with a child of lesser age, no guilt is incurred." See also the final sentence of footnote 5: "… nine years (and a day) is the minimum age of the passive partner for the adult to be liable." (See Soncino Talmud Glossary for definition of Baraitha.)

I.e., Rab makes nine years the minimum; but if one committed sodomy with a child of lesser age, no guilt is incurred. Samuel makes three the minimum.
At nine years a male attains sexual matureness.

Lev. XVIII, 22. Thus the point of comparison is the sexual matureness of woman, which is reached at the age of three.
(Rashi reads [H] instead of the [H] in our printed texts. A male, aged nine years and a day who commits etc.] There are thus three distinct clauses in this Baraitha. The first — a male aged nine years and a day — refers to the passive subject of pederasty, the punishment being incurred by the adult offender. This must be its meaning — because firstly, the active offender is never explicitly designated as a male, it being understood, just as the Bible states, Thou shalt not lie with mankind, where only the sex of the passive participant is mentioned; and secondly, if the age reference is to the active party, the guilt being incurred by the passive adult party, why single out pederasty: in all crimes of incest, the passive adult does not incur guilt unless the other party is at least nine years and a day? Hence the Baraitha supports Rab's contention that nine years (and a day) is the minimum age of the passive partner for the adult to be liable.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman

The plain English meaning of the Talmud text is clear, but if there is any doubt, the Soncino scholars put the matter to rest: No guilt is incurred with a boy child younger than nine, even in incest. Thus we see that Orthodox Jewish doctrines concerning homosexuality are not accurately represented by Dr. Laura and other Orthodox spokesmen.

Out of Context?

When quoted, those passages in Tractate Sanhedrin 54b and 55a are sometimes said to be taken out of context. Theologian James Trimm is one who makes this protest.(6) But now the full context of Sanhedrin 54b and 55a — and indeed, the complete Sanhedrin — is available to the readers of Come and Hear™.

Rabbi Michael Rodkinson, whose English translation of the Talmud was republished in 1918, censored the Sages' teaching on this issue. The 1918 Edition of Rabbi Rodkinson's Talmud was published under the editorship of Rabbi Dr. I. M. Wise, the pioneer of Reform Judaism. Rabbi Rodkinson explains his censorship in a footnote:

We deem it expedient not to translate about two pages of the text preceding the next Mishna, treating of miserable crimes with men and animals, and giving the discussion with questions and answers, it would be undesirable to express in the English language …

— Rabbi Rodkinson(26)

For further discussion, see "Rabbi Rodkinson Censors the Talmud" in Do Not Censor the Talmud, Please.

Censorship, expurgation, and denial of the clear and obvious meaning of basic religious text do not help inter-religious understanding. It does not help people of different religions understand each others' faiths. See What We're About.

The lack of reliable authoritative information on the doctrines of Judaic law is a significant problem as American society and law becomes more Talmudized. Such information gaps can cause unwanted societal consequences.

America Is Rapidly Becoming Talmudized

In 1999, the Supreme Court agreed to consider an amicus brief based wholly on Talmudic law (see Sentence and Execution).

In November 2002, the American Orthodox Jewish community held a kosher dinner in the Supreme Court building to celebrate the establishment of the National Institute for Judaic Law.(31) The dinner was attended by 200 people, including three Supreme Court Justices. The purpose of the Institute is to introduce Talmudic laws into the US legal system and law schools.

It is thus the clear civic duty of every American to become intimately acquainted with the Talmud. Read articles at:
Death Penalty: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/capunish_1.html
Kosher Dinner: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jp-11-09-2002 and http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jw-01-08-03

Oedipal Incest

According to Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman (footnote 5, above), in Sanhedrin 54b-55a the Sages confirm, "in all crimes of incest, the passive adult does not incur guilt unless the other party is at least nine years and a day." Therefore, a mother who encourages her son to have sexual intercourse with her incurs no guilt if her son is younger than nine years old and a day. In such an arrangement, the mother would be the "passive" adult, of course.

Adult Male Homosexuality

MISHNAH. HE WHO COMMITS SODOMY WITH A MALE OR A BEAST, AND A WOMAN THAT COMMITS BESTIALITY ARE STONED.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 54a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 367

This clears matters up. Consenting adults who engage in homosexuality suffer the death penalty. But homosexuality with a male child under the age of nine years and a day is not punishable (Sanhedrin 54b-55a, above). Recall Rabbi Dr. Freedman's clear statement of the doctrine:

I.e., Rab makes nine years the minimum; but if one committed sodomy with a child of lesser age, no guilt is incurred. Samuel makes three the minimum.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman(21)

Female Homosexuality

But what of female homosexuality?

GEMARA. … Women who practise lewdness with one another are disqualified from marrying a priest.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yebamoth 76a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 512 - 513

The same statement appears in Shabbath 65a, page 311. The ruling, then, is only that a woman who "commits lewdness" with another is disqualified from marrying a priest. Thus a woman who never had ambitions to marry a priest suffers no sanction for her homosexual activity.

All of this paints a different picture of Orthodox Jewish doctrine on homosexuality — as enshrined in the G-d-given law of the Talmud. What would Dr. Laura say if she knew? Or does she?

More on Oedipal Incest

In the following passage, the question before the Sages is this: If a mother committed incest with her son, would she still be eligible to marry a priest? As we shall see, the answer depends on the son's age. Again, incest with a young boy is not a concern, while incest with an older boy brings consequences to the adult. Here, the Sages debate the threshold age.

GEMARA. … Our Rabbis taught: If a woman sported lewdly with her young son [a minor], and he committed the first stage of cohabitation with her, — Beth Shammai say, he thereby renders her unfit to the priesthood. Beth Hillel declare her fit. R. Hiyya the son of Rabbah b. Nahmani said in R. Hisda's name; others state, R. Hisda said in Ze'iri's name: All agree that the connection of a boy aged nine years and a day is a real connection; whilst that of one less than eight years is not: (2) their dispute refers only to one who is eight years old, Beth Shammai maintaining, We must base our ruling on the earlier generations, but (3) Beth Hillel hold that we do not.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 69b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 470

The translator, Dr. Freedman, uses "cohabitation" to denote sexual intercourse.(32) He amplifies the text with footnotes.

So that if he was nine years and a day or more, Beth Hillel agree that she is invalidated from the priesthood; whilst if he was less that eight, Beth Shammai agree that she is not
When a boy of that age could cause conception.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman

The issue rests on the boy's theoretical ability to cause conception. Since (theoretically) a boy younger than nine cannot cause conception, he cannot (theoretically) engage in sexual intercourse (see above, frompage 58, footnote 1, "… the intercourse of a small boy is not regarded as a sexual act"). This is a specialized definition of sexual intercourse.

The boy's youth also exempts the man who sodomizes him — from moral guilt and legal liability. That is, the young boy cannot "throw guilt" on a man who lies with him, and the Scripture does not apply. If the boy is old enough to cause conception, the man who lies with him is in violation of Scripture.

And now we have the answer to a question that might have occurred to the reader when we discussed incest between mother and son, above: Why wouldn't a mother like that be charged with incest? We have seen this explanation from Rabbi Dr. Freedman before, but it warrants further study. In a synthesis of logical premises unique to Talmudism, the translator again helps us out with a footnote. The language is complex, but the meaning of the last few lines is clear: By reckoning back and forth between the definition of "man," "cause conception," "active," and "passive" participants in a sexual act, the conclusion is drawn that incest is not punishable with a boy younger than nine years old.

[Rashi reads [H] instead of the [H] in our printed texts. A male, aged nine years and a day who commits etc.] There are thus three distinct clauses in this Baraitha. The first — a male aged nine years and a day — refers to the passive subject of pederasty, the punishment being incurred by the adult offender. This must be its meaning — because firstly, the active offender is never explicitly designated as a male, it being understood, just as the Bible states, Thou shalt not lie with mankind, where only the sex of the passive participant is mentioned; and secondly, if the age reference is to the active party, the guilt being incurred by the passive adult party, why single out pederasty: in all crimes of incest, the passive adult does not incur guilt unless the other party is at least nine years and a day? Hence the Baraitha supports Rab's contention that nine years (and a day) is the minimum age of the passive partner for the adult to be liable.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman(24)

American Puritanism vs. Rabbinic Tradition

Forward reports criticism of Young Israel's award to Dr. Laura.

The problem, according to her liberal critics, is that Ms. Schlessinger pushes a conservative, pro-life platform that is out of touch with the mostly liberal American Jewish public. Worse, they say, is that her "sanctimonious" moralism and harsh style are more a reflection of American Puritanism than the ancient rabbinic tradition.

"It's sad that with all the outstanding individuals doing great work, the National Council of Young Israel has chosen someone whose comments have been so divisive within and outside of the Jewish community," said Rabbi Douglas Kahn, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco.

Rabbi Kahn said he was referring in particular to the controversy sparked by Ms. Schlessinger's claim that homosexuality is "deviant" and a "biological error." Last year gay rights organizations and other liberal groups organized a boycott of Ms. Schlessinger's new television show, which was eventually canceled due to poor ratings.

More than a dozen Jewish leaders signed a critical letter to Ms. Schlessinger, including Rabbi Paul Menitoff, the executive vice president of the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis.

— Forward(5)

Indeed, Rabbis Kahn, Menitoff, and other Reform rabbis are right. Dr. Laura is not representing "the ancient rabbinic tradition," which allows ample room for homosexuality and pederasty. But why didn't Rabbis Kahn and Menitoff and their Reform colleagues publicly correct Dr. Laura and her Orthodox mentors, in particular Rabbi Moshe Bryski, by using the authority of direct quotes from the Talmud?

Children as Concubines, Babies as Wives

The ancient Hebrews were permitted to use children as concubines. Moses established the precedent. In the passage below, the Hebrews have just massacred the Midianite men. They return home with booty, and the Midianite women and children. Moses directs them to slaughter the captive women and children with this exception: virgin girl children are to be kept as concubines for the Hebrews.

And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.

And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

— Numbers 31:12-18 (KJV)

In the following, the Talmud Sages reason that, since Phinehas was among the Hebrews who were permitted a child concubine and Phinehas was a priest, Numbers 31:17-18 is Divine sanction for the marriage of priests with girls under the age of three — babies. The rabbis describe the babies as proselytes. The American Heritage Dictionary defines proselyte as "a Gentile converted to Judaism." In the following passage, a bondman is a male slave, and a bondwoman a female slave.

GEMARA. … It was taught: R. Simeon b. Yohai stated: A proselyte who is under the age of three years and one day is permitted to marry a priest, (2) for it is said, But all the women children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves, (3) and Phinehas (4) surely was with them. And the Rabbis? (5) — [These were kept alive] as bondmen and bondwomen. (6) If so, (7) a proselyte whose age is three years and one day (8) should also be permitted! — [The prohibition is to be explained] in accordance with R. Huna. For R. Huna pointed out a contradiction: It is written, Kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him, (9) but if she hath not known, save her alive; from this it may be inferred that children are to be kept alive whether they have known or have not known [a man]; and, on the other hand, it is also written, But all the women children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves, (3) but do not spare them if they have known. Consequently (10) it must be said that Scripture speaks of one who is fit (11) for cohabitation. (12)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yebamoth 60b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 402

This is a special definition of cohabitation. The translator, Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki, amplifies the text with footnotes:

She is not regarded as a harlot.
Num. XXXI, 18.
Who was a priest.
How could they, contrary to the opinion of R. Simeon b. Yohai, which has Scriptural support, forbid the marriage of the young proselyte?
Not for matrimony.
That, according to R. Simeon, Num. XXXI, 18 refers to matrimony.
So long as she has 'not known man'.
Num. XXXI, 17.
To reconcile the contradiction.
I.e., one who had attained the age of three years and one day.
Not one who had actually experienced it.

— Rev. Dr. Slotki

The doctrine that Jewish men may have sexual intercourse with non-Jewish children ("proselytes") under the age of three is expanded in the following passage; "Rabbi" is Judah the Prince.

GEMARA. … R. Jacob b. Idi stated in the name of R. Joshua b. Levi: The halachah is in agreement with R. Simeon b. Yohai. (13) Said R. Zera to R. Jacob b. Idi: Did you hear this (13) explicitly or did you learn it by a deduction? What [could be the] deduction? — As R. Joshua b. Levi related: There was a certain town in the Land of Israel the legitimacy of whose inhabitants was disputed, and Rabbi sent R. Romanos who conducted an enquiry and found in it the daughter of a proselyte who was under the age of three years and one day, (14) and Rabbi declared her eligible to live with a priest. (15)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yebamoth 60b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 403

The translator, Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki, amplifies the text with footnotes:

That a proselyte under the age of three years and one day may be married by a priest.
And was married to a priest.
I.e., permitted her to continue to live with her husband.

— Rev. Dr. Slotki

Not every Sage agreed with this practice. The Talmud records the words of one Sage who objected to one case, though it does not record the specifics of his objection.

GEMARA. … A certain priest married a proselyte who was under the age of three years and one day. Said R. Nahman b. Isaac to him: What [do you mean by] this? (12) — The other replied: Because R. Jacob b. Idi stated in the name of R. Joshua b. Levi that the halachah is in agreement with R. Simeon b. Yohai. (13) 'Go', the first said, 'and arrange for her release, or else I will pull R. Jacob b. Idi out of your ear'. (14)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yebamoth 60b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 404

The translator, Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki, amplifies the text with footnotes:

I.e., on what authority did you contract the marriage.
V. supra p. 403. n. 13.
He would place him under the ban and thus compel him to carry out his decision which is contrary to that of R. Jacob b. Idi.

— Rev. Dr. Slotki

How Old Is the Screamer?

In Talmud doctrine, if a wife is a screamer — that is, her voice can be heard by the neighbors — she can be divorced without her kethubah.

MISHNAH. THESE ARE TO BE DIVORCED WITHOUT RECEIVING THEIR KETHUBAH: A WIFE WHO TRANSGRESSES THE LAW OF MOSES OR [ONE WHO TRANSGRESSES] JEWISH PRACTICE … [SUCH TRANSGRESSIONS INCLUDE] ALSO THAT OF A WIFE WHO CURSES HER HUSBAND'S PARENTS IN HIS PRESENCE. R. TARFON SAID: ALSO ONE WHO SCREAMS. AND WHO IS REGARDED A SCREAMER? A WOMAN WHOSE VOICE CAN BE HEARD BY HER NEIGHBOURS WHEN SHE SPEAKS INSIDE HER HOUSE.

— Babylonian Talmud, Kethuboth 72a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 449

However, in the current context of the child bride, the matter becomes another issue. It is surely possible that a three or four-year-old wife screams in pain when required to perform her marital duties. On reading further, the Gemara explains that if the wife screams during intercourse, it may be a sign of a physical defect.

GEMARA. … R. TARFON SAID: ALSO ONE WHO SCREAMS. What is meant by a screamer? — Rab Judah replied in the name of Samuel: One who speaks aloud (10) on marital matters. In a Baraitha it was taught: [By screams was meant a wife] whose voice (11) during her intercourse in one court can be heard in another court. But should not this, then, (12) have been taught in the Mishnah (13) among defects? (14) — Clearly we must revert to the original explanation. (15)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 72b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 453

Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki amplifies the above Gemara in the following footnotes. He tells us these were not screams of pleasure — they were screams of pain.

Lit., 'makes her voice heard'.
Her screams of pain caused by the copulation.
Since her screaming is due to a bodily defect.
Infra 77a.
Of course it should. Such a case in our Mishnah is out of place.
That given in the name of Samuel.

— Rev. Dr. Slotki

In some cases, however, the screaming wife may be one who is so young and physically underdeveloped, her sexual organs cannot accommodate those of a grown man. It seems this child is at risk of being divorced without her kethubah. That is, of course, a concern.

A Different Viewpoint

There is no Talmud prohibition against sexual activity between an adult and very a young child on the basis that such activity could wound the child. Instead, the concern of the Sages is focused on interpreting Biblical injunctions and technicalities that absolve the adult from guilt or liability: At what age, they ask, does the child begin to cause "defilement" of the adult who uses the child for sex?

This next passage illustrates the point once more. The Sages debate "from what age does a heathen child cause defilement"? Is it nine years, or is it three years? If the correct threshold age is observed, the Jew incurs no guilt for the act of pederasty.

GEMARA. … From what age does a heathen child cause defilement by seminal emission? From the age of nine years and one day, [37a] for inasmuch as he is then capable of the sexual act he likewise defiles by emission. Rabina said: It is therefore to be concluded that a heathen girl [communicates defilement] from the age of three years and one day, for inasmuch as she is then capable of the sexual act she likewise defiles by a flux. This is obvious! — You might argue that he is at an age when he knows to persuade [a female] but she is not at an age when she knows to persuade [a male, and consequently although she is technically capable of the sexual act, she does not cause defilement until she is nine years and one day old]. Hence he informs us [that she communicates defilement at the earlier age].

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Abodah Zarah 36b-37a
Soncino 1961 Edition, pages 178-179

This may surprise the American reader who encounters it for the first time. In our society, of course, an adult who uses a child — particularly a very young child — for sexual activity is criminally censured.

Brother Takes Three-Year-Old Widow

In Tractate Niddah, again there is approval for priests to marry and copulate with baby girls. This passage describes a situation in which a priest dies without children, leaving a three-year-old widow. In such case, the priest's brother (the yebam) can acquire the girl by having sexual intercourse with her. The ellipsis (…) in the following Mishna indicates the omission of non-germane text. The full text is available through the link at the Come and Hear™ link, below.

MISHNAH. A GIRL OF THE AGE OF THREE YEARS AND ONE DAY MAY BE BETROTHED BY INTERCOURSE; … IF SHE WAS MARRIED TO A PRIEST, SHE MAY EAT TERUMAH.

— Babylonian Talmud Tractate Niddah 44b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 308

Terumah is the word for temple offerings eaten by priests. This statement indicates that the three-year-old bride is the widow of the priest in all respects and privileges.

In the passage below, we see that the widow of a man who is not a priest can be sexually possessed by her erstwhile brother-in-law and thereby become his wife.

GEMARA. … R. Joseph said: Come and hear! A maiden aged three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by coition, and if her deceased husband's brother cohabits with her, she becomes his.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 55b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 376

The statement quoted above from Tractate Sanhedrin 55b also appears in Tractate Sanhedrin 69a, Soncino 1961 Edition, page 469.

Wounding Young Brides by Intercourse

The Sages go on to discuss sexual intercourse with a girl younger than three years old: Wounding the child and causing her to bleed is one possible result. From the Sages' description, it is apparent that the baby bleeds again and again from copulation with a grown man, and the Sages, once again, attribute the bleeding to the repetitive rupturing of the hymen (i.e., virginity growing back).

In the following Mishnah, non-germane text is omitted (…). Please follow the source link to view the complete Mishnah.

MISHNAH. A GIRL OF THE AGE OF THREE YEARS AND ONE DAY MAY BE BETROTHED BY INTERCOURSE; … IF ONE WAS YOUNGER THAN THIS AGE INTERCOURSE WITH HER IS LIKE PUTTING A FINGER IN THE EYE.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 44b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 309

The image of "a finger in the eye" is once again explained in the following Gemara. The possibility that the three-year-old committed adultery with a stranger is also addressed:

GEMARA. … IF ONE WAS YOUNGER THAN THIS AGE, INTERCOURSE WITH HER IS LIKE PUTTING A FINGER IN THE EYE. It was asked, Do the features of virginity disappear and reappear again or is it possible that they cannot be completely destroyed until after the third year of her age? In what practical respect could this matter? — In one, for instance, where her husband had intercourse with her before the age of three and found blood, and when he had intercourse after the age of three he found no blood. If you grant that they disappear and reappear again [it might well be assumed] that there 'was not sufficient time for their reappearance, but if you maintain that they cannot be destroyed until after the age of three years it would be obvious that a stranger cohabited with her. Now what is your decision? — R. Hiyya son of R. Ika demurred: But who can tell us that a wound inflicted within the three years is not healed forthwith, seeing it is possible that it is immediately healed and it would thus be obvious that a stranger had cohabited with her? Rather the practical difference is the case, for instance, where her husband had intercourse with her while she was under three years of age and found blood and when he had intercourse after the age of three he also found blood. If you grant that the features disappear and reappear again the blood might well be treated as that of virginity, but if you maintain that they cannot be destroyed until after the age of three years, that must be the blood of menstruation. Now what is your decision? — R. Hisda replied, Come and hear: IF ONE WAS YOUNGER THAN THIS AGE, INTERCOURSE WITH HER IS LIKE PUTTING A FINGER IN THE EYE; what need was there to state, LIKE PUTTING A FINGER IN THE EYE' instead of merely saying: IF ONE WAS YOUNGER THAN THIS AGE, INTERCOURSE WITH HER IS of no consequence'? Does not this then teach us that as the eye tears and tears again so do the features of virginity disappear and reappear again.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 45a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 309-310

Rest for the Intercourse Wound

This Gemara from Tractate Kethuboth takes up the discussion of the pre-pubescent bride who is wounded by intercourse.

GEMARA. … R. Hisda objected: If a girl, whose period to see [blood] had not arrived yet, got married, Beth Shammai say: One gives her four nights, and the disciples of Hillel say: Until the wound is healed up. (1) If her period to see [blood] had arrived and she married, Beth Shammai say: One gives her the first night, and Beth Hillel say: Until the night following the Sabbath [one gives her] four nights.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 6a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 20-21

The translator, Rabbi Dr. Samuel Daiches, amplifies the text with this footnote.

The blood that comes out is attributed to the wound and not to menstruation. Ordinarily, after the first intercourse further intercourse is forbidden until the coming out of blood, i.e., menstruation, is over. But in this case, in which the young bride had never yet had any menstruation, it is assumed that the blood is not due to menstruation but to the wound caused by the intercourse. According to Beth Shammai this assumption holds good for four nights, and according to Beth Hillel it holds good 'until the wound is healed up.' As to the definition of this phrase, v. Nid. 64b. V. also Nid. 65b, where it is finally decided that after the first coition no further intercourse must take place until the flowing of blood has stopped, even in the case of a young bride who had not yet had any menstruation. V. also Eben ha-'Ezer, 63, and Yoreh De'ah, 193.

— Rabbi Dr. Daiches

We have been told that according to Jewish law, a post-pubescent bride who bleeds after the first intercourse does not have intercourse again until after her next menstrual period (above). The situation is different, however, for a bride who has not reached the age of menstruation. What are the rules concerning the bleeding pre-pubescent bride? Shammai rabbis say the intercourse wound should be given four nights rest. The Hillel rabbis recommend abstinence until the wound is healed (Kethuboth 6a). See also Tractate Niddah, as follows:

MISHNAH. IF A YOUNG GIRL, WHOSE AGE OF MENSTRUATION HAS NOT YET ARRIVED, MARRIED, BETH SHAMMAI RULED: SHE IS ALLOWED FOUR NIGHTS, AND BETH HILLEL RULED: UNTIL THE WOUND IS HEALED.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 64b
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 454

Again, there is no prohibition of a sexual practice that would almost certainly cause physical damage to a young girl due to the mismatched sizes of genitals between an adult's penis and a child's vagina or anus.

Old Fashioned Torah Values?

At a time when Americans are displaying an ever-increasing interest in all things Jewish — from kabbala to Senator Joseph Lieberman to "Kosher Sex" — Dr. Laura is the most popular source for a healthy dose of Jewish nagging, guilt trips and what she presents as lessons in good old-fashioned Torah values.

