from The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today
by Elizabeth Dilling

# II.
THE TALMUD REVILED

Chapter Summary

[page 6] The Christian of today is bombarded from all sides with reference to our "Judaeo-Christian Heritage," our "Judaeo-Christian Civilization," and the "brotherhood" which should prevail, presumably, between Christian and Talmudic Judaism. Such propaganda could only succeed if one is in ignorance as to the nature of the Talmud and the total antagonism between present-day Judaism and Christianity which necessarily must exist.

Over the centuries and right up to the present century, there was not such ignorance of Talmudic precepts. The truth as it was repeatedly revealed, caused it and its adherents to be reviled, and justly so.

It is indeed strange that the Bulls of the Popes over the many centuries, warning against the Jews, should be seemingly unknown to the Catholic clergy today, and that the writings of Luther, which generally are like almost a second gospel to Protestants of the Lutheran fold, should be equally unknown on this subject today!

The first English translation of the Babylonian Talmud was in 1903 by Rodkinson (real name — M. Levi Frumkin), and was edited by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, "Father" of so-called "Reform Judaism." Rodkinson deleted much of the filth which is in the unexpurgated Talmud, and used no identifying folio numbers, as were in the original, but nevertheless, even this abridged translation proved very revealing. The Introduction states: (See Exhibit 9):

> The persecutors of the Talmud, during the period ranging from the First Century B.C., have varied in their character, objects and actions. In one respect, however, they all agreed, namely, in their general wish to destroy its existence. Careful consideration of its many vicissitudes certainly justifies the assertion that the Talmud is one of the wonders of the world. During the twenty centuries of its existence not one of them has passed without great and powerful enemies vying with each other and exhausting every effort to destroy it; still it survived in its entirety, and not only has the power of its foes failed to destroy even a single line, but it has not even been able materially to weaken its influence for any length of time. It still dominates the minds of a whole people , who venerate its contents as divine truth, and countless numbers have sacrificed their lives and their possessions to save it from perishing. (Emphasis supplied)

#### Emperor Hadrian and the Talmud

Hadrian was Emperor of the Roman World empire from 117 A.D. to his death, 138 A.D. In 132 A.D. the Jews began a revolt, and for four years carried on a bloody war. Otherwise Hadrian's reign was peaceful.

The reason for this Pharisee revolt is told by Rodkinson in his History of the Talmud:

> One of the causes of the great revolt against the Romans at this time was the prohibition by the Roman government of the study of the Torah [Talmud] … they rebelled, led by Bar Kochba. Rabbi Aqiba (Akiba) was the first to become his adherent, who journeyed from town to town, inciting the Israelites to rebel … It is not surprising, therefore, that Hadrian was not contented barely with the massacre of the sages of the Talmud, but was intent also on the destruction of the Talmud itself … he decreed that if any of the old rabbis should qualify a young rabbi … both should be put to death … believing that with the death of the elder generation the Talmud would be forgotten and Israel would blend with the nations and its memory be obliterated; because he very well knew that as long as the Talmud existed there was little hope for the assimilation of the Jews with other nations. This decree however, was not executed … the efforts of Hadrian met with no success … He saw the Talmud still existing … uniting Israel into one people, and establishing it still more firmly as a national and religious whole … the Talmud regained its former power and influence. (Emphasis supplied)

And the pupil of one of the contemporary rabbis "Rabbi Jehudah the Nasi" (the "prince") became "the compiler of the Mishnah" (or laws of the Talmud). (See Exhibit 14 and Exhibit 15) In 553 A.D. Emperor Justinian forbade the spread of the Talmudic books throughout the Roman Empire. (Corp. Juris. can. VII Decretal, lib V, Tit. IV, cap. 1)

#### The Popes and the Talmud

Writing of the battles of the Talmud and its followers, authored by the Pharisees (see Exhibit 10), we further read of events following the Sadducees, Samaritans, the followers of Jesus and the early Roman Emperors (Exhibit 9):

> "The Rabbis next encountered the Popes. From the time of Pope Innocent III, the Talmud was burned at the stake in nearly every century from the 11th to the 18th in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and many other countries …"

Rodkinson speaks of the disputations which the Popes and Kings held in which the accusers of the Talmud were answered by its defenders. The results were always that when the criminality of the Talmud was revealed in all its horror, the Talmud was ordered burned, expunged, or censored.

