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[Six-Pointed Star Part IV] [The Gospel] [The Hebrew Roots Movement] [Israel Regardie]

But the Scripture alone can not show the meanings within. Rabbinic hermeneutics could find a wealth of meaning in the subtlest details of the text, a characteristic that Kabbalistic writing took over. To be able to deal with Kabbalistic texts, and at least be conversant with the literary forms they take, and the references they make to material which their authors assumed 'everyone' would know, the student should at a minimum be at least marginally familiar with the following items...the Talmud (Mishnah and Gemara)...The Midrash... The Siddu, or Prayerbook... Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak)... and Rambam (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon or Maimonides).

That these sources are stepping stones to the occult is a fact of which every student of the Hebrew Roots view of Christianity should be apprised, but all seem to be totally unaware. It is our prayer that the Holy Spirit will reveal to disciples of the Hebrew Roots ministries the truths of Christian liberty expressed in the book of Galatians and lead them out of this movement, which otherwise will eventually deliver them into the Luciferic initiation, the dreadful bondage of the Noahide Laws and the global Kabbalist/Freemasonic New World Order.

Divine Inspiration of Scripture

Is The New Testament Hebrew/Aramaic or Greek?

In summation, since existing New Testament manuscripts are Greek, written to express Hebraic concepts, why be limited to the Greek or English translations when we have Hebrew, now a living language not very different than it was 2000 years ago. The New Testament is in the pattern of the Jewish traditional work of Torah, Mishnah, Haggadah, Halakah, Talmud and Midrash, but inspired by God Himself for the common people. These Hebraic works as well as the Inspired Scriptures were quoted from by Jesus and all the writers of the New Testament. But even now, to have full comprehension, we must read the scriptures in the proper Hebraic context.

Most all of the Judaic writings have been preserved for us and now translated into proper English directly from the Hebrew, as well as explained in true Hebraic manner. Therefore, why not go to this material and study ourselves approved before God with full context and understanding?

Peter Michas and other Hebrew Roots ministries have connections and conduct seminars with a non-Christian, Jesus-Seminar type of institution called the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research. A book published in 1984 by David Bivin (Director of the JSSR) and Roy Blizzard has formed the basis of much Hebrew Roots' doctrine. The following excerpts from Understanding The Difficult Words Of Jesus represent the JSSR viewpoint on the lack of originality of the Greek New Testament:

Why are the words of Jesus that we find in the Synoptic Gospels so difficult to understand? The answer is that the original gospel that formed the basis for the Synoptic Gospels was first communicated, not in Greek, but in the Hebrew language. In spite of this, today's modern translations are all based upon a Greek text, derived from a still earlier Greek text, which is itself a translation of an original Hebrew Life of Jesus. This means that we are reading an English translation of a text which is in itself a translation. Since the Synoptic Gospels are derived from an original Hebrew text, we are constantly bumping into Hebrew expressions or idioms which are often meaningless in Greek, or in translations from the Greek. 1.

Our reasons for writing this book are not only to show that the original gospel was communicated in the Hebrew language; but to show that the entire New Testament can only be understood from a Hebrew perspective. 2.

It cannot be overemphasised, that the key to an understanding of the New Testament is a fluent knowledge of Hebrew and an intimate acquaintance with Jewish history, culture, and Rabbinic Literature. 3.

The Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research, a "consortium of Jewish and Christian scholars," is non-committal regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ, identifying Him only as being "like other Jewish sages of that time":

The Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research is a consortium of Jewish and Christian scholars who are examining the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) within the context of the language, land and culture in which Jesus lived. Their work confirms that Jesus was an organic part of the diverse social and religious landscape of Second Temple-period Judaism. He, like other Jewish sages of that time, taught in Hebrew and used specialised teaching methods to teach foundational Jewish theological concepts such as the kingdom of heaven, God's abundant grace, loving God and loving one's fellow man.

Which Greek Text?

The New Greek Text edited by Westcott and Hort in 1881 may be the culprit in this quagmire of deception and the cause of many liberal scholars' rejection of the Divine inspiration of the New Testament. It is also a reasonable assumption that the proponents of the Hebrew Roots movement doubt the inspiration of the Gospels because their Westcott-Hort New Testaments are NOT divinely inspired!

B.F. Westcott and F.J.A. Hort were themselves practical occultists who determined to replace the Received Greek Text (Textus Receptus) with the Alexandrian family of Gnostic manuscripts, which more closely reflected their belief system. The well-documented facts of the occult associations and dishonourable intentions of these two Anglican scholars can be found in The Nineteenth Century Occult Revival.

The Life and Letters of Westcott and Hort reveal the mindset and mischief of the two Anglican Spiritualists who despised the doctrine of the divine inspiration of Scripture. There is, however, no evidence of an attempt to corrupt the Scriptures on the part of Erasmus, whose 2nd edition of the Greek New Testament laid the foundation for the Protestant Reformation (as opposed to the W-H New Greek Text which launched the Anglican Apostasy). Quite the contrary, Erasmus recognized that Jerome's Latin Vulgate was based on Gnostic manuscripts and chose instead those manuscripts which agreed with the Byzantine Text. Erasmus' text formed the basis of subsequent Greek editions of the New Testament by Stephanus, Beza and the Elzivir Brothers. Luther translated the New Testament into German using Erasmus' second edition.