— Forward(5)

We have seen in Numbers 31:12-18 that Moses permitted grown men to use little girls as concubines. In the Talmud, grown men are permitted to have sexual intercourse with female babies and children, and homosexual relations with boys younger than nine.

Those "good old fashioned Torah values" are not quite as Christian America remembers them.

Marital Duties of the Pre-Pubescent Bride

The marital duties of the pre-pubescent brides are addressed in at least three tractates in almost the same words (Yebamoth 12b and 100b, Niddah 45a, and Kethuboth 39a).

In the following passage, the Sages discuss the use of contraception. All the Sages agree that a wife younger than eleven — a wife who is too young to become pregnant — is required to carry on "marital intercourse" in the normal manner. Recall that those brides can be as young as three, and sometimes younger.

GEMARA. … Three classes of woman may use an absorbent (1) in their marital intercourse: (2) A minor, and an expectant and a nursing mother. The minor,(3) because otherwise she might become pregnant and die. An expectant mother, (3) because otherwise she might cause her foetus to degenerate into a sandal. (4) A nursing mother, (3) because otherwise she might have to wean her child prematurely, (5) and this would result in his death. And what is the age of such a 'minor'? (6) From the age of eleven years and one day to the age of twelve years and one day. One who is under (7) or over this age (8) must carry on her marital intercourse in a normal manner; so R. Meir. But the Sages ruled: The one as well as the other carries on her marital intercourse in a normal manner and mercy (9) will be vouchsafed from heaven, for it is said in Scripture, The Lord preserveth the simple (10) …

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 45a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 311

The translator, Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki, amplifies the text with these footnotes:

Muk, flax or hackled wool.
To avoid conception.
Is permitted the use of the absorbent.
A fish-shaped abortion. Lit., 'flat-fish'.
On account of her second conception which causes the deterioration of her breast milk.
Of whom it has been said that she is capable of conception but is thereby exposed to fatal consequences.
When conception is impossible.
When conception involves no danger.
To protect them from harm.
Ps. CXVI, 6; sc. those who are unable to protect themselves. At any rate it was here stated that a minor under eleven years of age is incapable of conception. …

— Rev. Dr. Slotki

Did Girls Reach Puberty Earlier Then?

It is sometimes claimed that in the days when the Talmud Sages walked the earth, girls matured earlier; hence, sexual intercourse with girls three years old and younger was not inappropriate. However, the Talmud itself repudiates this assertion.

In Tractate Niddah 45a (quoted above), the Sages argue: "From the age of eleven years and one day to the age of twelve years and one day" a girl may use an "absorbent" (contraception) "because otherwise she might become pregnant and die." The Sages also say girls younger (than eleven) must carry on sexual intercourse "in the normal manner." Therefore, as a general rule, the Sages did not expect a girl younger than eleven could get pregnant. The statements in Niddah 45a indicate that sexual maturation of women in the time of the Talmud Sages compares with sexual maturation of women in our own day.

Or consider the passage that appears just previous in Niddah 45a:

GEMARA. … It is related of Justinia the daughter of 'Aseverus son of Antonius that she once appeared before Rabbi. 'Master', she said to him, 'at what age may a woman marry?'. 'At the age of three years and one day', he told her. 'And at what age is she capable of conception?' 'At the age of twelve years and one day', he replied. 'I', she said to him, 'married at the age of six and bore a child at the age of seven; alas for the three years that I have lost at my father's house'. But can a woman conceive at the age of six years?

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Niddah 45a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 310

Justinia's assertion that she had a child at seven is surprising, and it even surprises the Sages ("But can a woman conceive at the age of six years?"). But note that Rabbi (Judah the Prince), who was familiar with far more than a single girl's experience, estimated twelve as the earliest age for childbearing. Rabbi would of course be familiar with all phases of human life from his career of counseling, judging, and recording. Remember (Talmud Laws of Menstruation), the rabbis were intimately familiar with the physiological details of their female parishioners, consulted even on specimens of a woman's vaginal discharge. Rev. Dr. Slotki remarks on the above Gemara in footnote 10 on the following page:

… At any rate it was here stated that a minor under eleven years of age is incapable of conception. How then is Justinia's story to be reconciled with this statement?

— Rev. Dr. Slotki(3)

The Rights of the Child

The treatment of children in Orthodox Judaism has caused concern in Italy. A Genoa court, ruling in a custody dispute, accepted the report of psychologists that Orthodox Judaism views "exploitation and cruelty to minors as legitimate … and perverted behavior as normal." For more details, seeAppendix: The Rights of the Child.

The Rudin Standard

Let us consider again Forward's coverage of Dr. Laura's National Heritage award from Young Israel.

With 20 million listeners and a tendency to present her conservative views as an outgrowth of her Orthodox Jewish faith, Dr. Laura may well be Judaism's top ambassador to middle America.

— Forward(5)

But we notice Dr. Laura never tells Middle America about the doctrines of Orthodox Judaism on child-adult sex. We wonder how things would work out for her ratings if she followed the advice of Rabbi A. James Rudin, Senior Interreligious Adviser of the American Jewish Committee.

In February 2002, Rabbi Rudin wrote an article for Forward, commenting on the Vatican's decision to open its World War II archives — partially. In that context, Rabbi Rudin offered the Vatican the following advice:

… one thing is clear. Partial, incomplete or pre-selected archival records will not be enough in a world where transparency and full disclosure is now the norm if an institution — whether political, financial, or spiritual — is to maintain its integrity.

— Rabbi A. James Rudin(8)

If it is important to fully disclose records of historical events, surely it is more important to fully disclose fundamental religious doctrines that may soon be embodied in US law — especially when those doctrines are controversial.

On the subject of child-adult sex, there is a great divide between Talmud culture and American culture. However, the extent of that divide is known only to one side. Rabbis in America know and understand American culture, Americans know almost nothing about Talmud culture. When the fundamental doctrines of the Talmud are examined carefully, we find that feminist writer Judith Levine, author of Not Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Kids from Sex, is truer to classical Judaism than Dr. Laura.

Jewish leadership — from the most liberal of the Reform rabbis to the most conservative of the Orthodox rabbis — have done Judaism a disservice by not coming forward with the facts and applying Rabbi Rudin's standard of full disclosure. How can we achieve understanding between people of different religious faiths if we do not take courage and stand behind our own religious convictions?

Thank you for your consideration of the above,
Carol A. Valentine, Ear at come-and-hear dot com
July 14, 2003 ( This article is on line at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/america_2.html )

NEXT: New America 3: Talmud Laws of Menstruation

Navigate Carol Valentine's America Under the Talmud — Will It Work for US?
Howdy!	The Roadmap	Censorship	Death Penalty	Blood Ritual	New America

Navigate This Site

	Home
	Search
	Valentine
	Dilling
	Talmud
	The Rabbis
	Supplement
	Glossary
	Download
	Admin

Suggested activities —

Visit the website of Rabbi Lapin's Toward Tradition organization and review the links page.(36) When we visited during the presentation of this article, we found Toward Tradition is linked to many organizations that espouse traditional American and traditional Christian values. Other organizations who might be interested are those who sposor his radio show and link to his web page.

Consider sending some of these organizations a CD of this website, or dropping them an email. Refer them to the laws of the Talmud concerning child-adult sex, and ask them if they support Talmud law. Let's stimulate informed discussion of the Talmud among groups of concerned Americans.

As an alternative, consider locating organizations and prominent individuals who endorse Dr. Laura, link to her web page, or sponsor her radio show.

As Americans, we hold that everyone is entitled to understand the principles and intentions of public groups and public figures. We also hold that supporters of causes deserve to be fully informed.

Endnotes:

This and other Come and Hear™ Studies on Talmudic Judaism can be found online:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor
The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today by Elizabeth Dilling, complete with all 300 exhibits, can be found online:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling
Soncino Babylonian Talmud tractates, with Forewords, Introductions, Glossary, List of Abbreviations, and footnotes. Now you can study the Babylonian Talmud in full context and with the running commentary of the finest scholars of Judaism:: Tractate Berakoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/berakoth; Tractate Shabbath: http://www.come-and-hear.com/shabbath; Tractate Yebamoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/yebamoth; Tractate Kethuboth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/kethuboth; Tractate Nedarim: http://www.come-and-hear.com/nedarim; Tractate Nazir: http://www.come-and-hear.com/nazir; Tractate Sotah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah; Tractate Gittin: http://www.come-and-hear.com/gittin; Tractate Baba Kamma: http://www.come-and-hear.com/babakamma; Tractate Baba Mezi'a: http://www.come-and-hear.com/babamezia; Tractate Baba Bathra: http://www.come-and-hear.com/bababathra; Tractate Sanhedrin: http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin; Tractate Abodah Zarah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/zarah; Tractate Horayoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/horayoth; Tractate Niddah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/niddah; Tractate Tohoroth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/tohoroth; Search the Talmud http://www.come-and-hear.com/tindex.html
Download all the above resources for local study, CD, or mirror web site:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/download

Appendix: The Rights of the Child — Italian Case

A report in the Baltimore Jewish Times in February 2000 gives an account of a custody dispute in Italy. Moshe and Tali Dulberg (sometimes "Dolberg"), Israeli citizens living in Genoa, were divorced. Custody of the couple's two girls was initially given to the mother, Tali. In 1996, Tali was converted to Orthodox Judaism and remarried. Moshe brought suit for custody of the daughters, asserting that Tali, as an Orthodox Jew, was now unfit to care for the girls. The court awarded custody to the father. When arguing the case, Moshe presented to the court the findings of two psychologists. The Baltimore Jewish Times states of the psychologists:

They charged Orthodox Judaism views "exploitation and cruelty to minors as legitimate … and perverted behavior as normal." They compared Orthodox parents to drug addicts in their inability to serve as a "loving source of affection" for their children.

The court, guided by the assumption that the lifestyle of normal Italian children is self-evidently better, characterized the Lubavitch movement, through which Tali originally became religious, as a "totalitarian sect."

Thus, Mr. Dulberg won absolute authority over all educational decisions involving Nitzan and Danielle, with the explicit goal that they be exposed to the full range of Italian culture and a "normal life."

— Baltimore Jewish Times(41)

Note the abbreviated nature of the Baltimore Jewish Times coverage. The Times presents only the psychologists' conclusions and infers the Italians are bigots. However, the court must have seen the psychologists' evidence and arguments, and the court must have been convinced. The Times does not describe the Orthodox Jewish doctrines and practices that prompted the psychologists' concerns.

Nathan Lewin, an Orthodox Jewish Washington, DC lawyer, and Rabbi Raphael Butler, the executive Vice President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America ("Orthodox Union") at that time, arranged a meeting at the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC to protest the Genoa ruling. Mr. Lewin and Rabbi Butler should have been familiar with the details of the psychologists' testimony and the court's decision. They should have known the doctrines and the practices that worried the psychologists, and they should have been direct and forthright in correcting the record if the psychologists and the court were in error. Even if the psychologists offered no arguments or evidence to support their conclusions and the court reached its decision in the absence of information, Mr. Lewin and Rabbi Butler should have been quick to point out the folly.

Mr. Lewin wrote a follow-up letter summarizing the visit.(42) According to Mr. Lewin's account, neither he nor Rabbi Butler addressed the court's concern. Instead, Mr. Lewin and Rabbi Butler changed the subject: They charged that, in coming to its decision, the Italian court violated the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (We met Nathan Lewin in Sentence and Execution,[40] and watched him misrepresent Talmud death penalty law in the brief he wrote and presented to the US Supreme Court.)

Rabbi Butler's Orthodox Union also organized a letter-writing campaign targeting Italian public officials. A prepared letter was posted on the Orthodox Union web page.(43) A review of the letter reveals the same scarcity of information: It contains no specifics concerning the doctrines or practices that worried the psychologists, and no attempt to demonstrate that their concerns are misplaced or in error. Instead, the Orthodox Union urges supporters to protest the "injustice" of the ruling, and to scold the Italians for violating the UN International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The following Italian officials are targeted:

Mayor of Venice
Massimo Cacciani
Plazzo Cavalli San-Marco 4089
Venice. 30100,
Italia
Phone: 011-39-041-2748111
Fax: 011-39-041-5200782/ 2748470
sindaco@commune.venezia.it

Office of the Minister of Justice
Min. Oliviero Diliberto
MINISTERO DI GRAZIA E GIUSTIZIA
Via Arenova, 70
00186 ROMA
Italy
Phone: 011-39-06-68851
Fax: 011-39-06-6868187

Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Min. Lamberto Dini
MINISTERO DEGLI AFFARI ESTERI
P. le Faresina, 1
00194 ROMA
Italy
Phone: 011-39-06-36912002
Fax: 011-39-06-36912006
rende@esteri.it

Secretary of the Foreign Minister of Italy
Fabrizio Rende
P. le Faresina, 1
00194 ROMA
Italy
Phone: 011-39-06-36912002
Fax: 011-39-06-36912006
rende@esteri.it
Ambassador Sergio Vento
Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations
2 UN Plaza, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
212-486-9191 (Phone)
212-486-1036 (Fax)
E-mail at italy@un.int

Counsellor Mauro Politi
Mission of Italy to the United Nations
2 United Nations Plaza, 24th floor
New York, NY 10017
Fax: 212- 486-1036

Ambassador Ferdinando Salleo
Embassy of Italy
1601 Fuller Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
Fax: 202-483-2187

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
PRESIDENZIA DELLA REPUBBLICA
Palazzo del Quirinale
00187 Roma
Italy
Phone: 011-39-06-46991
Phone: 011-39-06-46992696
Fax: 011-39-06-46993125

Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema
PRESIDENZA DEL CONSIGLIO DEI MINISTRI
Piazza Colonna, 370
00187 Roma
Italy
Tel: 011-39-06-67791
Fax: 011-39-06-6794569
Email: salastampa@palazzochege.it

— Orthodox Union(44)

From the Orthodox Jewish perspective, surely this strategy is unwise. If the mother's case has merit, her case should be fought on its merit. But instead, Orthodox Jewry is organizing a letter-writing campaign to sway the judge and public officials with political pressure.

In November 1999, Capt. Dr. Sharon, Israeli psychologist and captain in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), wrote a report supporting the mother's case. Like Mr. Lewin and Rabbi Butler, Capt. Dr. Sharon does not address any specifics: He makes no attempt to discuss the psychologists' arguments or which Judaic doctrines and practices caused the concern, and he makes no attempt to show their concerns were misplaced. Like Mr. Lewin and Rabbi Butler, Capt. Dr. Sharon changes the subject and claims the court's decision violated the UN's convention on The Rights of the Child.

What can a rational, unbiased observer conclude? If the Italian psychologists' concerns are based on misinformation about Orthodox Judaism, the representatives of Orthodox Judaism (and the Israeli psychologist) should correct the misinformation. But since the material issues are being avoided, what should a reasonable person conclude?

Could the psychologists be worried about the Talmud laws and doctrines we have discussed in Sex with Children by Talmud Rules? If so, how can issues concerning child welfare be settled unless people are forthright about their religious beliefs? How can people of different faiths come to an understanding if there is a lack of candor?

Post Script: In an ironic sequel, Rabbi Raphael Butler, Vice President of the Orthodox Union, was forced to retire over a child sex abuse case. This from the Star-Ledger of January 23, 2001:

Sex scandal fallout ends rabbi-exec's career 01/23/01
BY JOSH MARGOLIN
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

The sex and abuse scandal that has laid waste to the reputation of a prominent Bergen County rabbi has now claimed the career of the chief executive of the largest Orthodox Jewish organization in the world.

Rabbi Raphael Butler of Queens resigned Friday as executive vice president of the Manhattan-based Orthodox Union, less than a month after a special investigative commission found that inaction at the top of the organization allowed decades of abuse by Rabbi Baruch Lanner of Fair Lawn to continue unchecked.

The resignation took effect immediately, and there was no attempt to sugarcoat it as the Orthodox Union made it clear that Butler quit because he was one of the leaders who knew about Lanner's activities long before they were made public.

Lanner was found to have abused — sexually, physically and emotionally — teenagers entrusted to his care while he ran the New Jersey region of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, the Orthodox Union's youth organization, and worked at two New Jersey yeshivas, both of them high schools.

Criminal investigations into Lanner's activities in Bergen and Monmouth counties are continuing.

source & full story:
http://www.njo.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/jersey/ledger/121f0f2.html

— The New Jersey Star-Ledger, as relayed by David Icke(46)

Title: Sex with Children by Talmud Rules
URL: http://come-and-hear.com/editor/america_2.html
Version: July 3, 2018

You May Find These Works of interest

The Incredible Scofield and His Book - Joseph M. Canfield

Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty - John M. Barry

1599 Geneva Bible: Patriot's Edition - The Reformers

Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion - Joshua Trachtenberg

The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements - Kevin MacDonald

Footnotes: Full specifics for each of the printed sources are provided in the Bibliography. Outside URLs were valid at the time this article was written. However, be mindful that URLs do change.

Babylonian Talmud, "Foreword: Marriage, Divorce, and the Position of Woman, in Judaism" by The Very Rev. The Chief Rabbi Dr J. H. Hertz, Seder Nashim Vol. I, page xvii available in Come and Hear™ hypertext at http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/nashim_h.html#xvii
Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna - The Vilna Gaon, http://members.aol.com/lazera/VilnaGaon.htm
The Orthodox Jewish Pro Polygamy Page, http://www.polygamy.com/Jewish/The-Orthodox-Jewish.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/polygamy-orthodox/index.html
The Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. "Polygamy," Vol. X, pages 120-122 available at http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=425&letter=P&search=polygamy
"Lifting the veil on politics vs. science," Jewish World Review http://www.jewishworldreview.com/dr/laura080399.asp
The Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. "Gershom ben Judah" Vol. V pages 638-639, available at http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=172&letter=G&search=R.%20Gershom%20b.%20Judah
"Prosecuting Polygamy," The Salt Lake Tribune quoted in The Columbia Journalism Review, April 2000, http://www.cjr.org/year/02/4/polygamy.asp
http://www.polygamyinfo.com/plygmedia%2001%20178trib.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/polygamy-israel
The Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography: Hastings, Dict. Bible, s.v. Marriage;
Hamburger. R. B. T., s.v. Vielweiberei;
Frankel, Grundlinien des Mosaisch-Talmudischen Eherechts, Breslau, 1860;
Lichtenstein, Die Ehe nach Mosaisch-Talmudischer Auffassung, ib. 1879;
Klugman, Stellung der Frau im Talmud, Vienna, 1898;
Rabbinowicz, Mebo ha-Talmud, Hebr. transl., p. 80, Wilna, 1894;
Buchholz, Die Familie, Breslau, 1867;
Mielziner, The Jewish Law of Marriage and Divorce, Cincinnati, 1884;
Duschak, Das Mosaisch-Talmudische Eherecht, Vienna, 1864.E. C. J. H. G.
Rabbi David Fine is the spiritual leader of Lake Park Synagogue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "Ask a Rabbi," The Jewish Chronicle: http://www.jewishchronicle.org/issues/current/askrabbi.htm cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/polygamy-fine
Babylonian Talmud, "Introduction," Tractate Yebamoth, page xli, available in Come and Hear™ hypertext at http://www.come-and-hear.com/yebamoth/yebamoth_0.html#page_xli
Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 2a, page 1, footnote 1, available in Come and Hear™ hypertext at http://www.come-and-hear.com/yebamoth/yebamoth_2.html#2a_1
Babylonian Talmud, "Foreword by the Very Rev. the Chief Rabbi," Tractate Nashim, page xvii available in Come and Hear™ hypertext at http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/nashim_h.html#xvii
In the United States, cohabitation means only "living together" or "living together in an assumed sexual relationship outside marriage." In the Soncino, the word seems to be used to denote sexual intercourse
America's Real War, page 111
"Jesus loves polygamy, this I know", Las Vegas Weekly http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/2001_2/11_22/news_upfront1.html cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/polygamy-henkel
Babylonian Talmud, "Introduction," Tractate Kethuboth, page xiv-xv available in Come and Hear™ hypertext at http://www.come-and-hear.com/kethuboth/kethuboth_0.html#xiv
Babylonian Talmud, "Foreword by the Very Rev. the Chief Rabbi," General Index Volume, page xi, available in Come and Hear™ hypertext at http://www.come-and-hear.com/talmud/tindex_b.html
Babylonian Talmud, "Introduction," Tractate Kiddushin, page vi (not available in Come and Hear™ hypertext)
The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today, pages 24-25, available in Come and Hear™ hypertext at http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/chapt05.html#Polygamy
"Yosef Yerushalmi," Columbia University, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/history/htm/h_faculty_profile_yerushalm.htm
"Jewish law institute launched in DC," Jerusalem Post, November 9, 2002, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1036830287246, now moved to http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/index.html?ts=1042784008 cached at: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jp-11-09-2002
Also: "Jewish Law Comes to D.C.," The Jewish Week, January 8, 2003, http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=7074 cached as http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jw-01-08-03
"Weeding Out An Eyesore," The Jewish Week, 06/06/2003 http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=8042 cached at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/na-jw-06-06-03
"Banning polygamy embodies original intent for marriage,"
Jews often call the Talmud "the Torah." According to many Rabbinical experts, the Talmud is the Word of God, the basic book of Jewish law, and the foundation of Jewish culture. See What Come-and-Hear™ Is About, Critical Words of Talmud Study, and More Critical Words of Talmud Study at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/about.html http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/critwords_1.html and http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/critwords_2.html respectively.

NEXT: New America 5: Really, Really Kosher Sex

Navigate This Site

	Home
	Search
	Valentine
	Dilling
	Talmud
	The Rabbis
	Supplement
	Glossary
	Download
	Admin
Text Version (Printer Friendly)

New America
4. Jewish Harems in Talmud Law

There are changes in the wind. Some people may be happy, some may be unhappy. Let's go directly to the Talmud to see its laws on some social concerns.

Navigate This Site

	Home
	Search
	Valentine
	Dilling
	Talmud
	The Rabbis
	Supplement
	Glossary
	Download
	Admin
Text Version (Printer Friendly)

The late Rabbi Dr. Joseph H. Hertz

"Polygamy seems to have well-nigh disappeared in Israel after the Babylonian Exile … Monogamy in Israel was thus not the result of European contact. As a matter of fact, monogamy was firmly established in Jewish life long before the rise of Christianity." — The Very Reverend the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, the late Dr. Joseph H. Hertz (13)

MISHNAH. If a man was married to two wives and they died … — Kethuboth 91a

MISHNAH. If a man who was married to three wives died … — Kethuboth 93a

MISHNAH. If a man who was married to four wives died … — Kethuboth 93b

Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph, former Sephardi Chief Rabbi and reputedly the spiritual leader of the Shas political party.

"Anthropologist S. Zev Kalifon of Bar-Ilan University in Israel said the call by former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph to legalize polygyny is part of a political movement to restore conservative traditions and lash out against popular notions of social equality.

