PBS, Washington Post Puff Rabbi of Master-Race Judaism, Former Head of Reestablished Sanhedrin, Adin Steinsaltz

This advocacy journalism casts a blind eye to Adin Steinsaltz's membership with Chabad Lubavitch and his promotion of Chabad's master-race metaphysics HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE, nor does it mention his former role as Nasi (head) of the reestablished Sanhedrin in Jerusalem or this Sanhedrin's desire to bring all nations under its racist, two-tiered legal system. Steinsaltz's literal Talmud translation transmits the megalomaniacal depravity of the rabbis authentically but none of this is noted. These advocacy pieces endeavor, rather falsely, to cast rabbinic Judaism as a religion of submission to the will of God, rather than the religion which does not wait on God and which makes God a student of the rabbi-gods.

Watch Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

Also see:

'Noahide' Proselytizing Rabbi Riskin: "The Lubavitcher Rebbe said to me ..."

"Conservative Catholic" Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Studies Talmud with Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

'Noahide Laws' Ostensibly Against Theft and Murder Rationalize Theft and Murder

Rubashkins Required "Noahide Law" Training for Workers they Abused and Defrauded

Netanyahu's Messianic Fanaticism Precipitating False-Messiah Catastrophe

U.S. Media Mocks Victims in Egypt

In response to the mocking news reports from the U.S. establishment press on the violence in Egypt which the Israeli/U.S. backed Mubarak regime is most responsible for, and the Israeli/U.S. scheming towards imposing another Israeli puppet regime as a replacement for Mubarak, and the recent revelations on the sellout of the Palestinian Authority, this post from 2007 seems relevant again:

The Judeo-Masonic Tradition of Mocking the Victim

China (re)Discovers the Business Wisdom of the Talmud

The Chinese should, but apparently don't, recall the Talmudic business wisdom of the pious, Sephardic Orthodox Judaic opium dealer, David Sassoon, who brought their nation to ruin while profiting handsomely from it not too long ago.

"Han Bing, the (pseudonymous) author of Crack the Talmud, says a series on the 'Jewish Bible' by a prominent publisher made him realize that 'ancient Jews and today’s Chinese face a lot of the same problems"

This message sounds familiar. Could it mean that our "special relationship" with "The Jews" isn't as special as we've been led to believe? Keep an eye on the East and you'll find out.

Selling the Talmud as a Business Guide

P Deliss / Godong-Corbis - Newsweek

December 29, 2010

A page from the Talmud, the book consisting of early rabbinical writings that inform the Judaic tradition.

Jewish visitors to China often receive a snap greeting when they reveal their religion: “Very smart, very clever, and very good at business,” the Chinese person says. Last year’s Google Zeitgeist China rankings listed “why are Jews excellent?” in fourth place in the “why” questions category, just behind “why should I enter the party” and above “why should I get married?” (Google didn’t publish a "why" category in Mandarin this year.) And the apparent affection for Jewishness has led to a surprising trend in publishing over the last few years: books purporting to reveal the business secrets of the Talmud that capitalize on the widespread impression among Chinese that attributes of Judaism lead to success in the financial arts.

Titles such as Crack the Talmud: 101 Jewish Business Rules, The Illustrated Jewish Wisdom Book, and Know All of the Money-Making Stories of the Talmud share the shelves with stories of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. There’s even a Talmud hotel in Taiwan inspired by “the Talmud’s concept of success” that features a copy of the book Talmud Business Success Bible in every room. With the increasing interest in business education in China, and a rise in sales of self-help literature, the production of business guides to the Talmud has exploded. The guides are like the Chinese equivalents of books such as Sun Tzu and the Art of Business.

Han Bing, the (pseudonymous) author of Crack the Talmud, says a series on the “Jewish Bible” by a prominent publisher made him realize that “ancient Jews and today’s Chinese face a lot of the same problems,” ... No statistics are available on the sales of this sliver of the book market. But while the guides haven’t reached the heights of books such as Jewish Family Education, which claims to have sold more than 1 million copies, they currently are “very popular” and a “hot topic,” says Wang Jian, associate dean of the Center of Jewish Studies in Shanghai, a research institution that focuses on Jewish culture and history, and Israel. The Talmud “has become a handbook for doing business and seeking fortunes,” Wang says.

full article:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/29/in-china-pushing-the-talmud-as-a-business-guide.html

Also see:

New Knucklehead Billionaires, Same Old Judaism

"In the East, all our 'anti-Semites' sit in prison”

Get to Know Alexander Mashkevich

Rabbi Pulls Back the Veil on Judaism's Paganism

'Noahide' Temple Opens in New York State

Is there no concern among 'conservatives,' 'patriots,' or 'Christians' about this hostile, foreign legal system creeping into our nation?

... the center ... has hosted educational classes on Noahide Laws, the seven basic moral imperatives for all mankind given to Noah, according to the Talmud.

A Temple Not Just For Jews

Buyer envisions Masonic hall as city cultural center

Nancy Madsen - Watertown Daily Times

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The executive director of the Adirondack Jewish Center Inc. envisions Watertown's Masonic Temple as a cultural resource for the entire community.

Yaakov M. Getz, who has a doctorate in psychology, and his wife, Golda Y., both observant Jews, started the Adirondack Jewish Center in 2003. They opened a location in J.B. Wise Place in December 2004 and stayed a few years until the building changed ownership.

"We want it very much to be a community-oriented facility," said Mr. Getz, who has rabbinical training and functions as a rabbi in kosher food certification and the center's classes.

Last week, a state Supreme Court judge approved the sale of the downtown landmark by the Masonic Hall Association of Watertown to the center for $128,500. The purchase will transfer the property from one nonprofit group to another. The association has been trying to sell the neoclassical hall at 242 Washington St. since November 2003, with an initial asking price of $499,000.

Mr. Getz said he was first interested in the building several years ago.

"It is a magnificent building," he said. "I fell in love with it immediately."

The center is working toward a contract with an engineering firm. The first goal is to stabilize the exterior as quickly as possible. Mr. Getz expects the building costs to total over $1 million. The work would be supported through fundraising and any grants and economic development agency funding the center could qualify for, he said.

Like the first center, the Masonic Temple will house a community center and place of worship. But it likely also will host art exhibits, speakers, concerts and community events, Mr. Getz said. And the center will have a program of certifying products from local businesses as kosher.

"The emphasis will be on small businesses — getting them started in certification for a modest cost," he said. "We can act as a support and guidance for them, introducing them to potential customers and distributors. We can act like a matchmaker and open up opportunities for marketing their products."

