Rabbinical Judaism and Christianity: The Prodigal Children of The Written Torah

The Origin

In 1280 BCE, both Judaism and Judeo-Christianity had their genesis at Mount Sinai with God’s delivery of the law to Moses. The written Torah, which incorporates the law given at Sinai, does not actually appear until around 500 BCE when it is presumed to have been brought by Ezra to the Second Temple.

While the Torah suggests that it was written by the finger of God (Exodus 3 (18) and Deuteronomy 9 (10)), the most current analysis is that it was drafted by four separate authors who laboriously and faithfully assembled and transcribed notes and recollections into the final document. In any event, the Torah was accepted by the Hebrew people as the sacred and immutable source of their origin and commitment to their God.

The Second Temple:  516 BCE to 70 CE

The Second Temple Period was an extremely important epoch in the history and character of the Jewish people. It was favored with the Torah, a written set of laws, under which the Jewish people could establish a new beginning. It was the Renaissance of Jewish nationhood following the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (in 722 BCE) and the Babylonian destruction of the first Temple in Judah (in 586 BCE).

In its earliest stage, it functioned largely as a theocracy under the laws of the Torah construed by a coterie of sages and scholars (known as the Persons of the Large Assembly or Anshe Kenesseth Hagadol), administratively enforced by the Sanhedrin and religiously operated by the temple priests, Kohanim.

The priests of the temple were divided into two different, competing philosophical groups regarding the laws of the Torah. The Sadducees were an elite upper-class element who believed in strict adherence to the laws of the Torah. They followed the Torah’s rules of patrilineal descent, rejected conversion and all changes that were not within the reasonable interpretation of the express language of the Torah. On the other hand, the Pharisees (who came from the middle and working classes) were more open to a broad construction of the Torah, which on occasion meandered into changing aspects of that treasured instrument.

In 332 BCE, the Middle East neighborhood changed. Alexander the Great entered with his vast forces and took control of the area. The new state of Israel, as well as many other local nation-states accommodated the Greeks rather than confront them militarily. In addition to troops, the Greeks brought Greek philosophy, which some members of the Jewish community, including the Sadducees, found interesting and compelling.

However, Alexander’s life was short and the lands under his dominion were divided among his generals. Syria and Israel fell under the dominion of

Antiochus of the Seleucid Empire.  In 167 BC, the Maccabees (Hasmoneans), under the command of Judah Maccabee, led a successful revolt against Antiochus after he sought to interfere with Jewish temple worship.

Once again it appeared that Israel was restored to its own faith and independence. However, the cure might have been worse than the illness. The Hasmonean dynasty, descendants of the Maccabee family, concluded that to the victor went the spoils. They were self-interested and not only sought the political leadership of Israel, but also the high priesthood of the temple. 

Hasmoneon King Alexander Janneaus appointed Shimon Ben Shetach (his brother-in-law) as head of the Sanhedrin.  In that capacity, Ben Shetach politically eliminated all Sadducees from the temple and replaced them with Pharisees. This political maneuver changed the direction of the Jewish religion by eliminating the party dedicated to strict compliance with the written Torah. Ultimately, in 67 BCE, Janneaus’s two sons, Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II, fought over succession. Hyrcanus invited the Romans, who were in the neighborhood, to assist in his struggle for succession. That act resulted in Rome’s ultimate domination of Israel and the destruction of the Temple and Israel’s Commonwealth.

The First Century CE:  The Beginning of Judeo-Christianity and of Rabbinical Judaism

If Jews are anguished upon hearing the name “Jesus”, it may well be because that very name was heard uttered during the Crusades when Jewish communities in Europe were slaughtered by bands of militants en route to free the “Holy Land” from the Saracens. Or, because in Jesus’s name, approximately 35,000 persons were condemned to be burned at the stake in Spain, Portugal, and the New World when it was suspected they still had an affinity for Judaism, their original faith. Or, because it was in dedication to that name that rode on the horses of the Cossacks as they ruthlessly murdered men, women, and children in the “shtetls” of East Europe. Or, because it was the name which, except in rare instances, was silent in the defense of 6 million innocent Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust.