"'They feel that the secular world which they met in Israel when they immigrated in the 1950s destroyed the patriarchal Sephardi family and its values,' said Kalifon. 'The ban on polygyny is seen as something modern, an expression of western or European values.'" — Salt Lake Tribune (8)

Elizabeth Dilling, in her book, The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today, quotes Columbia University Judaic scholar Salo Wittmayer Baron. Dilling writes:

A 1952 book by Salo Wittmayer Baron, Professor of Jewish History, Literature and Institutions of the Miller Foundation, Columbia University, is entitled, A Social and Religious History of the Jews and is published by the American Jewish Committee's Jewish Publication Society of America. The chapter, "The World of the Talmud," cites the harem of King Solomon (which finished him morally and otherwise), saying its "memory kindled the imagination of polygamous Jews in subsequent ages." Although we are told [page 25] that there was no real difference between Palestinian and Babylonian Jewries fundamentally, the book states, "There are indications that Babylonian Jewish society had more polygamous features than did that of Palestine."

And: "Anecdotes like those current in regard to Rab and Rabbi Nahman [who] after arriving in a foreign city they used to advertise for women ready to marry them for the time of their sojourn ('man havya le-yoma') … In law, too, the Babylonian emphasis lay upon the Jew's right to 'marry as many wives as he is able to support.'"

… Israel first proposed extra allowances for plural wives but now seems to be screening polygamy from Christian eyes. — Dilling, (c. 1964) (20)

Professor Baron's prestige in his field is evident from the professorial chair in Judaic Studies established in his name at Columbia University. The Salo Wittmayer Baron chair is currently held by Yosef Yerushalmi. (21)

"The Wilna Gaon" (the genius of Vilna), is an affectionate name for Rabbi Eliyahu (Elijah) ben Solomon of Vilna, Lithuania, who lived from 1720 to 1797. He is indisputably one of the giants of Judaism. He is quoted as follows:

"If I would be successful, in accomplishing two things I would be idle from Torah and T'fillah and go from city to city [to get them accepted]. One is to eliminate the prohibition of Rabbeinu Gershom against taking two wives for with this the G'ulah (final redemption) will become closer, and the second that they should have bircas Cohanim every day." — as quoted by Emes L'Yaakov (3)

Wives of Tom Green, with children

"Husband to five women, father to twenty-nine children, Tom Green paraded his life-style on television shows, piquing the interest of American audiences and the county prosecutor, who charged Green with bigamy in April 2000 … he was convicted in May 2001 and sentenced to up to five years in prison." — Salt Lake Tribune (7)

Rabina objected: Why not assume that 'kahennah' implies twelve, and 'we-kahennah', twenty-four? It has indeed been taught likewise: 'He shall not multiply wives to himself beyond twenty-four.' And according to him who interprets the redundant 'waw', it ought to be forty-eight. — Sanhedrin 21a

One for sex?

"The first recorded polygamy is that of Lemekh (Genesis 4:19). Why did he do it? A midrash suggests he wanted one wife for procreation and another for sex; the first wife would bear children and then become a living widow because her husband would ignore her, and the second wife would sterilize herself and dress up like a prostitute (Genesis Rabbah 33:2)." — Rabbi Fine (10)

Rabbi David Fine "graduated cum laude with high honors from Brandeis University in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, received an MA in Jewish history from the graduate school of the Jewish Theological Seminary and was ordained at the Joseph Straus Rabbinical Seminary of Yeshivat HaMivtar in Efrat, Israel." — Jewish Chronicle (10)

Rabbi Fine writes a column for the Jewish Chronicle. "No question is too grand or too trivial. Just ask the Rabbi."

Polygamy Happens

The Soncino Talmud was translated by world-renowned Talmud and Hebrew/Aramaic scholars. It was the first complete English translation ever published, and it has been the standard, commonly accepted rabbi-approved English translation for more than six decades.

Accolades for Soncino. Praise for the Soncino Talmud appears on the dust jacket of the 1961 Edition:

"The rendering is accurate and scholarly … In particular the translators deserve praise for their choice of suitable equivalents for technical terms and phrases that are difficult to turn into another language." — The Times Literary Supplement

"… this translation of the Talmud will open up for the English speaking readers the most varied and indispensable index to the collective wisdom of the post-Biblical Hebrew mind, and afford direct knowledge of the ordinances which have governed and continue to govern the religious institutions and social polity of the Jewish people." — the late Rabbi Dr. A. Feldman, Dayan of the Beth Din, London

"I offer my heartiest congratulations to all who have worked together in producing this translation of the Talmud into English. They have dealt with the enormous difficulties of their tasks with remarkable skill." — The Rev. Dr. R. Travers Herford, author of Christianity in Talmud and Midrash and Talmud and Apocrypha

"The Editor, Dr. Isidore Epstein, and his band of scholars have produced a translation which is a marvel of skill in dealing with the formidable difficulties which the Talmud presents." — The Jewish Chronicle

"The Soncino Talmud is … an adornment for any library, a hallmark of intelligent Jewishness in a family … an unfailing source of inspiring information to the students of every creed and race." — Jewish Forum

"It [the Soncino Talmud] will have value for Gentile as well as Jewish scholars." — The Manchester Guardian

"These volumes are magnificently produced, and will assuredly take their place among the monuments of modern scholarship." — The Yorkshire Post

For an attestation to the usefulness of the Soncino Talmud General Index, see the Very Rev. the Chief Rabbi Dr. Israel Brodie's Foreword. (18)

ZARAH — A co-wife, a married woman
in relation to the other wives of her husband.

— Soncino Talmud Glossary

Polygamy is a Jewish institution. It is practiced, albeit underground, in Israel today. If the present trend to Orthodoxy among Jews continues, we can expect open polygamy to return soon.

Even for the most Westernized Jews, polygamy (polygyny) is difficult to confront. They obviously feel uncomfortable with the subject: we see them minimize it, excuse it, and defend it (for example, see The Jewish Encyclopedia, Appendix A).

Writing about marriage, the Very Reverend the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, the late Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, states:

The Biblical ideal of human marriage is the monogamous one. The Creation story and all the ethical portions of Scripture speak of the union of a man with one wife. Whenever a Prophet alludes to marriage, he is thinking of such a union — lifelong, faithful, holy. Polygamy seems to have well-nigh disappeared in Israel after the Babylonian Exile. Early Rabbinic literature presupposes a practically monogamic society; and out of 2800 teachers mentioned in the Talmud, one only is stated to have had two wives.

Monogamy in Israel was thus not the result of European contact. As a matter of fact, monogamy was firmly established in Jewish life long before the rise of Christianity …

— Rabbi Dr. Hertz (1)

The Talmud Challenges Rabbi Dr. Hertz

Most rabbinical scholars (including Rabbi Dr. Hertz) attribute the organization of the Mishnahs to Judah the Prince. The year of his birth is given as 132 or 135 A.D. A number of these Mishnahs organized by Judah the Prince address legal problems that arise from the practice of polygamy. That suggests that polygamy was very much alive in the centuries before and after the birth of Jesus.

That polygamy was an ordinary part of Jewish life is also suggested by Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki's Introduction to the Tractate Kethuboth. Rev. Dr. Slotki states this of Chapter X:

CHAPTER X determines the priority of the claims to the recovery of their kethubahs and to exemption from oath of two or more wives who were married to the same husband, the relative rights of their respective heirs, and the legal position in the event of the surrender by one of the women of her claim to distrain on the buyer of her deceased husband's estate.

— Rev. Dr. Slotki (17)

This Mishnah addresses a man with two wives:

MISHNAH. IF A MAN WAS MARRIED TO TWO WIVES AND THEY DIED, AND SUBSEQUENTLY HE HIMSELF DIED, AND THE ORPHANS [OF ONE OF THE WIVES] CLAIM THEIR MOTHER'S KETHUBAH [BUT THE ESTATE OF THE DECEASED HUSBAND] IS ONLY ENOUGH [FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF THE] TWO KETHUBAHS [ALL THE ORPHANS] RECEIVE EQUAL SHARES.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 91a
Soncino 1961 Edition page 582

This Mishnah addresses a man with three wives:

MISHNAH. IF A MAN WHO WAS MARRIED TO THREE WIVES DIED, AND THE KETHUBAH OF ONE WAS A MANEH, OF THE OTHER TWO HUNDRED ZUZ, AND OF THE THIRD THREE HUNDRED ZUZ AND THE ESTATE [WAS WORTH] ONLY ONE MANEH [THE SUM] IS DIVIDED EQUALLY.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 93a
Soncino 1961 Edition page 590

This Mishnah addresses a man with four wives:

MISHNAH. IF A MAN WHO WAS MARRIED TO FOUR WIVES DIED, HIS FIRST WIFE TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER THE SECOND, THE SECOND TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER THE THIRD AND THE THIRD OVER THE FOURTH. …

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kethuboth 93b
Soncino 1961 Edition page 595-595

Here the Sages discuss the justification for marrying multiple wives.

MISHNAH. NEITHER SHALL HE MULTIPLY WIVES TO HIMSELF (4) — ONLY EIGHTEEN. R. JUDAH SAID: HE MAY HAVE MORE, PROVIDED THEY DO NOT TURN AWAY HIS HEART. R. SIMEON SAID: HE MUST NOT MARRY EVEN ONE WHO MAY TURN AWAY HIS HEART. WHY THEN IS IT WRITTEN, NEITHER SHALL HE MULTIPLY WIVES TO HIMSELF? (5) — EVEN THOUGH THEY BE WOMEN LIKE ABIGAIL. (6)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 21a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 111

Soncino Rabbinical scholar and translator Jacob Shachter amplifies the text with footnotes:

Deut. XVII, 17.
Ibid. From which it might be inferred that he may marry a lesser number even if they should corrupt him.
I.e., even of the most virtuous, only eighteen are permitted, and not a single one who misleads is permitted. Abigail was the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. (I Sam. XXV, 3.) She is regarded in the Aggadah as one of the most remarkable women in Jewish history. V. Meg 15a.

— Jacob Shachter

Why Is Polygamy OK?

In the above cited Mishnah, Talmud scholar and translator Jacob Shachter tells us the Sages base their justification of polygamy on Deuteronomy 17:17. For full context, let us look at Deuteronomy 17:14-17.

When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;
Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

— Deuteronomy 17:14-17 (KJV)

We see that Deuteronomy 17:17 concerns limitation on the number of wives permitted to future kings of Israel. However, the Sages appear to understand Deuteronomy 17:17 as a rule for all men. They also understand it to permit rather than prohibit multiple wives.

What Is the Limit? 4, 12, 24, 48?

The Sages disagree about the number of wives permitted.

GEMARA. … Rabina objected: Why not assume that 'kahennah' implies twelve, and 'we-kahennah', twenty-four? It has indeed been taught likewise: 'He shall not multiply wives to himself beyond twenty-four.' And according to him who interprets the redundant 'waw', it ought to be forty-eight.

— Tractate Sanhedrin 21a
Soncino 1961 Edition, page 113

Levirate Marriages

LEVIRATE MARRIAGE. The marriage between a man and the widow of his dead brother who has died childless. (V. HALIZAH).

— Soncino Talmud Glossary

In Jewish Law, if a husband dies, and he and his wife have had no children, the oldest brother of the dead man may take the widow as a wife, even if the brother is already married. The law is based on Deuteronomy 25:5-10

If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.
And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.
And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.
Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;
Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.
And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

— Deuteronomy 25:5-10

Widow May Be Raped

There is a difference between Old Testament law and Talmud law on levirate marriages. Under Talmud law, the widow who does not want to take the brother as her husband may be raped, thereby effecting the marriage.

GEMARA. … A YEBAMAH IS ACQUIRED BY INTERCOURSE. Whence do we know [that she is acquired by intercourse? — Scripture saith, [14a] Her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife. Then perhaps she is like a wife in all respects? (6) — You may not think so. For it was taught: I might think that money or deed can complete her acquisition, just as intercourse does; therefore it is written, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her', (7) teaching, intercourse alone completes the acquisition of her, but money or deed does not complete the acquisition of her. Yet perhaps what is the purpose of 'and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her'? It is that he can taker her by force? (8) — If so, Scripture should have stated, 'and perform the duty of a husband's brother', (9) why [add] 'unto her'? Hence both are learnt from it. (10)

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Kiddushin 13b-14a
Soncino 1961 Edition page 56

The translator, Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, amplifies the text with footnotes:

To be acquired by money or deed too?
I.e., have intercourse with her. Ibid. This is really a repetition of the first part of the verse, and therefore emphasizes intercourse.
That being taught by the repetition.
This would have sufficed to emphasize intercourse alone as a means of acquisition.
'Unto her' implying even against her will.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman

The doctrine is repeated in Tractate Yebamoth:

GEMARA. … Another [Baraitha] taught: Her husband's brother shall go in unto her, in the natural way; and take her, even though in an unnatural way; and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, only the cohabitation consummates her marriage, but neither money nor deed can consummate her marriage; and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, even against her will.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yebamoth 54a
Soncino 1961 Edition page 357

Laws of Yebamoth Regulate Levirate Marriages

An entire tractate of the Talmud, Tractate Yebamoth, consisting of 15 chapters, is devoted to regulating levirate marriages. Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki made this comment about levirate marriages in his Introduction to the Yebamoth; (halizah is the shoe ceremony described in Deuteronomy 25:9, cited above).

In practical life, however, both marriage and halizah bristle with difficulties and are hedged in by a complexity of problems.

— Rev. Dr. Slotki (11)

Rev. Dr. Slotki made further comment about the relationship between the various wives in a polygamous Jewish family. It was apparently bitter, and expected to be so. We have already seen the definition of zarah, co-wife. Talmud scholar Rev. Dr. Israel W. Slotki, in his translation of the Soncino Tractate Yebamoth, informs us that the word zarah means literally "rival" or "adversary," and is derived from "oppression." In his very first footnote, he tells us that the relationship between the wives was often bitter.

Heb., zarah, [H] 'rival'. Where a husband has more than one wife, each woman is a zarah in relation to the other. The term is derived from [H] which signifies oppression, hence 'rival', 'adversary', as in I Sam. I, 6 (cf. Kimhi a.l.), or 'to tie up', 'to bind', hence 'associate', 'co-wife'.

— Rev. Dr. Slotki (12)

This translation of the Hebrew word zarah is confirmed by The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle "Ask the Rabbi" columnist, David Fine, who is spiritual leader of Lake Park Synagogue in Milwaukee.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for co-wives is 'tzara' — enemies!

— David Fine (10)

The reader is referred to the Tractate Yebamoth to learn more about levirate marriages and other sexual laws and customs. We also include the Biblical account of the three-way relationship between Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. See Appendix B: Polygamy and the Slave Hagar.

Levirate Marriages Do Not Explain Polygamy

When discussing polygamy, many rabbinical commentators focus on levirate marriages. However, as we can see in the above Mishnahs governing men with two, three, and four wives, and the argumentation about how many wives are permitted (up to 48?) levirate marriages did not wholly explain Jewish polygamy. It is not credible that a man could acquire 4, 18, 24, or perhaps even 48 wives by marrying the widows of his 4, 18, 24, or 48 brothers who died childless. Moreover, Tractate Kiddushin (not available at Come and Hear™) deals with the laws of betrothal. The Soncino translator, Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, states of Chapter II:

It treats … the simultaneous betrothal of more than one woman.

— Rabbi Dr. Freedman (19)

Clearly polygamy is not confined to levirate marriages.

Jewish Encyclopedia on History of Polygamy

In 1906, the Jewish Encyclopedia published a history of polygamy among the Hebrews and Jews. (4) After defining polygamy, the article states:

While there is no evidence of a polyandrous state in primitive Jewish society, polygamy seems to have been a well-established institution, dating from the most ancient times and extending to modern days. The Law indeed regulated and limited this usage; and the prophets and the scribes looked upon it with disfavor. Still all had to recognize its existence, and not until late was it completely abolished. At no time, however, was it practiced so much among the Israelites as among other nations; and the tendency in Jewish social life was always toward MONOGAMY.

— Jewish Encyclopedia (4)

We have included some excerpts from that article describing the early days of Hebrew/Jewish polygamy in the Appendix A: The Jewish Encyclopedia on Polygamy. Notice the writers' apologetic tone. The text may still be available at the Jewish Encyclopedia website. (4)

Jewish Polygamy Is Banned in Middle Ages

In the following Jewish Encyclopedia excerpts, many of the citations in the original text have been omitted for easy readability.

In the Middle Ages, Rabbi Gershom b. Judah (960-1028) convened a synod and urged Jews to give up polygamy …

— Jewish Encyclopedia (6)

An express prohibition against polygamy was pronounced by R. Gershom b. Judah, "the Light of the Exile" (960-1028), which was soon accepted in all the communities of northern France and of Germany. The Jews of Spain and of Italy as well as those of the Orient continued to practise polygamy for a long period after that time, although the influence of the prohibition was felt even in those countries. Some authorities suggested that R. Gershom's decree was to be enforced for a time only, namely, up to … 1240 C.E. … probably believing that the Messiah would appear before that time; but this opinion was overruled by that of the majority of medieval Jewish rabbis. Even in the Orient monogamy soon became the rule and polygamy the exception; for only the wealthy could afford the luxury of many wives …

The Jews of Spain practiced polygamy as late as the fourteenth century. The only requirement there was a special permit, for which a certain sum was probably paid into the kings treasury each time a Jew took an additional wife

The Spanish Jews, as well as their brethren in Italy and in the Orient, soon gave up these practises; and today, although the Jews of the East live under Mohammedan rule, but few cases of polygamy are found among them.

— Jewish Encyclopedia (4)

Ban Due to Christian Opinion

The Jewish Encyclopedia gives the impression — but does not actually state — that polygamy was banned by Gershom b. Judah because Jews disapproved of the practice. However, another explanation has been offered. The Salt Lake Tribune, in an article entitled "Polygamy's Practice Stirs Debate in Israel," reports of polygamy:

But the practice has been banned for Jews in Europe since the 11th century, when rabbinate leaders sought to ease tensions between Jews and their Christian neighbors, who considered polygamy barbaric.

— Salt Lake Tribune (8)

A contemporary Jewish proponent of polygamy, Emes L'Yaakov, author of The Orthodox Jewish Pro Polygamy Page, states that polygamy was practiced by Europeans but was eventually banned. He says that this is the source of European resentment against Jewish polygamy.

Since the Christians were now banned from something that had been normal practice for many years, they resented the fact that the Jews could continue to have more than one wife. When goyim resent Jews, Jews get killed. Therefore to prevent massacres of the Jews, Rabbeinu Gershom banned polygamy.

— Emes L'Yaakov (3)

Jewish American Polygamy Circa 1906

Let's return to the Jewish Encyclopedia.

In spite of the prohibition against polygamy and of the general acceptance thereof, the Jewish law still retains many provisions which apply only to a state which permits polygamy. The marriage of a married man is legally valid and needs the formality of a bill of divorce for its dissolution, while the marriage of a married woman is void and has no binding force …

The Reform rabbis in conference assembled (Philadelphia, 1869) decided that "the marriage of a married man to a second woman can neither take place nor claim religious validity, just as little as the marriage of a married woman to another man, but, like this, is null and void from the beginning." Still, with the majority of Jews, this is not even an open question, and the marriage of a married man is considered just as valid as that of an unmarried man; it not only requires the formality of divorce in the case of separation, but also makes him subject to the laws of relationship; so that he can not afterward marry the wife's sister while the wife is living, nor can he or his near relatives, according to the laws of consanguinity, enter into matrimonial relations with any of her near relatives.

— Jewish Encyclopedia (4)

The article is authored by the Executive Committee of The Jewish Encyclopedia, and Julius H. Greenstone, a Philadelphia, Pa. rabbi.

In summary of the above, then, the Jewish Encyclopedia (published 1906) states:

Jewish law still permits polygamy,
In 1869, Reform Judaism in the US attempted to squash polygamy,
Despite the efforts, US Jews still think polygamy laws are valid,
US Jews believe the second marriage of an already married man is just as valid as the first marriage of an unmarried man.

Use First Wife for Babies, Second as Prostitute

Why might a man seek more than one wife? This question still holds interest. Rabbi Fine, of the Jewish Chronicle's "Ask The Rabbi" page, suggests an answer:

The first recorded polygamy is that of Lemekh (Genesis 4:19). Why did he do it? A midrash suggests he wanted one wife for procreation and another for sex; the first wife would bear children and then become a living widow because her husband would ignore her, and the second wife would sterilize herself and dress up like a prostitute (Genesis Rabbah 33:2).

— Rabbi Fine for The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (10)

Contemporary Polygamy

The Salt Lake City Tribune reports on polygamy in modern day Israel:

Polygamy may be banned by the state constitution and abolished by the predominant religion, but it is still practiced by ultra-orthodox followers of the faith, some who want it made lawful to avoid sticky legal and moral questions.

Sounds like Utah, but it's Israel.

… But the push in Israel for legalized "polygyny," the alternative term for having more than one wife at one time, stems not from a shortage of marriage-age men, an abundance of single women or an upswing in demand for multiple brides. Anthropologist S. Zev Kalifon of Bar-Ilan University in Israel said the call by former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph to legalize polygyny is part of a political movement to restore conservative traditions and lash out against popular notions of social equality.

"They feel that the secular world which they met in Israel when they immigrated in the 1950s destroyed the patriarchal Sephardi family and its values," said Kalifon. "The ban on polygyny is seen as something modern, an expression of western or European values."

— Salt Lake Tribune (8)

Two Orthodox Jews Speak on Polygamy

Now let us return to Emes L'Yaakov's Orthodox Jewish Pro Polygamy Page. He gives us insight into a contemporary Orthodox Jew's view of polygamy:

Christian commentators with a perverted perspective following in the Roman Catholic tradition have tremendous difficulty with Yaakov [Jacob] having four wives. This very point shows to what extent the Roman church is not a continuation of Jewish traditions, society and morality, but rather the continuation of Greek and Roman pagan traditions, society and morality …

Rome and the church were our framework for one thousand nine hundred years. During that period, we defended ourselves as best we could. Among the defenses was to ban polygamy, something considered by G-d and his Torah to be moral, fine and normal … Polygamy was part of the founding of our people, and was part of Hashem's d-vine plan for us.

… because of our exile in Europe, we picked up certain alien values. We somehow took polygamy, something practiced by our Patriarchs, by King David, etc. throughout our history, and associated [it] with gilui arayos, the depraved sexual practices which are practiced or condoned by the peoples surrounding us. We must divorce ourselves from this goyish attitude. Polygamy was part of the founding of our people, and was part of Hashem's d-vine plan for us.

Jewish Attitude To Polygamy: But what about Yaakov's situation? What about more than one wife? The clear halacha is that both min haTorah (on a Torah level) and mid'rabbanan (through rabbinical legislation) a man can have as many wives as are willing to marry him (as long as he can support them). No one implies that this is less than moral nor in the least bit abnormal.

— Emes L'Yaakov (3)

It seems that Emes L'Yaakov is not trying to impress the Christian Right, and thus speaks his mind freely. Let us contrast this with the statements made by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, author of America's Real War. We have met Rabbi Lapin before, in America's New Government Church and Sex with Children by Talmud Rules; he presents himself as a an ally of the Christian Right, and he is a favorite speaker of organizations such as Concerned Women for America. In America's Real War, Rabbi Lapin argues against pluralism in America:

We may all believe as we wish; however, translating our beliefs into the actions sometimes demanded by those beliefs may conflict with Judeo-Christian belief. When they do, it is the actions informed by Christian belief that will prevail.