Mr. Getz said that program will encourage sales and job growth for local businesses, draw more observant Jews to the area and offer some support for the center's programs.

The Getzes have spent most of the last 20 years in the north country. Mr. Getz certifies as kosher dairy products from about 15 sources.

"The religious programming is a relatively small portion of what we do," he said. "We will focus more on the community and development issues and get that rolling."

The nonprofit center is starting a newsletter to connect Jews from Watertown to Plattsburgh, Mr. Getz said.

"One of our goals is to revitalize Jewish life in the north country," he said.

Since the center's last location closed, it has hosted educational classes on Noahide Laws, the seven basic moral imperatives for all mankind given to Noah, according to the Talmud.

The Getzes have volunteered as chaplains at Samaritan Medical Center and in the state prison system.

They also want to restart a children's day camp and host programs for military service members through Fort Drum. The Getzes already host holiday meals and other events for soldiers.

"Jewish service members, as a group, are quite small and extraordinarily isolated," Mr. Getz said. "We try to provide a home away from home."

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20101027/NEWS03/310279974/-1/NEWS

Also see:

Pope Arrives in U.S. on "Education Day" 2008

Chabad Brings "Education Day" to New York State Legislature

Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi to Congress: "Congress Convenes to Fulfill Noahide Commandment"

Post-9-11 New York Times Opinion Piece Promotes "Noahide Laws" as World's Only Hope

Kosher-Catholic Paulist Press Publishes Rabbi Benamozegh's "Noahide" Tome as "Classic of Western Spirituality"

"Jewish Values Lobby" Pressuring Israeli Employers to Force Palestinian Workers to Sign "Noahide Law" Contract

Contraray to what is stated below, the seven "Noahide Laws" are not in the Tanach (Old Testament). They're a tyrannical, talmudic invention.

“I hereby sign that I will undertake to observe the Seven Noachide Laws and declare my faithfulness to the Jewish nation according to Jewish values,” it is written in the statement. “I know that if I am caught violating any one of these laws, my employer will be allowed to fire me with no prior notice nor compensation.”

Arabs in Tzefat and the Seven Noachide Laws

Shmais News Service

Thursday, Feb 18, 2010

Below is a free translation of an article that appeared in the Maariv newspaper on Wednesday:

Do Arab workers in businesses in Tzefat and the surrounding area need to fulfill commandments from the Tanach? This is the opinion of activists from the “Jewish Values Lobby,” who are starting a campaign to persuade employers to ask their workers to sign a religious statement according to which they will undertake to observe the Seven Noachide Laws. These include prohibitions against eating parts of a live animal, serving idols, desecrating Hashem’s name, immorality, robbery, and violence.

This initiative, which is expected to take Israeli Arabs by storm, was officially launched today. Lobbyists will visit businesses in Tzefat and the surrounding communities, which employ hundreds of Arabs living nearby, and they will ask them to sign their employees on a commitment to observe the Seven Noachide Laws.

“I hereby sign that I will undertake to observe the Seven Noachide Laws and declare my faithfulness to the Jewish nation according to Jewish values,” it is written in the statement. “I know that if I am caught violating any one of these laws, my employer will be allowed to fire me with no prior notice nor compensation.”

The Jewish Values Lobby explained that this campaign does not contradict a directive from one of the Jewish leaders of the generation from two years ago against employing Arab workers in public places. “We recommend that people don’t employ Arab workers,” a spokesman from the lobby explained. “But unfortunately, there are many Jews who employ Arabs in their stores, so we decided to deal with reality.”

http://www.shmais.com/printnews.cfm?ID=61661&view=yes&page=print

Netanyahu's 'Justice' Minister: Talmudic Law Should Be Binding In Israeli State

Israel's Justice Minister: Jewish Law Should be Binding

By Yair Ettinger - Haaretz

December 8, 2009

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman on Monday said he believes Jewish law (Halakha) should be the binding law in Israel, Army Radio reported.

“Step by step, we will bestow upon the citizens of Israel the laws of the Torah and we will turn Halakha into the binding law of the nation,” said Neeman at a Jewish law convention at the Regency hotel in Jerusalem, in the presence of many rabbis and rabbinical judges.

“We must bring back the heritage of our fathers to the nation of Israel,” Neeman said. “The Torah has the complete solution to all of the questions we are dealing with,” he added.

However, Neeman’s statements during the conference were received with applauds from participants, among them Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Other guests at the event included Likud MK Yisrael Katz, Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger.

full article:

http://www.forward.com/articles/120475/

Also see:

The World's Most Kosher Army

Bishop Hubbard's Elder Brother in the Faith Busted Practicing the Faith

Israel is not to be accused of pederasty. (Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 82a)

Rabbi allegedly told boy to lie

Founder of the Chabad of Colonie accused of sexually abusing 2 boys

Robert Gavin - Albany Times Union

August 26, 2009

ALBANY -- The sexual abuse case against a Loudonville rabbi now includes allegations he repeatedly slapped and kicked one 13-year-old boy and tried to get another child to remain silent.

Yaakov Weiss, 29, founder of the Chabad of Colonie and the Chabad Hebrew School, was initially charged in City Court last fall with sexually abusing the two 13-year-olds in 2007.

He was arraigned Tuesday in Albany County Court on a superseding four-count indictment that includes those charges, as well as allegations he tried to convince one of the two youngsters to lie about the sex abuse to his mother and police.

"Just say nothing happened," Weiss told the child on June 30 on Sycamore Street in Albany, the indictment said.

Weiss, who already faced charges in City Court in connection with the alleged incidents, was indicted Aug. 14. He faces up to one year behind bars on misdemeanor charges that include sexual abuse and child endangerment.

The rabbi pleaded not guilty before Judge Stephen Herrick as his family looked on from the gallery. Freed without bail, Weiss later exited the courthouse, his wife by his side and daughter on his arm.

The indictment contends Weiss took a far more menacing role two years ago.

It alleges that sometime between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2007, Weiss repeatedly struck one 13-year-old on the back on New Scotland Avenue, "knocking him to the ground and then kicked him in the leg."

The court papers say Weiss sexually abused one of the boys in June 2007 and the other between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 of that year. The incidents allegedly took place in a facility at 340 Whitehall Road in Albany.

In both cases, the indictment alleged that Weiss had sexual contact "consisting of placing his penis in contact with said child's buttocks." The incidents allegedly took place inside a pool, called a mikveh, used by some Jews for ritual purification, according to his attorney.

The indictment said one of the boys sought advice from Weiss, his teacher and spiritual leader, on Sycamore Street on June 30 that year.