From Erasmus' Greek Text came many other translations of the Bible: the Zurich (Swiss) Version (1529), LeFevre's (French) Bible (1534), the Olivetan (French) Bible (1558), de Reyna's (Spanish) Bible (1569), the Czech Version (1602), and Diodati's (Italian) Bible (1607). English Bibles translated from the Greek Text of Erasmus include the Tyndale Bible (1534), the Coverdale Bible (1535), The Matthew's Bible (1537), the Great Bible (1539), the Geneva Bible (1560), the Bishop's Bible (1568), and the Authorised Version (1611).

Rabbinical Writings:

A Christian Alternative to the New Testament?

This ambivalence regarding Bible versions and Greek texts is not unlike the equivocal stance Mr Prasch takes regarding the JSSR. In another critique he explains, "Why I do not subscribe to the views of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research on Hebrew source documents for the Gospels." [Author's note: This article was removed from the Moriel website after publication of our expose.] Although Jacob Prasch does not agree with the "Hebrew Source critical arguments espoused by David Bivin and Roy Blizzard," he believes their material is worth considering and has advertised their seminars in Moriel publications. Moreover, he is generally "in agreement with, or at least sympathetic towards...the Jerusalem School as a whole, (and) other propositions of scholars associated with the School":

From an academic position, we must separate someone's doctrines from their scholarly arguments... This... applies to David Bivin and Roy Blizzard, (who have in any event separated from one another). It is commonly said around Jerusalem that these men are Campbellites, departing from orthodox evangelicalism, and have in common doctrinal roots with the "Church of Christ", a sect which many see as cultic and having a de facto sacramental soteriology. Whatever their Campbellite inclinations may be, we must only consider their arguments as arguments without reference to their doctrines or ecclesiology...

I again wish to note I have no objections to the arguments of the Jerusalem School being considered for purely scholarly purposes within an academic format, or being researched and investigated by Christians with an interest in the Jewish roots of their faith. Indeed in our own newsletter we have advertised seminars with David Bivin.

Bivin and Blizzard have infected many leaders of the Hebraic Roots movement with doubt concerning the authenticity of the Greek and English New Testaments and these, in turn, have influenced others to prefer uninspired Hebrew sources as guides to ascertaining Christian doctrine. As we shall see, the learned adepts of the Hebrew Roots ministries have become the modern equivalent of the Judaizers who followed the Apostle Paul from city to city, spying on the believers' liberty in Christ and perverting the Gospel. When these Judaizers sought to draw the Galatian churches back to the Judaic system, Paul gave neither credence to their arguments nor regard to their scholarly affectations:

...we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. But of these who seemed to be somewhat (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me. (Gal. 2:6)

Elsewhere, Scripture admonishes believers turn away from heretics:

"A man that an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself." (Titus 3:9, 10)

Having allowed that the writings of unregenerate scholars, Rabbinical and otherwise, are admissible as sources for understanding the New Testament, Mr Prasch promotes the use of the Jewish traditional literature such as the Midrash, the Rabbinical commentaries attached the Old Testament text. "An Explanation of Midrash" offers lip service to the New Testament requirement of comparing Scripture with Scripture to determine doctrine, however the heavy promotion of Jewish Rabbinical and other spiritual traditions belies any pretensions Jacob Prasch may have to Christian orthodoxy. To further the departure from the orthodox interpretations of Scripture, a straw man is set up - the Protestant Reformers - which Mr Prasch then knocks down, advising students of Scripture to turn instead to non-believing rabbis for Biblical interpretation:

Midrash is the method of hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) used by the ancient rabbis in the time of Jesus and Paul. Midrash incorporates a grammatical-historical exegesis, vaguely similar to the western models of Biblical interpretation that the Reformers borrowed from 16th century Humanism, but it sees this as simply a first step.

The problem with the Reformers is that they only went so far. They made rules governing the application of their grammatical-historical system in order to refute medieval Roman Catholicism, and many of those rules are still taught in theological seminaries today.

One such rule is this: There are many applications of a Scripture but only one interpretation. That is total rubbish! The Talmud tells us there are multiple interpretations. Who did Jesus agree with? The Reformers? Or the other rabbis?... Another rule of Reformed Hermeneutics says that, if the plain wording of Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense. Take it at its face value, full stop. That is also total rubbish!

Was Jesus Christ in agreement with the Jewish rabbis? Does not Scripture devote the entirety of Matthew 23 to Jesus' scathing denunciation of those very rabbis and their religious system based on traditions which contradicted Scripture?

Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat; All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do: but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. but be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ: and all ye are brethren...

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in...

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. (Matt. 23:1-8, 33-35)

It was the descendants of the Pharisees, the rabbis of the Middle Ages, who put into written form the oral Midrashic traditions. One example of midrashic interpretation presented by Jacob Prasch shows the outrageous license taken by the Rabbinical writers. Students of Kabbalah will recognise the Tree of Life of the Ten Sefirot, the initiatory path of ascent to the Divine, purveyed through the midrashic interpretation of the fig tree!

The fig tree, midrashically, in Jewish metaphor, represents the Tree of Life that we see in the garden in Genesis, in Ezekiel 47, and in the Book of Revelation. So when Jesus told Nathaniel, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree" (John 1:48), He was not simply saying to Nathaniel that He saw him under a literal fig tree (although He did), He was telling him that He had seen him from the garden, from the Creation, from the foundation of the world.