— Rabbi Lapin (15)

Rabbi Lapin gives, as an example, the struggle of the Mormon state, Utah, to overcome objections to polygamy and gain entry into the Union in the late 1800s. While giving his readers the impression that he, as a rabbi, disapproves of polygamy and shares Christian disgust with it, he fails to mention Jewish polygamy laws and practices to his Christian readers.

Jewish/Mormon Cooperation?

It would be only natural and understandable if two powerful organizations with fundamental doctrinal interests in making polygamy legal in the US would join hands. Expect behind-the-scenes Mormon-Jewish cooperation in changing polygamy laws and the attitudes of Americans toward polygamy. The alliance may be particularly effective in light of America's Talmudization.

America Is Rapidly Becoming Talmudized

In 1991, the US Congress declared the Talmudic Noahide Laws to be the basis "upon which our great Nation was founded" (see America's New Government Church). Under Noahide Law regulations, idolaters (which includes Christians by definition) are put to death.

In 1999, the Supreme Court agreed to consider an amicus brief based wholly on Talmudic law (see Sentence and Execution).

In November 2002, the American Orthodox Jewish community held a kosher dinner in the Supreme Court building to celebrate the establishment of the National Institute for Judaic Law. (22) The dinner was attended by 200 people, including three Supreme Court Justices. The purpose of the Institute is to introduce Talmudic laws into the US legal system and law schools.

It is thus the clear civic duty of every American to become intimately acquainted with the Talmud. Read articles at:
America's New Government Church: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/america_1.html
Death Penalty: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/capunish_1.html
Kosher Dinner: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jp-11-09-2002 and http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/cp-jw-01-08-03

Indeed, the paths of two stars in the Orthodox and Mormon communities have already crossed. The two stars are Dr. Laura Schlessinger, an Orthodox Jew and a member of a Chabad Lubavitch synagogue, and the former Mormon Congressional representative Matt Salmon (R-Arizona). When a psychology study allegedly promoting pederasty was published, Schlessinger condemned it on the airwaves, and Rep. Salmon condemned it in the House. When Salmon's resolution condemning the study passed unanimously on July 12, 1999, Dr. Laura told her listeners she had in Rep. Salmon a "major new hero." (5)

Mormons are reputed to have an interest in child brides. For the Jewish teachings on child brides, see Sex with Children by Talmud Rules and Talmud Daughters Become Talmud Wives.

How close is Mormon-Jewish cooperation? The Jewish Week of June 6, 2003 reports that 300 Mormons — headed by a Mormon who traveled from Utah — cleaned up a neglected Jewish graveyard in Queens, NY. (23)

Expect New Voices

Now comes another voice to the polygamy debate, this one named TruthBearer.org. The founder of this group is not a Jew, but a self-proclaimed conservative Christian. This conservative Christian, though, does not want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and the Christian saints — he wants to follow in the footsteps of Jacob, David, and Solomon. He wants to have lots of wives. If one can tell religion by surname, this is an odd one for a Christian — the founder of TruthBearer.org is named Mark Henkel. (16)

We can expect the Christian polygamists to demand social and legal changes.

Let us think about this carefully. Gentile laws make polygamy illegal in the United States, but Talmud law makes it permissible. Talmud law allows a man to divorce his wife at any time, for any reason (see And So a Talmud Marriage Ends). He may have to pay her a settlement, but in fact there are ways he can avoid making any payment. Jewish sexual law will bring about many changes in our society. Before we jump, we should look and ask: Is this the direction we want to go?

Appendix A: The Jewish Encyclopedia on Polygamy

The Jewish Encyclopedia's article on polygamy (4) appears in Volume X, which bears a publication date of 1906. While assuming a critical attitude to the practice, the Encyclopedia eventually concedes it is sanctioned by Jewish law, and then infers polygamy is still being practiced in the US. In the following excerpts, many of the citations in the original text have been omitted for easy readability. This text may still be available at the Jewish Encyclopedia website.

That the ideal state of human society, in the mind of the primitive Israelite, was a monogamous one is clearly evinced by the fact that the first man (Adam) was given only one wife … Abraham had only one wife; and he was persuaded to marry his slave Hagar only at the urgent request of his wife, who deemed herself barren … Jacob married two sisters, because he was deceived by his father-in-law, Laban. He, too, married his wives' slaves at the request of his wives … among the Judges, however, polygamy was practised, as it was also among the rich and the nobility … Elkanah, the father of Samuel, had two wives, probably because the first (Hannah) was childless. The tribe of Issachar was noted for its practise of polygamy. Caleb had two concubines … David and Solomon had many wives, a custom which was probably followed by al the later kings of Judah and of Israel … Jehoiada gave to Joash two wives only &hellip

The Mosaic law, while permitting polygamy, introduced many provisions which tended to confine it to narrower limits, and to lessen the abuse that might arise in connection with it. The Israelitish woman slave who was taken as a wife by the son of her master was entitled to all the rights of matrimony … even after he had taken another wife … one who lived in bigamy might now show his preference for the children of the more favored wife … The king should not "multiply wives" (Deut. xvii.17; Sanh. 21a, where the number is limited to 18, 24, or 48, according to the various interpretations given to II Sam. xii, 8); and the high priest is, according to the rabbinic interpretation of Lev. xxi.13, commanded to take one wife only (Yeb. 59a; comp. Yoma 2a).

The same feeling against polygamy existed in later Talmudic times … Polygamy, was, however, sanctioned by Jewish law and gave rise to many rabbinical discussions. While one rabbi says that a man may take as many wives as he can support Raba, in Yeb. 65a), it was recommended that no one should marry more than four women (ib.44a) …

— Jewish Encyclopedia (4)

Appendix B: Polygamy and the Slave Hagar

Genesis 16:1-7 (KJV)

Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.
And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

Genesis 21:9-16 (KJV)

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.
And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

Title: Jewish Harems in Talmud Law
URL: http://come-and-hear.com/editor/america_4.html
Version: July 26, 2017

You May Find These Works of interest

How the Bible Came to Us - Meryl Doney

Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel - Alison Weir

Jews, God, and History - Max I. Dimont

Winged Pharaoh - Joan Grant

The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels - Thomas Cahill

Glossary

This is the complete Glossary of the 1952-1961 printing of the Soncino Talmud, wherein the glossaries of all the tractates were compiled into a single volume. A few other frequently encountered terms have been added (distinguished by green font), with cites as noted.

Abbreviations and some other terms are to found
on the Abbreviations Page

Quick Find

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z

AB: The fifth month of the Jewish Calendar, corresponding approximately to July or August.
ABBA: Father. A title given to many Rabbis of the Talmud as a mark of affection or honour.
'ABODAH ZARAH: Idolatry; lit., 'strange service'.
ADAR: The name of the twelfth month of the Jewish Calendar, corresponding approximately to February or March.
ADRAKTA: A court document authorizing the creditor to trace out the debtors property for the purpose of distraint.
AGGADAH: (Lit., 'tale', 'lesson'); the name given to those sections of Rabbinic literature which contain homiletic expositions of the Bible, stories, legends, folk-lore, anecdotes or maxims. Opposed to halachah, q.v.
'AGUNAH: (Lit., 'tied'); a deserted wife, tied to an absent husband because, e.g. she is uncertain whether her husband is alive or not, and so cannot marry again.
AKIBA: Rabbi Akiba (Akiva) ben Joseph (50-135 A.D.). A poor, semi-literate shepherd, Akiba became one of Judaism's greatest scholars. He developed the exegetical method of the Mishnah, linking each traditional practice to a basis in the biblical text, and systematized the material that later became the Mishnah.
Rabbi Akiba was active in the Bar Kokhba rebellion against Rome, 132-135 C.E.. He believed that Bar Kokhba was the Moshiach (messiah), though some other rabbis openly ridiculed him for that belief (the Talmud records another rabbi as saying, "Akiba, grass will grow in your cheeks and still the son of David will not have come.") When the Bar Kokhba rebellion failed, Rabbi Akiba was taken by the Roman authorities and tortured to death. [< http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/akiba.html]
ALIF: The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with numerical value 1.
AMARKAL: According to the interpretation given by R. Hisda in Horayoth 13a, the word is composed of amar and kola, lit., 'who said (i.e. directs) all things'. One of the Temple trustees whose duty it was to supervise the work of the cashiers.
'AM HA-AREZ: pl. 'amme ha-arez, (Lit., 'people of the land', 'country people'); the name given in Rabbinic literature to (a) a person who through ignorance was careless in the observance of the laws of Levitical purity and of those relating to the priestly and Levitical gifts. In this sense opposed to haber, q.v.; (b) an illiterate or uncultured man, as opposed to talmid hakam, q.v.
'AMIDAH: (Lit., 'standing'); the Eighteen Benedictions (seven on Sabbaths and Festivals) which the worshipper always recites in a standing posture.
AMORA: 'Speaker', 'interpreter'; originally denoted the interpreter who attended upon the public preacher or lecturer for the purpose of expounding at length and in popular style the heads of the discourse given to him by the latter. Subsequently (pl. Amoraim) the name given to the Rabbinic authorities responsible for the Gemara, as opposed to the Mishnah or Baraitha (v. Tanna).
ANINUTH: The state of being an onen, q.v.
'ARAKIN: Vows to donate a person's valuation to the Temple, v. Lev. XXVII, 1ff.
'AREB: A surety who agrees to pay in case the borrower fails to meet his obligation. (Cf. KABBELAN.)
ARIS: A tenant farmer, who pays a fixed percentage of the crops in rent.
ARUS: The technical term for a husband of a betrothed woman, when erusin (q.v.) has taken place; v. ARUSAH.
ARUSAH: A betrothed woman after erusin (q.v.); v. ARUS.
ASHAM TALUI: (asham 'a guilt-offering', talui 'hung', 'suspended'), the offering which is to be brought by one who is in doubt as to the transgression committed. V. Lev. V, 17-19.
ASHAM WADDAI: (v. ASHAM TALUI; waddai 'certainty'), the guilt-offering incumbent upon one who is certain of having committed a sinful act that has to be atoned for by a guilt-offering.
ASHERAH: The biblical name given to a tree or pole which was the object of idolatrous worship.
ASMAKTA: 'Reliance'; (a) Biblical text adduced to give some slight support or provide a mnemonic for a law enacted by the Rabbis; (b) an assurance that one will pay or forfeit something in case of the non-fulfilment of a certain condition which, however, he is confident that he will fulfil.
ASUFI: (Lit., 'one gathered in'); a foundling, a child, gathered in from the street, whose father or mother is unknown.
'AYIN: The sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with numerical value 70.
BA'AL KERI: One unclean through nocturnal pollution.
BALAAM: Numbers 22-24: A Midianite (gentile) prophet and diviner from Pethor, who was called upon by the king of Moab to curse the Israelites. At God's direction Balaam blessed, rather than cursed, Israel. Later books characterize Balaam as a most evil man (Joshua 13:22, Joshua 24:10, Nehemiah 13:2, 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 1:11, Revelation 2:14, and many parts of the Talmud).

Herford, Christianity in the Talmud, p. 48, suggests that Balaam is frequently used in the Talmud as a type (or euphemism) for Jesus (v. also pp. 64-70). Though no name is mentioned to shew which woman is meant, the mother of Jesus may be alluded to, which theory is strengthened by the statement that she mated with a carpenter [< Sanhedrin 106a, note 42].

