Notes from "The Day the Rabbis Were Wrong"

Yeshiva course at Messiah 2000

taught by Daniel Gruber

Textbook for this course is Gruber's Rabbi Akiba's Messiah.

Web site at elijahnet.org and email to [email protected].
Dialog with Jewish people (especially Orthodox) is like a soccer game.
Except the game is almost always at our end, with one side taking all the shots!
Well… if we study, we can discover that there’s a whole field to talk about!

Most cultures do not share with our modern Western culture separation of church and
state

• Politics and religion are combined, to bring coherence to society and

justification to the state
• Religion and politics are different names for the same thing: basis for
determining values, standards, power, training of next generation
• Modern West considers war and violence wrong, but not so other cultures
• Many cultures glorify war

Definition of Jewishness

• Prior to destruction of Temple, it was land and Temple-centered

• A few centuries later, it was diaspora and based on halakha
• Seismic shift of authority from kings, priests and prophets to rabbis
• Rabbinic hegemony was not inevitable: they started with no authoritative
position
• Think of religious sects as political parties, not as in West but as in India or
Iran

Historical sources are few, and contradictory.

• No concept of objectivity or unbiased reporting

• There are limits to objectivity anyway
• Talmud and other Jewish writings were not intended as history but to teach
• The lesson is more important to authors than accuracy of historical details

Historical review

• For Maccabees, the issue was whether to conform to dominant, Hellenistic

culture
• Or to remain faithful to Jewish heritage, God and his covenant
• Maccabees were priests, hence had authority as leaders
• Nevertheless, authority was typically established by force and violence if
necessary
• Hasmoneans ruled by force and fought among themselves, especially about
priesthood and succession
• Romans were invited in to help and helped themselves
• They enforced their will through appointed officials
 • All conquered peoples had to sacrifice to Caesar, hence recognizing Caesar as
ultimate authority and divine
• Romans made an accommodation of the Jews, recognizing the God of Israel as a
god and allowing the sacrifice to be for or on behalf of Caesar.
• 57 BCE: Gabinius established five Sanhedria (a Greek term) as a means of
Roman administrative control through native leaders
• High priests and Sanhedrin were Roman appointed
• There were many theo-political groups in Israel

No scholar today believes there was a normative Judaism then

• Rather there were many Judaisms

• But all identity was Temple-centered
• Jewishness was Temple and land-oriented

The Great Revolt: started when a group of Sicarii took Masada from Romans by force,
killed all the Roman soldiers and took the fortress from themselves.

• It used to be thought that the Zealots took Masada, but it was actually Sicarii
(assassins), according to Josephus.
• So IDF air force no longer take forces to make an oath there.
• Rebellion spreads to Jerusalem and throughout the land.
• However, there were lots of factions fighting among themselves in Jerusalem.
o It’s hard to keep straight who’s who in Josephus
o High Priests and leading Pharisees predicted that stopping the sacrifice
for Caesar would bring Roman forces and destruction, because it was an
act of rebellion, refusing to recognize Caesar’s ultimate authority
o Josephus says that priests and Pharisees were opposed to the revolt
o Talmud says that the Rabbis were opposed
o Josephus says there were supernatural warnings
o Jerusalem broke down into total violence, comparable to gangs in Somalia
o Josephus implies that the Romans would have spared the Temple
• According to Talmud (not Josephus), Jochanan Ben Zakkai had himself smuggled
out of Jerusalem in a sealed coffin (Jews in city would not let anyone leave)
o Taken to Roman general, Vespacian, recognizing him as king.
o Vespacian responds that’s treason, but just then a messenger arrives,
reporting that Caesar is dead and Vespacian has been appointed Caesar
o So Vespacian seeks to reward Jochanan’s prophetic announcement,
allowing him to establish an academy of reward at Yavneh (Jamniah)
o Rabbinic account disassociate Rabbis with Great Revolt and Roman
approval of rabbinical academy at Yavneh

