Criticism of the Talmud includes criticisms and attacks on the Talmud's doctrines, laws, and authority. In his work The History of the Talmud, historian Michael Levi Rodkinson observed that critics of the Talmud "have varied in their character, objects and actions" and recorded critics and persecutors such as Anan ben David, the Karaites, Nicholas Donin, Johannes Pfefferkorn, Johann Andreas Eisenmenger, the Frankists, Denis Diderot, and August Rohling.Rodkinson Other critics include Elizabeth Dilling, Justinas Pranaitis, Israel Shahak, and Uriel DaCosta.
Some criticisms are based on quotations from the Talmud that are taken out of context, and are misleading because clarifying information is omitted.*ADL report, pp 1–2 For examples of some selective quoting and omissions, see: Talmud: The Real Truth About The Talmud by Gil Student
Historian Heinrich Graetz states that many of the faults of the Talmud are because it contains a vast amount of material, compiled by a large number of authors: "[m]ore than six centuries lie petrified in the Talmud.... Small wonder, then, that if in this world the sublime and the common, the great and the small, the grave and the ridiculous, the altar and the ashes, the Jewish and the heathenish, be discovered side by side. The expressions of ill-will, which are seized upon with such avidity by the enemies of the Jews, were often nothing but the utterance of momentary ill-humor, which escaped from the teacher, and were caught up and embodied In the Talmud by over-zealous disciples, unwilling to lose a single word let fall by the revered sages. They are amply counterbalanced, however, by the doctrines of benevolence and love of all men without distinction of race or religion, which are also preserved in the Talmud."Graetz, pp 633–634 See also Isaacs, p 89
History of criticism
Early criticisms of the Oral Torah (which was later codified in the Talmud) were made by the Sadducees, a sect of Judaism (circa 200 BCE to 100 CE), which rejected the Oral Torah, which at that time was an oral version of religious laws maintained by a competing sect, the Pharisees.Rodkinson, vol 1, p 1 Later, in the 8th century, the Karaites sect of Judaism emerged and similarly rejected the Talmud's religious authority, which by that time had been committed to writing.
Early Christian criticisms of the Talmud occurred during the Middle Ages during disputations arranged by the Christian church, designed to convert Jews to Christianity by proving that Christianity was superior to Judaism.Maccoby In the 16th to 18th centuries, Christian polemicists such as Johannes Pfefferkorn and Johann Eisenmenger wrote several books and pamphlets critical of the Talmud in an effort to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity.
Jewish intellectual Uriel da Costa criticized the Talmud in the 17th century, claiming that it was flawed and not divinely inspired.Nadler During the French Enlightenment, European commentators such as Denis Diderot criticized the Talmud for its confused mixture of principles that lead to fanaticism and blind respect for authority.Hertzberg
In the 19th century, August Rohling and Justinas Pranaitis were Christian antisemitic authors that wrote books attacking the Talmud, based on Eisenmenger's previous work. From the 18th onward, the Jewish Enlightenment and reformers of Judaism criticized the Talmud as outdated and overly legalistic, as part of a broader effort to modernize Judaism and facilitate assimilation into Christian-dominated societies.Bacher
In the twentieth century, antisemitic authors such as Elizabeth Dilling and David Duke wrote books attacking the Talmud.ADL report Other modern criticisms of the Talmud are promulgated by religious Jews who view the Talmud as discriminatory, flawed, non-binding, or incompatible with modern society.Cohn
The Anti-Defamation League reports that criticisms of the Talmud are continuing in the modern era, and issued a report in 2003 stating that "there has been a renewal of attacks on Judaism and Jews through recycling of old accusations and distortions about the Talmud. Anti-Talmud tracts were originally developed in the Middle Ages as Christian polemics against Judaism, but today they emanate from a variety of Christian, Moslem and secular sources. Sometimes such 'studies' have blatantly anti-Semitic tones; sometimes they are more subtle. Yet all of them remain as false and pernicious today as they did in the Middle Ages."ADL report, p 1
Sadducees and Karaite Judaism Historian Michael Levi Rodkinson states that early critics were the Sadducees, a sect of Judaism extant during the era 200 BCE to 100 CE.Rodkinson, pp 25–42 The Sadducees rejected the Oral Torah (later codified in the Talmud) which the Pharisees claimed to be a continuously passed down oral tradition which Moses received on Mount Sinai as a companion and elucidation of the written Torah (first five books of the Jewish Bible). Instead the Sadducees insisted on strict literal interpretation of the written Torah.