According to the view that all the Balaam passages are anti-Christian in tendency, Balaam being used as an alias for Jesus, Phinehas the Robber is thus taken to represent Pontius Pilatus, and the Chronicle of Balaam probably to denote a Gospel (v. Herford op. cit. 72ff.). This view is however disputed by Bacher and others: cf. Ginzberg, Journal of Biblical Literature, XLI, 121. [< Sanhedrin 106b, note 6].
BAMAH: A 'high place', i.e. an altar for sacrifice other than the one in the Temple of Jerusalem.
BARAITHA: (Lit., 'outside'); a teaching or a tradition of the Tannaim that has been excluded from the Mishnah and incorporated in a later collection compiled by R. Hiyya and R. Oshaiah, generally introduced by 'Our Rabbis taught', or, 'It has been taught'.
BATH KOL: (Lit., 'daughter of a voice'); (a) a reverberating sound; (b) a voice descending from heaven (cf. Dan. IV, 28) to offer guidance in human affairs, and regarded as a lower grade of prophecy.
BERERAH: (Lit., 'choice'); the selection retrospectively of one object rather than another as having been designated by a term equally applicable to both.
BETH AB: (Beth 'house' and Ab 'father) 'family', one of the six family divisions into which each of the eight major divisions of the priests and Levites (mishmar, q.v.) was subdivided for the purpose of the Temple service.
BETH DIN: (Lit., 'house of law or judgment'); a gathering of three or more learned men acting as a Jewish court of law.
BETH HAMIDRASH: House of study; the college or academy where the study of the Torah was carried on under the guidance of a Rabbinical authority.
BETH KOR: An area in which a kor of seed may be sown.
BETH PERAS: An area (of a square peras = half the length of a furrow) regarded as unclean owing to crushed bones scattered in it from a ploughed grave.
BETH SE'AH: An area in which a se'ah of seed may be sown.
BIKKURIM: The first ripe fruits which had to be brought to the Temple in Jerusalem, Deut. XXV, 1ff.
BINYAN AB: (Lit., 'constructing of a family'); a norm of interpretation denoting that a certain Biblical passage is regarded as having laid the foundation of a family, because it is the principal passage from which is derived the explanation to passages which are similar to it.
BOGERETH: A girl from the age of twelve and a half years plus one day onwards.
C.E.: "common era"; an attempt to use a neutral term for the period traditionally labeled "AD" (Latin: anno domini or "year of the Lord") by Christians. Thus, 1992 CE is identical to AD 1992. [< http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/gloss.html]
CUTHEAN, CUTHI: A member of the sect of Samaritans by whom Northern Israel was repopulated after the dispersal of the ten tribes.
CUTHEAN: Used as euphemism for non-Jew: 'Cuthean' (Samaritan) was here substituted by the censor for the original goy (heathen) [< Sanhedrin 57a, note 33].
D
DANKA: (a) The sixth of a denar; (b) a sixth in general.
DAYYO: (Lit., 'it is sufficient'); the legal maxim, 'it is sufficient for the object to which an analogy is drawn to be on the same footing as that from which it is drawn,' even though, were the analogy to be applied strictly, it would be treated with greater rigour.
DEMAI: (Lit., 'dubious', 'suspicious'); produce concerning which there is a doubt as to whether the rules relating to the priestly and Levitical dues and ritual cleanness and uncleanness were strictly observed. Any produce bought from 'am ha-arez (q.v.), unless the contrary is known, is treated as demai; and terumah gedolah and terumah (q.v.) of the tithe must be separated from it.
DENAR: Denarius, a silver or gold coin, the former being worth one twenty-fourth (according to others one twenty-fifth) of the latter.
DEYOMAD: A corner-piece constructed from two boards placed at right-angles to each other or a block cut into such a shape.
DUCHAN: A raised platform on which the Levites stood when chanting Psalms in divine service.
DUPONDIUM: A Roman coin of the value of two issars.
ELUL: The sixth month of the Jewish Calendar, corresponding to August or September.
EMURIM: (Lit., 'the consecrated parts'); the parts of a sacrifice which were to be burnt on the altar.
'ERUB: (Lit., 'mixture'); a quantity of food, enough for two meals, placed (a) 2000 cubits from the town boundary, so as to extend the Sabbath limit by that distance; (b) in a room or in a court-yard to enable all the residents to carry to and fro in the court-yard on Sabbath.
'ERUB TABSHILIN: (Lit., 'mixture of dishes'); a dish prepared on the eve of a Festival immediately preceding Shabbath enabling the preparing of food on the Festival for the Sabbath.
ERUSIN: (Lit., 'betrothal'); a formal betrothal, which cannot be annulled without a bill of divorce.
ETHROG: A fruit of the citrus family used with the palm leaves, myrtle and willows on the Festival of Tabernacles. Cf. Lev. XXIII, 40.
EXEDRA: A covered way leading up to the house, open at both sides.
F
FIRST STAGE [of intercourse]: "[T]he first stage of contact is the insertion of the corona [of the penis]" [< Yebamoth 55b]
G
[G]: This symbol is used in place of a Greek phrase, word, or letter in the original Soncino text. Readers to whom the original Greek is important should consider purchasing a printed copy of the Babylonian Talmud from Soncino Press.
GADOL: An adult male, over thirteen years of age.
GEMARA: (Lit., 'completion' or 'learning'). The traditions, discussions and rulings of the Amoras, based mainly on the Mishnah and forming (a) the Babylonian Talmud and (b) the Palestinian Talmud.
GEMATRIA: The numerical value of letters used as a basis of homiletical interpretation.
Geonim: (singular - Gaon) Title borne by the heads of the two large academies in Babylonia in Sura and Pumbedita, between the 6th and 11th centuries. In their days the Babylonian Talmud gained wide circulation throughout the Jewish people. The highest religious authorities of their time, they explained the Halacha and established new laws in accordance with contemporary needs. A listing of the Geonim is found in "Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon" ("The Epistle of Rabbi Sherira Gaon"). The last Gaon in Pumbedita was Rav Hai, the son of Sherira Gaon. The heads of the academies in Eretz Israel at this period were also called Gaon, but their influence was limited. {< http://www.ort.org/ort/edu/rolnik/halacha/geonim.htm)
GET: A deed or legal document; when used without further specification denotes generally a writ of divorce.
GEZERAH SHAWAH: (Lit., 'equal cut'); the application to one subject of a rule already known to apply to another, on the strength of a common expression used in connection with both in the Scriptures.
GRIVA: A dry measure equal to one se'ah. (q.v.)
GUD AHIT: (Lit., 'pull and bring down'); a legal fiction that a wall or any other partition may in certain circumstances be deemed to reach the ground though an air-space in fact intervenes.
[H]: This symbol is used in place of a Hebrew (or Aramaic) phrase, word, or letter in the original Soncino text. Readers to whom the original Hebrew is important should consider purchasing a printed copy of the Babylonian Talmud from Soncino Press.
HABDALAH: (Lit., 'separation'); the blessing (usually made over wine) by which the Sabbath or any other holy day is ushered out.
HABER: 'Fellow', 'associate', opp. to 'am ha-arez (q.v.); one scrupulous in the observance of the law, particularly in relation to ritual cleanness and the separation of the priestly and Levitical dues.
HABUT: (From a root meaning 'to strike' or 'press down'); a legal fiction that an inclined projection may be regarded as horizontal, and stretching downwards to the spot required (cf. LABUD).
HADASH: ('new'); the new cereal crops, which may not be eaten before the waving of the 'sheaf' ('omer); v. Lev. XXIII, 10-14.
HAFINAH: The priests taking handfuls of incense, v. Lev. XVI, 12.
HAFTARAH: (Lit., 'leave-taking'); a section from the Prophetical books recited after the reading from the Pentateuch on Sabbaths and Holy Days.
HAGBAHAH: (Lit., 'a lifting'); a legal form of acquisition consisting in the lifting up of the object to be acquired.
HAGGADAH: See AGGADAH.
HAKANAH: 'Preparation' for use on the Sabbath or Festival; used as a technical term with reference to [H] Ex. XVI, 5.
HAKTARAH: The burning of sacrificial portions on the altar.
HALACHAH: (Lit., 'step'. 'guidance'), (a) the final decision of the Rabbis, whether based on tradition or argument, on disputed rules of conduct, (b) those sections of Rabbinic literature which deal with legal questions, as opposed to the Aggadah.
HALAL, HALALAH: The issue of an interdicted priestly union.
HALIFIN: 'Exchange'; a legal form of acquisition effected by handing to the seller an object in nominal exchange for the object bought (V. KINYAN SUDAR).
HALIZAH: (Lit., 'drawing off'); the ceremony of taking off the shoe of the brother of a husband who has died childless. (v. Dent. XXV, 5-9.)
HALLAH: The portion of the dough which belongs to the priest (v. Num. XV, 20f); in the Diaspora this is not given to the priest but burnt.
HALLEL: (Lit., 'Praise'); Psalms CXIII-CXVIII, recited in the morning service on New Moons and Festivals.
HALUZAH: A woman who has performed halizah (q.v.).
HANUKKAH: The Festival of Dedication (frequently designated the Feast of Lights); a minor eight days' festival, from the 25th of Kislev to the 2nd or 3rd of Tebeth, in commemoration of the rededication of the Temple in 165 B.C.E. after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes.
HAROSETH: A mixture of apples, nuts and wine, so made as to resemble mortar, into which the bitter herbs are dipped on the first two nights of Passover.
HASID: ('pious'). A pious man; at one time possibly a designation of a member of a particularly pious and strictly observant sect.
HAYYAH: Beast of chase, e.g. deer, contra to behemah, a domesticated animal.
HAZA'AH: The sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices, and of the water of purification, upon the unclean.
HAZAKAH: (Lit., 'taking hold'); a legal term denoting (a) presumptive title based on the occupier's undisturbed possession during a fixed legal period, in cases where a claim to ownership cannot be established by other legal evidence; usucaption; (b) taking possession (of landed property) by means of a formal act of acquisition, e.g., digging, fencing.
HEDYOT: (From Gr. [G]); (a) a commoner or layman, as opposed to a king or High Priest; (b) an ignorant or ill-mannered man; (c) untrained, as opposed to a skilled worker; (d) private writings, as opposed to biblical books.
HEFKER: Property which has no owner: a renunciation of ownership in favour of all and sundry. When used in reference to a court of law, it denotes an act of transfer of property from one person to another, in virtue of the power of the court to declare property ownerless, after which it can assign it to another.
HEKAL: The holy temple, especially the hall containing the golden altar etc. in contradistinction to the Holy of Holies.
HEKDESH: Any object consecrated to the Sanctuary.
HEKKESH: Analogy, proving that the law in respect of one thing applies also to another, either because both have some feature in common or there is a Biblical intimation to the effect.
HELEB: The portion of the fat of a permitted domestic animal which may not be eaten; in sacrifices that fat was burnt upon the altar.
HEREM: pl. haramim ('devoted'). Property devoted to the use of the priests or the Temple; when used in vows it denotes that benefit shall be prohibited from the person or things so designated.
HERESH: (cf. Ex. IV, ii); a deaf person, especially (in its legal use) a deaf mute.
HESSET: (Lit., 'shaking'); levitical uncleanness caused through the vibration of an unclean object.
HILLEL: Hillel and Shammai [were] two great scholars born a generation or two before the beginning of the Common Era are usually discussed together and contrasted with each other, because they were contemporaries and the leaders of two opposing schools of thought (known as "houses"). The Talmud records over 300 differences of opinion between Beit Hillel (the House of Hillel) and Beit Shammai (the House of Shammai). In almost every one of these disputes, Hillel's view prevailed.
Rabbi Hillel was born to a wealthy family in Babylonia, but came to Jerusalem without the financial support of his family and supported himself as a woodcutter. It is said that he lived in such great poverty that he was sometimes unable to pay the admission fee to study Torah, and because of him that fee was abolished. He was known for his kindness, his gentleness, and his concern for humanity. One of his most famous sayings, recorded in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, a tractate of the Mishnah), is "If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?" The Hillel organization, a network of Jewish college student organizations, is named for him. [< http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/hillel.html] See also Shammai.
HIN: Measure of capacity equal to three kabs or twelve logs.
HOMER: Equal to a kor or thirty se'ahs.
HULLIN: (Lit., 'profane'); ordinary unhallowed food, as opposed to terumah, q.v.; unconsecrated animals, as opposed to hekdesh, q.v.
HUPPAH: (Lit., 'canopy'). The bridal chamber; the entrance of a bride into the bridal chamber, whereby the marriage was completed; v. kiddushin.
'ISKA: (Lit., 'occupation', 'business', 'merchandise'); a business arrangement whereby one invests money with a trader, who trades therewith on their joint behalf. To avoid the prohibition of usury, the investor took a greater share of the risk than of the profit, e.g. he received either half of the profit but bore two-thirds of the loss, or a third of the profit but bore half the loss.
ISSAR: A small Roman coin.
JUDEO-CHRISTIAN: See MIN [< Sanhedrin 90b, note 17].
JUDAH HA-NASI: Judah Ha-Nasi (Judah the Prince)(135-219 A.D.) The Patriarch of the Jewish community, Judah Ha-Nasi was well-educated in Greek thought as well as Jewish thought. He organized and compiled the Mishnah, building upon Rabbi Akiba's work. [< http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/hanasi.html]
KAB: Measure of capacity equal to four logs or one sixth of a se'ah.
KABBELAN: 'Receiver'; a surety who receives money from the lender to convey to the borrower and who thus becomes liable to pay the debt whenever called upon by the lender, even though the borrower has not been first approached. Also any surety who accepts such liability. (V. also 'AREB.)
KABU'A: That which is stationed in a definite place; hence a technical term for a doubt arising in respect of that which is so stationed.
KADDISH: (Lit., 'holy'): a brief doxology (in Aramaic) recited at the close of each section of a public service.
KALLAH: Name given to an assembly at which the law was expounded to scholars, as well as to the half-yearly assemblies of the Babylonian Academies.
KAL WA-HOMER: (Lit., 'light and heavy'); an argument, or proof of a contention, a minori or a fortiori.
KARETH: 'Cutting off; divine punishment for a number of sins for which no human penalty is specified. Sudden death is described as 'kareth of days', premature death at sixty as 'kareth of years'.
KARETH: The law is clearly established, in this Tractate and elsewhere, that the penalty of kareth is incurred when a transgression — one of the thirty-six cited in the opening Mishnah of this Tractate — is committed deliberately without any previous warning. If the transgression was committed deliberately, after the warning of witnesses, the offender is liable in some of the cases to the death penalty, and in others, to forty stripes. [< Introduction to Tractate Kerithoth by the translator, Rabbi Dr. I. Porusch, Ph. D., Tractate Kerithoth, page v.]
KARETH: Premature or sudden death. [< INTRODUCTION to Horayoth]
KARMELITH: An area which is neither a public nor a private domain, and which is subject to special laws in respect of the Sabbath and the legal acquisition of subjects that happen to be within its limits.
KARPAF or KARPI: (Lit., 'an enclosure'); an area enclosed for the storage of wood or similar purposes, outside a settlement.
KAWANAH: (Lit., 'aiming', 'concentration'); (a) devotion (in prayer); (b) deliberate purpose (in the performance of a religious precept).
KEMIZAH: The taking of the fistful of flour from the meal-offering.
KENAS: A fine or penalty (as distinct from actual monetary loss caused), to be paid by certain classes of wrongdoers, e.g., a seducer.
KERI: (Lit., 'read'); the text of the Scripture as it is to be read in places where this is not correctly indicated by the text as written (Ketib).
KETANAH: (Lit., 'small', 'little'); a girl under the age of twelve years and a day.
KETHUBAH: (Lit., 'a written [document]'); (a) a wife's marriage settlement which she is entitled to recover on her being divorced or on the death of her husband. The minimum settlement for a virgin is two hundred zuz, and for a widow remarrying one hundred zuz; (b) the marriage contract specifying the mutual obligations between husband and wife and containing the amount of the endowment and any other special financial obligations assumed by the husband.
KIDDUSH: (Lit., 'sanctification'); the blessing (usually made over wine) by which the Sabbath or any other holy day is ushered in.
KIDDUSHIN: (Lit., 'sanctification'); (a) the act of affiancing or betrothal; (b) the money or article given to effect the betrothal.
KIL'AYIM: (Lit., 'junction of diverse kinds'); the prohibition either (a) of seeds or plants for sowing; (b) of animals for propagation; and (c) of material containing wool and linen for wearing (v. Lev. XIX, 19, XXII, 9ff).
KINYAN: 'Acquisition'; the legal acquisition of either landed or movable property. (V. KINYAN SUDAR.)
KINYAN SUDAR: (Lit., 'acquisition of a scarf'); a legal form of acquisition of objects or of confirming agreements, executed by the handing of a scarf (or any other article) on the part of one of the contracting parties to the other, or on that of the witnesses to the agreement, as a symbol that the object itself has been transferred or the obligation assumed.
KOFER: (Lit., 'atonement'); the indemnity paid by the owner of an ox which has gored a man to death (v. Ex. XXI, 30).
KOHANIM: Plural of Kohen, Priest, Aaronide.
KOHEN: A priest, a descendant of Aaron (v. Lev. XXI, XXII).
KONAM: (A substitute for korban); an expression used in taking a vow of abstinence.
KOR: A measure of capacity = thirty se'ahs (q.v.).
KORBAN: An expression used in taking a vow of abstinence.
KORTOB: A sixty-fourth of a log.
KOY: A hybrid animal, partly ox and partly sheep.
KUTAH: A preserve or relish made of bread crusts and sour milk.
LABUD: (Lit., 'joined'). A legal fiction whereby a horizontal gap of certain prescribed dimensions is deemed to be closed up (cf. HABUT).
LAGIN: A vessel larger in size than a cup (kos) and smaller than the jar (kad).
LEVIRATE MARRIAGE: The marriage between a man and the widow of his dead brother who has died childless. (V. HALIZAH.)
LINAH: 'Staying overnight'. The disqualification of a holy thing which remained overnight.
LITRA: (a) a measure of capacity equal to half a log, q.v.; (b) the weight of one pound, the Roman libra.
LOG: A liquid measure equal to a quarter of a kab, (q.v.), or the space occupied by six eggs, c. 549 cubic centimetres.
LULAB: The palm-branch used in the ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles (v. Lev. XXIII, 40).
MA'AH: The smallest current silver coin, weighing sixteen barleycorns, equal in value to two dupondia, a sixth of the silver denar or zuz.
MA'AMAD pl. MA'AMADOTH: (Lit., 'station'); a group of lay Israelites who participated in the Temple service as representatives of the public.
MA'AMAR: (Lit., 'saying', 'declaration'); the formal betrothal, instituted by the Rabbis, of the yebamah (q.v.) by the levir. This is accompanied either by the gift of money or by a deed.
MADDIR: He who vows that his neighbour should not benefit from him; his neighbour is then called the muddar.
MAKKATH MARDUTH: (Lit., 'stripes for rebellion'); lashes inflicted for disobedience the number of which being left to the discretion of the court in contradistinction to the 40 (39) lashes ordained by the Bible.
MAKOM: (Lit., 'place'); a name of God, who is so called because 'He is the place of His universe'.
MAMZER: A child born from a union prohibited under penalty of death or kareth.
MANEH: One hundred zuz. The maneh was a weight in gold or silver equal to fifty holy, or a hundred common shekels.
MATTIR: (pl. Mattirin), 'that which renders permissible'. The essential rite of a sacrifice which renders the offering permissible for the altar or for eating.
MAZZAH: Unleavened bread (in the form of fairly thin wafers) eaten during Passover.
MEDUMMA: Imaginary.
MEGILLAH: (Lit., 'Scroll'); a term commonly applied to the Book of Esther.
MEGILLATH TA'ANITH: (Lit., 'Scroll of Fasting'); a list compiled some time before the destruction of the Temple, of days on which it was forbidden to fast, with the reasons in each case.
ME'ILAH: Illegal or improper use of consecrated objects (v. Lev. V, 15ff).
MELIKAH: (Lit., 'wringing'); the wringing off of the head of the burnt-offering of a bird, v. Lev. I, 15.
MELOG: (Lit., 'plucking' or 'milking'); denotes property which belongs to the wife and of which the husband has only the usufruct without any rights to the capital, or responsibility for its loss or deterioration.
MEMA'ENETH: (Lit., 'she who refuses'); a woman who exercises the right of mi'un, q.v.
MESHIKAH: (Lit., 'pulling'); one of the legal modes of acquiring a movable object which the buyer performs by drawing the object into his — though not exclusive — possession.
MESIRAH: (Lit., 'delivery' or 'harnessing'); a form of legal acquisition which is executed by the buyers performance of some act, resembling harnessing in the case of a beast, or in the case of other heavy objects by obtaining actual delivery.
MESITH: (Lit., 'seducer'); one who entices another to idolatry (v. Deut. XIII, 7ff).
METH MIZWAH: (Lit., 'a dead [body] which is a commandment); a corpse lying unattended with nobody to arrange for its burial. The duty of burying it devolves upon whomsoever discovers it, even if he be a Nazirite or a High Priest.
METHUKAN: Improved, correct, in good order.
MEZUZAH: (Lit., 'doorpost ); a small case containing certain passages from the Scripture affixed to the post of a door (v. Deut. VI, 9).
MIDRAS: (Lit., 'treading', 'place of treading'). It denotes uncleanness of the first degree ('Father of uncleanness') contracted by an object on which a gonorrhoeist (more exactly those mentioned in Lev. XII, z; XV, z, 25) sits, lies, rides or leans against. Any object fit for, and usually used as a seat, cover, etc. is susceptible to midras — uncleanness.
MIGGO: (Lit., 'from the content of'); an argument that a statement should be accepted because a stronger statement to the same effect could have been made without fear of contradiction.
MIKWEH: (Lit., 'a gathering [of water]'); a ritual bath containing not less than forty se'ahs of water.
MIL: (= mille); a Roman mile, 2,000 cubits.
MIN: pl. minim, (Lit., 'kind', 'species'); (a) a heretic, esp. (b) a member of the sect of the early Jewish Christians.
MINHAH: The afternoon service, about two and a half hours before nightfall.
MINUTH: Heresy, the belief in more than one Power, especially Judeo-Christianity.
MISHMAR: (rt. SHaMaR, 'to keep'), a guard of priests and Levites representing one of the eight divisions which carried on the Temple services in rotation. The mishmar again was subdivided into smaller groups each being designated beth ab, q.v.
MISHNAH: (rt. SHaNaH, 'to learn', 'to repeat'), (a) the collection of the statements, discussions and Biblical interpretations of the Tannaim in the form edited by R. Judah the Patriarch c. 200; (b) similar minor collections by previous editors; (c) a single clause or paragraph the author of which was a Tanna.
MI'UN: (Lit., 'refusal'); a declaration by a fatherless girl who has been married off by her mother or brothers under age, that she does not wish to live with her husband. Such a declaration made by her in the presence of a Beth din secures her freedom without the requirement of a Get.
MIZWAH: (Lit., 'commandment'), i.e. any Jewish religious precept or duty.
MODA'AH: (Lit., 'a notification'); a legal term for an affidavit made by a man that a sale or gift which he is about to execute is being forced on him against his will, and that he intends, when opportunity arises, to take legal steps to annul it.
MU'AD: (Lit., 'forewarned'); applied to an ox (or any other animal) that has gored or done injury on three successive occasions, so that the owner thus stands 'forewarned' and is liable to pay in full for any damage that has been done by his beast.
MUDDAR: v. MADDIR.
MUFLA: Lit., 'separated', 'distinguished', the expert of the court, who instructs the members on legal points that are submitted for his consideration and report.
MUKAN: (Lit., 'prepared', 'set in readiness'); a term describing an object as being in a state of preparedness and fitness before a Festival for use as may become desirable on the Festival.
MUKZEH: (Lit., 'set aside'); that which may not be used or handled on the Sabbath or Festivals, though its use does not constitute actual labour.
MULUG or MELOG: (Lit., 'plucking' or 'milking'); denotes property which belongs to the wife and of which the husband has only the usufruct without any rights to the capital, or responsibility for its loss or deterioration.
MUMHE: 'Skilled', 'qualified', 'experienced'; a scholar well qualified by his attainments to deal with matters of law, such, e.g., as the remission of vows.
MUSAF: (Lit., 'addition'); the additional Amidah recited during the morning service on Sabbaths and Holy Days.
Na'ARAH: A girl between the ages of twelve years and one day and twelve and a half years plus one day.
NA'ARUTH: The state of being a na'arah, q.v.
NASI: Chief, Patriarch; the chief of the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem; after its abolition, the head of Palestinian Jewry.
NATHIN: (rt. NaTHaN, 'to give'), a descendant of the Gibeonites who deceived Joshua (v. Josh. IX, 3ff) and, when their identity was discovered, were made (Lit., 'given', v. ibid. v. 27) into hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and the altar. V. also Ezra II, 43ff, VIII, 20, Neh. III, 26 and I Chron. IX, 2, wherein Nethinim, the plural of Nathin occurs.
NAZIR: One who has taken a nazirite vow (to abstain from wine and let the hair grow long; v. Num. VI).
NEBELAH: (pl. nebeloth); an animal slaughtered in any manner other than that prescribed by Jewish ritual law; the least deviation therefrom, e.g., if the knife has the slightest notch, renders the animal nebelah.
NEDABAH: A free-will offering, i.e. one that is neither obligatory nor brought in performance of a vow.
NE'ILAH: The concluding service of the Day of Atonement.
NESEK: (Yen Nesek, Lit., 'wine of libation'); wine forbidden to the Jew because it has been handled by an idolater who may have dedicated it as an offering to his deity.
NESU'AH: A married woman after home-taking (nissu'in, q.v.), whereby the marriage is completed in the sense that cohabitation is permitted; opposed to arusah, q.v., with whom cohabitation is yet prohibited.
NETHINAH: A descendant of the Gibeonites (Josh. IX) with whom Israelites were not allowed to intermarry. An illegitimate was debarred under the law of Deut. XXIII, 3, E.V. z.
NEZIRAH: A female NAZIR.
NEZIROTH: Vows of naziriteship.
NEZIRUTH: The state of a nazirite after binding himself with a vow.
NIDDAH: A woman in the period of her menstruation.
NISAN: The first month of the year in the Jewish Calendar, corresponding to March or April.
NISSU'IN: The ceremony of home-taking, which completes the marriage.
NOLAD: (Lit., 'it is born'); an object that made its first appearance or became available for use on the Sabbath or on any other holy day and the handling of which is forbidden in the days mentioned (cf. MUKZEH).
NOTHAR: ('left over'); portions of sacrifices left over after the prescribed time within which they must be eaten.
OHEL: (Lit., 'tent'); technical name for the uncleanness conveyed by a dead human body, or part of it, to men or utensils which are under the same tent or roof.
OMER: (Lit., 'sheaf'); the sheaf of barley offered on the sixteenth of Nisan. before which the new cereals of that year were forbidden for use (v. Lev. XXIII, 10).
ONAN: A mourner while his dead relative is awaiting burial; opposite to abel, a mourner from the time of burial for a period of seven or thirty days. 741
ONEN: V. Onan.
'ORLAH: ('uncircumcised'); applied to newly-planted trees for a period of three years during which their fruits must not be eaten (v. Lev. XIX, 23ff).
PARASANG: A Persian mile, about 4000 yards.
PE'AH: ('corner'); the corner of a field that is being reaped, which must be left for the poor (v. Lev. XIX, 9ff).
PERAS: (Lit., 'part'); half a loaf of the size of a third of a kab, q.v.
PERUTAH: The smallest copper coin, equal to one-eighth of an issar or one-sixteenth of a dupondium.
PIGGUL: (Lit., 'abhorred'); flesh of the sacrifice which the officiating priest has formed the intention of eating at an improper time. V. Lev. VII, 18.
PROSBUL: Perhaps from [G], or an abbreviation of [G] or [G]; a form of declaration before the Beth din by means of which a creditor, provided he possessed some landed property, could secure exemption from the laws of Sabbatical release (v. Deut. XV, 2) and thus retain his right to the collection of his debts after the Sabbatical year had elapsed.
PUNDION: v. DUPONDIUM.
PURIM: A festival held on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of Adar in commemoration of the delivery of the Jews of Persia through Mordecai and Esther from the destruction designed against them by Haman.
RAB, RABBI
Rabban: (our teacher) [Title of address] for the president of the Sanhedrin. [< Rodkinson, Vol. II, p. 5]
RASHI: Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (or: Shlomo Yitzhaki) [1040-1105 A.D.] is known by the acronym: RaSh‘I. [< http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudMap/Rashi.html]
REBI'ITH: A liquid measure one fourth of a log.
RESH GALUTHA: Head of the Exile, the title of the official head of Babylonian and Persian Jewry.
RESHUTH HARABBIM: 'Domain of the many'; the domain or territory belonging to, or used by, the public; public roads, as opposed to reshuth hayyahid.
RESHUTH HAYYAHID: 'Domain of the individual'; private premises, as opposed to reshuth harabbim.
RIS: The seventh part of a mil.
ROHITNI: (Lit., 'a carpenters plane'); an instrument for cropping close the hair of the baird.
SANHEDRIN: ([G]); the council of state and supreme tribunal of the Jewish people during the century or more preceding the fall of the Second Temple. It consisted of seventy-one members, and was presided over by the High Priest. A minor court (for judicial purposes only) consisting of twenty-three members was known as the 'Small Sanhedrin'.
SANTER: (Apparently = Lat. 'senator'); according to the Talmudic interpretation, (a) a recorder, a slave appointed by the town to answer enquiries respecting the boundaries of fields; or (b) a stretch of fields adjoining the town. According to others, a guardsman or sentry.
SARIS: A castrate; one who is physically unable to beget child.
SE'AH: Measure of capacity, equal to six kabs.
SEGAN: The title given to the Deputy High Priest.
SELA': Coin, equal to four denarii (one sacred, or two common, shekels).
SHAHARITH: (Lit., 'morning time'); the morning service.
SHAMMAI: Rabbi Shammai was an engineer, known for the strictness of his views. He was reputed to be dour, quick-tempered and impatient. For example, the Talmud tells that a gentile came to Shammai saying that he would convert to Judaism if Shammai could teach him the whole Torah in the time that he could stand on one foot. Shammai drove him away with a builder's measuring stick! Hillel, on the other hand, converted the gentile by telling him, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it." [< http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/hillel.html] See also HILLEL.
SHAMTA: (Lit., 'desolation'); a ban, or excommunication.
SHEBI'ITH: The seventh or Sabbatical year in which cultivation of the land is forbidden; v. Lev. XXV.
SHEBUTH: (Lit., 'cessation'); an act forbidden by the Rabbis to be performed on the Sabbath.
SHECHINA: (Lit., 'abiding [of God]' 'Divine presence'); the spirit of the Omnipresent as manifested on earth.
SHECHITAH: Ritual slaughter, without which an animal is not fit for food.
SHEKEL: Coin or weight, equal to two denar or ten ma'ah (q.v.). The sacred shekel was worth twenty ma'ah or gerah (cf. Ex. XXX, t3), twice the value of the common shekel.
SHEMA': (Lit., 'hear'); the biblical verse, 'Hear', 'Israel' etc. (Deut. VI, 4); also the three sections (Deut. VI, 5-9; Deut. XI, t3-zo; and Num. XV, 37-4 t) which are recited after this verse in the morning and evening prayers.
SHEMA'TA: Something heard from the lips of an eminent person; a reported topic.
SHEMITTAH pl. SHEMITTIN: Every seventh year, which is the Sabbatical year or the year of release.
SHEREZ: Unclean reptile (including rodents)
SHETAR: A deed (v. GET), a writ.
SHETUKI: (Lit., 'silenced'); a child who knows who his mother is but not his father.
SHIDDUKIN: The arrangements and negotiations prior to betrothal.
SHITTUF: (From a root meaning 'association', 'partnership'). An association for the purposes of the Sabbath law of the residents of an alley into a partnership by contributing their shares to a prescribed quantity of food, which is deposited in one of the courts of the alley, and whereby they are regarded as a united body, each of whom is allowed free access to his neighbours.
SHOFAR: (Lit., 'ram's horn'); a horn used as a trumpet for military and religious purposes, particularly in the service of the New Year and the conclusion of the Day of Atonement.
SHOMERETH YABA: (Lit., 'waiting for the yabam'); a childless widow awaiting the brother of her deceased husband to marry her or free her by means of halizah (q.v.).
SHOSBIN: A groomsman, who in addition to acting as best man or companion to the groom, also brought him presents.
SHUM: 'Appraisement'; the term used to designate a dowry in which goods are brought instead of cash.
SIFRA: A legal Rabbinical commentary on Leviticus.
SIVAN: The third month of the Jewish Calendar corresponding to May or June.
SOBEB: A sort of gallery around the altar where the priests would walk.
SOFER: (pl. soferim); (a) scribe, title of the pre-Tannaitic teachers, beginning with Ezra (v. Ezra VII, t 1); (b) teacher; esp. the authorities on Jewish law who preceded the Tannaim.
SOTAH: A married woman suspected of infidelity who has been formally warned by her husband.
SUKKAH: 'Booth'; esp. the festive booth for Tabernacles (Lev. XXIII, 34ff), the roof of which must be made of something that grows from the ground such as reeds, branches or leaves of a prescribed size, quantity and quality.
SUKKOTH: The Festival of Tabernacles during the eight days of which (seven in Palestine) all Israel must dwell in booths. (V. Lev. XXIII, 34, 42f.)
TALLITH: A garment, cloak, esp. the four-cornered shawl with fringes (zizith) at each corner, worn during the recital of certain prayers.
TALMID HAKAM: (Lit., 'disciple of the wise'); scholar, student of the Torah.
TALMUD: (Lit., 'teaching', 'learning') applies (a) to the Gemara (q.v.) or (b) generally to the Mishnah and Gemara combined.
TAM: 'Perfect', (Lit., 'innocuous' opp. to mu'ad, q.v.); applied to an animal that did injury not more than twice. Its owner, not having been forewarned, pays only for half the damage.
TAMAD: An inferior kind of wine or vinegar produced by keeping stalks and skins of pressed grapes in water, or by pouring water into lees.
TAMID: The continual or daily burnt-offering, sacrificed every morning and evening.
TAMUN: (Lit., 'hidden'); articles hidden in a heap which catches fire.
TAMUZ: The fourth month of the Jewish Calendar, corresponding to June or July.
TANNA, TANA: (Lit., 'one who repeats' or 'teaches') (a) a Rabbi quoted in the Mishnah or Baraitha (q.v.); (b) in the Amoraic period, a scholar whose special task was to memorize and recite Baraithas in the presence of expounding teachers.
TARKAB: A measure containing two kabs (q.v.).
TEBEL: Produce, already at the stage of liability to the levitical and priestly dues (v. Terumah), before these have been separated.
TEBILLAH: The act of taking a ritual bath in a mikweh, q.v.
TEBUL YOM: (Lit., 'bathed during the day'); a person who has bathed to cleanse himself at the end of the period of his defilement, but who must wait until sunset to regain his ritual purity (Lev. XXII, 7).
TEFILLAH: Prayer, whether private or public; specifically the 'Amidah prayer.
TEFILLIN: Phylacteries; small cases containing passages from the Scripture and affixed to the forehead and arm during the recital of morning prayers, in accordance with Deut. VI, 8.
TEHUM: The boundary beyond which one must not walk on the Sabbath, which is 2,000 cubits without the town limits; this can be extended by another 2,000 cubits by means of an 'erub, q.v.
TEKIAH: (Lit., 'blowing'); the plain blast made with the Shofar.
TEKO or TEKU: (imperf. of 'to stand'), 'let it stand'; an expression occurring at the end of an enquiry when no definite answer is obtainable. Others consider it to be a combination of the initials of [H] (Elijah the Tishbite will solve all difficulties and enquiries).
TEKUFAH: (Lit., 'circuit', 'cycle'). The year is divided into four cycles called Tekufoth; the Tekufah of Nisan (Vernal Equinox); Tammuz (Summer Solstice); Tishri (Autumn Equinox); Tebeth (Winter Solstice). The term Tekufah is also applied to the season itself.
TERU'AH: (Lit., 'shout'); the tremolo blast made with the Shofar.
TERUMAH: 'That which is lifted or separated'; the heave-offering given from the yields of the yearly harvests, from certain sacrifices, and from the shekels collected in a special chamber in the Temple (terumath ha-lishkah). Terumah gedolah (great offering): the first levy on the produce of the year given to the priest (v. Num. XVIII, 8ff). Its quantity varied according to the generosity of the owner, who could give one-fortieth, one-fiftieth, or one-sixtieth of his harvest. Terumath ma'aser (heave-offering of the tithe): the heave-offering given to the priest by the Levite from the tithes he receives (v. Num. XVIII, 25ff).
TISHRI: The seventh month of the Jewish Calendar, corresponding to September or October.
TORAH: (Lit., 'teaching', 'learning', 'instruction'); (a) the Pentateuch (Written Law); (b) the Mishnah (Oral Law); (c) the whole body of Jewish religious literature.
TOSAFOTH or TOSAFOT: The word "Tosafot" translates as "additions" or "supplements." The Tosafot were composed by many scholars in different schools throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. They probably originated as students' notes of the discussions that took place in the Talmudic academy [=Yeshivah]. As students moved from one yeshiva to another they would assemble personal lists of the Tosafot of their various teachers. [< http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudMap/Tosafot.html]
TREFAH or TEREFA: (Lit., 'torn'); (a) an animal torn by a wild beast; (b) any animal suffering from a serious organic disease, whose meat is forbidden even if it has been ritually slaughtered.
TUMTUM: A person whose sex cannot be determined.
TURGEMAN: (Lit., 'interpreter , 'dragoman'). A public speaker who elaborated before a popular audience the heads of a discourse which he received from a Rabbi or scholar.
UKLA: One of the smaller measures of capacity and standards of weight equal to 1/32 (others 1/20) of a kab, q.v.
ULAM: A hall or porch leading into the interior of the Temple.
WILNA GAON: Notes by Elijah of Wilna (1710-1797) in the Wilna editions of the Talmud. [< Abbreviations]
YABAM: The brother of a married man who dies childless; the widow is called YEBAMAH, v. HALIZAH.
YEBAMAH: A brother's childless widow. V. Deut. XXV, 5-10.
YEN NESEK: (Lit., 'wine of libation'); wine forbidden to the Jew because it has been handed by an idolator who may have dedicated it as an offering to his deity.
YEZER HARA': (Lit., 'formation of evil'); (a) the evil inclination of man; (b) the tempter, Satan and the Angel of Death.
YIBBUM: Levitate marriage with a brother's childless widow (v. Dent. XXV, 5-10).
YIHUD: (Lit., 'privacy'); the prohibition instituted by the Rabbis against the private association of the sexes.
ZAB: (fem. ZABAH). The biblical term for a person who has experienced seminal emission (Lev. XV, 2).
ZAB: A zab is one who is afflicted with gonorrhoea as distinct from a semen discharge. [< Tractate Zabim, page 503, note 1]
ZAR: (Lit., 'stranger'); an Israelite, as opposed to a priest, who may not eat of terumah or perform certain acts in connection with sacrifices.
ZARAH: A co-wife, a married woman in relation to the other wives of her husband.
ZEDAKAH: (a) righteousness, equity; (b) charity, almsgiving.
ZEKUKAH: The widow who is tied by the levirate bond to her deceased husband's brother.
ZEROROTH: (Lit., 'pebbles'); pebbles or clods kicked up by an ox in walking and capable of doing damage.
ZIBAH: Aflux; gonorrhoea. Also the state of uncleanness of a Zab. q.v.
ZIKAH: The levirate bond.
ZIMMUN: (rt. ZaMaN in Pi'el, 'to designate', 'to summon'), the ceremonial consisting of responses in answer to the summons or invitation of the leader when three men, or more who partook of a common meal join together in the recital of the Grace after the meal. The responses with the prescribed variations for a company of ten or more, and for a meal in the house of a mourner, are given in full in Singer's P.B., p. 279.
ZIZITH: The biblical name of the fringe which is attached to each of the four corners of the garment (Num. XV, 38).
ZOMEM: p. zomemim, a witness giving false evidence and who is thus subject to the law of retaliation. Cf. Deut. XIX, 19.
ZONAH: A harlot, i.e. a woman who has intercourse with a man forbidden to her on all grounds save those specifically applying to priests; in the latter case she is a HALALAH.
ZON BARZEL: (Lit., 'property of the iron sheep'); which the wife makes over to the husband from her dowry, on condition that the husband is responsible to her for its full money value, whether he makes a profit or a loss on the transaction.
ZUZ: A coin of the value of a denarius, six ma'ah, or twelve dupondia.

