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<font size=3>From
<a href="http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/falk1a.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/falk1a.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="arial" size=3><b>RABBI JACOB EMDEN'S LETTER<br>
<i>(SEDER OLAM RABBAH VEZUTA)<br><br>
</i></b>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.</font>
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<dd>*(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.)<br><br>
</dl>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<font face="arial" size=3>See the above link for the rest. <br>
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Yitzchok Levine</font></body>
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