Weiss allegedly "instructed the child to be untruthful" and to "not tell his mother or the police about an incident where the defendant subjected the victim to sexual contact."

Arnold Proskin, the lawyer for the rabbi, told reporters the allegations are baseless. He said one of the alleged victims is related to another rabbi with a possible ax to grind against his client.

Asked why the case went from City Court to Albany County Court, Proskin said, "Press coverage," adding, ''I'm being serious. There's no advantage (to it)."

Weiss sent an e-mail to the Times Union last October, after being charged, calling the charges "100 percent untrue."

"This has been generated by an individual who has been antagonistic toward Chabad of Colonie from its inception and continues to be envious of continued success," Weiss wrote at the time. "This is his way of getting rid of us."

Weiss moved to the Capital Region from Iowa in 2004. He adheres to a branch of Judaism known as Chabad-Lubavitch, which is known for its work to get Jews more involved in their religion.

In October, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos L'inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Brooklyn-based worldwide Lubavitch group, told, the Times Union the rabbi was suspended. He added it was in "no way whatsoever implicating him or an admission or a decision of guilt."

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=834832&category=YTCOLONIE

Also see:

Rabbis to Honor Suspect Homo Bishop of Scandal-Ridden Albany, NY Diocese

Priest's mysterious death complicates Albany bishop's quest to clear his name

Pederasty in the Yeshiva

Benedict to Offer Words in Response to Clerical Sex Abuse

Bishop Fisher Says Activist Parents of Two Girls Repeatedly Raped by Priest are "Dwelling Crankily on Old Wounds"

"No One Accuses Us"

They Want Their Psychosis to Be Ours

Noahides of the talmudized West are invited to personally live the psychotic rage of "The Bear Jew" and bash a Nazi's skull in with a baseball bat:

"... everyone is encouraged to nurture their inner soldier by playing Inglourious Basterds: The Game. Pick up your bat and fight like Sargent Donny Donowitz, aka: “The Bear Jew” played by actor, director and writer Eli Roth."

http://www.hotindienews.com/2009/08/19/107126

Hollywood Ultraviolence and Sexual Perversion as 'Holocaust' Revenge Medium

There is no forgiveness in Judaism and teshuva (repentance) is never-ending. This psychosis informs media, education, religion and politics in the talmudized West. If it continues much longer it will be our downfall.

Revenge of the Jews, Tarantino Style

Naomi Pfefferman - Jewish Journal

August 18, 2009

... About two years ago, while writing “Inglourious Basterds,” Tarantino asked [Eli] Roth whether Jews believe in the concept of absolution. “The idea of mercy or forgiveness, not in the religious sense, but in a human sense — that’s where my humanity tends to go,” Tarantino said. “When whites held blacks in slavery, they both were in bondage, and both needed to be freed from the system, so that’s where I was coming from in a way.” But, he said, Roth told him “Absolution is a Catholic concept. F—- that. There is no sorry, no forgiveness possible.”

... A good friend of Tarantino, Roth (see story on Page 12) is best known as the director of the ultra-violent torture-porn films “Hostel” and “Cabin Fever.”

... [Roth] invited Tarantino to a seder, to show him how Jews view their historical persecutors. So, in 2007, Tarantino sat at Roth’s Passover table and listened to a discussion of how the Exodus relates to the Holocaust and other world events ...

http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/revenge_of_the_jews_tarantino_style_20090818/

Eli Roth Fuels ‘BaSterds’ Role With Holocaust Fury

Naomi Pfefferman - Jewish Journal

August 18, 2009

When the extreme horror auteur Eli Roth visited Germany to promote his 2005 hit, “Hostel,” journalists asked how he dared make such a sexually sadistic movie. Roth, now a still-boyish 37-year-old, had already cemented his reputation as one of the most successful directors to push the so-called “torture porn” genre to grisly new heights; “Hostel” pushed it even further with its tale of smug American college students who become the playthings of wealthy sadists abroad. The filmmaker was used to criticism for his over-the-top depictions of impalings, decapitations and blow-torching, but Roth — who has numerous relatives who died in the Holocaust — became enraged when German journalists asked him to justify those grisly scenes. “I said, ‘This movie is nothing but [cinematic] magic tricks, but your grandparents turned my ancestors into furniture. Into lamp shades.’ I went on and on; I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t believe they took that kind of self-righteous position.”

Roth’s same righteous fury appears in his portrayal of Sgt. Donny Donowitz, aka The Bear Jew, in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” in which he is perhaps the craziest basterd in a squad of vengeful American Jewish Nazi slayers.

“Donny is a Jewish guy from South Boston who is fighting on behalf of Jews who can’t,” said Roth, who still displays much of the 40 pounds of extra muscle he put on for the role. “He uses his baseball bat to pummel Nazis, so he can physically feel that sensation of cracking their skulls in.”

Tarantino, a good friend, has joked that he deliberately hired the splatter-film director to play a character with a penchant for bludgeoning. But for Roth, the movie proved more than his first major acting role: “It was like kosher porn,” he said. “It was an orgasmic feeling to swing that bat.”

Which is not to say that he didn’t take the role seriously. Because his mother’s family was all but wiped out in Nazi-occupied Austria, and his parents’ friends included survivors of Auschwitz and Dachau, Roth grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust. “We were taught that you do not buy German products,” he said. His mother, a respected painter, and his father, a psychoanalyst and psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, encouraged him to read the many books on the time period, and at the age of 8 — the same year he saw Ridley Scott’s horror classic, “Alien” — the budding filmmaker had already read Eli Wiesel’s “Night” and knew all about Dr. Mengele’s medical experiments. “That’s why horror movies always seemed so tame to me,” he said. “I thought it was absurd when people complained about movie violence, because the default in my brain was — what about the Holocaust?

“I never saw violence in movies as real. To me it was always a representation of violence,” he added. “And I couldn’t understand why people got so upset about it when they didn’t seem upset about violence in real life.”

... Roth said he was a polite child, which his parents verified in a Boston magazine article titled, “What’s a Nice Jewish Boy From Newton Doing Making Films Like This?” In it, his psychiatrist father explains, “Eli exemplifies what Plato often said — that the good dream of what the bad do. Basically the imagination handles all uncomfortable impulses and thoughts. In his everyday life, Eli is extremely well behaved…. In his creative work, you see the other side of his imagination.”

Roth began making gruesome films at an early age. “When you live in a safe place like Newton, [Mass.],” he said, “you imagine, ‘What if people came and invaded my home and killed my family? I guess I was extra sensitive to all the horrible things going on in the world.”