Yet, Jesus is a Hebrew name, as is the name of his cousin, John the Baptist, and the Hebrew names of all twelve of his disciples: Simon (called Peter) Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddeus, Simon (the Zealot) and Judas Iscariot. These men were all Jews, born and raised and educated in a Jewish land under the providence of the Second Temple. In fact, John the Baptist was a preacher who viewed himself as a Jewish prophet with a mission to cleanse his fellow Jews of their transgressions. He devised to do so in a manner familiar to most Orthodox Jews who visit a mikvah. His death was procured by Herod Antipas, the Roman provincial ruler, after Herod violated the Torah’s 10 Commandments by stealing the wife of his half-brother, Philip.

Jesus was one of a number of charismatic persons to offer himself to the Jewish people as an avenue to return to God, Torah, and peace. His disciples viewed his calling as the answer to the prediction of a Messiah, found in Isaiah 2. The Judaic Messiah, however, is not a deity but a king or anointed one with a mission to bring peace to the world. In fact, Isaiah 45 (1) identifies the Persian Cyrus as a Messiah because he helped to sponsor the return of the Jewish people to Israel and rebuild the Second Temple.

The sermons that Jesus preached were largely reminiscent of the classical Jewish training of the day. The reported miracles, which included healing the sick, turning water into wine, restoring a young girl to life and walking on water, had to be spectacular events to the disciples and all who observed them.

The Beginning of the End of the Jesus Ministry

Jesus’s misfortunes generated from a number of circumstances, some of which arose from injudicious conduct. To enter the temple and cause a ruckus by overturning the tables of the money-changers was a bit theatric and unwise.

Money-changers were essential on the temple campus. Many Jews came from far away and with foreign currency to purchase animals for sacrifice at the Temple. Without money-changers, these people could not accomplish the purpose of their long journey, which was purchasing an animal for sacrifice. Even today, international airports accommodate foreign travelers by providing money-changers.

Jesus’s real problem with both the Pharisees and the Romans was that he did not reject those who dubbed him Jesus, King of Israel “Melech Yisroel”. Kings of Israel had to originate from the line of King David (Jesse) and selected and anointed by the temple priests (Kohanim). To say the least, Jesus was unable to show his definitive lineage and had not ingratiated himself with the Pharisees. More importantly, the Romans, the foreign landlords of the State of Israel, could not tolerate someone competing with their authority.

Given the circumstances, what were Jesus and his disciples doing in Jerusalem where he might be in jeopardy? The answer is quite simple. It was Passover, one of the three annual foot holidays (Shelosh Regalim), when all Jews in Israel were encouraged to walk to the temple in Jerusalem and give animal sacrifices in the temple.   

Were Jesus, his four younger brothers (James, Judas, Joseph and Simon), his disciples and followers a danger to the Jewish state during his lifetime or upon his death? Hardly! Judeo-Christianity was an accepted sect of Jewish affiliation for decades after Jesus’s death (circa 36 CE).

Paul Brings Judeo-Christianity to the Gentile Masses

Saul of Tarsus, also known as Paul, was a contemporary of Jesus, although he never met Jesus nor heard him preach. Paul was a Pharisee and started adult life enforcing Judaic law. He was born in Tarsus, presently a part of Turkey and then under the dominion of the Roman Empire.

In midlife, Paul reported an epiphany that drove him to support Jesus and to bring the story of Jesus’s life, together with his form of Judaism, to the Gentile world. He overcame the main obstacle of converting Gentiles to Judaism by abandoning the Torah requirements of direct lineage from the patriarchs and the necessity of male circumcision. In essence, Paul’s program offered the God of Israel, with Jesus as his representative, to the world at large. For almost 200 years, Christianity grew moderately as a Gentile form of Judaism until the Roman Emperor Constantine declared it the official religion of the Roman Empire.