INTRODUCTION TO SEDER ZERA'IM

THE EDITOR¹

GENERAL CHARACTER AND CONTENTS

[page xiii] Zera'im ('Seeds'), the name given to the first of the six 'Orders' into which the Talmud is divided, deals principally with the agricultural laws of the Torah in both their religious and social aspects. It sets forth and elaborates the Biblical precepts relating to the rights of the poor and of the priests and levites to the produce of the harvest, as well as the rules and regulations which concern the tillage, cultivation and sowing of fields, gardens and orchards. These laws are digested in ten tractates, each of which deals with a separate aspect of the general subject which gives the 'Order' its name. To them is prefixed the Tractate Berakoth, which has for its theme the daily prayers and worship of the Jew.

The 'Order' thus comprises 11 tractates, arranged in the separate printed editions of the Mishnah in the following sequence:

BERAKOTH ('Benedictions'): Deals with the prayer and worship of Israel; the regulations relating to the main components of the daily prayers; and the forms of thanksgiving or 'grace' to be recited over food and on sundry occasions. 9 Chapters.
PE'AH ('Corner'): Treats of the laws of the corners of the field which must be left to the poor and other dues assigned to them in accordance with Lev. XIX, 9f; XXIII, 22; and Deut. XXIV, 19-21. 8 Chapters.
DEMAI ('Doubtful'): Treats of produce concerning which there is a doubt whether or not the tithes have been set aside from it. 7 Chapters.
KIL'AYIM ('Mixtures'): Deals with the prohibition of mixture [page xiv] in plants, animals and garments set forth in Lev. XIX, 19, and Deut. XXII, 9-11. 9 Chapters.
SHEBI'ITH ('Seventh'): Discusses the regulations concerning the rest to be given to the land and the release of debts in the sabbatical year (Shemittah). See Ex. XVIII, 11; Lev. XXV, 2-7; and Deut. XV, 1-11. 10 Chapters.
TERUM0TH ('Heave Offerings'): Sets forth the laws regarding the portion of the harvest assigned to the priest in accordance with Num. XVIII 12. 11 Chapters.
MA'ASEROTH ('Tithes'): Has for its theme the 'first tithe' which must be given annually to the levite from the produce of the harvest according to Lev. XXVII, 30-33; and Num. XVIII, 21-24. 5 Chapters.
MA'ASER SHENI ('Second Tithe'): Details the rules of the 'second tithe' set aside in the first, second, fourth and sixth years of the septennate in accordance with Deut. XIV, 22ff. 5 Chapters.
HALLAH ('Dough'): Deals with the rules concerning the portion of the dough which must be given to the priest. See Num. XV, 20-21. 4 Chapters.
'ORLAH ('Uncircumcision', sc. of trees): Deals with the prohibition of the use of the fruit of the young trees during the first three years, and the rules for its treatment in the fourth year. See Lev. XIX, 23-24. 3 Chapters.
BIKKURIM ('First Fruits'): Gives the regulations concerning the offering of the first fruits in the Temple (see Deut. XXVI, Iff.), and includes an account of the accompanying ceremony. 3 Chapters.

This sequence is followed practically in all the printed and manuscript editions of the Mishnah and Talmud. The only notable exception is the Munich MS. which places Berakoth between Mo'ed and Nashim.² This, however, seems to have been due more to technical reasons than to a deliberate departure from the recognised sequence. Several attempts have been made to explain the sequence [page xv] of the tractates in the Seder,³ but none is very convincing. There is no doubt that there were several determining factors, of which the order in which the laws appear in the Pentateuch was one, and the number of chapters in the tractate was another; whilst another probable factor was the frequency with which the matters treated in the respective tractates occurred.⁴

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT OF SEDER ZERA^'IM

Seder Zera'im is designated in one place in the Tamud by the term Emunah⁵ This designation provides the answer to the question how regulations regarding worship and prayer came to be grouped with agricultural laws,⁶ and at the same time the reason for the priority given to Berakoth in this 'Order'.

The Hebrew word Emunah has a two-fold connotation — theological and human. It signifies alike faith — trust — in God, and faithfulness — honesty, integrity — in human relations. These two concepts of Emunah do not conflict with each other; on the contrary, they complement and supplement each other. In Judaism, unlike other religions, faith is not some mystic quality charged with supernatural powers capable of winning divine favour and grace. Faith is a dynamic, a motive for faithfulness, and is of value only in so far as it is productive of faithful action; nor is there any faithful action that is not rooted in faith in God. The man of faithfulness is an Ish Emunah, and the man of faith is a Ba'al Emunah. For it is the man of the highest faith in God who is the man of the greatest faithfulness in his dealings with his fellow man; and it is only the man of faithfulness who can truly be considered a man of faith.

The application to the agricultural laws of the signification of Emunah as faith is aptly explained by the Midrash in its exposition of Psalm XIX, 8. '“The testimony of the Lord is faithful (trustworthy)” — this refers to Seder Zera'im, for man has faith (trust) in the Life [page xvi] of the World and sows.”⁷ Man, that is to say, has faith in the divine governance of the world and in the regularity of the natural world order which God has established in His Universe, and sows with the assurance of reaping.

On the other hand, the term Emunah as applied to the'Order' has also been interpreted in the sense of faithfulness. Thus Rashi⁸ says that the 'Order' is called Emunah because the fulfilment of its precepts is a mark of man's faithfulness in his social relations. Man observes these laws, and pays the poor and the priests and levites their respective dues, because he is a man of faithfulness.

Here, too, faith and faithfulness combine to form an indissoluble unity. The man of faith will carry out these observances with faith fulness; whilst the faithfulness with which he performs his duties is a test of his faith.

The reason for this close connection of faith and faithfulness in the carrying out of these observances is not far to seek. Faith in the 'Life of the World', if held with conviction, implies the recognition of God as the owner of the earth. In virtue of this principle the earth as well as all the gifts of Nature can never become altogether private property. It is handed out in trust to man who by the sweat of his brow extracts its produce. He has the right and the duty to apply his labour to the land; but this does not constitute it his. He must always recognise that ‘To the Lord belongs the earth, and the fulness thereof’ (Psalm XXIV, 1). Whatever rights man has in the earth and its produce are derived from God, and are subject to the overruling consideration that He alone has the ultimate ownership of the land. It follows from this as a corollary that all God's children are entitled to a share in the land, as their common heritage. The landowner, therefore, while enjoying the reward of his toil and stewardship must recognise that others too have a right to live and that he has a duty to enable them to live. It was these common human rights, flowing from the idea of divine ownership of the earth, which the Torah sought to safeguard by the provisions it made under various laws for the benefit of the poor. When a field is harvested [page xvii] the corners (Pe'ah) are to be left uncut; a sheaf⁹ forgotten in the field by the owner (Shikhah) is not to be reclaimed; the gleanings of cornfields (Leket) and vineyards (Pere!)¹⁰ which fall to the ground in harvesting are not to be picked up; nor are the defective clusters of grapes ('Oleloth)¹¹ to be gathered. A special tithe (Ma'aser 'Oni) has in addition to be set aside every three years and laid up in towns and villages for distribution. All these parts of the harvest belong to the poor as their prescriptive rights in the common heritage assigned to them by the divine owner.¹²

It is in the same spirit that the laws of the Sabbatical year (Shemittah) were ordained. Designed to confirm the landless poor in their right to live, `the Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath unto the Lord' (Lev. XXV, 4) helped at the same time to teach that the produce of the earth must not be regarded as the exclusive private property of a selected class, but is part of a common divine heritage in which the poor, the alien, the slave, and even animals have a share.

The idea of the divine ownership of the land was likewise suggested by the biblical prohibition regarding the mixture of seeds (Kil'ayim) While this and similar laws are designated as `Statutes' (Lev. XIX, 19), for which no reason has been revealed, there is no question that underlying them is the idea that the earth belongs to God, and that man has no right to interfere with the appointed order of things or violate the `Statutes' God has established in His physical universe for ever and ever.¹³

The recognition of the divine ownership of the earth is likewise enforced by the command regarding the first fruits (Bikkurim). 'The object of this precept,' writes Aaron Halevi, `is to instil in man the belief that all he has, he holds from the Lord of the Universe.'¹⁴ This [page xviii] too, according to Nahmanides, is the significance of the prohibition of the fruit of young trees in the first three years ('Orlah), and the laws regarding them in the fourth year. This precept, in his view, is closely connected with that of the first fruits. The fruit in the first three years is stunted in growth and hence unfit for the offering to God which alone releases it for human use.'¹⁵

The same motive equally underlies the gifts to be made to the priest — the heave-offering (Terumah), and the portion of the dough (Hallah), and to the levite — the tithe (Ma'aser). In the words of Rabbi Aaron Halevi, 'Since corn and wine and oil constitute the main staple food of human beings and the whole world belongs to God, it is fitting that man should be mindful of his Creator, in enjoying the blessings wherewith He blessed him, and set aside, in His name, a portion thereof, giving it to His ministers who occupy themselves all the time with "heavenly work", before he himself derives benefit from the produce."¹⁶

Faith in the divine ownership of the earth is thus implicit in the agricultural laws of the'Order' and is the all-inspiring motive for the fulfilment of them in faithfulness; and it is this faith which constitutes the very heart of Jewish prayer and worship, to which Berakoth is devoted. For what is the Shema', which forms the opening theme of the Tractate, but the grand affirmation of Israel's faith in God's ownership of the world — His mastery overlife and Nature — with His consequent claim upon human service, devotion and love? Similarly the 'Amidah, the Jewish daily Prayer par excellence, covering the whole range of human needs — physical, mental, and spiritual — is grounded on faith in God's ownership of the Universe, wherein He has power to do as He wills, and to meet the needs of man in prayer. And likewise those benedictions prescribed for various occasions, such as for partaking of food or for enjoying other gifts of Nature, are uttered in grateful acknowledgment to their divine Owner. This is how the Rabbis of the Talmud understood the significance of these ancient benedictions instituted by the spiritual [page xviii] Fathers of Israel. There is nothing sacramental about them; they are but expressions of thanks to God for personal enjoyments and benefits. Noteworthy in this connection is the Talmudic dictum, 'He who enjoys aught in this world without benedition is as though he robbed God.¹⁷ The world is God's and whatever is therein is His; and it is only after making acknowledgment to the divine Owner that man has the right to put to personal use what he has received at His hands.

With faith in divine ownership as the common basic concept, the relevancy of Berakoth in Zera'im becomes evident; nor could there be any fitter introduction to the 'Order' than that tractate from which there breathes the spirit of faith.

It is also to this basic concept that Zera'im owes its pride of place as the opening Seder of the Talmud. Faith is after all the very pivot of the Jewish religion, and it was only natural for the 'Order' which has Faith as its underlying principle to form the prelude, with the Shema' leading, to that authoritative guide of Jewish life and action which is the Talmud.¹⁸

THE AGRICULTURAL LAWS AND OUR TIMES

Berakoth is the only tractate in this 'Order' which has Gemara in both the Babylonian and Palestinian versions. The other tractates have Palestinian Gemara only, as the laws with which they deal are with a few exceptions restricted to the Holy Land. This is in conformity with the well-known principle that all the religious commandments that depend on the soil apply only in the Holy Land.¹⁹ The reason for this reservation is apparently because the conception of divine ownership basic to these commandments has no relevance to conditions in which the Jewish tenancy of the land is not derived directly from its divine Owner. An exception is the law of the 'mixed [page xx] species', which in some of its aspects is valid also outside Palestine,²⁰ as the underlying idea of not interfering with the natural order appointed by God in His Cosmos is of universal application.

Since the fall of the Hebrew State, many of the precepts, particularly those connected with the Temple, such as the priestly portion and the tithe, have lost their biblical force, though rabbinically they are still binding to a certain degree²¹ and are observed by religious settlements in the New Yishuv.²² The transformation of the national economy consequent upon the loss of Israel's political independence has likewise affected the harvesting laws, reducing their observance to a mere token.²³ As to the Shemittah, the question of its present-day validity has been the subject of much controversy among post-Talmudic authorities, giving rise to a variety of opinions. Some there are who hold that the Shemittah still retains its full biblical force;²⁴ others would deprive it of all validity;²⁵ whilst others again insist on its observance, though only as part of Rabbinic legislation.²⁶ The point at issue is the dependence of the Shemittah on the jubilee. It is the accepted Rabbinic view that the jubilee is bound up with the territorial integrity of the Jewish State on both sides of the Jordan; and that accordingly its observance came to an end with the cessation of the Hebrew polity.²⁷ This being the case, the dependence of the Shemittah on the jubilee, would mean that its laws are no longer applicable nowadays. Its non-dependence, on the other hand, would mean that the Shemittah may well remain in force, even though the jubilee had become obsolete. Here is no place to enter into a discussion of the complicated Halachic problems involved; but from the point of view of human relations, to make the Shemittah dependent on the jubilee, would impart to it a political connotation not applicable to our own days; while its non-dependence would [page xxi] bring it into the category of those socio-moral Laws of the Torah which have not lost their significance even for our times.

In practice the Jewish Communities that maintained themselves in the Holy Land throughout the centuries following the destruction of the Temple continued to adhere to the Shemittah laws.²⁸ But since the rise of the New Judea with agriculture as the basis of its economy, the observance of the Shemittah has become a burning question, urgently demanding a solution. In the early stages of the Chovevei Zion Movement, the fear that the observance of the Shemittah might jeopardise the existence of the struggling colonists impelled Rabbinic authorities to devise measures for overcoming the hardships involved in its operation. With the approach of the Shemittah year 5649 (1888-1889), Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spektor of Kovno (1817-1896), the foremost rabbinical authority of his age, relying on the view that the Shemittah nowadays is only of Rabbinic origin, sanctioned the nominal sale of the land to a non-Jew and the employment of non-Jewish labourers during the Shemihtah.²⁹ This device met with strong opposition on the part of a number of rabbis, such as Joshua Loeb Diskin (1818-1898) and Samuel Salant (1816-1911), both of Jerusalem.³⁰ A staunch defender of the measure advocated by Rabbi Spektor was Rabbi A. I. Kook (1865-1935), who wrote a brilliant work on the subject under the title [H].³¹ He, too, was not without his opponents, of whom the most prominent was Rabbi Jacob David Willowsky of Slutsk, commonly known as the Ridbaz (1845-1913). At present most of the religious settlements in Palestine avail themselves of Rabbi Spektor's concessions, though a few adopt the more rigorous attitude and, at a great sacrifice, observe the Shemittah in all its details.³²

[page ] The gradual restoration of the Hebrew polity, which is taking shape before our eyes, after a submergence of almost 2.000 years, gives to the study of this 'Order' more than an mere academic or antiquarian interest. It is yet too early to foretell the form in which these agricultural laws of the Torah will find their embodiment in the economic, political and social structure of the Jewish State that is slowly coming into being. But the occupation of mind and heart with these laws must surely help to foster those social ideals which should be the distinguishing mark of the new civilisation the Jewish people are resolved to plant on the hills of Judea, and by which alone it can be preserved.³³

And not for the Jewish people alone. The humanitarian implications, for all times, of these early biblical measures are obvious. The same motives as inspired the social legislation of the Torah will today prompt any ethical being to apply the sense of duty to his daily tasks. He will recognise that whatever he has he holds from God, and that his claim to possession of property is justified only by the opportunity it provides for service to his fellow-man. With this principle as his mainspring of action, he will strive to turn his vocation and his talents, as well as other gifts that fall to him by good fortune, into a contribution to the common weal. This is a lesson the importance of which for our times cannot be over-estimated; for it is only insofar as humanity will assimilate these ideals to all the complexity of its material problems that it can hope to witness the realisation of its millenial dreams of universal i peace and happiness.

METHOD AND SCOPE

TEXT. The Text for this edition is in the main that of the Wilna Romm Edition. Note has, however, been taken of the most important [page xiii] variants of manuscript and printed editions some of which have been adopted in the main body of the translation, the reason for such preference being generally explained or indicated in the Notes. All the censored passages appear either in the text or in the Notes.

TRANSLATION. The translation aims at reproducing in clear and lucid English the central meaning of the original text. It is true some translators will be found to have been less literal than others, but in checking and controlling every line of the work, the Editor has endeavoured not to lose sight of the main aim of the translation. Words and passages not occurring in the original are placed in square brackets.

NOTES. The main purpose of these is to elucidate the translation by making clear the course of the arguments, explaining allusions and technical expressions, thus providing a running commentary on the text. With this in view resort has been made to the standard Hebrew commentators, Rashi, the Tosafists, Asheri, Alfasi, Maimonides, Maharsha, the glosses of BaH, Rashal, Strashun, the Wilna Gaon, etc.³⁴ Advantage has also been taken of the results of modern scholarship, such as represented by the names of Graetz, Bacher, Weiss, Halevy, Levy, Kohut, Jastrow, Obermeyer, Klein and Buchler, — happily still with us — Krauss, Gmzberg, and Herford among others, in dealing with matters of general cultural interest with which the Talmud teems — historical, geographical, archaeological, philological and social.

GLOSSARY AND INDICES. Each tractate is equipped with a Glossary wherein recurring technical terms are fully explained, thus obviating the necessity of explaining them afresh each time they appear in the text. To this have been added a Scriptural Index and a General Index of contents.