Roth’s love for the cinematic side of horror was clear when he persuaded his parents to hire a magician to pretend to hack him in half with a buzz saw — as he shrieked — at his bar mitzvah reception. His cake was shaped like a film slate embellished with dollops of oozing fake blood. Roth said he felt like an alien in the upper-middle-class suburb, where other kids aspired to become doctors or attorneys. When the rabbi at his bar mitzvah announced, from the pulpit, that Roth intended to become a “motion picture writer-director,” the entire congregation burst out laughing. “It seemed to them a freakish thing to do,” Roth recalls, adding mischievously, “Who’s laughing now?”

Roth’s directorial debut, “Cabin Fever,” premiered in 2002 at the Los Angeles Film Festival, where Quentin Tarantino chanced to see it at a midnight screening. Tarantino invited the younger director to watch “War of the Gargantuas” at his home, and eventually became a mentor to Roth and a collaborator on Roth’s 2005 film “Hostel.”

Although many critics have reviled Roth for what they perceive as gratuitous violence and misogyny, others view him as a maverick and see his work as far more thoughtful than, say, the “Friday the 13th” franchise. “Hostel” was inspired by the kind of American arrogance abroad Roth perceived during the Bush administration — as well as the smug entitlement of the privileged suburban teenagers of his youth.

Tarantino also served as an executive producer on the poorly received “Hostel II” and previously hired Roth to act in the “Death Proof” segment of “Grindhouse” (2007).

For “Inglourious Basterds,” Roth also served as Tarantino’s unofficial Jewish technical advisor.

At times during “Basterd’s” six-month shoot in Berlin, life imitated art: When Roth’s parents broke their vow never to travel to Germany and visited the set, Roth was appalled when one of the crew’s drivers sneeringly referred to them as “Juden”; he had to be restrained from beating the man in Bear Jew fashion. Tarantino allowed Roth to shoot “Nation’s Pride,” the propaganda film within “Inglourious Basterds,” which screens at a pivotal moment in the movie. And while acting in the final conflagration scene in “Basterds,” Roth was nearly incinerated when a special effects fire burned much hotter than expected.

In the end, making “Inglourious Basterds” proved healing for Roth. “When we filmed the scenes where I killed Nazis, the German cast and crew were as excited about it as the Jews were — it was like we were killing them together,” Roth said. I remember [the actor who plays] Goebbels saying ‘Yeah — we get to kill those m————- today.’ They were so happy. And they wanted the deaths to be as violent as possible, because they’re tortured by the Holocaust as much as we are.”

http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/eli_roth_fuels_basterds_role_with_holocaust_fury_20090818/

'Elder Brothers' Sanctify their Sabbath by Soaking Female Reporter in Spit

As Benedict XVI Says to His Elder Brothers in the Faith (HERE), "Shabbat shalom!"

See:

On the Contrary: Talmudic Zionists soak female reporter in spit

Orthodox Judaic Couple Sues Neighbours for 'Imprisoning' Them with Automatic Hallway Light

Witness the insanity of the rabbis' Sabbath law tyranny.

U.K. Daily Mail

Orthodox Jewish couple sue neighbours for 'imprisoning' them with automatic hallway light

also see:

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2008/10/robert-sungenis-writes.html

David Klinghoffer Pushes Phony "Noahide Laws"

David Klinghoffer, whom Skull and Bones Bill Buckley employed as a writer for his National Review (the opinion-shaping rag for his "respectable conservative movement") is revealing what Buckley's "respectable conservative movement" formula, which The Remnant and others have apparently adopted, is really about.

A Gentile Torah-Believer's Testimony

David Klinghoffer

Friday May 15, 2009

Recently a particularly thoughtful commenter on this blog mentioned in passing that he identifies as a Noachide, that is, a Gentile believer in Torah. I was so interested to hear this that I wrote to him and asked for his story, which he graciously provided. I am copying it below. It's truly a privilege for me to have such a person among my readers.

But first a note of introduction. A few weeks back I startled some Jewish readers by saying that Judaism in its classical sources is a missionary religion. Not that Jews are enjoined to convert Gentiles to Judaism, but rather to draw them to the primordial Torah religion of Noachism. This is assumed to be the faith practiced by Noah and bequeathed to humanity.

In this model, which the Talmud details in tractate Sanhedrin, Jews follow the moral and ritual Mosaic code, while Gentiles follow the Noachide code. But the model of spiritual reality revealed in the Torah is a gift given to both Jews and Gentiles.

Maimonides makes it very clear in his Mishneh Torah that Jews are commanded to use whatever means are at our disposal to encourage (that's putting it mildly) non-Jews in this Noachide path (Laws of Kings 6:10). Yes, Judaism is an aggressively missionary religion, if not in current practice then in theory.

That having been said, I'll introduce you to my reader and friend, Brian Beckman:

I'm a physicist, and was brought up as a very conservative, traditional Catholic. The church changed dramatically in my youth. From my point of view, it wasn't wrenching, because I didn't change. That left me without an emotional connection to God, but also free to pursue a more durable, intellectual connection.


It can be tricky to look for God in a science-saturated life, but if one digs deep enough, one will find the need either for an Original Cause or for an Anthropic Principle. While I grant that anthropism is logically coherent, I find it empty, like a tautology. It's equally sound to suppose that the universe is here because God wants it. At that point, all one needs to compose a logically coherent notion of God is to study and sift good ideas from bad ones, which, as a physicist, I know how to do.

I am an unofficial Noahide. I follow the Seven Laws of Noah found in the Torah and detailed by Maimonides. I'm unofficial only because I have not yet had the chance to take a formal oath, but I would certainly do so. In ancient Israel, I might have been ger toshav -- a legal alien, and I might have aspired to be ger tzedek -- a righteous gentile, a very high calling indeed, likely beyond my ability to achieve.

These laws contain nothing surprising to any typical American with a passing acquaintance with the Bible and the Ten Commandments. According to my reading of Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh (see Jewish and Christian Ethics, and Israel and Humanity), a typical American Christian trying to follow basic Christian ethics would, in fact, be a de-facto Noahide even if not aware of it. 




That's kind of the point though. How did an nice, ordinary, American Catholic boy like me end up in such an unusual place? Visions? Dramatic conversions? No, much more boring. I found it by studying and listening to smart people.

There are three aspects to my Noahism: how I act, how I think, and what I believe. 