The same thing always started over again later. Rodkinson continues:

> Still what has been the result? The Talmud exists today and not one letter in it is missing.

[page 7]

Rodkinson then lists a partial chart of the burning of the Talmud at the hands of Kings and Popes (See Exhibit 22 and Exhibit 23):

#### The Talmud at the Stake

Time | Place | Persecutor
1244 | Paris | King Louis IX
1244 | Rome | Innocent IV
1248 | Paris | Cardinal Legate Odo
1299 | Paris | Philip the Fair
1309 | Paris | Philip the Fair
1319 | Toulouse | Louis
1322 | Rome | Burned by order of Pope John XXII, and accompanied by robbery and murder of the Jews by the mob.
1553 | Rome | Pope Julius III - Similar burnings by the same order took place in Barcelona, Venice, Romagna, Urbino and Pesar. "Here three wagons full of books were burned: but first they were carried through the streets of the city, while royal officers proclaimed publicly that their condemnation was due to insults to Christianity which they contained."
1554 | Ancona, Ferrara, Mantua, Padua, Candia, and Ravenna | Burned by hundreds and thousands.
1557 | Poland | Talmud burned because of the charge made against the Jews that they used the blood of Christian children in their ceremonies. This occurred during the Frankist disturbances.
1558 | Rome | Cardinal Chislieri
1559 | Rome | Sextus Sinensis

Jewish encyclopedias give credit, however, to various Popes for stopping violence against Jews; for seeking to convert them, and securing certain rights for them in territories over which they exercised temporal power.

Although the Bishops were issuing restrictive laws against Jewish aggressions long before this, the reign of Gregory the Great (590-604) is taken as the starting point of consistent relations between the Jews and the Popes. He condemned the holding of Christian slaves by Jews.

Pope Leo VII wrote the Archbishop of Mayence a reply telling him he might offer his Jews the choice between conversion or emigrating.

Anacletus II (antipope) was a Jew and his claim to the papacy always contested.

Benedictus VIII had a number of Jews put to death for blasphemy against Jesus.

Gregory VII charged the German emperor, Henry IV, with favoritism towards the Jews, and "in 1078 he renewed the canonical laws which prohibited giving Jews power over Christians … Jews might not be employed as tax-farmers or mint-masters."

Pope Calixtus II (1119-24) and Pope Alexander III are cited for pro-Jewish acts.

Innocent III is the most hated of the Popes in Jewish literature. In 1215, the Fourth Lateral Council, which he convened, "renewed the old canonical prohibitions against trusting the Jews with public offices and introduced the law demanding that Jews should wear a distinctive sign on their garments … Nevertheless he protected them against the fury of the French Crusaders."

Pope Innocent III in a long decree stated: that Jews are

> not to be killed by anyone [but], they are to us dangerous as the insect in the apple, as the serpent in the breast … Since, therefore, they have already begun to gnaw like the rat, and to stink like the serpent, it is to our shame that the fire in our breast which is being eaten by them, does not consume them … Although Christian piety tolerates the Jews … and allows them to continue with us, although the Moors will not tolerate them, they must not be allowed to remain ungrateful to us in such a way as to repay us with contumely, for favors, and contempt for our familiarity. They are admitted to our familiarity only through our mercy …

Under this same Pope, Canons 67-70 were adopted by the Fourth Lateran Council, which included protective measures against Jewish usury; their wearing of a distinguishing badge (to warn Christians); forbidding intercourse with Christians, as employees, in marriage, arid barring their testimony as witnesses in legal matters (their license for perjury under the "Kol Nidre" then being well known).

"Gregory IX, … in various official documents insisted on the strict execution of the canonical laws against the Jews … his successor," (to continue quoting) "Innocent IV, ordered the burning of the Talmud in Paris (1244)."

Through Emperor Sigismund, "who was heavily indebted to them, they [the Jews] obtained from Pope Martin V (1417-31) … various bulls (1418 and 1422)" (favorable to them). "In the last years of his pontificate, however, he repealed several of his ordinances, charging that they had been obtained under false pretenses."

Popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V are cited for moderation.

Sixtus IV sanctioned the Spanish Inquisition, which was aimed at the "Marranos," namely 300,000 Jews who had entered the Church, but retained their Talmudism, and secured power over all phases of Spanish life.

One who reads the Jewish press today will see congratulations to Israel from Spanish "Catholics" who identify themselves as Talmudic Jews descended from those who have practiced their Talmudism secretly ever since 1492, when their "Marrano" coreligionists were expelled from Spain.

If nothing else, the term "convert," as applied to Jews, must be viewed cautiously, in view of the concealed Judaism of the "Marranos," which continued for centuries.

One must learn, also, from Jewish authorities that Torquemada himself, leading the Inquisition, was a Jew, and that the Inquisition was only aimed at the Marranos who under the pretense of conversion had threatened to end Christianity by their inside machinations. (For further reference to the "Marranos," see the book, The Marranos, by Cecil Roth, published by the Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia).

The Jewish Encyclopedia continues:

> Alexander VI (Borgia), known in history as the most profligate of the Popes, was rather favorably inclined toward the Jews.

[page 8]

Leo X, one of the Medicis who fanned the Reformation by sponsoring a great renaissance of paganism and filled the Platonic Academy and salons of Rome and Florence with Jews, expounding Talmud and occult Cabalism, is called

> the humanist … favorably inclined toward the Jews, whom he a employed not only as physicians, but also as artists and in other positions at his court. The beginning of the Reformation influenced his action in the controversy between Reuchlin and Pfeferkorn which he settled in such a way as not to give any encouragement to those who demanded reforms in the Church.

The story of the sincerely converted Jew, Pfefferkorn, who aired the infamies of the Talmud, as opposed by the Catholic renegade, Reuchlin, dupe of the head of the Jewish community of Rome, and the pro-Jewish Medici Pope, ended with Pfefferkorn being silenced, Reuchlin not being tried for heresy, as he was scheduled to be and indeed should have been, and with two hostile camps in nearly every German town taking sides for or against the Talmud.

One may ask: "How could anyone reading what the Talmud says [see reproductions elsewhere herein] argue about its contents?" In this regard, however, it must be remembered that only with the relatively unexpurgated Soncino translation of the Talmud in this century, in the contemporary language, English, has it become possible for the non-Jew to receive the full impact of what the Talmud says. In other trials arguments could rage as to what a Yiddish or Hebrew text of the Talmud really meant, if translated. Nevertheless, the Jews always ultimately lost such arguments, as witness the condemnation of the Talmud by non-Jews through the centuries.

Even the Soncino English translation of the Talmud is not readily available except in major libraries, to be read there and not taken out.

Clement VII (another Medici servant of Jewry) was the bastard son of Guilio, brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who founded a pagan salon, the Platonic Academy. The Platonic Academy attempted the old Talmudic strategy of "harmonizing" pagan philosophy with Christianity, as Maimonides had tried to do with Biblical Judaism. Lorenzo had his son Giovanni (Leo X) made a Cardinal, through his influence with Innocent VIII, at 13, having also been made an Archbishop at 7. Ready to ascend the throne, Giovanni promptly made five of his relatives Cardinals, including his bastard cousin, Giulio. Leo X (Giovanni), made Pope on March 11, 1513, was ordained a priest on the 15th and made a Bishop on the 19th of the same month, and he reigned until December 1, 1521, nine years.

It was this Pope, Leo X, who launched the selling of indulgences in 1517, the immediate cause of Luther's break with the Church, and of Europe's arousal. Every effort was made to corrupt and Talmudize the Church from the inside, while Jewry worked to wreck it from the outside. The hotheads among Jews, says Jewish historian Cecil Roth, expected to end Christianity and supplant it with Talmudism.

But when Luther nailed his theses on the Wittenberg Cathedral door, he nailed the Jews back into the ghetto, and Popes eager for Christian faith and morals were elected in place of the pro-Talmudic "humanist" Medici popes. Luther, in turn, found the same forces polluting his own following and ended his life beseeching the Protestant princes to expel or put at hard labor all Talmudists, after burning synagogues and Talmuds first of all. Read his words — if you can now find them other than here in any library!