Bar Kochba rebellion begins in 132

• In this time period, Rabbanic Judaism begins to develop, structurally

What is a Rabbi?
 • Earliest zuggot (pairs of teachers), appear in Hasmonean period, according to
Talmud
• No Rabbis in Tenach
• According to Talmud, the first person to be called Rabbi is Yochanan ben Zakkai
• Philo and Josephus did not use the term
• Earliest written use of the term is in the gospels, where it’s an honorific title,
not a position
• In Tanakh, leaders were kings, priests, prophets, redeemers, not rabbis.
• Rabbis speak of them as though they were Rabbis, e.g., Moshe Rabbeinu, but
Moshe was not a rabbi, as far as Scripture or history were concerned.
• Ezra was a scribe, one of the soferim, and a priest.
• The word ‘rab’ does not describe anything like a rabbi, it describes a captain or
chief, or a troop or ship.
• Wise men are not like rabbis, could be gentiles, or craftsmen, not a title or
office.
• Hence Talmud is a revisionist document, holding that rabbis were around from
creation, not just from Moshe, but from Adam.
• Stuart Cohen points out that rabbis have no position, indeed no existence.
• But in Talmud, rabbis are the wise men, priests, kings – with all authority, and no
one, not even God, can contradict them.
• Am ha-aretz (common people) becomes a derogatory term for anyone who
doesn’t accept rabbinic authority
• In effect, the ultimate replacement theology: replacing the authority of
priests, prophets, Scriptures and G-d, with Rabbis.
• This does not say that the Rabbis are bad people or that they don’t have some
worthwhile things to say, rather what took place historically.

Law of Israel was the national law, binding on everyone in the land

• Not a matter of private religious belief; it’s the constitution of Israel.

• Torah was not given to individuals, but to Israel as a nation, when you come into
the land.
• A Yeshiva-bukker today would say there is no law for Israel except Jewish law.
• Thus Paul speaks of "the commonwealth" of Israel as a politea.

Oral Law

• Talmud (codified 500 CE) mentions the phrase "oral law" four times, in three
places.
• Neither Josephus, nor Philo, nor Qumran, nor Mishnah, nor Tosefta, nor gospels,
mention "oral law".
• Indicates that doctrine of oral law develops later, after first century
• These sources do refer to oral traditions.
• For a Pharisee, oral tradition was binding, but it was not called oral law, as a
separate revelation from God.
• Three claims about Oral Law: 1) given to Moses at Sinai, 2) an interpretation or
elaboration of what was given at Sinai, and 3) a fence around the Torah.
• WRT given at Sinai, 42 or 55 halakhot claimed to have been given at Sinai (a
relatively minuscule number), the vast majority were explicitly developed
thousands of years later.
 • Concept of oral law doesn’t have an end, hence there isn’t a fixed number of
halakhot.

Claim #1: The Oral Law is a separate revelation given to Moses at Sinai. See p. 34 ff.
Avoth 1:1: "Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to
the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the men of the great
synagogue."
Scriptures speak often of writing and speaking. For example, Ex 2:17, "Write this is on
a scroll as something to be remembered and put it in the ears of Joshua." Note: written
first.

Torah emphasizes what "is written in this book." Or immediately recording what is said.

• No mention of oral law; it’s always written law that becomes the constitution of
Israel
• The written law is the standard by which God says that he’s going to judge
Israel.
• It’s obedience to the written law that brings restoration.
• HaShem instructs Joshua to do everything written in the Torah.
• At the end of the Joshua, he reads everything in the Torah. Everything that
God commanded through Moses he read, presumably because it was written.
• David tells Solomon to meditate on and do what is written in the book of Torah
of Moses.
• Josiah finds and hears the book of Torah that had been lost.
• It was the written Torah that defined what it meant to be faithful to God or
not.
• All that God said to Moses was written and later read.
• Ezra and the Levites read from the Torah, and explained it, because they didn’t
understand ancient Hebrew (they spoke Aramaic).
• Still no reference to an additional Oral Law; no king, priest or prophet mentions
or expresses concern about needing it to know how to govern or worship or live.
• The Rabbinic system or redemption through study of halakha does not appear in
Tanakh. Moreover, biblical figures are often doing things that are not according
to halakha or even opposed to halakha. (For example, Abraham serves meat and
dairy.)