How then did Jesus, whose life started as a preacher and a prophet, become a Christian deity? Torah usages of the day provide some insight. Jews were accustomed to avoiding God’s name, instead using terms of respectful reference, like, God our Father, (See Deuteronomy 32 (6)) and Deuteronomy 14 (1). Also, in prayers like Aveenu Malknu, God is referred to as our Father. That reference is, of course, not to a single individual but to all creation

How did Jesus become a Christian deity?

Whether by inadvertence, misinterpretation or design, the term Father, as often used by Jesus, was construed by the early Christians to mean God created his own son Jesus by affecting the pregnancy of Mary (see New Testament: John 5 (30), 14 (6-11), (26), Matthew 11 (27)). From this notion, it is reasonable to conclude that the church probably developed the idea of a Virgin Birth, given the absence of John, Mary’s husband, from the equation. It was then not a quantum leap for the church to conclude that the son of the deity is, in fact, a new generation deity.

Transdeification (a word created by this author) is the effective transfer of all or part of the power and authority from a deity to another entity, generally human. The Ten Commandments of the written Torah, as well as a number of other provisions of that document, provide that there is only one true God. Indeed, the Torah insists upon that idea and declares that God is a jealous God and a vengeful one, a message that no one should take lightly. The idea that God is “one” is the credo of all Jews when they recite the universal Jewish prayer in every service that begins with “Shema Yisroel. ” A deity who is the son of God is a deity nevertheless and creates a circumstance repugnant to the written Torah and monotheism. This understanding has not escaped the awareness of the Christian community which attempts to cloud it in the inscrutable notion of the Trinity.

What is indeed strange and wondrous is that most of the two billion Christians who consider Jesus a divinity nevertheless retain, as the largest part of their Bible, the Old Testament, which includes the written Torah, the Prophets, the Scribes and its absolute insistence on monotheism.    

Rabbinical Judaism a.k.a. Rabbinism

The written Torah described how Jews should communicate with their God. First and foremost, an individual must follow the civilized rules of conduct which the written Torah prescribes, and thus avoid the ire of God.

Early on, by making a Temple sacrifice, one could request forgiveness for sinful conduct, ask God for a desired outcome, express gratitude for a joyful event or simply acknowledge love, respect or fear of God.

Today, some view temple sacrifices (korbans) performed by their Jewish ancestors with embarrassment and consider it unworthy of a civilized society.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Sacrifices in the temple involved food animals only, grain, meal, wine, and incense. Animals were not sacrificed merely to procure their death, as in the case of Santería. These animals which, even in the absence of Temple sacrifice, would have graced private tables and would not have been permitted to die of old age.  Temple sacrifices served both a devotional and practical purpose.

• It was a way of tithing in a community given to agriculture and husbandry, a community without sophisticated paper currency. Many of the animals and birds were uniquely similar to those we find wrapped in plastic at our local supermarket.
• It was a way in which the donor could, by giving, accompany his message to God with more than simply lip service.
• The holy Temple was operated by the priests (Kohanim) and the administrative personnel (Levites), all of whom were from the tribe of Levi. The tribe of Levi did not get a portion of the land of Canaan distributed among the other tribes of Israel. Instead, they were responsible for the temple and they and their families received the major part of all of the animals and food delivered as sacrifices at the temple.
• Thus, the temple and its services represented an orderly, civilized and well-designed system.

The End of the Second Temple: The Exit of the Kohanim (Priests) and   the Beginning of Rabbinical Judaism

On April 14, 70 CE, three days before the beginning of Passover, the Romans laid siege on the city of Jerusalem. The siege ended on August 30 of that year with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.

The end of the Second Temple dramatically changed the way in which the Jewish people interacted with their God. Mourning for the loss of their Temple and their Capital by fasting on Tisha B’Av was appropriate. However, it did not provide for the needs of a people who were related genetically and connected through their commitment to their one God.

Jews began to assemble communally to read and learn the law, as was required by the Written Torah in Deuteronomy. But, that was not enough. Individuals had a need to tell their God about their anxieties, express their love, but most of all request God’s help on behalf of their families and their people. These communal sessions were generally under the auspices of the Pharisees, remnants of the temple personnel. Personal prayers became pre-prepared communal prayers. The Pharisees eventually became the Rabbinate and the communal assembly became the synagogue of Rabbinical Judaism.