There is only praise for the Medici Popes in Jewish literature and only disappointment about the condition of Jewry during the Reformation and afterwards, for the succeeding Popes drove the Talmudists out of Vatican circles and back into the ghetto.

Bewailing this, the Jewish Encyclopedia reports how the Talmud was burned by Pope Julius III in 1553 and Christians prohibited from printing it. "The worst was yet to come."

Paul IV (1555-1559) in his bull "Cum Nimis Absurdum" not only renewed all the canonical restrictions on Jews, but restricted their commercial activities and made them wear a yellow hat and live in their own territory — the ghetto.

Concerning this period, the Jews and the Medici, Jewish historian Cecil Roth states in his Jews of Italy (Jewish Publication Society of America, 1946):

> Girolamo Savonarola was successful … in 1494 the great Dominican drove out the Medici … Thereafter their position in the city (Florence) was a sort of barometer of its political state: when the Medici returned in 1512, they (the Jews) came too, and when the Medici were driven out in 1527 they accompanied them … It was only when the ruling house was at last securely established, from 1530 onwards, that the interruptions end and the continuous history of Florentine Jewry begins. (Page 190)

Also:

> When Martin Luther nailed up his famous Theses on the cathedral door of Wittenberg, thereby setting the machinery of the Reformation in motion, the fate of the eager Jewries of Renaissance Italy were sealed. Threatened by this dangerous movement of secession, the Catholic Church began to set its house in order, more systematically and more comprehensively than ever before, in the process known as the Counter-Reformation. No longer were the Popes to be pre-eminently enlightened patrons of literature, science and the arts, with worldly inclinations and interests. Henceforth they were chosen among those in whose eyes the requirements of the Church, spiritual and temporal, were paramount … who … regarded the Jews as a leaven of disbelief which positively endangered Christianity and Christendom — at least until they were segregated from intercourse with other men, as the Lateran Councils had prescribed three and a half centuries before. Whereas the Talmud had been printed under Leo X, a Medici, in 1553, the Pope denounced the Talmud, and the other restrictions were set up. ( History of the Jews of Italy, pages 190 and following)

Pope Pius IV gave "a brief period of respite" (1566-72), [page 9] then his successor Pius V (1566-72) "not only repealed all the concessions of his predecessor, and not only renewed the laws of Paul IV, but added some new restrictions …" In 1569 he expelled the Jews from his territory.

Gregory XIII (1572-85) allowed the Jews to return but "introduced a large number of severe restrictions … and they were obliged to send every week at least 150 of their number" to listen to conversionist sermons.

Sixtus V (1585-90) "was more favorable to the Jews," and permitted the printing of the Talmud after it was censored (1586). Clement VIII (1592-1604) ordered the Jews expelled and prohibited printing of the Talmud.

Under Clement X (1670-76) the Portugal Inquisition (against Jewry) was halted but he refused to help the expelled Jews of Vienna (1670). "The worst feature … under papal dominion was the closing of the gates of the Roman ghetto nights. Severe penalties awaited a Jew leaving the ghetto after dark, or a Christian entering it."

Pius VI (1775-1800) "renewed all the restrictions enacted from the 13th Century. The censorship of books was strictly enforced … and their attendance at conversionist sermons was enforced," and Leo XII (1826) reinforced these rules with extreme rigor.

Pius IX (1846-78) started with a liberal attitude but, as stated in other Jewish literature, after he had been expelled from Rome at the hands of a Jewish movement which revealed its Talmudic anti-Christian face, he changed. To quote the Jewish Encyclopedia ("Popes"):

> Pius IX during the first two years of his pontificate, was evidently inclined to adopt a liberal attitude, but after his return from exile he … condemned as abominable laws all measures which gave political freedom to them … showed his approval of the medieval laws as enacted by Innocent III. He maintained the ghetto in Rome until it was abolished by the Italian occupation of Rome (1870).