Claim #2: The Oral Law is an interpretation or elaboration of Torah.

Menathoth 29b. See p. 49 in the book. Moses asks about the coronets to the letters
and God tells him to sit in Akiba’s academy, and is unable to follow the arguments of
Akiba. Moses returns to the Holy One, who tells him, "Be silent, for such is My decree."
This passage teaches:

1. The halakha is an elaborate interpretation of Torah, an infinite number of laws

(coronets) generated from ornamentation on individual letters.
2. Moses didn’t know halakha. He didn’t recognize what Akiba taught and was ill at
ease.
3. Rabbi Akiba gets credit from God as the originator of Oral Law.
4. Neither Akiba nor his disciples recognized Moses, because Akiba is more
important than Moses, who sits behind eight rows in Akiba’s class, and is in awe
of Akiba.
Talmud distinguishes between laws that are based on Scripture, connected to it, and
others that are like "mountains on a hair" connected to Scripture, and others that are
completely unconnected to Scripture (hovering in the air above it).

• Halakha permits what the Bible forbids and annul what the Bible forbids.
• E.g., Hillel changes the Torah commandment concerning canceling of debts on
seventh year, because people wouldn’t make loans. Hillel instituted prosbul, a
legal fiction (something you know isn’t true, but have to act as if it is): loan is a
transfer to the community and then not canceled.
• Rabbis effectively claimed that they have authority over Torah.
• Can’t call Oral Law an interpretation of Torah when it’s a negation.

Claim #3: The Oral Law is a fence around Torah. See p. 85.
Avoth 1:1 continues "The latter used to say … make a fence around the Torah."

• Fence helps one to avoid transgressing the Torah; hence the fence is mercy.
• Question: why does the Torah need a fence around it? Why isn’t Torah good
enough?
• Are we preserving the original commandment (keeping it as is) or replacing it?
• Who has the authority to put a fence around Torah?
• This is perhaps the most accurate of the three claims: it is a sign of ownership,
prevents access, keeping people removed from Torah itself, because only the
Rabbis are authorized to interpret it.
• Studying the Bible itself are of indifferent merit, but studying the Mishnah has
merit.
• Hence many Orthodox Jews do not know large portions of Scripture.

Question: how do Rabbis respond to Deut 4:2, "Do not add to what I command you and
do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you."

• Response: more Scripture was added. We’re not adding or subtracting, Oral Law
was there all along.

The tanoor Akhnai, an earthen oven: is it clean or unclean? (P. 111 the basis of my joke!)

• Note that the issue of whether what Jewish people do is worthwhile or valid or
merciful
• The issue is the authority that the Rabbis claim over Scripture and even God
himself.
• As a consequence of Rabbi Eliezar’s defeat, the other Rabbis voted to
excommunicate him (when he wasn’t there).
• Rabbi Eliezar was the heir of Yachonan Ben Zakkai (Yochanan praised as the
wisest of the sages) and brother-in-law of Rabban Gamaliel. He was a priest and
a traditional Rabbi (opposed to interpretation), the leader in his generation of
Beit Shammai, called Rabbi Eliezar the Great, the very first Rabbi quoted in the
first tractate of Mishnah.
• What is happening here is theo-political: Beit Hillel is takes authority from Bet
Shammai.
Five major things that this story teaches:

1. The Rabbis do not accept the miraculous in determining the correctness of a

tradition.
o Deut does warn against following someone with a sign, if they are
proclaiming let us go after other gods. So signs can be in an anti-God
context.
o But the issue with Rabbi Eliezar doesn’t fall into this category, since he
wasn’t talking about following other gods. It wasn’t a question of idolatry
but authority.
o Can proof be brought from a carob tree or a stream of water or a voice
from heaven? Scriptures says so. E.g., Aaron’s rod, or blood in Nile,
fleece of Gideon.
2. The Rabbis paid no attention to a heavenly voice (Bath Kol) after Sinai.
o Rabbi Joshua says, "lo ba-shamayim hi, It is not in heaven."
o So after Sinai, we pay no attention to a heavenly voice.
o Yet throughout Scripture, HaShem speaks it.
o In Job, Psalms, and Ezekiel, He speaks from heaven.
o Indeed, everywhere else in Talmud itself, a voice from Heaven is
authoritative.
3. The authority to determine what is acceptable does not rest with God but with
the majority.
o Pay no attention to a heavenly voice (bath kol).
o Ex 23:2. "You shall follow a multitude to do evil," by implication you must
follow a multitude to do good. But who defines good? In the story, God
didn’t know he had decreed this! He didn’t know that he’d given up his
authority to the majority of Rabbis.
o In Tanakh, the majority is almost always wrong! Throughout Tanakh, God
acts as if he’s still in charge, bringing judgment upon the majority when
it is in sin.
4. Yet this story portrays God as laughing, "My sons have defeated (outwitted)
me!" Yet is God ever portrayed in Tanakh this way? Are men ever smarter than
God?
o It’s a humorous story when you read it, but when you think of it, it’s not
so funny. Contrast Psalm 2 and other references to God laughing, in
supreme authority.
5. The Rabbis will excommunicate anyone who will not submit to their decision.
o This is not normative first century Judaism.
o It’s fitting that it’s Rabbi Eliezar the Great that’s been
excommunicated, circa 115 CE.
o BTW, Talmud records that Eliezar had discussions with Talmidei Yeshua,
and respected some things they had to say.

This story marks a major turning point in Jewish history, comparable to Constantine
giving authority to the Bishops.

• Jonathan Sacks: this story asserts a Catholic as opposed a Protestant view of

interpretation, which now rests in ecclesia, rather than the Word of God itself.
• Both Rabbinic and Church history involve revisionism.
There have been significant changes in Rabbinic Judaism

• Due to Akiba, who has come to be known as the father of Rabbinic Judaism,
because he was began to write halakha down and determined its organization.
• Initially, according to halakha, it was forbidden to write oral traditions down,
because if it caught fire during Shabbat, it was forbidden to carry it out (only
Torah scroll could be carried), but then the name of God would be burned.
• So writing down halakha was a theo-political act, giving the editor (Akiba) the
ability to decide what would be included in halakha and what would not.
• Beit Hillel overthrows Beit Shammai, which had been the dominant school during
the first century.
• Until the Talmud was written, even Pharisaic Judaism permitted different
traditions, but after Akiba, it become one interpretation with the power of law.

Use of the Sanhedren to establish Rabbinic law as the national law of Israel

• Most Jews prior to rise of Rabbinic Judaism were not Pharisees or followers of
rabbis.
• Since Torah was national law (not merely religious law), Rabbi Akiba and his
followers sought to establish rabbinical law as the national law of Israel
• Sanhedren had been Roman-appointed and dominated by priests
• With the destruction of the Temple, the rabbis replaced the priests on the
Sanhedren
• Talmud story: priestly sages and Yochanan were debating whether it was
halakhacally acceptable to blow the shofar for Rosh Hashanah at Yavneh.
Yochanan said, rather than discuss, let’s blow. So they did. Then the humble
sages asked to discuss it and Yochanan said, now that it has been blown, what is
there to discuss?
• Sanhedren becomes the means of enforcing rabbinic law, because there was no
Temple and no power base for the priests. The locus of Jewish identity becomes
the synagogue.
• Rabbi Joshua gives scholarly qualifications for sitting on the Sanhedren (see p.
127). Among other things, you have to have knowledge of sorcery, know 70
languages, and prove the cleanness of a reptile from biblical texts!
• Thus you have to be able to prove what is false, since reptile is actually unclean.
This qualification affirms Akiba’s style of reasoning and interpretation of Torah
as well as consolidates power, excluding traditional Rabbis, Beit Shammai,
Sadduccees, Talmudei Yeshua, etc.
• There were Sanhedren in Yavneh and Bathar, the center of Bar Kokhba’s power
• Sanhedren took upon itself the power to act in place of God to enforce (oral)
law.
• Property was confiscated, people imprisoned and even put to death, to enforce
Rabbinic law and authority and quash any dissent

Dealing with Zaken Mamrei, a rebellious elder, based on Deut 17:12-13 (p. 131).