The evolution was a normal and essential one. However, the early Rabbinate, like their predecessors, the Pharisees, did not constrain themselves to the interpretation of the written Torah. Under the guise of interpretation, they distanced themselves from the written Torah and began to change and amplify it. In today’s parlance, that is called “judicial legislation”.

With each Rabbinical stage, starting with the Sages of the late Second Temple, including the Midrash, the Mishnah, and the Gemorrah, the Rabbinical views, as recorded in the Talmud, departed from the Written Torah. While there may be some conceptual differences in the composition of the Talmud and the Oral Torah, they are essentially the same document and will be used herein interchangeably.

From the Word of God to the Word of Man

Under Rabbinical authority, Judaism began a gradual transition from Torah to Talmud. Persons learned in Jewish law became known as Talmudim. Schools of learning for Jewish children were called “Talmud Torah” with the word Talmud preceding the word Torah. This transition caused a major problem for the early Rabbinate. How could Rabbinical law (Halacha) promulgated by the Rabbis, who were not prophets and had no direct communication with God, take precedence over the express language of the written Torah?

Neither brilliance nor imagination was absent in the solution. The solution was not so simple because God’s voice was not heard either directly or indirectly since the end of the period of the Hebrew prophets. The last of such prophets was Malachi, who preached in the middle of the fifth century BCE about the time of Ezra. Rabbinical Judaism’s quandary was how to show God’s authority to amend the written Torah with an instrument authored by Rabbis and completed over a thousand years later.

God did not speak to the Rabbis and thus authorize changes to the written Torah. What the Rabbis did was to go back to Mount Sinai (1280 BCE) and maintain that God gave two Torahs, one that was written and one that was oral. Their rationale was that God felt that His written Torah was so incomprehensible that special instructions were necessary to understand its meaning. The implausibility of such a proposal is glaring. It suggests that God was unable or unwilling to speak in plain language and that he would provide a code to the Rabbis, which would not appear until over a thousand years later. The credibility of that proposition is more than a little wanting, as no mention of the “Oral Torah” appears in the written Torah, which expressly rejects any changes, additions or subtractions.

The Rabbis expressed multiple, varied and conflicting opinions in the Mishnah and especially in the Gemorrah. How could the Rabbis maintain that those opinions clarified God’s express word in the written Torah and justify elevating the Talmud to an Oral Torah of equal dignity? The most spectacular aspect of the Rabbinical proposal is how it got, some 1200 years later, from Mount Sinai to the minds of the early Rabbinical authors of the Talmud, who claim no direct communication with God.

The Written Torah and The Oral Torah:  Two Torahs, Two Judaisms, Two Gods?

The Written and Oral Torahs are so distinct, in spiritually significant ways, that it suggests that there are two different Judaisms, from two different sources.

The written Torah is immutable. How do we know? It says so in Deuteronomy 4 (2): “You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, your God which I command you.” The written Torah is not like a Wikipedia, amendable by the reader.

Early Opposition to the Rabbinate’s Modification of the Written Torah

The Karite movement surfaced in Baghdad in the Seventh Century CE, in response to the Rabbinate’s deviation from the written Torah. It arose to challenge what was viewed as a number of erroneous interpretations and unauthorized additions contained in the Talmud. The Karites did not reject the Talmud, but neither did they feel bound by it.

The Karites insisted that the interpretation of the written Torah should be limited to conclusions that can honestly and reasonably be derived from its clear language, without amendment or addition.

The Golden Age of Karism occurred between the tenth and eleventh centuries CE. At one time the number of Jews affiliated with Karism was as much as 40% of world Jewry. Early in the 10^th century, the head of a Babylonian Rabbinical Academy, the Saadia Gaon, took upon himself the confrontation between the Rabbinical and the Karite views, a battle that ended up permanently severing the two Jewish communities. After that struggle Karaism, in a weakened position, continued in Iraq, Egypt, Persia, Lithuania, and Poland. Currently, it is estimated that there are approximately 40,000 Karites living in Israel, with smaller communities in Turkey, Europe and the United States.