Anan ben David thought that the Talmud was not a holy work, and that Jews should only treat the Torah (Jewish bible) as their guiding religious text. Historian Rodkinson wrote: "[t]hen [ben David] publicly began to make war on the Talmud […] and became the head of all its opponents and ill-wishers. [...] His hatred of the Talmud become so great that he said that if he could have swallowed the Talmud, he would cast himself into a lime-kiln, that it might be burned with him and leave no vestige of its existence. Thus the people of Israel separated itself then into two hostile hosts […] the Talmudists […] and the Karaites."Rodkinson, pp 26–28
The Karaite sect of Judaism, originating in the 7th or 8th centuries, also rejects the divine authority of the Talmud. Karaite Judaism may have originated from vestiges of the Sadducees, or perhaps independently from Jewish leaders such as Anan ben David. Karaite Judaism, which originated approximately during the era of Anan ben David, maintains that all of the divine commandments handed down to Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah, without additional Oral Law or explanation. As a result, Karaite Jews do not accept as binding the written collections of the Oral tradition in the Mishnah or Talmud. Historian Rodkinson writes "… the Karaites made it their great aim to drive the Talmud out of existence."Rodkinson, p 29 Karaite Judaism continues to be practiced to the present day.Karaites.orgKaraite.org
Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages a series of debates on Judaism and the Talmud were staged by the Christian church, including the Disputation of Paris, the Disputation of Barcelona, and Disputation of Tortosa.Siedman, p 136Rodkinson, pp 61–75 The primary purpose of the disputations was not to debate the relative merits of Judaism versus Christianity, but rather to prove to Jews that Christianity superseded Judaism, and to convince Jews to convert to Christianity.
Nicholas Donin and the Disputation of Paris in 1240
The Disputation of Paris in 1240, during the reign of Louis IX of France (St. Louis), between a member of the Franciscan Order Nicholas Donin (who earlier converted from Judaism and persuaded Pope Gregory IX to issue a bill ordering the burning of the Talmud) and four of the most distinguished rabbis of France: Yechiel of Paris (also spelled Jehiel), Moses of Coucy, Judah of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon of Château-Thierry.Rodkinson, pp 66–69 Levy, p 701 For a Hebrew account of the Paris Disputation, see Jehiel of Paris, "The Disputation of Jehiel of Paris" (Hebrew), in Collected Polemics and Disputations, ed. J. D. Eisenstein, Hebrew Publishing Company, 1922
Donin cited a Talmudic expression from Shimon bar Yochai, who lived during the Bar Kochba Revolt, "The best of gentiles shall you kill." which refers to the fact that even the best of gentiles joined Pharaoh's troops during the Exodus, so it is forbidden to pity them. The context is foreign soldiers in times of war or the Messianic Age, not a general allowance to kill gentiles. Some messianic Jews in France believed the Redemption would occur in 1240, the year of the trial, so Donin tied it to a motive of messianic fervor and argued that therefore Jews would literally murder gentiles according to his interpretation of the Talmud and of Jewish messianism. Rabbi Yehiel pointed out that this statement referred to pagan Romans, not Christians, and that Talmudic laws against idolaters, such as a prohibition of trade, were not observed regarding Christians. He noted this statement referred to wartime, and reminded the trial of the Ten Commandments' prohibition against killing.
Rabbi Yehiel pointed out that the Talmud used hyperbole so could not be taken so literally.
Pablo Christiani and the Disputation of Barcelona in 1263
The Disputation of Barcelona was held in 1263 at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights, between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Rabbi Nachmanides. The disputation was organized by Raymond de Penyafort, the superior of Christiani and the confessor of King James. Christiani had been preaching to Jews of Provence. This disputation was relatively brief, lasting only four days.The Encyclopedia Americana: a library of universal knowledge, Volume 16, p 88
At the Barcelona disputation, the rabbis were given more freedom than at the Paris disputation to defend the Talmud and Judaism.Cohn-Sherbok, pp 50–51 The focus of this disputation was an attempt to prove that Christianity was a true faith, and Jesus was the messiah.Cohn-Sherbok, pp 50–54
This disputation did not result in the burning or destruction of copies of the Talmud, but in 1264 Clement IX ordered the Franciscans and Dominicans to confiscate and censor some copies of the Talmud. One of the Dominican friars that reviewed the Talmud in 1264 was Raymond Marti. In March 1264, he was commissioned to examine the Hebrew manuscripts and books which the Jews, by order of the king, were to submit to them, and to cancel passages deemed offensive to the Christian religion. Raymond Marti subsequently wrote two books that criticized the Talmud: Capistrum Judaeorum (The Harness of the Jews), and Pugio Fidei.Schaff Encyclopedia Of the criticisms published by Marti, "some are true, most are false and based on quotations taken out of context, and some are total fabrications."
Geronimo de Santa Fe and the Disputation of Tortosa in 1413–1414
The Disputation of Tortosa was held in the years 1413–1414 in the city of Tortosa, Spain.Rodkinson, pp 73–74 Geronimo de Santa Fe – a convert to Christianity from Judaism – was a primary disputant on the side of the Church, and he wanted to prove from the Talmud that the Messiah had already come in the person of Jesus.Sarachek, Joseph, The Doctrine of the Messiah in Medieval Jewish Literature, Kessinger Publishing, 2006, p 209 Toward this end, he induced Pope Benedict XIII, whose physician he was, to arrange a public disputation with learned Jews.Roth, Norman, Medieval Jewish civilization: an encyclopedia, Taylor & Francis, 2003, p 83
This disputation had 68 sessions, and was the longest of the disputations. Every day of the disputation, groups of Jews who wanted to be baptized were led into the assembly hall and baptized.Seidman, p 138, quoting Krauss. The Pope gave instructions by which all books of the Talmud would be handed over to his functionaries for censorship. He issued a bull on this 1415, but it never went into effect because he was deposed by the Council of Constance. There was no destruction of the Talmud as a result of the Disputation of Tortosa.
16th to 18th centuries Johannes Pfefferkorn