• In the tefillin of Qumran, there are five passages of Scripture. This was
forbidden by Talmud, ultimately by execution (unless there is repentance). On
the other hand, rejecting tefillin altogether is not punishable (even though
 Torah commands it). So the authority of the Rabbis is what is enforced, not the
written Torah itself.
• Ramban explains that the need to punish in this case is not due to the severity
of the offense but because of its destructive impact, because it threatens to
undermine the uniform normative behavior crucial to any legal system.

Dealing with Mesith, a deceiver, based on Deut 13:6-12

• Someone who entices you to worship other gods

• Yeshua and his followers were put in this category

Pharisees used the terms ‘bind’ and ‘loose’

• Refer to their supernatural authority to make decrees that prohibit or permit

(p. 127)
• Rise of modern Western society weakens this authority in Jewish life.
• In Israel, ultra-Orthodox would like to reassert this authority in national life.

Am ha-aretz (people of the land, common people)

• In Rabbinic writings, it becomes a pejorative term (p. 135 ff.)

• Refers to anyone who does not recognize Rabbinic authority and give to support
Rabbis.
• Even among Jews not pronounced ‘minim’ (heretics), those who didn’t recognize
the Rabbis had to be won over. This took centuries, since most Jews didn’t
recognize the authority of the Rabbis.
• No testimony acceptable from them in a Beit Din, cannot be appointed as
guardians for orphans, cannot be stewards of humanitarian aid, etc. Political
consolidation.
• Common people were thus disenfranchised, unless they recognize the authority
of the Rabbis in every area of life, such as marriage (a daughter of follower of
the Rabbis could not marry an am ha-aretz, Rabbis could annul marriages) or
property.

The minim (heretics) especially believers in Yeshua (p. 150 ff.)

• Minim may be a shortened, derogatory form of ma’aminim, believers (in Yeshua)

• Rashi explains the minim refered to disciples of Yeshua "who did not believe in
the words of the wise."
• Determining who is a Jew was a very vital question, since if you weren’t a Jew,
you had to sacrifice to the Emperor, and if you didn’t you were guilty of treason.
• Minim were a threat because they could draw away followers of Rabbis by their
teachings, writings and healings.
• Rabbis forbade reading the writings of minim and sanctioned burning their
books.
• Birkat ha-Minim blessing (curse) developed and recited daily in every synagogue
to weed out unknown Minim and their sympathizers and inculcate popular hatred
of them (p. 156).
• Passages about Yeshua were later censored, due to persecution of Church. But
uncensored text of Talmud from Amsterdam, 1644, has this material.
 • Eliezar the Great was brought before the Roman court as a heresy. Akiba
suggested to him that it may have been because he approved of the teachings of
the minim.

During the Bar Kochba revolt

• There was a Sanhedren in Bathar.

• Maimonides says that Akiba was known as Bar Kochba’s right hand man.
• Suggests more consolidation of rabbinical power and exclusion of others,
especially Talmidei Yeshua.
• See book for more about consequences of Bar Kochba revolt for Judaism and
Christianity.

Question: were the "Jews" of the gospel of John actually Pharisees?

• The Greek word Iudaios has multiple meanings in Greek text, distinguished by
context
• Comparable to the word ‘Yankee’, which can refer to baseball player,
northerner, American
• E.g., in John 1:19, 24, Iudaios refers to Jewish people representing leaders of
Pharisees in Jerusalem.
• In other contexts, it could represent religious authorities (most common) or
Judeans (as opposed to Galileans