Whilst Jacob Prasch dispenses with Protestant methods of exegesis, he gives partial acceptance to Theosophy, the Kabbalist/Rosicrucian system of discovering and developing the divine powers in man:

Some of the Early Church Fathers believed that what was best in Greek theosophy, for example the monotheistic ideas of Plato and Socrates, helped to prepare the Greek world for the coming of Jesus, in the same way that the Torah (the Old Testament) prepared the Jewish world. Up to a point, that is a fair statement.

Theosophy = Any philosophy which attempts to establish direct contact with the divine principle in order to gain spiritual insight. There is a Greek (Hellenistic) way of thinking and there is a Hebrew (Hebraic) way of thinking. Paul used both. When Paul spoke to the Jews he used the Hebrew way of thinking, but in Athens when he was preaching the gospel to the Areopagites (Acts 17:22-31), he used the Greek way of thinking. Jews seek a sign, Greeks seek wisdom. There is validity in both, if they are used biblically.

[Author's note: A revised edition of an Explanation of Midrash which now appears on the Moriel website omits the definition of Theosophy.]

Theosophy is always occult wisdom, to be avoided like the plague according to Deuteronomy 18:9-11. H.P. Blavatsky's Theosophical Glossary defines theosophy as the wisdom-religion of the Rosicrucians:

Theosophia (Gr.). Wisdom-religion, or "Divine Wisdom". The substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practised by a few elect ever since man became a thinking being. In its practical bearing, Theosophy is purely divine ethics; the definitions in dictionaries are pure nonsense, based on religious prejudice and ignorance of the true spirit of the early Rosicrucians and mediaeval philosophers who called themselves Theosophists.

HEBRAIC ROOTS:

Jewish or Occult Sources?

[NOTE: Dr. Segal received his M.A. and Ph.D. in the Talmud Dept. at Hebrew University. He is the recipient of several scholarships and grants in Talmud and Babylonian Midrash studies, has taught the Talmud, Mishnah, Midrash and Rabbinics, published books and articles on the Babylonian Talmud, Midrash, and Haggadah. Dr. Segal is a lecturer on "Jewish Mysticism," "Halakha, Holidays and History", "On Completing the Babylonian Talmud," "Ecology and the Environment: Halacha and Reality," "Burned, Banned and Best Seller: The Talmud," "Joseph and Osiris," and other subjects. He has participated in a number of interfaith dialogues. On his site is also found the full explanation of The Ten Sefirot of the Kabbalah.]

The Mishnah

Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, THIS PEOPLE HONOURETH ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THIER HEART IS FAR FROM ME. HOWBEIT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING FOR DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. (Mk. 7:5-9)

The Mishnah was later compiled (c. 200 A.D.) by Rabbi Judah ben Simeon, who presided over Judaism's supreme judiciary and legislative body, the Sanhedrin.

Mishnah can refer in a general way to the full tradition of the Oral Torah, as formulated by the Rabbis in the first centuries of the Common Era. These traditions could not be written down, but had to be transmitted and learned by word of mouth. This restriction was observed quite scrupulously throughout the eras of the Mishnah and Talmud.

The Jewish sages whose statements are quoted in the Mishnah are known as Tanna'im* (singular: 'Tanna'), derived from the Aramaic root related to the Hebrew 'ShNH.' The era in which the Mishnah was developed is therefore referred to as the 'Tanna'itic' era.

Who are the Tanna'im?

The Jewish sages referred to as Tanna'im are, in fact, the high initiates of Kabbalah. The Theosophical Glossary of Mme. H.P. Blavatsky shows the correlation between Tanaim and Kabbalah:

TANAIM (Heb.). Jewish Initiates, very learned Kabbalists in ancient times. The Talmud contains sundry legends about them and gives the chief names of them.

KABALIST. From Q B L H, Kabalah, an unwritten or oral tradition. The kabalist is a student of 'secret science,' one who interprets hidden meaning of the Scriptures with the help of the symbolical Kabala, and explains the real one by these means. The TANAIM were the first kabalists among the Jews; they appeared at Jerusalem about the beginning of the third century before the Christian Era... This secret doctrine is identical with that of the Chaldeans, and includes at the same time much of the Persian wisdom, or 'magic'. (caps added)

KABALAH (Heb.) The hidden wisdom of the Hebrew Rabbis of the middle ages derived from the secret doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony, which were combined into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. All the works that fall under the esoteric category are termed Kabbalistic...

There appears to be disagreement as to precisely when the oral traditions took on a written form. However, Dr. Segal confirms that the Mishnah was developed and disseminated from a fixed body of teaching that originated in ancient Babylon (Chaldea):

Although there are traditions in the Mishnah that claim to go back to the fifth century B.C.E. (the 'Great Assembly'; cf. Nehemiah 8-10), as well as a few additions from as late as the mid-third century, the main body of the Mishnah consists of teachings attributed to authorites from about the middle of the first century, through to the second decade of the third century C.E. This time period witnessed some major historical turning-points for the Jewish nation, such as the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple in 70, and the catastrophic failure of the revolt against Rome under the leadership of Simeon bar Kokhba (or: bar Kuziba) in 135. Because the Mishnah is a technical work of religious law, these momentous historical events find almost no explicit mention in the Mishnah, even though the very composition of the Mishnah is often viewed as a response to those very events...