Practically, I study Torah almost daily and, when I have the privilege, I share Shabbat and other events with my Orthodox Jewish friends. These are new habits for me, but not conflicting with the life I've led since I went into religious "dry docks" in the early 1970s. Like many others, my traditionalist ship was unable to respond quickly enough to the tidal changes in the Catholic Church and I just put religion in-toto into safe storage and got on with other things. 




In my thinking, I've reached a synthesis that I can articulate and defend. Orthodox Jews and Catholics regard the Torah (the five books of Moses) as a direct revelation from God. But there is a fork in the road: Orthodox Jews regard it as permanent and immutable, like the laws of physics. Catholic doctrine studies the Bible in the light of St. Paul and the Church fathers. In that light, Jesus' resurrection changed everything and the Old Law doesn't apply any more, even though Jesus himself didn't repudiate it. So which is it? After four years exploring the "permanent and immutable" hypothesis (just beginning, really), I haven't found anything yet to refute it. I know of no place where the Torah states that it is changeable, and I know many places where it states that it is permanent. So if it is, in fact, true, then it seems it must be permanent and immutable.

There are those who reject revelation and treat the Torah not like the laws of physics but as ordinary human literature. I like to note that the claim of Sinai (two million eye witnesses to the theophany) is so outrageous that it must either be true or the most astounding hoax in human history. I have met people who can name their ancestors back to Sinai and claim unbroken verbal transmission of the eye-witness account. It is impressive that a claim like this can last more than 3,000 years with an entire nation believing it. I'll take it on faith.



I believe there is One God, the God of Israel. This much is in keeping with Catholic doctrine, which adds the Mystery of the Trinity. I personally come to grips with this as follows. If Jesus is divine, then he is completely identical with God the Father (according to the doctrinal Mystery). It would then seem inconceivable that Jesus could have any objection at all to devoting oneself to God and to the selfsame Torah that Jesus himself embraced. I realize that this is a personal syllogism and that Catholics will barbecue me over it, but it's the way I have always seen things even when I was a churchgoer.




I am very fortunate to have found this path, and it is only because of the wisdom and kindness of certain Orthodox Jewish acquaintances, now dear friends, that I was even aware of it, let alone enabled to pursue it.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests/2009/05/a-gentile-torah-believers-testimony.html

See:

Who Says Judaism Isn't a Proselytizing System?

The REAL Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard: Patron of Holocaustolatry

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard of the Eclessia Dei Commission which oversees all things related to the traditional Latin Mass and "regularization" with the SSPX is co-founder of an organization called Yahad-In Unum along with deceased Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Cardinal Vingt-Trois, and former World Jewish Committee executive Rabbi Israel Singer. This organization makes it possible for a Father Patrick Desbois and his coterie of rabbis to wander about Eastern Europe allegedly identifying 'Jewish' mass graves, indiscriminately identifying the corpses as "Jewish" "Holocaust" victims and then covering the graves with cement so that no independent investigation of the sites is possible.

There are many mass graves to be found in Eastern Europe, war dead, victims of Nazis, Bolsheviks, disease and starvation. Identifying them is not the work of fanatical priests and rabbis of Holocaustolatry, but uninvested, well trained forensic investigators.

Yahad and In Unim mean "together" and "in unity" in Hebrew and Latin respectively. Together in unity, Cardinal Ricard, Father Desbois and the rabbis are propping up the "Holocaust" religion. Together they are suppressing knowledge of the holocaust of Christians in Eastern Europe with the endorsement of Benedict XVI.

Fr. Patrick Desbois in a letter soliciting donations wrote:

My dear friends,

The Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, His eminence André Vingt-Trois, the Cardinal Barbarin, the Cardinal Ricard, and the Rabbi Israel Singer (General Deputy of the World Jewish Congress) founded YAHAD-IN UNUM organization in order to support common projects between Jews and Catholics, in western and eastern Europe.

It is all about Jews and Catholics getting together, remembering the gift of the Law on Mount Sinai.

At the moment, YAHAD-IN UNUM organization works mainly on the search for the mass graves of the jewish victims of the Einsatzgruppen in Ukraine during the second world war. Many of these places are forgotten today, instead of being preserved and respected. The searches are made in connection with the ukrainian Catholic and Greco-Catholic churches, and with the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Rabbi Bleich. These mass graves will be preserved and recognized as jewish graves.

We have to find the local eyewitnesses who saw the executions when they were children, so we can provide video archives to students, to historians.

We cannot build Europe if we forget the Victims, if we want to live in Truth and Justice.

In order to support that work, we need you. Please make a donation to YAHAD-IN UNUM organization.

Father Patrick Desbois,
President of YAHAD-IN UNUM

Original

One wonders at what moment Yahad In Unum will get around to counting the millions of Christian victims of Bolshevik terror and Soviet forced starvation in the Ukraine--if there even are any corpses left to count once Yahad In Unum finishes its work identifying "Jewish" corpses. "Preservation," "respect, "Truth" and "Justice" indeed.


Fr. Patrick Desbois boasted that he organized a Talmud study between Catholic bishops and New York rabbis:

"Six or seven years ago, Monsignor Lustiger (then archbishop of Paris) launched programs in which French priests went to visit yeshivot in New York. And I don't mean as simple tourists. They were received and held discussions everywhere, from Temple Emmanuel-El to Yeshiva University, as well as with the Lubavitcher and Satmar Jews in Brooklyn. All this was organized in partnership with Rabbi Israel Singer (a former top official of the World Jewish Congress.)

"I know because I organized the departures to the New York yeshivot of the men who now make up 60 percent of France's bishops. They went there voluntarily to spend several days each discussing the Talmud with roshei yeshivot [yeshiva heads]."

http://www.targumshlishi.org/fatherdesbois/jr-article.pdf

Also see:

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard of Ecclesia Dei Commission Studying Talmud at NY Yeshiva

Bishops, Rabbis "Dialogue" at Yeshiva University Again

Benedict XVI: Dialogue With the People of the Talmud a "Sacred Duty"

Benedict is preaching an anti-Gospel here. Christians have a sacred duty to evangelize. There is no sacred duty to "dialogue." Benedict has drawn this idea of a "sacred duty" of intereligious "dialogue" not from any Christian text but from the Summa Nonsensica of the Hasidic psuedo-philosopher, Martin Buber who Benedict values more than the philosopher of the Church, St. Thomas.