> His successor, Leo XIII (1878-1903), was the first Pope who exercised no territorial jurisdiction over the Jews. His influence, nevertheless, was prejudicial to them. He encouraged anti-Semitism by bestowing distinctions on leading anti-Semitic politicians and authors, as Lueger and Drumont. [Note: Eduard Drumont's book, La France Juive traces the attempted Talmudization of French Christian life in every phase. A Judaized France was the result he deplored and sought to avoid.] He refused to interfere in behalf of Captain Dreyfus, or to issue a statement against the blood accusation. [Note that human blood is used in Talmudic black magic rituals.] In an official document he denounced Jews, freemasons, and anarchists as the enemies of the Church.

The Index Expurgatrius issued by Leo XIII in 1887 stated concerning "The Talmud and other Jewish books:"

> Although in the Index issued by Pope Pius IV, the Jewish Talmud with all its glossaries, annotations, interpretations and expositions were prohibited: but if published without the name Talmud and without its vile calumnies against the Christian religion they could be tolerated; however, Our Holy Lord Pope Clement VIII in his constitution against impious writings and Jewish books, published in Rome in the year of Our Lord 1592 … proscribed and condemned them: it was not his intention thereby to permit or tolerate them even under the above conditions; for he expressly and specifically stated and willed, that the impious Talmudic Cabalistic and other nefarious books of the Jews be entirely condemned and that they must remain always condemned and prohibited, and that his Constitution about these books must be perpetually and inviolably observed.

The 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia states:

> Pius X (elected 1903) is not sufficiently known to permit a judgment … but in his diocese of Mantua, before he became Pope, he had prohibited the celebration of a solemn mass on the King's birthday because the city council which asked for it had attended a celebration in the synagogue. [Note: The quote is from the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia, hence the incomplete reference.)

The Vatican's semi-official organ, L'Osservatore Romano, of August 13, 1938, in an article headed "The Jews and the Vatican Council" (1870), after speaking of the Protective measures for the Jews by the Catholic Church, stated:

> But — in order to set things straight — by this it was not intended that Jews should be allowed to abuse the hospitality of Christian countries. Along with these protective ordinances, there existed restrictive and precautionary decrees with regard to them. The civil power was in accord with the Church in this, since, as Delassus says, "they both had the same interest in preventing the nations from being invaded by the Jewish element and thereby losing control of society." But if Christians woe forbidden to force Jews to embrace the Catholic religion, to disturb their synagogues, their Sabbaths and their festivals, the Jews, on the other hand, were forbidden to hold public office, civil or military; and this prohibition extended even to the children of converted Jews. The precautionary decrees concerned the professions, education, and business positions.

#### The Talmud and Martin Luther,
the Father of Protestantism

When Pope Leo X started selling indulgences in 1517, this helped precipitate Luther's break with the Church, and the nailing of his theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. Almost immediately Jews flocked to the new Protestant banner. Luther was sought after by 4 Jews. He in turn wrote a laudatory publication, "Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew," filled with sympathy for their long unbelief, which Luther laid to the unsympathetic attitude of the Catholic Popes and hierarchy, and on his part welcoming the Jews to his heart.

Present-day Catholic and Protestant sources are largely ignorant, however, of the fact that, later, Luther found that Jews who had encouraged him to break with the Church were [page 10] attempting to Judaize his followers. He then read the Talmud, as introduced to him by a truly converted Jew. Afterwards, he wrote "The Jews and Their Lies," with such denunciatory philippics that they make parallel utterances of the Popes almost pale by comparison — this only after he became aware of the truth.

Luther wrote, in "The Jews and Their Lies:"

> They exalt themselves and praise God for separating them from the heathen …In order that their raving, frantic and foolish nonsense might be perfect, they praise and thank God, fisrt, that they are human beings and not animals; secondly, that they are Israelites and not Goyim (heathen); thirdly, that they were created as Men and not as Women. Such foolishness they do not have from Israel, but from Goyim.

> For thus the historians write that the Greek Plato daily gave such praise and thanks to God, if such blasphemy and haughtiness could be called the praise of God. For that man [Plato] also praised his gods for these three things, that he was a man and not an animal, a man and not a woman, a Greek and not a non-Greek or barbarian. Such is the praying of a fool and the praise of a blasphemous barbarian; just as the Mals imagine that they alone are human beings and all the rest of the world nothing but inhuman beings, ducks, or mice.