In the presentation of the tractates the following principles have also been adopted: [page xxiv]

The Mishnah and the words of the Mishnah recurring and commented upon in the Gemara are printed in capitals.
[H] introducing a Mishnah cited in the Gemara, is rendered 'we have learnt'.
[H] introducing a Baraitha, is rendered 'it has been (or was) taught'.
[H] introducing a Tannaitic teaching, is rendered' Our Rabbis taught'.
Where an Amora cites a Tannaitic teaching the word 'learnt' is used, e.g., [H] 'R. Joseph learnt'.
The word tanna designating a teacher of the Amoraic period (v. Glos.) is written with a small 't'.
A distinction is made between … [H] referring to a Tannaitic ruling and … [H] which refers to the ruling of an Amora, the former being rendered 'the halachah is …' and the latter, 'the law is …'
R. stands either for Rabbi designating a Palestinian teacher or Rab designating a Babylonian teacher, except in the case of the frequently recurring Rab Judah where the title 'Rab' has been written in full to distinguish him from the Tanna of the same name.
[H] lit., 'The Merciful One', has been rendered 'the Divine Law' in cases where the literal rendering may appear somewhat incongruous to the English ear.
Biblical verses appear in italics except for the emphasized word or words in the quotation which appear in Roman characters.
No particular English version of the Bible is followed, as the Talmud has its own method of exegesis and its own way of understanding Biblical verses which it cites. Where, however, there is a radical departure from the English versions, the rendering of a recognized English version is indicated in the Notes. References to chapter and verse are those of the Massoretic Hebrew text.
Any answer to a question is preceded by a dash ( — ) except where the question and the answer form part of one and the same argument.
Inverted commas are used sparingly, that is, where they are deemed essential or in dialogues. [page xxv]
The archaic second person 'thou', 'thee' etc. is employed only in Haggadic passages or where it is necessary to distinguish it from the plural 'you', 'yours', etc.
The usual English spelling is retained in proper names in vogue like Simeon, Isaac, Akiba, as well as in words like halachah, Shechinah, shechitah, etc. which have almost passed into the English language. The transliteration employed for other Hebrew words is given at the end of each tractate.
It might also be pointed out for the benefit of the student that the recurring phrases 'Come and hear:' and 'An objection was raised:' or 'He objected:' introduce Tannaitic teachings, the two latter in contradiction, the former either in support or contradiction of a particular view expressed by an Amora.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I desire once again to express my grateful thanks to all the translators and collaborators of Seder Zera'im, and to pay a tribute to Mr. Jacob Davidson, the Governing Director of the Soncino Press for the care with which he has seen through the Press the volumes of this 'Order'.

In conclusion, on behalf of all those of us who have been closely associated with this publication, I offer the traditional prayer.

[H]

May it be Thy will, O Lord our God, even as Thou hast helped us to complete the Seder Zera'im, so to help us to begin other 'Orders', and complete them.

I. EPSTEIN

Jews' College, London.
7th Kislev, 5708.
20th November, 1947.

Footnotes

A general Introduction to the Talmud by the late Chief Rabbi Dr l. H. Hertz, appears in the Baba Kamma volume of Seder Nezikin.
See H. L. Strack, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (English ed.) pp. 253 and 366. Another minor divergence is found in Kauffmann's Mishnah Codex in which Ma'aseroth and Ma'aser Sheni change places; see op. cit. p. 366.
See Maimonides, Introduction to Seder Zera'im; Solomon Sirillos's Introduction to his Commentary on Seder Zera'im of the Jerusalem Talmud; and Z. Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, p. 257.
See H. L. Strack, op. cit. pp. 26-8.
Shab. 31a.
Cf. Strack, op. cit., p. 27: 'Berakoth is alien to Zera'im'.
Midrash Tehillim. a.l.
On Shab. 31a, a.l.
Or at most two sheaves; see Pe'ah, VI, 5. Shikhah applies also to fruit trees, see Hal. 131b
Peret applies only to grapes, and corresponds to Leket in grain, see Hul. 131b and Maimonides, Yad, Mattenoth Aniyim, I. 7.
Lit.,'child clusters', applies only to grapes.
See Menahem b. Moses ha-Babli, Ta'ame ha-Mizwoth, 97 and Isaiah Hurwitz, Shene Luhoth ha-Berith, Torah she-bi-kethab, Kedoshim.
Moses Nahmanides, Commentary on Pentateuch, Lev. XIX, '9; See also Josephus, Antiquities, IV, 8, 20.
Sefer ha-Hinnuk, Precept 106.
Moses Nahmanides, op. cit., Lev. XIX, 23. See also Josephus, op. cit. IV, 8, 19.
Sefer ha-Hinnuk, Precept 507.
Ber. 35b.
Cf. Marginal Gloss. in Maimonides' Introduction to Zera'im in the name of Isaiah di Trani (The Elder): "'The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord," and for this reason our holy teachers begun the Order of the Mishnah with the Unity of God and the acceptance of the yoke of His kingdom and of the Torah and precepts, evening and morning.'
See Kid. 36b.
See Kid. 39b.
See Maimonides, Terumoth, I, 26.
See A. I. Kook, Mishpat Kohen, Responsa 29-57. For the procedure to be followed in setting aside the priestly portion and tithes, see Responsum 35.
See Israel of Shklow, Pe'ath ha-Shulhan (ed. Luncz), p. 22a.
Maimonides, Shemittah we-Yobeloth, IV, 25, according to Kesef Mishneh.
Zerahia ha-Levi, Sefer ha-Terumoth, Sha'ar 85.
Tosaf. 'Ar. 32b s.v. 'Manu', and Eliezer of Metz, Sefer Yere'im, 187.
See 'At. 32b; Sifra, Behar, II, 3.
See Israel of Shklow, op. cit., pp. 103a, 104b-107b.
See A. Benzion Shurin, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan's Attitude towards the New Settlement in Palestine, Talpioth (N.Y.) III, pp. 58ff.
See J.E. p. 607.
First edition, Jerusalem 1910; 2nd ed. revised and enlarged, Jerusalem, 1937. See also A. I. Kook, Mishpat Kohen, Responsa 58-88, and I. M. Blumenfeld, Ma'ase Rub, Sinai, 1937, pp. 316. For texts of deeds of sale, see Mishpat Kohen, pp. 162-166.
See correspondence of Rabbi A. I. Kook, with the I.C.A., pleading on behalf of their Jewish employees who refused to work on Shemittah, in Sinai, 1937, pp. 104f. As to Shemittah Kesafim (release of money debts), opinions vary whether it applies at all today, even rabbinically. It is, nevertheless, being widely observed in Palestine, and to some extent also outside, and resort is accordingly made to the Prozbul enactment of Hillel which is designed to overcome the effects of this Shemittah law. See Shebi'ith X, 4.
A special institute under the name of 'Midrash Bene Zion' has been established in Jerusalem in which the study of agricultural laws of the Torah is being assiduously pursued. A brief digest of these laws is given in the Calendar of the Institute for the year 5708 (1947-8).
These names are referred to more fully in the list of Abbreviations at the end of each tractate.

Directory of Sedarim and Tractates

Come and Hear™ to increase interfaith understanding http://www.come-and-hear.com
An educational forum for the examination of religious truth and religious tolerance.

BERAKOTH

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
WITH NOTES, GLOSSARY
AND INDICES

MAURICE SIMON, M.A.

UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF

RABBI DR I. EPSTEIN

B.A., Ph.D., D. Lit.

Introduction to Seder Zera‘im by the Editor	PAGE xiii
Introduction to Berakoth by the Translator	xxvii
Chapter I	2
Chapter II	13
Chapter III	17
Chapter IV	26
Chapter V	30
Chapter VI	35
Chapter VII	45
Chapter VIII	51
Chapter IX	54
Glossary
Index of Scriptural References
General Index
Transliteration of Hebrew Letters
Abbreviations

Directory of Sedarim and Tractates / Come and Hear Home Page

Folios:

Intro	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50
51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64

INTRODUCTION

[page xxvii] The Tractate Berakoth (‘Benedictions’) consists of nine chapters of which only the last four are concerned with benedictions proper. The first three contain the rules for the recital of the shema‘ (Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three), the next two those for the recital of the tefillah (Chapter four, Chapter five). The Tractate first lays down the hours within which the shema‘ must be recited first in the evening and then in the morning — preferably in the synagogue — and then specifies a number of conditions for its recital and the persons who are exempt from reciting it. Incidentally the conditions under which the Torah may be studied and the tefillin worn are also discussed. The recital of the tefillah is then dealt with on similar lines and its wording is discussed. Chapter six first enunciates the principle that before partaking of any kind of food one must recite a benediction, and then lays down the form of blessing for various kinds of foodstuffs. Chapter seven deals specifically with grace before and after meals, and table etiquette generally, particularly zimmun or the invitation to join in the grace. Chapter eight lays down the rules for the washing of the hands in connection with a meal, grace over the wine-cup, and the habdalah on the termination of the Sabbath. Chapter nine formulates the benedictions to be uttered on a large number of special occasions.

Berakoth contains more Aggada in proportion to its length than any other tractate. The long Chapter nine is mostly aggadic, and is notable for a lenghty excursus on the interpretation of dreams. Another striking piece of Aggada is the account of the quarrel between Rabban Gamaliel and R. Joshua in Chapter four. Chapter six throws great light on the dietary of the Jews in Babylon, while Chapter eight shows that the table customs of Jews in Palestine were largely modelled on those of the Romans.

For some reason which is not obvious Berakoth is included in the 'Order' of Zera'im, or Seeds. In complete editions of the Talmud it has always been placed first in the sequence of tractates. The reason for this is no doubt — as suggested by Maimonides — that the precepts with which it deals — the recital of the shema‘ and the tefillah [page xxviii] and the benedictions — are among the first which claim the attention of the Jew in his daily life, and are also among the first taught to the Jewish child. Containing as it does few passages of legal casuistry, Berakoth is among the easiest of the tractates, and on this account and because of its wealth of Aggada it is perhaps the most suitable with which to commence the study of the Talmud.

MAURICE SIMON

The indices of this Tractate have been compiled by Judah J. Slotki, M.A.

PREFATORY NOTE BY THE EDITOR

The Editor desires to state that the translation of the several Tractates, and the notes thereon, are the work of the individual contributors and that he has not attempted to secure general uniformity in style or mode of rendering. He has, nevertheless, revised and supplemented, at his own discretion, their interpretation and elucidation of the original text, and has himself added the notes in square brackets containing alternative explanations and matter of historical and geographical interest.

ISIDORE EPSTEIN

Come and Hear™ to increase interfaith understanding http://www.come-and-hear.com
An educational forum for the examination of religious truth and religious tolerance.

THE SABBATH

The Rabbis made the Sabbath the very centre of the Jewish religion, a perennial fountain of idealism and regeneration in Israel. They instituted the Kiddush prayer, praising God for the gift of the Sabbath, to celebrate its coming in; and the Habdalah blessing, praising God for the distinction between the Sabbath and the six weekdays, to mark its going out. In addition to being a day of rest, the Sabbath was to be 'a holy day, set apart for the building up of the spiritual element in man' (Philo). Religious worship and religious instruction — the renewal of man's spiritual life in God-form, according to them, an essential part of Sabbath observance. We, therefore, sanctify the Sabbath by a special Sabbath liturgy, by statutory Lessons from the Torah and the Prophets, and by attending to discourse and instruction given by religious teachers. The Sabbath has thus proved the great educator of Israel in the highest subject of all, namely, the laws governing human conduct. The effect of these Sabbath prayers and Synagogue homilies upon the Jewish people has been incalculable. Leopold Zunz, the founder of the New Jewish Learning, has shown that almost the whole of Israel's inner history since the close of the Bible times can be traced in the development of these Sabbath discourses on the Torah. Sabbath worship is still the chief bond which unites Jews into a religious Brotherhood. [page xiv] Neglect of such worship injures the spiritual life of both the individual and the community.

By keeping the Sabbath, the Rabbis tell us, we testify to our belief in God as the Creator of the Universe; in a God who is not identical with Nature, but is a free Personality, the Creator and Ruler of Nature. The Talmudic mystics tell that when the heavens and earth were being called into existence, matter was getting out of hand, and the Divine Voice had to resound, 'Enough! So far and no further!' Man, made in the image of God, has been endowed by Him with the power of creating. But in his little universe, too, matter is constantly getting out of hand, threatening to overwhelm and crush out soul. By means of the Sabbath, called [H] 'a memorial of Creation', we are endowed with the Divine power of saying 'Enough!' to all rebellious claims of our environment, and are reminded of our potential victory over all material forces that would drag us down.

The Sabbath, as conceived by the Rabbis, is the supreme example of the hallowing of life under the sanctifying influence of the Law. That sacred day is the perennial fountain of idealism and regeneration in Israel. More than any other institution has it moulded Jewish family life with its virtues of chastity, charity, love, peace; virtues nowhere surpassed, rarely equalled. Amid all the misery and slavery that for so many centuries were the lot of Israel, once a week the home of the humblest Jew was flooded with light. The Sabbath banished care and toil, grief and sorrow. On that day, the despised and rejected of men was emancipated from the oppression and tribulation and degradation of this world; he felt himself a prince, a member of a great, eternal, holy people.

The Rabbis attached to the Sabbath a number of minute regulations which make its complete observance a matter of no small difficulty. In all ages — from early Christian times to the present day — ignorant and unsympathetic critics have stigmatized these minutiae as an intolerable burden and asserted that they make the Sabbath not a day of rest but one of sorrow and anxiety. Such a view shows a complete misunderstanding of the spirit in [page xv] which the Rabbis approached their task. It was their love for the Sabbath which led them to exert all their ingenuity in discovering ways of differentiating it from other days and making it more thoroughly a day of rest, a day in which man enjoys some foretaste of the pure bliss and happiness which are stored up for the righteous in the world to come. And the Jewish people received it from them in the same spirit. Let a hostile witness — a German Protestant theologian of anti-Semitic tendencies — testify what the Rabbinic Sabbath is to the loyal Jew.

'Anyone who has had the opportunity of knowing in our own day the inner life of Jewish families that observe the Law of the fathers with sincere piety and in all strictness, will have been astonished at the wealth of joyfulness, gratitude and sunshine, undreamt of by the outsider, with which the Law animates the Jewish home. The whole household rejoices on the Sabbath, which they celebrate with rare satisfaction not only as the day of rest, but rather as the day of rejoicing. Jewish prayers term the Sabbath a "joy of the soul" to him who hallows it: he "enjoys the abundance of Thy goodness". Such expressions are not mere words; they are the outcome of pure and genuine happiness and enthusiasm' (R. Kittel).

By means of the Rabbinic expansion of the kinds of forbidden work on the Sacred Day, and as the outcome of the gigantic intellectual labour on the part of generations, nay centuries, of Sopherim, Tannaim, and Amoraim in the elucidation of these laws, there arose the choicest spiritual edifice in the realm of Judaism — the Sabbath Day of Jewish history. Without the observance of the Sabbath, of the olden Sabbath, of the Sabbath as perfected by the Rabbis, the whole of Jewish life would disappear. And only if the olden Sabbath is maintained by those who have lost or abandoned it, is the permanence of Israel assured.

PASSOVER

What epoch-making significance the Rabbis ascribed to the Exodus is clearly shown by the constant recurrence in the prayers of the expression, 'in memory of the going forth from Egypt'. 'The Exodus from Egypt is not only one of the greatest [page xvi] events and epochs in the history of the Jews, but one of the greatest events and epochs in the history of the world. To that successful escape, Europe, America and Australia are as much indebted as the Jews themselves. And the men of Europe, the men of America, and the men of Australia might join with us Jews in celebrating that feast of the Passover'. (C. G. Montefiore). The Rabbis deemed it a sacred task to keep alive the memory of that event, and the full understanding of its significance, in the mind of the Jewish people. And in the performance of this task, with sound psychological insight they began with the mind of the young. Out of a mere hint in the Biblical text, they evolved the wonderful Seder service, with its irresistible appeal to the interest and curiosity of the intelligent child. Of all the ceremonies of the Jewish religion, there is perhaps none so well calculated as the Seder to awaken the Jewish consciousness in the child, at the same time that it brings home to the adult with unique force the unbroken continuity of Jewish history.

One phrase in connection with Passover was the subject of heated controversy in early Rabbinic times between the Pharisees and Sadducees. The latter took the word 'sabbath' (Lev. XXIII, 15)¹ in its usual sense, and maintained that the 'Omer was to be brought on the morrow of the first Saturday in Passover. The Pharisees argued that 'sabbath' here means, 'the day of cessation from work'; and the context shows that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is intended; therefore, the 'Omer was to be brought on the sixteenth of Nisan. This is supported by the Septuagint which renders 'on the morrow of the first day', and by Josephus. The offerings of the sheaf took place on the sixteenth, the first busy work-day of the harvest, in relation to which the preceding day might well be called a Sabbath or rest-day, though not all labour was prohibited. This is alone compatible with the context, and is free from the objections to which all the other opinions are open (Kalisch).

FEAST OF
WEEKS —
SHABU'OTH

One of the three agricultural festivals is the feast of the first harvest [H]. Jewish tradition, however, connects it with the [page xvii] Covenant on Mount Sinai, and speaks of the festival as [H] 'the Season of Giving of our Torah', the date of which is not expressly mentioned in the Torah but is calculated by the Rabbis from statements in the text to have been on the sixth day of the third month. Hence its association with the Feast of Weeks, which became the Festival of Revelation.

Its name in Talmudic literature is not Shabu'oth, but almost invariably 'Azereth 'the concluding festival' to Passover. 'We count the days that pass since the preceding Festival, just as one, who expects his most intimate friend on a certain day, counts the days and even the hours. This is the reason why we count the days that pass since the departure from Egypt and the anniversary of the Lawgiving. The latter was the aim and object of the exodus from Egypt' (Maimonides). In other words, the Deliverance from bondage was not an end in itself: it was the prelude to Sinai (Ex. III, 12). Liberty without law is a doubtful boon, whether to men or nations.

FEAST OF
TABER-
NACLES

In Rabbinic literature, it is known as 'the Feast', because, as the time of the harvest, it would naturally be a period of rejoicing and holiday-making. It really consists of two groups; the first seven days, Tabernacles proper; and the eighth day, 'Azereth. The seventh day of Tabernacles became in later times an echo of the Day of Atonement and was known as Hoshanah Rabbah; and the 'second day' of 'Azereth assumed the nature of a separate Festival under the name of Simhath Torah, Rejoicing of the Law, the day on which the annual reading of the Torah was completed and restarted.

ROSH
HASHANAH

As the seventh day in the week was a holy day, so the seventh month was the holy month in the year. It is, therefore, not surprising that the New Moon of the seventh month should be a Festival of special solemnity. In later times, it was known as Rosh Hashanah, New Year's Day. But unlike the New Year celebrations of many ancient and modern nations, the Jewish New Year is not a time of revelry, but an occasion of the deepest religious import.

'A day of blowing the horn', i.e., Shofar, the ram's horn. The sound of Shofar consisting, as handed down by Tradition, of three [page xviii] distinctive Shofar-notes — teki'ah, shebarim, teru'ah — has been looked upon from times immemorial as a call to contrition and penitence, as a reminder of the Shofar-sound of Sinai; and the Day of Memorial, the beginning of the Ten Days of Repentance [H] which culminate in the Day of Atonement, as a time of self-examination and humble petition of forgiveness. 'The Scriptural injunction of the Shofar for the New Year's Day has a profound meaning. It says: Awake, ye sleepers, and ponder over your deeds; remember your Creator and go back to Him in penitence. Be not of those who miss realities in their pursuit of shadows and waste their years in seeking after vain things which cannot profit or deliver. Look well to your souls and consider your acts; forsake each of you his evil ways and thoughts, and return to God so that He may have mercy upon you' (Maimonides).

YOM KIPPUR

This Day, set aside for penitence, and moral regeneration, is the only one for which the Torah prescribes fasting — which is the intensest form of devotion and contrition. The Fast is to demonstrate to the sinner that man can conquer all physical cravings, that the spirit can always master the body. The abstention from all food and from gratification of other bodily desires, however, must be accompanied by deep remorse at having fallen short of what it was in our power to be and to do as members of the House of Israel. Without such contrite confession accompanied by the solemn resolve to abandon the way of evil, fasting in itself is not the fulfilment of the Divine command and purpose of the Day of Atonement.

Repentance, Prayer and Beneficence — these can change the whole current of a man's life and destiny, and lead to perfect atonement.

'Happy Israel', Rabbi Akiba exclaimed — 'before Whom do ye purify yourselves, and Who is it that purifieth you? Your Father Who is in Heaven'. Note that the initiative in atonement is with the sinner. He cleanses himself on the Day of Atonement by fearless self-examination, open confession and resolve not to repeat the transgressions of the past year. When our Heavenly Father sees the abasement of the penitent sinner, He — and not [page xix] the High Priest or any other Mediator — sprinkles, as it were, the clean waters of pardon and forgiveness upon him. 'The whole philosophy of monotheism is contained in this rallying-cry of Rabbi Akiba' (Hermann Cohen).

Confession of sin is the most essential and characteristic element in the services of the Day of Atonement; 'every one entreating pardon for his sins and hoping for God's mercy, not because of his own merits but through the compassionate nature of that Being Who will have forgiveness rather than punishment' (Philo). The Confession is made by the whole Community collectively; and those who have not themselves committed the sins mentioned in the Confession regret that they were unable to prevent them from being committed by others (Friedlander).

'From all your sins before the Lord shall ye be clean'. Thereon Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaryah founded the sublime teaching: 'For transgressions of man against God, the Day of Atonement atones (given repentance on the part of the sinner); but for transgressions against a fellowman the Day of Atonement does not atone, unless and until he has conciliated his fellowman and redressed the wrong he has done him'. The Confession deals almost exclusively with moral trespasses against our fellowmen. Especially numerous are the terms denoting sins committed with the tongue — falsehood, slander, frivolous and unclean speech. [page xx] The Rabbis, who certainly did not underrate ritual offences, deemed moral shortcomings to be infinitely graver, and hence confined the Confession to them. Repentance can give rebellious sins the character of errors; i.e., by his penitence the sinner shows that his wilful sins were largely due to ignorance, and hence are treated by God as if they were 'errors'.

The Day of Atonement survived the High Priesthood; nay, it gained in inwardness and spiritual power with the passing of the sacrificial system. 'The fasting and humiliation before God, the confession of sins and contrition for them, and fervent prayer for forgiveness, were even before the destruction of the Temple the reality in regard to the Day of Atonement, of which the rites in the Temple were but a dramatic symbol' (Moore). The Rabbis had stressed the Prophetic teaching that without repentance no sacrificial rites were of any avail. With the cessation of sacrifices, therefore, repentance was left as the sole condition of the remission of sins. 'In our time when there is no Temple and no Altar for atonement, there is repentance. Repentance atones for all iniquities' (Maimonides). The Day of Atonement, the Rabbis further declare, will never pass away, even if all other Festivals should pass away. And indeed as long as Israel does not lose its soul, so long shall the Day of Atonement remain.

*      *
   *

The volumes of Seder Mo'ed have again been planned on the same lines as those of the previous Orders in regard to Text, rendering and cultural Notes. The Editor and his collaborators have again performed with consummate skill a task of stupendous difficulty, and the standard of scholarship and accuracy set in the previous volumes has been fully maintained. The Publishers also have left nothing undone to render the Soncino Seder Mo'ed in every way a worthy continuation of their Seder Nezikin and Seder Nashim.

J. H. HERTZ

London, 16 Sivan 5698
15 June 1938

Footnotes

E. V. 'day of rest'.

Directory of Sedarim and Tractates / Come and Hear Home Page

FOREWORD

THE VERY REV. THE CHIEF RABBI

Dr J. H. HERTZ

SABBATH, FESTIVAL AND FAST
IN JUDAISM

[page xiii]Sabbath and holyday, festival and fast — round these is spun the web of ordinances constituting the Order Mo'ed. What significance did the Rabbis give them for the spiritual life of the Jewish people?