Here is where the Hasidic path of "dialogue" leads:

The Dialogical Path Towards Disaster

True Christians do not share a spiritual patrimony with Pharisees as Benedict once again proclaims here. Jesus Christ said the Pharisees' spiritual father is the father of lies, the Devil. Benedict, like Martin Buber and the Bal Shem Tov who he modeled, is attempting to conjoin irreconcilable opposites into a pagan, yin yang microcosm of the pagan yin yang god of Judaism:

"The indwelling Glory [of god] embraces all worlds, all creatures, good and evil. And it is the true Unity. How then, you ask, can it bear in itself the opposites of good and evil? But in truth there is no opposite, for Evil is the throne of Good." (Martin Buber, Hasidism and Modern Man, p. 200)

"We then found the philosophy of personalism reiterated with renewed conviction in the great Jewish thinker Martin Buber. This encounter with personalism was for me a spiritual experience that left an essential mark, especially since I spontaneously associated such personalism with the thought of Saint Augustine, who in his Confessions had struck me with the power of all his human passion and depth. By contrast, I had difficulties in penetrating the thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose crystal-clear logic seemed to me to be too closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made." (Benedict XVI, Milestones, p.44)

Pope Calls Dialogue a Sacred Duty

Notes Advances in Jewish-Catholic Relations

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says interreligious dialogue is becoming more and more a sacred duty in a troubled world.

The Pope affirmed this today when he addressed the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, a group that has worked with the Holy See for more than 30 years, contributing to "greater understanding and acceptance between Catholics and Jews."

"Christians today are increasingly conscious of the spiritual patrimony they share with the people of the Torah, the people chosen by God in his inexpressible mercy, a patrimony that calls for greater mutual appreciation, respect and love," the Holy Father said. "Jews too are challenged to discover what they have in common with all who believe in the Lord, the God of Israel, who first revealed himself through his powerful and life-giving word."

That word, he continued, "spurs us to bear common witness to God’s love, mercy and truth. This is a vital service in our own time, threatened by the loss of the spiritual and moral values which guarantee human dignity, solidarity, justice and peace."

Benedict XVI encouraged the committee in their efforts to foster dialogue between religions.

"In our troubled world, so frequently marked by poverty, violence and exploitation, dialogue between cultures and religions must more and more be seen as a sacred duty incumbent upon all those who are committed to building a world worthy of man," he said. "The ability to accept and respect one another, and to speak the truth in love, is essential for overcoming differences, preventing misunderstandings and avoiding needless confrontations. […] A sincere dialogue needs both openness and a firm sense of identity on both sides, in order for each to be enriched by the gifts of the other."

The Holy Father said he thanks God for recent meetings he has had with Jewish communities in New York, Paris and the Vatican, "and for the progress in Catholic-Jewish relations which they reflect."

"In this spirit, then," he concluded, "I encourage you to persevere in your important work with patience and renewed commitment."

Next month in Hungary, the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations will meet with the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews on the theme "Religion and Civil Society."

http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-24118

Time Magazine Puffs Up Talmudic Business "Ethics"

Skull and Bones Henry Luce founded Time magazine takes its duplicity to new lows with some timely puff-journalism for talmudic business "ethics." Even now we're led to believe that the Talmud lights the way out of the pit it has led us into.

See:

The Financial Crisis: What Would the Talmud Do? By David Van Biema, Time, Friday, Oct. 10, 2008

This would have been readily detected as fraud by any moderately informed person until fairly recently. Not so in the days when the pope invites the rabbis to teach the Bible to us calling them "brothers in the faith." Could it hurt much worse to also make them the arbiters of business ethics? They're so holy, wise and benevolent--so the bishops say--that only a "'Jew' hater" would ask questions or point out the chasm between Time's Orwellian prose and the realities of talmudic business "ethics" teaching, not to mention actual Orthodox Judaic business practices, of which Rubashkin makes a perfect example.

Being that the U.S. is now trillions of dollars in debt to bankers I searched Time's article to see what it had to say about the rabbinic "Prozbul" and found nothing. The "Prozbul" is the legal fiction concocted by Hillel the Pharisee which reassures bankers that Deuteronomy 15 can not be invoked by those in debt to them. In a turn of duplicity which must be seen as the model for the same exhibited by Time magazine, Talmud states: "Hillel established the prozbul in order to repair the world" (Mishnah Gittin 4;3). In other words, the world has been "repaired" (tikkun olam) by the "liberal," "benevolent" Pharisee Hillel (often compared to Jesus Christ!?!) through his reassurance of bankers that the Bible can not interfere with them burying people in massive amounts of debt over the course of their entire lifetimes.

If you buy the diabolical lie that Hillel was a benevolent Pharisee and similar to Jesus Christ who drove the moneychangers out of the Temple with a whip and said that the Pharisees bind the people with heavy burdens, then why not consult a rabbi for talmudic advice on how to get out of the present debt catastrophe as Time magazine recommends?

Pope's Diabolical Revolution in Catholic/Jewish Relations

There is nothing subtle about the "vicar of Christ" rehabilitating an eternally condemned, anti-Christ text. The Israeli priest below claims that Benedict quoted a Talmud teaching "which resonates deeply with the teaching of Jesus." This foul lie is refuted here:

Benedict Cites Talmud Approvingly, Suggests Jesus Acted in Accordance with it

The Talmud should not be burned or censored. It should be painstakingly, accurately translated and made readily available to scholars everywhere for the same level of critical analysis that all other religious texts are subjected to. The fraud documented here could only be put over on the completely ignorant.

Pope's 'Subtle Revolution' in Catholic/Jewish Relations
10/1/2008

Zenit News Agency

Israeli Priest Comments on Pope Benedict's Address to Jewish Leaders in Paris, France.

JERUSALEM (Zenit) - Benedict XVI worked a "subtle revolution" with regard to relations with Jews during his trip to Paris earlier this month, simply by quoting the Talmud, says an Israeli priest.

Jesuit Father David Mark Neuhaus, the secretary-general of the Hebrew-speaking Catholic Vicariate in Israel, known also as the Association of St. James, explained this in an article posted on the Web site of the Hebrew-speaking Catholic Vicariate in Israel. Father Neuhaus also serves as the priest in charge of the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community in Haifa.

"We have become used to the friendly tone of papal statements and greetings of different Jewish communities as the Popes since the Second Vatican Council travel around the world," he said. "It should perhaps be pointed out though that in the recent meeting with the representatives of the Jewish community in France, the Holy Father worked another subtle revolution."

In the context on commenting on the importance of the Sabbath, the Pope said: "Does not the Talmud Yoma (85b) state: 'The Sabbath has been given to you, but you have not been given to the Sabbath?'"Father Neuhaus explained that the Church in France has a history of censoring the Talmud, the body of Jewish civil and ceremonial law.

