We continue, from part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, considering pop-research on the issue of the historical Jesus and Jesus mythicism with regards to some Atheists who have taken to the utterly radical view that Jesus never even existed. I have been considering Michael Paulkovich and Raphael Lataster and, in this case, I got into a comment section discussion within an article written by YouTube celebrity Atheist AaronRa that was simply titled “Jesus never existed” November 3, 2015 AD.
See my article Historical Jesus – two centuries worth of citations wherein I chronicled 205 texts that reference Jesus dating from pre 70 AD to 200-250 AD
The Jewish person lorasinger decided to, yet again, copy and paste from a Rabbinic Talmudic polemic source. As we have seen time and time again this means that, as we shall see, they get it wrong again. This time it was Rabbi Stuart Federow’s site whatjewsbelieve.org:
“IN SHORT… Many people — some but not all Christians, and some Jews as well — erroneously believe that just as one can be Black and Christian, just as one can be Oriental and Christian, one can also be Jewish and Christian. This is not true. The Jews are not a race. There is no genetic code passed from either mother or father to the child that makes that child a Jew. Genetics might indicate that ones ancestors were Jews, but that does not, in fact, make one a Jew. Even if all, or some, of the genetic code in a child proved to be of Jewish origin, that would not make the child a Jew. Jewish law determines who is a Jew, and Jewish law is quite clear. If a person’s mother is a Jew, and that person has not converted to another faith and wishes to identify solely as a Jew, then that person is considered fully Jewish. In addition, a convert to Judaism is fully Jewish. Although one cannot convert to become a member of a race (for example one cannot convert to become an Asian or an African-American), one can convert to become a Jew. If someone who is Asian or African-American converts to Judaism, that person obviously remains an Asian or an African-American, and at the same time is a Jew. However, if one converts from Judaism to another faith, one is no longer a Jew.”
One can be a Catholic of Jewish origin, or an Anglican of Jewish origin, but he is no longer a Jew.
This is a case of a great sounding explanation that is simply inaccurate thus, I replied with the following:
Well friend, I never converted from anything to anything: I am a Jew and am now following Judaism’s new covenant as per the Messiah. Also, note that in making the statement you and whatjewsbelieve.org made, you both violated the Halakah, the Talmud and contradicted the conclusions of various Jewish scholars and academic sources such as the Encyclopedia Judaica. I have attempted to elucidate that your Rabbinic Talmudic polemics will continue resulting in you being mistaken even when you think that you have found a clever to continue stating that which is factually and demonstrably in error.
I am sure that you noticed that within my article that I referenced to you that there is a clear distinction between personal Jewish opinion, on the one hand, and scholarly academic Jewish elucidation of Judaism’s law, on the other hand: Jewish and Christian? Is Messianic Judaism Possible?
In the meantime, I decided to contact Rabbi Stuart Federow in order to ask:
…because of something that I read within the Encyclopedia Judaica 3:211 which states:
“In Jewish religious law, it is technically impossible for a Jew (born to a Jewish mother or properly converted to Judaism) to change his religion. Even though a Jew undergoes the rites of admission to another religious faith and formally renounces the Jewish religion he remains—as far as the Halakah is concerned—a Jew, albeit a sinner (Sanh. 44a)…For the born Jew, Judaism is not a matter of choice…in the technical halakhic sense, apostasy is impossible.”
I was hoping for your assistance in explaining to my friend why there is a difference of opinion on this between your article and the encyclopedia.
Now, note carefully that the Rabbi’s site:
…is for Jews and non-Jews who want to learn more about Jewish beliefs, or have questions about how Hebrew Scripture has informed and shaped Jewish belief and practice throughout the ages…explain the Biblical foundations of Jewish belief, and clarify the differences between Jewish theology and Christian theology, using specific Biblical passages. Jewish beliefs concerning life, death, sin, forgiveness, and atonement are quite different from Christian beliefs. On this website you will learn how and why, and in so doing, learn about genuine Judaism.
Well, you will not learn about “genuine Judaism” therein but will rather learn Rabbinic Talmudic Judaism that is not based on the Tanakh but on polemics, on how to manipulate facts towards one’s own ends—as we shall see below.
My email to the Rabbi resulted in an auto reply which stated:
sorry, but i am suspending all email and responses. I am just tired of receiving emails from all the “Good Christians” who try to engage me in a debate, not because they are truly interested in What Jews Believe, but because they want to use me to sharpen their debating skills, or who actually attempt to convert me(!). The arrogance is overwhelming, and i am just tired of it. Maybe ill get back to it in a few months….. maybe……[sic.]
Note that he seems to style himself a mind reader of sorts as he put out a site which seeks to prove that Christianity is wrong and then is “tired of receiving emails” which appear to be from people attempting to get at facts. He pretends to know why “the ‘Good Christians’” contact him.
Well, I thought that it would obviously come to nothing but then to my surprise, he did write back with the following:
There is a difference simply because there are different halachic rulings from different rabbis. Furthermore, many rabbis write articles and make statements on this issue, without really studying all of the sources. In the article I wrote, I cited Plenty of rabbis’ Responsas that said what I concluded, rabbis who are a lot more respected among the Orthodox than am I, like Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in his book, The Real Messiah.[sic.]
Well, as aforementioned within this series, I have read and have written about the referenced book and it is another piece of Rabbinic Talmudic polemics, see my article Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s Anti-Missionary Assertions.
My reply to the Rabbi was:
Thank you so very much for taking the time to reply as based on your auto-response email, with which I am empathetic, I did not expect one.
In that case, since there is a difference simply because there are different halachic rulings from different rabbis, it seems that a better approach would be to state that outright and then provide a sampling of the different halachic rulings as this would be a better vehicle for education rather than choosing one view and putting forth as being the only one.
Conversely to the Rabbi’s tactic, if you read the article which I referenced to lorasigner you will note that I consider various sides of this issue and quote various Rabbis and other Jewish scholars, see Jewish and Christian? Is Messianic Judaism Possible?