Rabbinism’s Deviation From and Addition to the Written Torah and its Transdeification from God to Itself. 

Rabbinism’s Alteration of Jewish Identity

The written Torah tells us that a Jew is a person who is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through a Jewish male (patrilineal). It further requires that, in order to be considered Jewish, a male child must be circumcised.

1. In Genesis 12(7), God appears to Abraham (then Abram) and in referring to the land of Canaan tells him: “Unto thy seed will I give this land.”
2. In Genesis 17(6-8), God tells Abraham that he will make him exceedingly fruitful and that he will sire Kings.  God promises that he will give to Abraham and to Abraham’s seed all of the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.
3. In Genesis 17 (10-12), God reminds Abraham of the earlier covenant negotiated between God, Abraham and the seed of Abraham and requires that a token of that covenant be represented by the circumcision of every male child.
4. In Genesis 26 (2-4), God confirms to Isaac the covenant with Isaac’s father, Abraham. God promises to make Isaac’s seed multiply as the stars of the heaven and in Isaac’s seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed.
5. In Genesis 28 (14), God tells Jacob that his seed shall be as the dust of the earth.
6. In Deuteronomy 34 (4-5), God allows Moses, prior to his death, to look at the land to which he has brought the Jewish people and reminds Moses that he has given this land to the seed of the patriarchs.
7. In all biblical references in which the word seed is used, the Bible employs the word “Zera” which, even today, is translated as Semen.

In 200 CE, the Tannaim (of the Mishnah and the Talmud) completely changed the origin of the Jew from those born of a Jewish male (patrilineal) to those born of a Jewish female (matrilineal). Thus, Jewish males could no longer, by themselves, confer Jewish identity on children through the seed that was the continuum from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Scholars have tried to identify why this was done by the Tannaim, but have been unable to find an acceptable rationale or justification for the change.

One change alone, among many, had enormous consequences. God’s covenant with the patriarchs granted Canaan to the descendants of the male seed “zera”. Matrilineality, in the Oral Torah, abandoned the patriarchal seed and unlawfully changed the identity of “the descendants,” to the children of the mother,  thus putting in question Jewish biblical entitlement to the land of Israel.

Conversion

As observed, to be a Jew designed by God in the Written Torah, one must be born as a direct lineal descendant of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the seed (zera) of a Jewish father. The design is strictly genetic and does not depend upon the origin of the mother or whether the child was reared or educated in the Jewish religion. If a person, born a Jew, commits to a different faith and then wishes to return to Judaism, that person need not convert since genetically that person never stopped being a Jew. A Jew has a genetically tribal identity, but the Jewish religion can be admired and adopted by anyone without the need of a license from the Rabbinate.

Rabbinical Judaism, on the other hand, has conjured the notion that a graduate from one of its Rabbinical schools has the authority to change the genetics of one born of different peoples.

Because Rabbinical Judaism is fragmented into multiple denominations, each denomination has its own rules and procedures for effecting a “conversion.” One denomination need not accept the conversions of another, which results in abject confusion within Rabbinical Judaism as to who is a Jew.

The Written Torah has no provision for formal conversion of a Ger (person who is not born Jewish but is sojourning within the Jewish community).  However, the Written Torah makes exquisite provisions for the protection and inclusion of Gers. It preserves for them all of the rights, privileges, and protections of a Jew, with the exception of certain religious rites that require Jewish birth.

The modern impetus for attempting to convert a person to a Jew is an outgrowth of Rabbinical Judaism’s misguided venture into matrilinealism.

Today, the main reason for Rabbinical conversion is to attempt to confer Jewish genetics on a Gentile woman married to a Jewish man, so as to claim that their children are born Jewish. That charade would not be necessary had Rabbinical Judaism not erroneously adopted Matrilinealism.