As to these matters, note the Jewish Encyclopedia, Exhibit 273 (last of right column, "Gentiles"): "Judah ben Ilai recommends the daily recital of the benediction, 'Blessed be thou … who hast not made me a goy.'" This also has: "who hast not made me a woman," and also "who hast made me an Israelite … who hast not made me a slave." This is a "benediction" prescribed by the Talmud. (See "Benedictions:" Jewish Encyclopedia)

Luther also quoted John 8:39 and verse 44, wherein Christ told the Pharisees: "Ye are of your father the Devil," and warns Christians to "be on their guard against these hardened condemned people — who accuse God of lying and proudly despise the whole world … They are boastful, proud fools …" He goes on to call them "Liars and Bloodhounds." Luther then cites the book of Esther. Catholic and Protestant theologians in all centuries have protested Esther as being unhistorical, irreligious (the name of God does not once appear in it) and out of place in the Bible.

Luther states:

> They are the real liars and bloodhounds, who have perverted and falsified the entire Scriptures from beginning to end without ceasing, with their interpretations … O, how they love that book of Esther, which so nicely agrees with their revengeful people — they who imagine themselves to be the people of God, who desire to think they must murder and crush the heathen … As they at first demonstrated against us Christians and would like to do so now, if only they could …

Without any modern-day Jewish Encyclopedias or Soncino translations of the Babylonian Talmud, one sees that Luther nevertheless understood perfectly the way the Talmud blasphemes and hangs obscene charges on Christ through double talk and words (the Balaam passages of the Talmud are an example of this, but Luther names others). Luther recognized that any Messiah expected by Jewry was only supposed to lead them in slaughter to power, stating:

> The Jews desire no more from their Messiah than that he should be a Kochba" (leader of the Pharisee revolt against Rome in 135 A.D., in which according to historian Gibbon, about a million non-Jews were sadistically slaughtered) "and a worldly king, who would slay the Christians, divide the world among the Jews and make them rich lords …

Luther reflected upon that passage in II Peter 2 about those who "speak great swelling words of vanity," promise liberty, but "they themselves are the servants of corruption … For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them … according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to its wallowing in the mire."

Luther also wrote:

> How much better it would be if they did not have God's Commandment or did not know it. For if they did not have it, they would be uncondemned. They are condemned because they have God's Commandment and do not keep it, but act against it without ceasing … In like manner murderers and whores, thieves and scoundrels and all evil men could boast they are God's holy and chosen people, because they have His Word and know that they should fear and obey him …

By then Luther knew the Talmud, and he continued:

> The heathen philosophers write much more honorably … They write that man by nature is obligated to serve others, also to keep his word to his enemies … Yea, I maintain that in three fables of Aesop there is more wisdom to be found than in all the books of Talmudists and Rabbis and more than ever could come into the hearts of the Jews. Should someone think I am saying too much — I am not saying too much, but much too little! For I see in their writings how they curse us Goyim and wish us all evil in their schools and prayers. They rob us of our money through usury … they play us all manner of mean tricks; what is worst of all, they … teach that such should be done. No Heathen has done such things and none would do so except the Devil himself, and those whom he possesses like he possesses the Jews.

Luther continued as to the Talmud:

> Thus they call Him [Jesus] the child of a whore and His mother, Mary, a whore, whom she had in adultery … Reluctantly I must speak so coarsely in opposing the Devil … We do not call our wives whores as they call Maria, the Mother of Jesus; we do not call them bastards, as they call our Lord Christ. We do not curse them, but wish them all manner of bodily and spiritual good; permit them to lodge with us. We don't steal and mutilate their children; do not poison their [page 11] water; do not thirst after their blood …

> Now behold what a nice, thick, fat lie it is when they complain about being captives among us. Jerusalem was destroyed more than 1400 years ago and during that time we Christians have been tortured and persecuted by Jews in all the world. For nearly 300 years we might well complain that during that time they captured and killed the Christians, which is the clear truth. On top of that, we do not know to this day what Devil brought them into our country. We did not fetch them from Jerusalem. On top of that no one is holding them now. Land and highways are open to them … They are a heavy burden to us in our country, like a plague, pestilence, and nothing but misfortune … Should the Devil not laugh and dance, when in this manner he can have his paradise among us Christians … and to thank us … blasphemes and curses God and man! … Now what are we going to do with these rejected condemned Jewish people?