"In 1239, Pope Gregory IX sent out a letter to the monarchs in Europe ordering them to confiscate the volumes of the Talmud from the Jewish communities that lived in their lands," the Jesuit wrote. "Accusations had been made that the Talmud contained blasphemies against Christian belief and constituted an obstacle to Jewish conversion to Christianity.

"Little action was taken by the European monarchs outside of France, although in many places censorship of the Talmud was imposed.In France, as a result of the Pope's letter condemning the Talmud, the first public disputation was staged between Jews and Christians between June 25 and 27, 1240, in Paris. Two years later, in June 1242, 24 wagonloads of books, including many precious handwritten volumes of the Talmud, were burnt.

"The French King, Louis IX, ordered further confiscations in 1247 and 1248 and future monarchs in France upheld the principle. A further book burning was held in Toulouse in 1319." The Jesuit asked, "Is it not then a subtle revolution that to the Holy Father not only warmly greets the Jewish community in Paris, but that he also quotes the same Babylonian Talmud? Is it not significant too that he quotes from a Talmudic teaching that resonates deeply with the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth?"

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=29736&cb300=vocations

Judaic Thought Cops in Germany Sue YouTube

German Jewish Group Sues YouTube

Due to anti-Semitic content, Germany's leading Jewish organization accuses the Google-owned video site of "being an accomplice" to racial hatred

Editor faces prison term for criticizing the Talmud

Editor faces prison term for criticizing the Talmud

Rabbi Pulls Back the Veil on Judaism's Paganism

Benedict's elder brothers are coming forward to claim responsibility for the pagan undercurrent that plagues the West.

The way the issue is framed in this article is very dishonest. The "newly discovered" concepts revealed below are central to Orthodox Judaism.

God thus becomes a dual-gendered deity, bringing together all the male and female energy in the universe, the yin and the yang ...

Rabbi unveils a secret of God

By Gary Stern
The Journal News • July 21, 2008

The tradition-bound Western image of a he-man, masculine God may already be thousands of years out of date, says a Westchester rabbi who believes he has unlocked the secret to God's name and androgynous nature.

Rabbi Mark Sameth contends in a soon-to-be-published article that the four-letter Hebrew name for God - held by Jewish tradition to be unpronounceable since the year 70 - should actually be read in reverse. When the four letters are flipped, he says, the new name makes the sounds of the Hebrew words for "he" and "she."

God thus becomes a dual-gendered deity, bringing together all the male and female energy in the universe, the yin and the yang that have divided the sexes from Adam and Eve to Homer and Marge.

"This is the kind of God I believe in, the kind of God that makes sense to me, in a language that speaks very, very deeply to human aspirations and striving," Sameth said. "How could God be male and not female?"

Sameth, 54, the spiritual leader of Pleasantville Community Synagogue, first hit on his theory more than a decade ago when he was a rabbinical student. Since then, he has quietly pieced together clues and supporting evidence from the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament and the vast body of rabbinic literature.

His article "Who is He? He is She: The Secret Four-Letter Name of God" will appear in the summer issue of the CCAR Journal, published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, an association of Reform rabbis.

Sameth's theory is not as outlandish as it might seem to the uninitiated. For one thing, Jewish mystical traditions have long found levels of meaning in the Hebrew Bible beyond those that come from a literal or metaphorical reading. For another, there is a deep tradition in Jewish prayer and thinking, particularly among the so-called mystics, of seeking to reconcile the male and female elements in the universe.

Sameth's article includes this: "What the mystics called 'the secret of one' is the inner unification of the sometimes competing, sometimes complementing masculine and feminine energies that reside within each of us, regardless whether we are male or female."

The notion that God is what Sameth calls a "hermaphroditic deity" could energize the growing movement in many religious traditions to present God in gender-neutral terms, particularly in Scripture.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, a revered scholar among liberal Jews who has written extensively on Jewish mysticism and spirituality, called Sameth's article "delicious, thought-provoking and wise." Kushner is among a small group of scholars and friends with whom Sameth has shared his article in recent weeks.

"I think most people assume the God of the Hebrew Bible is masculine, but Mark, through some sound and clever research, suggests that God may have always been androgynous," Kushner said. "This can affect the way we consider holiness and the divine, and invites us to reconsider our own gender identities, which is kind of a bombshell."

The Hebrew name of God that is known as the Tetragrammaton - the four letters Yud-Hay-Vov-Hay - appears 6,823 times in the Hebrew Bible. Since early Hebrew script included no vowels, the pronunciation of the name was known by those who heard it.

According to Sameth's footnotes, the name was said only by priests after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the name was no longer said and the pronunciation lost.

Jewish tradition has long held that the name was too sacred to articulate. Jews have generally used Adonai, "the Lord," in place of the Tetragrammaton. Various Christian groups have pronounced the name as "Yahweh" or "Jehovah."

Sameth has no intention of speaking the "reversed" name of God that he has uncovered, preferring to focus on its meaning.

"I still won't pronounce it, intentionally, as God's name," he said. "I'm not suggesting that anyone pronounce the name."

Sameth became fascinated with Jewish mysticism while a rabbinical student in Jerusalem during the early 1990s. He studied with Moshe Idel, a pre-eminent scholar on mysticism, and learned how medieval Spanish Kabbalists and others uncovered mystical meanings from the Torah that had been shrouded in patterns of words and letters.

Once back in New York, at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform seminary, Sameth was studying the biblical story of the prophet Nathan reprimanding King David for murder, which becomes a turning point for David. Sameth realized that the Hebrew forms of both names, Nathan and David, are palindromes, words with spellings that can be reversed.

It was, as they say, a revelation.

"It's about reversibility," Sameth said. "King David is changing the direction of his life, and the two key characters, their names are palindromes. What are the chances of that?"

A new zeal for biblical reversibility led Sameth to flip the four Hebrew letters of the unpronounceable Tetragrammaton. In his head, he heard the Hebrew words hu and hi. That's "he/she" in English.

And he felt connected to a long line of Jewish mystics who have mused about the male and female coming together.

"I really believed that I had found something significant," Sameth said. "Then I did 10 years of study to see if I could find support for it."

Much of his article consists of weaving together clues and examples from Jewish Scripture and wisdom that offer historical context for his thesis. For example, Sameth contends that the Zohar - a medieval, mystical Torah commentary - was referring to God's dual-gender "when it suggested that the sin of Adam was that he ruined the marriage between the feminine and masculine halves of God by divorcing himself from the feminine."

He also writes: "We realize now that the secret was almost revealed by the 13th-century Torah commentator Rabbeinu Bachya, who makes note of every four-word cluster in the Torah whose rashei teivot, or initial letters, spell out the Tetragrammaton in reverse."

Rabbi Jonathan Stein, editor of the CCAR Journal, was on vacation and not available for comment.

Sameth has been the only rabbi at the decade-old Pleasantville Community Synagogue, a self-described "trans-denominational" congregation that includes elements of Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism. Congregants come from many backgrounds and communities to the synagogue, which has become known for hearty singing and dancing during services.

Talking recently about his years of study to grasp the meaning of God's name, Sameth had to stop, swallow hard and take a breath when describing what it's like to receive sparks of insight from the great Jewish thinkers of long ago.

"It is a form of transcendence to be connected in that way," he said.

Sameth doesn't believe that he has stumbled on a previously unknown understanding of God's name, but that he has been able to connect the dots in a fresh way.

Those who find meaning in his work, he said, may encounter a different understanding of God that is comforting to feminists and those on many spiritual journeys. They may also read the Torah differently.

"If this interpretation is correct, it says that the Torah is a mystical or esoteric text," he said. "The mystics have been saying all these years that the text conceals more than it reveals. It is structured with different levels of meaning and reveals itself over time. We're talking about one tradition that goes all the way back."

Katherine Kurs, a religion scholar who teaches at New School University and is an associate minister at West-Park (Presbyterian) Church in Manhattan, said that the image of God presented by Sameth will have great appeal to many people who are searching for spiritual meaning.

"Mark's unveiling is part of a mystic lineage that presents a prismatic experience of God, that says there are ways of experiencing God that contain and explode categories simultaneously," said Kurs, who has known Sameth since they studied together almost 20 years ago. "This God is not a male or even a female but a male-female or female-male, a God that holds tension and paradox, a full-spectrum bandwidth God."

Sameth has shared his image of a dual-gendered God with the seventh- and eighth-graders he teaches at his synagogue. He said they've been very receptive, which isn't surprising because they are growing up in a post-modern age.

"As post-moderns, we've been conditioned to a different relationship with language," he said. "That's why there is all this interest now in Jewish mysticism."

He wonders how, 2,000 years from now, people will understand the final chapter of "Ulysses," which includes no punctuation. Will they try to add punctuation, believing that it's been lost? Or will they grasp that James Joyce knew what he was doing?

"Joyce was playing with language, using language to play with the medium," Sameth said. "And the Torah isn't just about Noah taking the animals, twosies by twosies. If that's what the Torah was all about, how could it have captivated Western civilization for 3,000 years? There had to be more."

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807210344

Rabbis and Kosher-Catholic Priests in Pilpul

Pilpul, simply put, is a rabbinic dialectical process of "debate" or discussion by which a predetermined outcome is arrived at. It's the Pharisaic tradition which Jesus Christ condemned calling it a "tradition of men" which "makes void the word of God." Both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds are filled with pilpul which in most cases is for the purpose of circumventing Biblical law. The article below tells of rabbis and kosher-Catholic priests engaged in pilul for the purpose of circumventing the Gospel which condemns the very act they are engaged in. See Mark 7;13 for Christ's condemnation and Mishnah tractate Nedarim for the pilpul through which the "corban" that Christ condemned in Mark 7;13 was synthesized. And note that Jesus did not only condemn the Pharisaic "corban" invention and ritual hand washing, but He said, "many other such like things you [Pharisees] do."

Believe me when I tell you, in this "Judeo-Christian dialogue"--what is in reality pilpul--the rabbis aren't interested in hearing the Gospel. They're interested in finding ways around the Gospel, like their Pharisaic ideological forefathers found ways around Old Testament law. They intend to make the Gospel of none effect.

... if there were a transcript of the proceedings it would read very much like a discussion in the Talmud.

Rabbis and Catholic priests in dialogue

By Mark L. Shook - St. Louis Post Dispatch

June 19, 2008

The Vatican has taken great pains to define and structure religious dialogues between faith communities. As recently as June 7, Pope Benedict II spoke to the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue of “the importance of truth being the goal of all dialogue and charity being the motivation behind all dialogue.” The content of the council’s meeting and the Pope’s statement seem to imply that religious dialogue is in need of guidelines to keep Catholic participants true to Church doctrine. But very few inter-faith dialogues deal with matters of deep theological import. Most are simply efforts to establish rapport and understanding.

Religious dialogues succeed or fail because of trust and respect. Achieving trust and respect takes time and dedication. Here is yet another example of a process which does not respond well to our need for instant gratification. Rabbis and priests in St. Louis have been in dialogue with each other for more than ten years. That dialogue would never have gotten off the ground had it not been for the personal bonds of friendship which existed between Father Vincent Heier, former Ecumenical officer of the St. Louis Archdiocese, and the late Rabbi Robert P. Jacobs, in his capacity as Executive Vice-president of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association. The two of them set out to create an atmosphere of dialogue which was faithful to the aspirations of the Vatican II process of reconciliation between Jews and Catholics.

We are still going strong. Every other month, a group of about twelve dialogue participants sit down to a kosher lunch provided by an anonymous donor, and over corned beef and turkey, hold a free-wheeling discussion. Sometimes the topics touch on clergy politics, i.e., “How do rabbis/priests get assigned to congregations? At other sessions, the news of the day may form the subject matter. For the most part the dialogue centers around an agreed upon topic with readings sent out in advance. Several sessions were devoted to a careful reading of Pope Benedict’s book, Jesus of Nazareth. Most recently the group studied fundamental documents of belief of the various expressions of Judaism, from Maimonides Thirteen Principles of Judaism to the latest platform of Reform Judaism. No question or comment is ever treated as off the subject. In fact, if there were a transcript of the proceedings it would read very much like a discussion in the Talmud.

Dialogue participants do not sugar-coat their questions or their responses. With the presence of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis, there is sometimes more intra-Jewish heat generated than heat between Jews and Catholics. Along the way there is significant learning and teaching which takes place. Our priests come to appreciate the wide range of Jewish responses to religious and moral questions of the day and our rabbis develop a more nuanced understanding of how the Church works in developing its teachings and public positions.

Just for the record, no one in these dialogues has converted anyone. Both sides remain true to their faith. What really takes place is a sorting out of real and imaginary differences. Not all or even most of the real differences can be bridged. The sages of Judaism believed that theological conflicts among rabbis were like sparks striking steel and resulted in illumination. I would include this image as a worthy description of true dialogues between persons of all faiths. For each participant there is a strengthening of faith.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/civil-religion/catholic/2008/06/rabbis-and-catholic-priests-in-dialogue/