The Rabbinical World to Come

In Genesis, the Written Torah goes into great detail to describe the creation of the world and its contents. After six days God rested. There is absolutely no mention or implication in the Written Torah of the existence of a second world. All rewards and punishments are done in this world.

Oral Torah Talmudic sources identify an ultimate reward for the individual Jew. The Talmud contains scattered descriptions of the world to come “L’olam Habh’ah”. It is also referred to as “Gan Eden” (The Garden of Eden). Nahmanides, (the Ramban), a medieval Jewish Rabbi, believed that the world to come would be ushered in by the resurrection of the dead and that the righteous will merit additional life. It was a notion not dissimilar from his contemporary Moses Maimonides,(the Rambam) who wrote that the righteous will enjoy spiritual, bodiless existence in the presence of God. These philosophies were adopted and expanded by Christianity as it exited from Judaism and comprised its notion of the many-tiered existence. Given God’s omnipotence and omniscience, it seems rather strange that God was so tired on the sixth day that he forgot to mention another world that he created.

Life After Death

The Sadducees, and the Karites their spiritual successors did not believe in a life or spirit that survived the death of the human body. Therefore, for them, there was no reason to conjure a world to come. It is understandable for persons to want, and therefore to create, a belief system wherein they would survive the human body and reap the rewards of a life well-lived. That notion is not supported by the Written Torah. The idea that man’s soul is immortal is not an original Judaic construct. It existed in earlier civilizations. Ironically, it found credence in Rabbinical Judaism and Judeo Christianity at or about the same time. In both faiths, it is amply used to reward compliance with the tenets of that faith.

Rabbinical Judaism’s Liberty With Verity

After the fifth century CE, Rabbis welcomed the Sabbath with the blessing of the Sabbath lights (generally two candles). Although the blessing recites that God expressly ordered that procedure, the Written Torah does not mention or provide for that procedure. It is suggested that the alleged ‘God- directed’ blessing over the Sabbath candles was prescribed by the Rabbis for practical, rather than religious, reasons. In pre-electric homes, light was provided by candles. Jews followed the Written Torah mandate to “Kindle no fire during the Sabbath.” In order to achieve light in their homes on Friday evening, Rabbinical Judaism made the lighting of candles before the commencement of the Sabbath into a religious event (The Jewish Book of Why, page 168). This manufactured “blessing” flagrantly violates one of the Written Torah’s Ten Commandments, which requires that God’s name should not be taken in vain.

Meat and Dairy: Interpretation or Interpolation

Exodus 23 (19), of the Written Torah, provides: “Thou shalt not seethe (boil) a kid in his mother’s milk”. From this provision, Rabbinical Judaism required that all milk and all meat (including chicken) from whatever diverse source, must be separated from each other. Thus, the Rabbis conclude that milk, or its products, cannot be consumed together with any meat from any source.

This Rabbinical construction is so woefully overbroad and unjustified as to, by itself, constitute a prohibited addition to the Written Torah. If God intended to separate all meat from all milk, he certainly could have so declared. As chickens do not give milk, the inclusion of chicken as a meat is a prohibited addition to the Written Torah, on steroids. Followers of Karite Judaism, strict interpreters of the written Torah, limit the interpretation of the provision to a mother animal and its offspring and do not require the separation of all meat from all milk, nor all the dishes and utensils required to serve them.

Infinite Alterations and Additions of the Written Torah by Rabbinical Judaism

Originally, the Rabbinate functioned as teachers and interpreters of biblical law contained in the Written Torah. No one, not even the Rabbis, was authorized to change that law or add to it. While their opinions as biblical scholars are valuable and should be readily available to serve the Jewish community, they cannot add to, expand or reject the laws of the Written Torah. Rabbis are not elected Jewish legislators nor are they authorized to amend the express language of the Written Torah.

Notwithstanding the fact that it is their occupation and they get paid for conducting Sabbath services, Rabbis cannot even exempt themselves from the prohibition against working on Sabbath.

Yet, they have adopted laws, known as the Code of Jewish Law (Shulchan Oruch, which was originally drafted by Joseph Karo:

There is an infinite number of other laws and regulations that may not remotely relate to subjects addressed in the Written Torah. Codifying into law the daily minutia of life, as provided in the Shulchan Oruch, is violative of the Written Torah’s proscription against adding to Torah law. Examples such as:

• What is the right way to tie shoelaces.
• Which shoe to remove first.
• What hand to be used to take care of your personal needs, how those needs should be attended, or what blessing should be said on conclusion etc.

In truth and in fact, it is hard to understand how these rabbinical laws serve spirituality or are derived from the Written Torah.

Conclusion

Judaism and Christianity were sourced in the same Written Torah. In traditional Judaism, the Written Torah is known as the Chumash and in the text of Christian Bibles, it is known as the Old Testament. Both Rabbinical Judaism and Christianity arose from the same genetic and religious source until the First Century CE, when things began to change. Ironically, in that century, both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism incubated their unique style of Judaism.

Led by a Jewish disciple of Jesus, Christianity followed the life of a charismatic Jewish preacher into the receptive hands of the Gentile world. Its departure from Judaism became complete when they began to consider the charismatic preacher a deity. Asserting such a proposition was alien to the Written Torah and to a faith whose credo is “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one”.

Judeo Christianity’s transdeification was early, direct and complete, and remains intact to this day. As Judeo-Christianity exited from Judaism in the direction of other lands, Judaism exited from Judeo Christianity because it could not sanction multitheism. Yet, almost 2000 years after the birth of Jesus, in a world with Two billion Christians, the Torah and the Tanakh represent the largest part of most Christian Bibles.

The vast majority of the 14.2 million acknowledged Jews in the world follow Rabbinical Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbinical domination of Judaism grew by leaps and bounds through the support and development of yeshivas in Europe and in the Mideast. 

With each new Rabbinical group examining and opining on the Torah, the Talmud grew in size and importance in Judaism. The Rabbis, in the style of the Pharisees, tested the outer boundaries of the Written Torah, substantially changing the law, philosophy and devotional content. Ultimately, the Talmud was elevated to an Oral Torah. Rabbinical Judaism took the position that one could not extract the true meaning of the written Torah without access to the Oral Torah. The conceptual differences in the two Torahs is so significant as to suggest that they were in competition with each other or that the Oral Torah superseded the Written Torah. 

In all synagogues, the hand-scripted, immutable Written Torah is located in the most prominent place.  It is kissed as it passes through the congregation.  It is raised aloft “Hagbah” as testimony to the source of Jewish faith, existence, and law.  It is the document that brought to the Jewish community the rules of civilized conduct.  It is the document for and, in which, our martyrs died. It is the eternal light of our very existence.

It is preposterous for traditional Judaism in the Oral Torah to suggest that: 

• The Written Torah is an inscrutable instrument that requires the Oral Torah to interpret or replace it.
• There is not one, but two different Torahs created at the same time by God at Mount Sinai, even though the Written Torah expressly rejected any alterations, additions or subtractions to its written text. For example, the Written Torah designed Jews through patrilineality and the Oral Torah changed that design to matrilineality. Did that occur simultaneously?
• There are two worlds, this world and “Le Olam Habah”(the world to come). In the Written Torah, God expressly created only one world.
• There is an afterlife, when, in the Written Torah, human life is finite.
• Multiple, diverse Rabbinical opinions govern Jewish conduct, when, in the Written Torah, God’s directions are clear, simple and precise. The Written Torah says what it means and means what it says, as in the case of seething a kid in the milk of its mother. The Oral Torah expands interpretation to the point of distortion.

To exalt the Written Torah in our synagogues, while, at the same time, promoting the Oral Torah’s substantial deviations, and assertion of its authority suggests an institutional hypocrisy of grandiose proportions. Rabbinical Judaism’s transdeification is from the God of the Written Torah to Rabbinate of the Oral Torah.

As one peers through the fog of Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism’s parallel journeys away from the God of the Written Torah, one can perceive the blurred image of a Golden Calf.

Douglas Kaplan