After Luther became conversant with the Talmud and the ritual cursings of so-called "Judaism," his counsel exactly matched that of the ever-reenforced edicts of the beleaguered Popes. A person who condones such blasphemies, he said, partakes of them. He said they should be forced to leave the country:

> We should not suffer it, after they are among us and we knew about such lying, blaspheming and cursing among them, lest we become partakers of their lies, cursing and blaspheming … We are not permitted to take revenge. Revenge is around their necks a thousand times greater than we could wish them. I will give you my true counsel:

> First, that we avoid their synagogues and schools and warn people against them … that God may see that we are Christians and have not knowingly tolerated such lying, cursing and blaspheming of His Son and His Christians. For what we have so far tolerated in ignorance (I myself did not know it), God will forgive us … Moses writes in Deuteronomy that where a city practiced idolatry, it should be entirely destroyed with fire and nothing left. If he were living today he would be the first to put fire to the Jew schools and houses [which Luther follows with Scriptural support].

> Secondly: That all of their books be taken away; prayer books, Talmuds, and not one page of it be left … For they use all that only to blaspheme the son of God; that is God Himself … and will never use it in any other way.

Spiritually, Luther connects the Jews with those who betrayed Moses: "Of such are the remaining dregs of the Jews, of whom Moses knows nothing; they also know nothing of him, for they do not keep one passage in Moses."

This reminds one of the constantly recurring charge of Christ that the Pharisees violated and nullified the laws of Moses, such as: "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat." (Matt. 23:2) In other words, they occupy his throne giving forth as Mosaic Law, their own foul permissions which they attribute to "Oral" laws Moses handed down to their group, unknown to the rest of the world.

In 1543 Luther replied to the Talmudic charge that Jesus did His miracles by magic with the Tetragrammaton, or Shem Hamphorash, the consonants of the word Jehovah (by which Rabbis supposedly summon demons).

> Even with no further evidence than the Old Testament, I would maintain … that the Jews, as they are today, are veritably a mixture of all the depraved and malevolent knaves of the whole world over … to afflict the different Nations with their usury, to spy upon others, and to betray, to poison wells, to deceive and to kidnap children — in short, to practice all kinds of dishonesty and injury.

Digressing from Luther's "The Jews and Their Lies," we see in Luther's "Table Talk" his view of the "converted" Jew:

> If a Jew, not converted at heart, were to ask baptism at my hands, I would take him on to the bridge, tie a stone round his neck, and hurl him into the river; for these wretches are wont to make a jest of our religion. (CCLVI)

It is evident that Luther became familiar with the custom, wherever it did not endanger Jews, of spitting in the synagogue when reference to Christianity is sung in the Alenu, for he advised:

> Whenever you see or think about a Jew, say to yourself as follows: Behold, the mouth which I see there has every Saturday cursed, execrated, and spit upon my dear Lord, Jesus Christ, who has redeemed me with His precious blood; and also prayed and cursed before God that I, my wife and children, and all Christians, should be stabbed and perish in the most miserable manner — and would like to do so himself if he could, that he might come into possession of our goods … Should I eat, drink with, or speak to such a Devilish mouth? … I would partake of all the Devils who live in that Jew, and would spit upon the precious blood of Christ — God keep me from doing that.

#### Luther's Last Sermon

Repeatedly, Luther warns the clergy against participation in the blasphemies of Judaism, by aiding or enduring these in any way. His last sermon included this:

> You, Milords and men of authority, should not tolerate but expel them. They are our public enemies and incessantly blaspheme our Lord Jesus Christ; they call our blessed Virgin Mary a harlot and Her Son a bastard … if they could kill us all, they would gladly do so; in fact many of them murder Christians, especially those professing to be surgeons and doctors. They know how to deal with medicaments in the manner of the Italians — the Borgias and Medicis — who gave people poison which brought about their death in one hour or a month … As a good patriot I wanted to give you this warning for the very last time to deter you from participating in alien sins. You must know I only desire the best for you all, rulers and subjects.

Next: Chapter III. The Talmud and Bible Believers
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