INTRODUCTION TO SEDER MO'ED

THE EDITOR¹

GENERAL CHARACTER AND CONTENTS

[page xxi] Mo'ed, which is the name given to the second 'Order' of the Babylonian Talmud, deals with the 'appointed seasons', the feasts and fasts and holy days of the calendar, which have always constituted a highly distinctive feature of Jewish life. The Pentateuch enumerates six such seasons — the Sabbath, the three pilgrimage festivals, and the Days of 'blowing of the trumpet' and atonement. To these were added subsequently, by the religious authorities of the people, certain holidays and fast days of lesser sanctity, instituted to commemorate outstanding occasions of joy or sorrow in later Jewish history. Each of these had its own distinguishing mark or ceremony, the rules and regulations for which are exhaustively discussed in the appropriate tractates of Seder Mo'ed.

The term 'Mo'ed' ('appointed season') by which this Order has always been known is probably derived from Lev. XXIII, 2 where it is used in introducing the laws of the festivals including the Sabbath. It might be observed that the designation 'Mo'ed' is in the singular, as distinct from the plural forms used to designate the other Orders, e.g., Nashim, Nezikin, etc. It has been suggested that the singular is here specially used to avoid the confusion that might arise through the employment of the plural Seder Mo'adim (or Mo'adoth) denoting as it does in Rabbinic literature the Order of the Calendar.¹ The opinion may, however, be hazarded that it is because the Sabbath and the festivals constitute one complete cycle of Jewish observance that preference has been given to the singular form.

The 'Order' is divided into twelve tractates arranged according [page xxii] to the separate editions of the Mishnah in the following sequence:²

SHABBATH (Sabbath) 24 Chapters. Rules and regulations for observing the Sabbath rest. Includes also the laws of Hanukkah.
'ERUBIN (Blendings) to Chapters. Regulations enabling freedom of movement beyond certain prescribed limits on Sabbaths and festivals.
PESAHIM (Paschal Lambs) 10 Chapters. Laws of destroying leaven on Passover, of bringing the Paschal lamb and of the Seder service.
SHEKALIM (Shekels) 8 Chapters. On the contributions for the upkeep of the Temple and the regular sacrifices.
YOMA (The Day) 8 Chapters. Regulations for the Day of Atonement, with an historic description of the ceremonies carried out by the High Priest on that day.
SUKKAH (Booth) 5 Chapters. Regulations of the 'booth' on the Feast of Tabernacles and the taking of the four plants.
BEZAH (Egg) 5 Chapters. Lays down the limitations within which food may be prepared on Festivals.
ROSH HASHANAH (New Year) 4 Chapters. Rules for proclaiming New Moon, for the New Year liturgy and the blowing of the shofar (trumpet).
TA'ANITH (Fast) 4 Chapters. Rules for the fast days, whether fixed or occasional, whether private or communal.
MEGILLAH (The Scroll) 4 Chapters. Rules for reading the Book of Esther on Purim; also the regulations for the reading of the Torah in public worship.
MO'ED KATAN (Minor Feast) 3 Chapters. Regulations governing work on the intermediate days of Passover and Tabernacles; also contains the laws of mourning.
HAGIGAH (Festival-Offering) 3 Chapters. Regulations regarding voluntary offerings on Festivals. Contains the famous digression on the esoteric teaching of the Torah.

In the printed editions of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud [page xxiii]there are deviations from this order of succession.³ In view of these divergencies it is idle to search for any logical sequence in the arrangement of the several tractates within the 'Order'. Significant in this connection is the fact that already in the days of Sherira Gaon there was no uniformity in this respect in the Academies; and the Gaon, in his famous Epistle, written in 987 C.E., is at pains to explain why a particular sequence was followed in his Academy.⁴ Generally speaking the tractates are arranged in accordance with the respective number of chapters in each, the largest taking precedence; and such variations as do occur are in most cases where the number of the chapters in the tractates is equal.

For the eight volume first edition of this publication the order adopted is for practical reasons as follows:

Vols. I and II. Shabbath.
Vol. III. 'Erubin.
Vol. IV. Pesahim.
Vol. V. Yoma.
Vol. VI. Sukkah and Bezah.
Vol. VII. Rosh Hashanah, Ta'anith and Shekalim.
Vol. VIII. Megillah, Wed Katan and Hagigah. [page xxiv]

For the edition de luxe it was found expedient to follow another sequence:

Vols. I, II and III. Shabbath.
Vols. IV and V. 'Erubin.
Vols. VI and VII. Pesahim.
Vol. VIII. Yoma.
Vol. IX. Sukkah.
Vol. X. Bezah and Rosh Hashanah.
Vol. XI. Ta'amth, Shekahm and Megillah.
Vol. XII. Mo'ed Katan and Hagigah.

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 'APPOINTED SEASONS'

The Sabbath, declare the Talmudic Sages, is equal in importance to all the precepts in the Torah.⁵ An evaluation of the Sabbath will accordingly involve as preliminary some explanation of the significance of the Torah. Briefly stated, the foremost meaning of the word Torah is teaching. The primary purpose of the Torah which God gave to Israel is educative. Its aim is the idealization of all earthly action and the bringing of all detail of life into touch with the divine.

The laws of the Torah are divided into two classes — socio-moral and religious. They consist in other words of precepts concerning the relations between man and God and precepts governing the relations between man and man. Precepts that affect directly our fellowman are regarded as socio-moral. Those regulating the cult and ritual are religious. These differences in the laws, however, involve no contradiction in the unity of the Torah. For what is not moral law, is law helping thereto, or means of educating thereto, although the connection may not be evident in all cases.

SABBATH

The Sabbath stands at the boundary between the moral and the religious signification of the Torah. In the law of the Sabbath is thus to be found the quintessence of Judaism. It is both 'a memorial of the work of the beginning', and 'of the going out of Egypt'. Its socio-ethical character is well illustrated in Deuteronomy (V, 12-15): Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord thy< God commanded thee. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And thou shalt remember 'that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched [page xxv] arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Here we have the emphasis on the social significance of the Sabbath as the symbol of the emancipation of the slave who must rest on the day when the Israelites rest. It is further worthy of note that the Hebrew word 'as well as thou' [H] is the same as that used in the injunction to love thy neighbour as thyself⁶ (Lev. XIX, I8). The wording of the Sabbath law in Deuteronomy clearly shows that the Sabbath is designed to make secure the equality of all men in spite of the differences in their social position. This is indeed a clear testimony to the fundamental connection of Sabbath with morality.

The religious significance of the Sabbath is emphasized in Exodus (XX, 8-11) where it is presented as the symbol of the creation as well as the end of creation. This aspect of the Sabbath makes it not merely a day of rest, of cessation of labour, but a Holy Day. 'Therefore the Lord blessed the day of Sabbath and sanctified it', a phrase which is conspicuously absent from the Deuteronomic version.

The proper observance of the Sabbath in testimony to the Creator and His creation demands the sanctification of objects as well as of life.⁷ This does not imply a flight from the holy pleasures of life: Thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable (Isa. LVIII, 13). But it does mean a surrender to the Creator of all such activities as shut in man's outlook during the working days of the week and blind him in consequence to his actual relations to God and to his fellowman.⁸ Hence the many restrictions of the Sabbath day regarding the handling of objects (Mukzeh, v. Glos.) as well as action and movement, which form the major part of the laws discussed in this 'Order'. By such a surrender to God man testifies that the world and all that is therein is God's. 'He who observes Sabbath testifies to Him at Whose word the world came into existence'.⁹ The sanctification of the Day of Rest [page xxvi] makes the Sabbath into a day in which man is free to attend to the claims of his relations to God and to his fellowman. Blessed be the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and keepet his hand from doing evil (Isa. LVI, z). The Sabbath thus becomes a day of religious inwardness and moral regeneration.

FESTIVALS

The same twofold significance is found in the Festivals. The three pilgrimage Festivals, Passover, Tabernacles and Pentecost, commemorating the mighty acts at the Exodus that culminated in the Revelation at Sinai and the national experiences of Israel during their wandering in the desert, combine the religious and the social aspects of the Torah. The former finds expression in the special ceremonies and rites attached to each of the Festivals, proclaiming the sovereignty and overruling providence of God, and the latter in the Festival rejoicings in which the stranger, the orphan and the widow were to be invited to participate.¹⁰

DAY OF
ATONEMENT
AND
NEW YEAR

But the most striking expression of the close connection between the religious and social aspects of the Law is found in the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement is the chief of all Festivals not excepting the Passover Festival. The Bible describes the day as one given up to fasting and solemn sacrifice. The high priest atoned for himself, then for the priests, lastly for all Israel. Yet an old Mishnah¹¹ tells us that the Atonement-day was at the same time a day of national rejoicing. Young men and young women held bride-show. The richer young women had to dress in plain white linen in order not to outshine the poorer — a piece of consideration, which is as yet conspicuously absent from the polished societies of modern times. In the evening all went to the house of the high priest who made a feast for all his friends. The culminating act was the sending of the scapegoat into the wilderness and the pronouncement of the pardon of the people. In later days when the sacrificial system ceased, the Day of Atonement still retained its twofold significance. While the fasting and abstention from other bodily requirements spelled contrition, confession and [page xxvii]repentance for all trespasses both ritual and moral, the liturgy of the day, significantly enough, practically excluded from the confession ritual trespasses. Moreover, the reconciliation of man with God was made dependent on the reconciliation of man with man. Closely linked with the Atonement-day is the New Year day, both being periods of Divine Judgment and days of self-scrutiny and moral regeneration,¹² in which too the socio-moral and religious aspects of the Torah are merged into one.

MINOR
FEASTS AND
FASTS

And not only the appointed seasons prescribed by the Torah possess this twofold signification of Jewish feast and fast; it is found equally in all the holidays and fasts of lesser sanctity instituted by the religious leaders of later generations: Purim with the Megillah reading and the distribution of 'gifts to the poor'¹³ as special features of the feast; and the four minor fasts with their insistent message of the love of 'truth and peace',¹⁴ alike show the inseparableness in the Jewish conception of morals and religion. And similarly the rain-fasts were like the minor fasts on which they were patterned. The various regulations of the rain-fasts described in Ta'amth were primarily designed to rouse the people to contrition and to make amends for any social wrongs of which they might have been guilty.¹⁵ The only feast in which the blending of the moral and religious is absent is Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication). But Hanukkah is strictly speaking not a Feast. The eight days of Hanukkah, except for the kindling of lights and the recital of Hallel and other liturgical additions, are but ordinary working days and do not bear the stamp of Yom Tob.¹⁶ Nevertheless, [page xxviii] later Jewish piety introduced the moral note characteristic of Jewish festivals in the celebration, and made the distribution of charity a feature also of this festival.¹⁷

METHOD AND SCOPE

TEXT. The Text used for this edition is in the main that of the Wilna Romm Edition. Note has, however, been taken of the most important variants of manuscript and printed editions some of which have been adopted in the main body of the translation, the reason for such preference being generally explained or indicated in the Notes. All the censored passages appear either in the text or in the Notes.

NOTES. The main purpose of these is to elucidate the translation by making clear the course of the arguments, explaining allusions and technical expressions, thus providing a running commentary on the text. With this in view resort has been made to the standard Hebrew commentators, Rashi, the Tosafists, Asheri, Alfasi, Maimonides, Maharsha, the glosses of BaH, Rashal, Straghun, the Wilna Gaon, etc.¹⁸ Advantage has also been taken of the results of modern scholarship, such as represented by the names of Graetz, Bacher, Weiss, Halevy, Levy, Kohut, Jastrow, Obermeyer, and — happily still with us — Krauss, Buchler, Ginzberg, [page xxix] Klein and Herford among others, in dealing with matters of general cultural interest with which the Talmud teems — historical, geographical, archaeological, philological and social.

GLOSSARY AND INDICES. Each Tractate is equipped with a Glossary wherein recurring technical terms are fully explained, thus obviating the necessity of explaining them afresh each time they appear in the text. To this have been added a Scriptural Index and a General Index of contents.

In the presentation of the tractates the following principles have also been adopted:

The Mishnah and the words of the Mishnah recurring and commented upon in the Gemara are printed in capitals.
[H] introducing a Mishnah cited in the Gemara, is rendered we have learnt'.
[H] introducing a Baraitha, is rendered 'it has been (or was) taught'.
[H] introducing a Tannaitic teaching, is rendered 'Our Rabbis taught'.
Where an Amora cites a Tannaitic teaching the word 'learnt' is used, e.g., [H] 'R. Joseph learnt'.
The word tanna designating a teacher of the Amoraic period (v. Glos.) is written with a small 't'.
A distinction is made between … [H] referring to a Tannaitic ruling and … [H] which refers to the ruling of an Amora, the former being rendered 'the haluchuh is …' and the latter, 'the law is …'
R. stands either for Rabbi designating a Palestinian teacher or Rab designating a Babylonian teacher, except in the case of the frequently recurring Rab Judah where the title 'Rab' has been written in full to distinguish him from the Tanna of the same name.
[H] lit., 'The Merciful One', has been rendered 'the Divine Law' in cases where the literal rendering may appear somewhat incongruous to the English ear.
Biblical verses appear in italics except for the emphasized word or words in the quotation which appear in Roman characters.
[page xxx]
No particular English version of the Bible is followed, as the Talmud has its own method of exegesis and its own way of understanding Biblical verses which it cites. Where, however, there is a radical departure from the English versions, the rendering of a recognized English version is indicated in the Notes. References to chapter and verse are those of the Massoretic Hebrew text.
Any answer to a question is preceded by a dash ( — ), except where the question and the answer form part of one and the same argument.
Inverted commas are used sparingly, that is, where they are deemed essential or in dialogues.
The archaic second person 'thou', 'thee' etc. is employed only in Aggadic passages or where it is necessary to distinguish it from the plural 'you', 'yours', etc.
The usual English spelling is retained in proper names in vogue like Simeon, Isaac, Akiba, as well as in words like halachah. Shechinah, shechitah, etc. which have almost passed into the English language. The transliteration employed for other Hebrew words is given at the end of each tractate.
It might also be pointed out for the benefit of the student that the recurring phrases 'Come and hear:' and 'An objection was raised:' or 'He objected:' introduce Tannaitic teachings, the two latter in contradiction, the former either in support or contradiction of a particular view expressed by an Amora.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Once again I have the pleasure of expressing my warmest appreciation of the industry and scholarship which the several collaborators have brought to bear upon their work.

To Mr. Maurice Simon, M.A., who has assisted in many directions, and to my dear wife for her invaluable help in many ways, I would express my especial thanks.

I should also like to pay personal tribute to Mr. J. Davidson, [page xxxi] the Governing Director of the Soncino Press, for the care and self-sacrificing devotion with which he has seen Seder Mo'ed through the press.

* *
*

With the publication of this 'Order' we are approaching the completion of the Soncino Edition of the first complete and unabridged English translation of the Babylonian Talmud. Only those who have been closely connected with it can appreciate the exacting and strenuous nature of the task. I tender my humble thanks to the Almighty God for having given me strength to carry through, amidst other labours, my heavy share of the work, and on behalf of all those who have been concerned with this publication I offer the traditional prayer:

I. EPSTEIN

Jews' College, London.
Sivan 24, 5698
23 June, 1938

Footnotes

V. Baneth, E., Die sechs Ordnungen der Mischna, Seder Mo'ed, p. 168.
This arrangement rests on the order given by Maimonides in his introduction to his commentary on Zera'im.
In the current editions of the Babylonian Talmud the tractates appear in the following order: Shab., 'Er., Pes., Bez., M.K., Hag., R.H., Yoma, Suk., Ta'an., Shek., Meg. In J.T., Yoma precedes Shek.; and Hag., M.K. For other variations v. Strack H., Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash (Philadelphia 1931) p. 365.
The sequence given by him follows that of Maimonides. Though, strange to say, neither in the Spanish nor French Recension of the Epistle is there any reference to Megillah, Mo'ed Katan and Hagigah. V. Ed. Lewin, M.B. p. 33.
V. Hal. 5a; J. Ber. I, 5; J. Ned. III, 14; Ex. Rab. XXV, 12.
V. Cohen H., Religion der Vernunft aus d. Quellen d. Judentums (1929) p. 182.
V. Bialik, Sefer ha-Shabbath, p. 518.
Cf. Huxley, A., Ends and Means, p. 298: 'We fail to attend to our true relations with ultimate reality and, through ultimate reality, with our fellow beings, because we prefer to attend to our animal nature and to the business of getting on in the world'.
Mekilta, Yithro, 8.
V. Deut. XVI, 11 and 14. Cf. Maimonides, (Guide for the Perplexed, III, 53: 'They (the festivals) promote the good feelings that men should have to each other in their social and political relations'.
V. Ta'an. 26b.
Cf. Sherira Gaon, Epistle, loc. cit. (French Recension): 'New Year is like the harbinger ([H]) of the Day of Atonement'.
V. Esth. IX, 22.
Zech. VIII, 19.
V. Ta'an. i6a and Buchler, A. Maimonides VIII Centenary Memorial Volume (Soncino Press) p. 13ff.
The technical term by which a Jewish festival is designated. This term occurs in connection with Purim (Esth. IX, 22) and on this basis Purim was to be treated according to an old Baraitha as a day on which all work was prohibited (v. Meg. 5b). Although this restriction was not made absolute, the established custom to the present day is to abstain from non-urgent manual labour on Purim (v. Shulhan Aruk 0.H. 696, 1). True it is that this term occurs also in connection with Hanukkah, v. Shab. 22b, but the phrasing there makes it quite clear that it is designated as Yom Tob only in respect of Hallel recital and thanksgiving [H] Cf. with this the phrase [H] in Esth. loc. cit. It is a noteworthy fact that but for a bare reference to the Hanukkah light, the Hanukkah feast is ignored by the Mishnah; for the reason v. Naltmanides on Gen. XLIX, 10.
V. [H], 670.
These names are referred to more fully in the list of Abbreviations at the end of each Tractate.

Directory of Sedarim and Tractates

BERAKOTH

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
WITH NOTES, GLOSSARY
AND INDICES

MAURICE SIMON, M.A.

UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF

RABBI DR I. EPSTEIN

B.A., Ph.D., D. Lit.

Introduction to Seder Zera‘im by the Editor	PAGE xiii
Introduction to Berakoth by the Translator	xxvii
Chapter I	2
Chapter II	13
Chapter III	17
Chapter IV	26
Chapter V	30
Chapter VI	35
Chapter VII	45
Chapter VIII	51
Chapter IX	54
Glossary
Index of Scriptural References
General Index
Transliteration of Hebrew Letters
Abbreviations

Directory of Sedarim and Tractates / Come and Hear Home Page

Folios:

Intro	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50
51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64

INTRODUCTION

MAURICE SIMON

The indices of this Tractate have been compiled by Judah J. Slotki, M.A.

PREFATORY NOTE BY THE EDITOR

ISIDORE EPSTEIN

1 comment:

BAFS5 August 2022 at 11:44
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/19/items/TheJewishReligionItsInfluenceToday_201801/The%20jewish%20Religion%20its%20influence%20today.pdf
2
This PDF version does not include the more than 300 photocopy exhibits bound in Dilling’s
original book, including more than 200 pages of the Soncino Talmud (Jews College of London
translation). Those exhibits are available on-line at http://Come-and-Hear.com, hot-linked into
the text
Elizabeth Dilling is frequently accused of taking her Talmud quotes out of context. Did she do
that? To answer that question, Come-and-Hear.com provides on-line more than 1500 folios from
16 of the tractates that Dilling cites.
Other Dilling exhibits on-line include:
• Funk and Wagnall’s Jewish Encyclopedia,
• The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,
• US State Department records,
• Rabbi Louis Finkelstein’s The Pharisees,
• Rabbi Michael Rodkinson’s The History of the Talmud, and
• various periodicals.
At Come-and-Hear.com, all Dilling’s Biblical references are hot-linked to an on-line Bible
service (BibleGateway.com), which provides a number of translations and easy access to wider
context.
The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today
Formerly titled The Plot Against Christianity
Fourth edition 1983 revised with index
Formerly Titled
THE PLOT AGAINST CHRISTIANITY

Friday, 5 August 2022

AMERICA UNDER THE TALMUD. HUMAN SACRIFICE. SEX WITH CHILDREN. JEWISH HAREMS. SLAVE HAGAR. HEBREW GLOSSARY. GILAD ATZMON.

The Roadmap

Censoring the Talmud

Death Penalty

Blood Ritual

New America

You May Find These Works of interest

Navigate This Site

Appendix B: Polygamy and the Slave Hagar

Howdy!

The Babylonian Talmud edited by Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein of Jews’ College, London

Navigate This Site

Come and Hear™ Home

Blood Ritual 3: Human Sacrifice, the Talmud, and the Moloch Problem

LORD God Accepts Human Sacrifice

LORD God is Appeased by Human Sacrifice

The Moloch Prohibition

Lessons Learned

Appendix: Extract from Sanhedrin 64a and 64b

Sanhedrin 64a

Sanhedrin 64b

You May Find These Works of interest

New America 2. Sex with Children by Talmud Rules

Jewish Bad Guys

Jewish Good Guys

Talmud Permits Child-Adult Sex

Regenerating Virginity

More on Regenerating Virginity

"… Of Lesser Age, No Guilt is Incurred"

Out of Context?

Oedipal Incest

Adult Male Homosexuality

Female Homosexuality

More on Oedipal Incest

American Puritanism vs. Rabbinic Tradition

Children as Concubines, Babies as Wives

How Old Is the Screamer?

A Different Viewpoint

Brother Takes Three-Year-Old Widow

Wounding Young Brides by Intercourse

Rest for the Intercourse Wound

Old Fashioned Torah Values?

Marital Duties of the Pre-Pubescent Bride

Did Girls Reach Puberty Earlier Then?

The Rights of the Child

The Rudin Standard

Appendix: The Rights of the Child — Italian Case

Sex scandal fallout ends rabbi-exec's career 01/23/01

You May Find These Works of interest

New America 4. Jewish Harems in Talmud Law

The Talmud Challenges Rabbi Dr. Hertz

Why Is Polygamy OK?

What Is the Limit? 4, 12, 24, 48?

Levirate Marriages

Widow May Be Raped

Laws of Yebamoth Regulate Levirate Marriages

Levirate Marriages Do Not Explain Polygamy

Jewish Encyclopedia on History of Polygamy

Jewish Polygamy Is Banned in Middle Ages

Ban Due to Christian Opinion

Jewish American Polygamy Circa 1906

Use First Wife for Babies, Second as Prostitute

Contemporary Polygamy

Two Orthodox Jews Speak on Polygamy

Jewish/Mormon Cooperation?

Expect New Voices

Appendix A: The Jewish Encyclopedia on Polygamy

Appendix B: Polygamy and the Slave Hagar

You May Find These Works of interest

Glossary

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

The Babylonian Talmud
edited by Rabbi Dr. Isidore Epstein
of Jews’ College, London

Blood Ritual
3: Human Sacrifice, the Talmud, and the Moloch Problem

New America
2. Sex with Children by Talmud Rules

New America
4. Jewish Harems in Talmud Law

THE EDITOR¹

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT OF SEDER ZERA^'IM

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
WITH NOTES, GLOSSARY
AND INDICES

THE EDITOR¹

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
WITH NOTES, GLOSSARY
AND INDICES