All ancient sources are in agreement that the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah the 'Prince,' before his death around 217 C.E. ... It should be emphasised that--contrary to a view that appears in many histories and introductions, and which is based on the writings of medieval Spanish Jewish authorities [ed: see Sephardic Jews below] --this redaction did not involve writing down the traditions, but merely the determining and organising of a fixed text that was subsequently disseminated by memory. It is clear from the internal evidence of the Talmud that the teachings of the Rabbis continued to be studied orally throughout the Talmudic era, and this continued to be the practice in the Babylonian academies well into the middle ages...

Rabbi Judah ben Simeon bore the Hebrew title of 'Nasi,' signifying the position of Patriarch, the official political representative of the Jewish people. From an internal Jewish perspective, the Nasi presided over Judaism's supreme judiciary and legislative body, the Sanhedrin. The title had become a hereditary one, almost without interruption, since the days of the revered Hillel the Elder in the first century B.C.E.

The Mishnah Torah

Eliezer Segal, Ph.D., U. of Calgary Commentary on Maimonides:

[Moses Maimonides] lived from 1138 to 1204. He spent ten full years compiling the Mishneh Torah, which he continued to revise throughout his lifetime. Moses Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, usually referred to in Hebrew by the acronym "RaMBa"M) was one of the towering figures in medieval intellectual and religious life. In addition to his law code, he excelled in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, exegesis and communal leadership. Though born in Spain, in his youth his family fled religious persecution, settling in Egypt...

Maimonides' Mishneh Torah was intended to be a summary of the entire body of Jewish religious law... It opens with a section on systematic philosophical theology, derived largely from Aristotelian science and metaphysics, which it regards as the most important component of Jewish law. Most other Jewish codes avoided mixing creed and religious law; and Maimonides' interpretation of Jewish religion in terms of Greek ideas aroused much opposition.

In Chapter 10 of the English Translation, Maimonides' Mishnah Torah curses Jesus Christ:

It is a mitzvah [religious duty; ARC], however, to eradicate Jewish traitors, minnim, and apikorsim, and to cause them to descend to the pit of destruction, since they cause difficulty to the Jews and sway the people away from God, as did Jesus of Nazareth and his students, and Tzadok, Baithos, and their students. MAY THE NAME OF THE WICKED ROT. (p. 184) [caps added]

The Jewish publisher's commentary accompanying the preceding statement of Maimonides states that Jesus was an example of a min (plural: minnim). The commentary also states that the students of Tzadok were defined as those Jews who deny the truth of the Talmud and who uphold only the written law (i.e. the Old Testament).

The Midrash

In some contexts 'Mishnah' is contrasted with 'Midrash.' The latter term denotes Rabbinic teachings that are attached to the text of the Bible, whereas the former term refers to teachings that are organised or formulated independently of Scripture...

The Mishnah was clearly not designed to encompass the whole of the Oral Torah tradition. The same Rabbis who contributed to it also figured prominently in the Tannai'itic Midrashic collections.

Rabbi Scheinerman's Magical Midrash page identifies the Midrash as the product of the Tannaitic period:

In its classical sense, Midrash, which has as its root the Hebrew word darash, meaning "to seek out," refers to a body of rabbinic literature made up of anthologies of biblical exegesis and homilies dating from the tannaitic period (70-200 c.e.) through to the Middle Ages. The most well known anthology of midrashim is Midrash Rabbah, which provides a running midrashic commentary to the five books of the Torah, as well as to the "five scrolls" (Esther, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs).

The Encyclopedia Judaica defines this method: "Midrash (midrashim:plural) -- 'The method of interpreting scripture to elucidate legal points (midrash Halakkah) or to bring out lessons by stories or homiletics (midrash Aggadah). Also, the name for a collection of such rabbinic interpretations.'"

Webster's SECRET SOCIETIES adds:

... the Jewish Encyclopedia admits that Jewish legends concerning Jesus are found in the Talmud and Midrash and in the life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu) that originated in the Middle Ages. It is the tendency of all these sources to belittle the person of Jesus by ascribing to Him illegitimate birth, magic, and a shameful death. [Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Jesus]

The Midrash and midrashic interpretation tend to devalue the literal, historical interpretation of Scripture in favor of private, hidden and even mystical interpretations. For example, Rabbi Scheinerman's Magical Midrash page states:

Midrash is subversive as it winds its way between and around stern, stark, seemingly stagnant texts. As Judith Plaskow has stated, 'Jews have traditionally used midrash to broaden or alter the meaning of texts' (in Davidman/Tenenbaum, 80). Midrash assumes that the black letters of scripture as well as the white spaces between them are holy; that the explicitly stated as well as that which can be inferred from the Bible can be manifestations of God's word. Midrash is a kind of scriptural archaeology, bidding us not to stop at surface appearances but to dig down deeply into the text to uncover hidden riches...

Midrashic interpretations permit students of Scripture to explore far beyond the safe boundaries of the sacred canon. Apostates such as Unity minister Rev. J. Ronald Jones, are permitted nearly unlimited license using midrashim to support their false teachings:

Sacred Jewish history = Zoroaster, Buddha & Osiris?

Midrash requires that anything to be venerated in the present must be connected with sacred moments of Jewish history. It is the accepted way of incorporating timelessness, continuity, and authority into a sacred narrative. Jesus' life was thus connected to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Daniel, Elijah, Elisha, '2 Isaiah,' and others. The virgin birth story was made to mirror earlier stories of Zoroaster and Romulus and Remus; and the ascension story was made to mirror earlier stories of the Buddha and Osiris...

Rejects orthodox interpretation of Scripture ~

How does a text lose its historical focus? The closing of the canon removes a collection of sacred writings from the temporal process. No subsequent event, world view, conventional wisdom, or cultural value has the power to change the canon. No new writings can be added. Quite the opposite, new events must be interpreted with the aid of the canon. The canon stands beyond Time as a judge of temporal events.

Both Jewish and liberal Christian communities agree that the Bible as canon still permits perpetual interpretation. They accept it as normal that there can be an infinite variety of interpretations all 'inspired' by the text. The goal is to 'search out' the fullness of what was spoken by God. It is only through a process of dialogue within a community of faith that knowledge of God's revelation grows and becomes the Word of God for the present generation. Visotzky notes: 'There is no one common reading of Scripture that everyone can agree with--and there never has been.'6 When a community of faith insists on a single, normative reading that everyone must 'swear to,' it is on the verge of death as a vital community.

Minimises authority of Biblical text ~

As a methodology, Midrash tends to minimise the authority of the wording of the text. It places the focus on the reader, and on the personal struggle of the reader to reach an acceptable moral application of the text. While it is always governed to some degree by the wording of the text, it allows the reader to project his or her inner struggle into the text. This allows for some very powerful and moving interpretations which, to the ordinary user of language, can seem to have very little connection with the text. The great weakness of this method is that it always threatens to replace the text with an outpouring of personal reflection. At its best it requires the presence of mystical insight not given to all readers.

The Talmud

There are two editions of the Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. Of these two, the Babylonian Talmud is authoritative for Orthodox Judaism, which regards it as divinely inspired... The superiority of the Babylonian Talmud is so great, that when people now talk about the Talmud, they always mean the Babylonian Talmud. The authority of the Babylonian Talmud is also greater than that of the Jerusalem Talmud. In cases of doubt the former is decisive. (pg. 40, New York, Oxford University, Press, 1982)

According to Nesta Webster, author of SECRET SOCIETIES & SUBVERSIVE MOVEMENTS, the Talmud and the Kabbalah were derived from the Jewish oral traditions which were accorded the same authority of the Mosaic Law:

According to Fabre d'Olivet, Moses, who 'was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians' drew from the Egyptian mysteries a part of the oral tradition which was handed down through the leaders of the Israelites...That such an oral tradition, distinct from the written word embodied in the Pentateuch, did descend from Moses and that it was later committed to writing in the Talmud and the Cabala is the opinion of many Jewish writers. [According to the Jewish view God had given Moses on Mt. Sinai alike the oral and the written Law, that is, the Law with all its interpretations and applications --Alfred Edersheim] (Omni Publications, 1964, p.6.)

From the Talmud the Rabbis developed the Zohar, the preeminent book of the Jewish Cabala, as documented extensively in Webster's SECRET SOCIETIES and in the JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA:

... Monsieur Paul Vulliaud, in his exhaustive work on the Cabala recently published,1. says that its date has been placed as early as the sixth century before Christ and as late as the tenth century A.D., but that it is at any rate older than the Talmud is shown by the fact that in the Talmud the Rabbis are described as studying it for magical purposes.2. The Sepher Yetzirah is also said to be the work referred to in the Koran under the name of the "Book of Abraham". 3.

The immense compilation known as the Sepher-Ha- Zohar, Book of Light, is ... of greater importance to the study of Cabalistic philosophy. According to the Zohar itself, the "Mysteries of Wisdom" were imparted to Adam by God whilst he was still in the Garden of Eden, in the form of a book delivered by the angel Razael. From Adam the book passed on to Seth ... Enoch... Noah ... Abraham, and later to Moses, one of its principal exponents.4. Other Jewish writers declare... that Moses received it for the first time on Mt. Sinai. . . to the Seventy Elders...to David and Solomon ...Ezra ...Nehemiah and finally to the Rabbis of the early Christian era 5.

...Until this date the Zohar had remained a purely oral tradition ... written down by the disciples of Simon ben Jochai. The Talmud relates that for 12 years the Rabbi Simon and his son Eliezer concealed themselves in a cavern, where sitting in the sand up to their necks, they meditated on the sacred law and were frequently visited by the prophet Elias.6. In this way, Jewish legend adds, the great book of the Zohar was composed and committed to writing by the Rabbis' son Eliezer and his secretary Rabbi Abba. 7.

The fact is that the main ideas of the Zohar find confirmation in the Talmud. As the Jewish Encyclopedia observes, 'the Cabala, is not really in opposition to the Talmud,' and 'many Talmudic Jews have supported and contributed to it.' Adolphe Franch does not hesitate to describe it as "the heart and life of Judaism. (Webster, p. 9)

The greater number of the most eminent rabbis of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries believed firmly in the sacredness of the Zohar and of the infallibility of it's teaching. (Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Cabala)

Jesus Christ in the Talmud

So also it was the Rabbis who, after hiding from the people the meaning of the sacred tradition at the moment of its fulfillment, afterwards poisoned that same stream for future generations. Abominable calumnies on Christ and Christianity are found not only in the Cabala but in the earlier editions of the Talmud. In these, says Barclay --

Our Lord and Saviour is 'that's one', 'such an one', 'a fool', 'the leper,' 'The deceiver of Israel,' etc. Efforts are made to prove that he is the son of Joseph Pandira before his marriage with Mary. His miracles are attributed to sorcery, the secret of which He brought in a slit in His flesh out of Egypt. He is said to have been first stoned and then hanged on the eve of the Passover. His disciples are called heretics and opprobrious names. They are accused of immoral practices, and the New Testament is called a sinful book. The references to these subjects manifest the most bitter aversion and hatred. [Joseph Barclay, The Talmud, pp.38, 39; cf Drach, op. cit I.167] (Omni Publications, 1964, p.18-19)

Another name for "Toledot Yeshu" is Sepher Toldoth Jehoshua (Zohar):

... the Jewish Encyclopedia admits that Jewish legends concerning Jesus are found in the Talmud and Midrash and in " the life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu) that originated in the Middle Ages. It is the tendency of all these sources to belittle the person of Jesus by ascribing to Him illegitimate birth, magic, and a shameful death. [Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Jesus] (Webster, p. 20)

... A subtler device for discrediting Christianity and undermining belief in the divine character of our Lord has been adopted ... who set out to prove that He belonged to the sect of the Essenes, ... Thus Jewish historian Graetz declares that Jesus simply appropriated to himself the essential features of Essenism... So after representing Christ as a magician in the Toledot Yeshu and the Talmud, Jewish traditions seeks to explain His miraculous works as those of a mere healer - an idea that we shall find descending right through the secrets of societies to this day ... if of the miracles of Christ were simply due to a knowledge of natural laws and His doctrines were the outcome of a sect, the whole theory of His divine power and mission falls to the ground ... (Webster. p. 23)

... Madam Blavatsky's writings, on the person of Christ, ... 'For me, Jesus Christ, that is to say the Man-God of the Christians, copy of the Avatars of all countries, of the Hindu Chrishna as of the Egyptian Horus, was never a historical personage.' Hence the story of His life was merely an allegory founded on the existence of the "a personage named Jehoshua born at Lud." But elsewhere she asserted that Jesus may have lived during the Christian era or a century earlier 'as the Sepher Toldoth Jehoshua indicates.' And Madame Blavatsky went on to say of the savants who deny the historical value of this legend, that they --...either lie or talk nonsense. Is our Masters who affirms it. If the history of Jehoshua or Jesus Ben Pandera is false, then the whole of the Talmud, the whole of the Jewish canon law, is false. It was the disciple of Jehoshua ben Parachai, the fifth President of the Sanhedrin since Ezra, who re-wrote the Bible. ...This story is much truer than that of the New Testament, of which history does not say a word. (Webster, p. 299)

...the Toledot Yeshu relates with the most indecent details that Miriam, a hairdresser of Bethlehem,(4) affianced to a young man named Jochanan, was seduced by a libertine, Joseph Panther or Pandira, and gave birth to a son whom she named Johosuah or Jeschu. According to the Talmudic authors of the Sota and the Sanhedrim, Jeschu was taken during his boyhood to Egypt, where he was initiated into the secrets doctrines of the priests, and on his return to Palestine gave himself up to the practice of magic.(5) The Toledot Yeshu, however, goes on to say that on reaching manhood, Jeschu learnt the secret of his illegitimacy, on account of which he was driven out of the Synagogue and took refuge for a time in Galilee. Now, there was in the Temple a stone on which was engraved the Tetragrammaton [YHWH] or Schem Hamphorasch, that is to say, the Ineffable Name of God; this stone had been found by King David when the foundations of the Temple were being prepared and was deposited by him in the Holy of Holies. Jeschu, knowing this, came from Galilee and, penetrating into the Holy of Holies, read the Ineffable name, which he transcribed on to a piece of whom parchment and concealed in an incision under his skin. By this means he was able to work miracles and to persuade the people that he was the son of God foretold by Isaiah. With the aid of Judas, the Sages of the Synagogue, succeeding in capturing Jeschu, who was then lead before the Great and Little Sanhedrin, by whom he was condemned to be stoned to death and finally hanged" Such is the story of Christ according to the Jewish Kabbalists ... (Webster. p. 21)

We mention at this point that the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research, whose research determines the aberrant doctrine of Hebrew Roots organisations endorses a "Life of Jesus" (Toledot Yeshu) written in Hebrew:

Why are the words of Jesus that we find in the Synoptic Gospels so difficult to understand? The answer is that the original gospel that formed the basis for the Synoptic Gospels was first communicated, not in Greek, but in the Hebrew language. In spite of this, today's modern translations are all based upon a Greek text, derived from a still earlier Greek text, which is itself a translation of an original Hebrew Life of Jesus. [David Bivin (Dir. JSSR) & Roy Blizzard, "Understanding The Difficult Words Of Jesus", 1984 (pp.19, 20; pp.2,3, 1994 ed.)]

The Haggadah

The History of the Haggadah

The word Haggadah comes from the Torah command - 'And you shall tell (v'Higadeta) your children on that day...' Although the minimal fulfillment of this mitzvah is a simple recounting of the going out of Egypt and explaining a few of the Pesach symbols, proper fulfillment requires much more.

Over the centuries additions have been made to the Haggadah to enhance this mitzvah. Many of these additions gained such wide acceptance that they became part of the Haggadah. One of those additions is the Chad Gadya. Another is 'Dayeinu.' Rav Saadia Gaon (882 CE - 942 CE) included neither in his Haggadah, although he did recognize the existence of Dayeinu. Neither Rashi (1040-1105) nor Maimonides (1135-1204) included Chad Gadya in their versions of the Haggadah, although Rashi did include Dayeinu...

The metamorphosis of the Haggadah concluded in the late middle ages, aided by the invention of the Printing Press, which enabled the basic Ashkenazic version which had been endorsed by the Ari z'l to be accepted even in Sephardic communities. The text is based upon the Haggadah of Rav Amram Gaon, who headed the Babylonian Yeshiva of Sura between 856-876 CE. This text was endorsed by Rashi. Rav Amram's Haggadah concluded with the after blessing on the fourth cup of wine. It did not include 'Chasal Siddur Pesach'.

The Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities represent two mystical traditions that have developed within Judaism. This explains why an Haggadah is found on the New Age Sirius Community web site which displays the Sephiroth - Tree of Life (path of occult initiation) and a link to The Way of the Kabbalah -

Essential to a study of the Kabbalist traditions is historical background on the origins and theology of both communities. Ashkenazic Jews originated in France, Germany, and Eastern Europe. Sephardic Jews lived in Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East. The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION describes Ashkenazik Hasidism, which emerged from Germany in the late 12th C., as a form of Jewish mysticism.

Ashkenazik Hasidim

Along with Maimonidean religious philosophy, theosophical mysticism, or Qabbalah, and the scholastic legal achievement of the glossators of the Talmud, German-Jewish pietism permanently reshaped classical Judaism into traditional Judaism, which lasted down to the modern period... Their writings about manipulating the divine name in the form of permutations of the Hebrew alphabet to achieve mystical and magical goal, decidedly influenced later Jewish mysticism in Spain. (Vol. I, p.458)

Sephardic Jews

The greatest figure in Spanish Judaism was the philosopher, talmudist, and physician, Maimonides (1135-1204). He attempted to harmonize Judaism with the philosophy of Aristotle.

The Encarta Concise Encyclopedia entry "Cabala" identifies its origins in Spain and France:

Cabala, generically, Jewish mysticism in all its forms; specifically, the esoteric theosophy that crystallised in 13th-century Spain and Provence, France, around Sefer Ha-Zohar (The Book of Splendor), referred to as the Zohar. Cabala's roots are in Hellenistic astral mysticism, in which the adept, through meditation and the use of magic formulas, journeys ecstatically through and beyond the seven astral spheres. Medieval Spanish Cabala, the most important form of Jewish mysticism, is more concerned with esoteric knowledge about the nature of the divine world and its hidden connections with the world of creation.

According to the Zohar, above and beyond all human contemplation is God as he is in himself, the unknowable, immutable En Sof (Infinite). Zoharic theosophy concentrates on ten sefirot (realms or planes) as symbols of the inner life and processes of the Godhead. Because they are also archetypes for everything in the world of creation, understanding their workings can illuminate the inner workings of the cosmos and of history. This cosmic aspect was dramatically developed in 16th-century Lurianic Cabala, which arose in response to the cataclysmic experience of Jewish exiles expelled from Iberia in the 1490s, and which projected that experience onto the divine world.

The extent of the dispersion is documented by Groliers' Encyclopedia, which also confirms the Sephardim as followers of the occult traditions of ancient Babylon:

The Sephardim are those Jews who follow the liturgy and customs developed by the Jews of medieval Spain and Portugal. The name comes from Sepharad, a place of exile mentioned in Obadiah 20 and early identified with Iberia. Unlike the Ashkenazim, those Jews who settled in German lands, the Sephardim followed Babylonian rather than Palestinian Jewish traditions. They also developed their own language, Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, a blend of medieval Castilian, Hebrew, Arabic, and other elements. There is a considerable body of Ladino literature.

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497) many Sephardim formed communities in the lands of the Ottoman Empire--the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East. Others remained in Iberia, nominally converting to Christianity. Vilified as Marranos ('pigs'), they were subject to continuing persecution, and most eventually left to form communities in northwestern Europe -- Amsterdam became a particularly important center. Sephardic traditions were largely adopted by local Jewish groups in the Middle East and North Africa; hence, today the term Sephardim is loosely applied to all Jews native to those areas. Among important Jewish thinkers from the Sephardic tradition are Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses Maimonides, and Baruch Spinoza.

Queen Isabella was evidently reluctant to expel the Jews until the ritual murder of a young child occurred in 1490 at the hands of certain Cabalists. A noteworthy book by Bernard Lazare, himself a Jew, addresses such charges of Cabalistic ritual murder:

To this general belief are added the suspicions, often justified, against the Jews addicted to magical practices. Actually, in the Middle Ages, the Jew was considered by the people as the magician par excellence; one find many formula of exorcism in the Talmud, and the Talmudic and Cabbalistic demonology is very complicated. Now one knows the position that blood always occupies in the operations of sorcery. In Chaldean magic it had a very great importance... Now, it is very probable, even certain, that Jewish magicians must have sacrificed children; hence the origin of the legend of ritual sacrifice. (L'Antisemitisme, Vol. II, 1934, p. 215)

According to "The Inquisition Reexamined" by Carey J. Winters, the Zohar provided theological justification for such crimes:

German scholar Dr. Erich Bischoff finds authorization for Ritual Murder in the Thikunne Zohar (Edition Berdiwetsch), a book of cabbalistic theosophy. The passage reads: 'Furthermore, there is a commandment pertaining to the killing of strangers, who are like beasts. This killing has to be done in the lawful method. Those who do not ascribe themselves to the Jewish religious law must be offered up as sacrifices to the High God.'

The La Guardia case did not exist in isolation; there had been earlier convictions of ritual murder... [RealCatholicism, 11/98]

The Talmud, upon which the Zohar is based, also justifies the murder of Gentiles:

Sanhedrin 57a. When a Jew murders a Gentile ("Cuthean"), there will be no death penalty. What a Jew steals from a Gentile he may keep.

Talmud Minor Tractates. Soferim 15, Rule 10. This is the saying of Rabbi Simon ben Yohai: Tob shebe goyyim harog ("Even the best of the Gentiles should all be killed").

Nor was ritual murder the invention of medieval Cabalists. The Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, declared the outrage of a holy God against the practice of child sacrifice which their ancestors adopted from the heathen nations:

But draw near hither, ye sons of a sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood. Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? (Isaiah 57:3-5)

[See also: II Kings 16:3; II Chr. 28:3; II Kings 23:10 Jer. 7:31; 19:5; 32:35; Ezek. 16:20,21; 20:26,31; 23:37,39; Ps. 106:37,38]

The Noahide Laws

The annual calendar of Israel was built around three major festivals: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles... The Year of Jubilee encompassed these three festivals, only raised to a higher power ...Then, as well as today, Jesus calls us to experience His jubilee... It's time to blow the ancient trumpet. It's time to be reconciled to our spiritual roots. (pp.84-5)

This massive movement also seems to be leading toward the global establishment of the Noahide Laws (already U.S. law), for which disobedience the penalty is beheading (Rev. 20:4) THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JUDAISM lists these seven universal laws and indicates their binding nature on all Gentiles:

Full-page ads in the New York Times and other newspapers have proclaimed: ‘All nations of the world: Fulfill the 7 universal Noahide Laws given to you in the Torah of Moses.’... One additional element of greater severity is that violation of any one of the seven laws subjects the Noahide to capital punishment by decapitation. (Sanh. 57A)

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JUDAISM identifies the Babylonian Talmud (T.B.) as the source of "The Noachide Laws."

According to Maimonides, acceptance -- on the basis of the Bible -- of the seven universal precepts means that any such righteous Gentile is numbered with 'the pious ones among the nations of the world...deserving a share in the world to come' (Tosef. Sanh 13.2)

(1) Civil justice [the duty to establish a legal system];
(2) Prohibition of blasphemy [which includes the bearing of false witness];
(3) The abandonment of idolatry;
(4) The prohibition of incest [including adultery and other sexual offences];
(5) The prohibition of murder;
(6) Also that of theft;
(7) The law against eating flesh [a limb] cut from a living animal [i.e., cruelty in any shape or form] (T.B. Sanh. 56A)

Hebrew scholar, Eliezer Segal, documents that the Babylonian Talmud (T.B.) is a commentary on the Mishnah composed by Babylonian Jewish sages (Ravs) from the early third to the sixth century. Although it is claimed by the Lubavitch, Nazarene and Hebraic Roots Movements that the source of the 7 Noahide Laws is the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy), the evidence of history proves that the Talmud and Mishnah are derived from Babylonian traditions that Jesus said contradicted and nullified the teaching of Scripture. Likewise, the "root" of the Hebrew Roots Movement is not the written Torah given to Moses, but rather the occult traditions adopted from the mystery religions of ancient Babylon.

But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be ROOTED up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. (Matt. 15:12,13)

Part II

To Embrace Hebrew Roots

The Talmud & The Bible

The Talmud & Jesus Christ

The Talmud & Demonology

The Kabbalah

Kabbalah Initiation

Of Sages & Scholars

Gematria & Numerology

Talismans & Masters of the Name

Taking the Name, the Mark & the Number

The Deadly Fruit of Kabbalah by Barbara Aho

The Jew & Israel as the Bible Presents Them by W. B. Howard

Judaising the Christian Church by W. B. Howard

The Semitic New Testament by Barbara Aho & Janet Moser

The Mark of the Beast: The Six-Pointed Star by Janet Moser

The Hebrew Movement: The Fourth Wave ~ Open Church Ministries Prophecy

Midrash...The Camel's Nose by Richard Engstrom

The Attack on the Name of Jesus by Tom Lamb

"Tishrei" Heresy & Israel's True Biblical Position Today by W. B. Howard

The Lubavitch Movement & Noahide Laws by Barbara Aho

1. David Bivin and Roy Blizzard, The Difficult Words of Jesus, 1984, reprinted in 1994 and 1995, pp. 19,20 (pp. 2,3 in 1994 edition)
2. Ibid. p 19-20 (pages 2 and 3 in 1994 edition)
3. Ibid. p.22 (p.4 1994 edition)

THE TALMUD

1. Paul Vulliaud, La Kabbale Juive: historie et doctrine, 2 vols. (Emile Nourry, 62 Rue des Ecoles, