[Avodah] Rabbi Yaakov Emden's Letter about Christianity

[Prof. Levine]

 From http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/falk1a.html

RABBI JACOB EMDEN'S LETTER
(SEDER OLAM RABBAH VEZUTA)

For it is recognized that also the Nazarene and his disciples, 
especially Paul, warned concerning the Torah of the Israelites, to 
which all the circumcised are tied. And if they are truly Christians, 
they will observe their faith with truth, and not allow within their 
boundary this new unfit Messiah Shabbetai Zevi* who came to destroy 
the earth.
*(Shabbetai Zevi, a seventeenth-century mystic [d. 1676], represented 
himself as the Messiah, and many Jews initially believed his claim. 
When the Turks threatened him with death unless he converted to 
Islam, he meekly acquiesced, expiring in ignominy. However, secret 
cells of believers still followed his teachings and hoped for new leadership.)

But truly even according to the writers of the Gospels, a Jew is not 
permitted to leave his Torah, for Paul wrote in his letter to the 
Galatians (Gal. 5) "I, Paul, say to you that if you receive 
circumcision, the Messiah will do you no good at all. You can take it 
from me that every man who receives circumcision is under obligation 
to keep the entire Torah." Again because of this he admonished in a 
letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 7) that the circumcised should not 
remove the marks of circumcision, nor should the uncircumcised 
circumcise themselves.

Many have asked that Paul appears to contradict himself here. In the 
Acts of the Apostles (Acts 16), it is mentioned that Paul circumcised 
his disciple Timothy. And they found this very puzzling, for this act 
seems to contradict the later text which seems to indicate that he 
considered circumcision a temporary commandment until the Messiahs 
arrival; but this took place after the time of the Nazarene! 
Therefore you must realize--and accept the truth from him who speaks 
it-- that we see clearly here that the Nazarene and his Apostles did 
not wish to destroy the Torah from Israel, God forbid; for it is 
written so in Matthew (Mt. 5), the Nazarene having said, "Do not 
suppose that I have come to abolish the Torah. I did not come to 
abolish, but to fulfill. I tell you this: So long as heaven and earth 
endure, not a letter, not a stroke, will disappear from the Torah 
until it is achieved. If any man therefore sets aside even the least 
of the Torahs demands, and teaches others to do the same, he will 
have the lowest place in the Kingdom of Heaven, whereas anyone who 
keeps the Torah, and teaches others so, will stand high in the 
Kingdom of Heaven." This is also recorded in Luke (Lk. 16). It is 
therefore exceedingly clear that the Nazarene never dreamed of 
destroying the Torah.

We similarly find Paul, his disciple, in a letter to the Corinthians 
(1 Cor. 5), accusing them of fornication, and condemning one who had 
lived with his fathers wife. You may therefore understand that Paul 
doesn't contradict himself because of his circumcision of Timothy, 
for the latter was the son of a Jewish mother and a Gentile father 
(Acts 16), and Paul was a scholar, an attendant of Rabban Gamaliel 
the Elder, well-versed in the laws of the Torah. He knew that the 
child of a Jewish mother is considered a full Jew, even if the father 
should be a Gentile, as is written in the Talmud and Codes. He 
therefore acted entirely in accordance with the Halakha by 
circumcising Timothy. This would be in line with his position that 
all should remain within their own faith (1 Cor. 7). Timothy, born of 
a Jewish mother, had the law of a Jew, and had to be circumcised, 
just as he was enjoined to observe all commandments of the Torah 
(Paul's condemnation of the man who lived with his stepmother is 
similarly understandable, as such an act is also forbidden to 
Noahides), for all who are circumcised are bound by all the 
commandments. This provides a satisfactory reply to the question.

See the above link for the rest.

Yitzchok Levine 
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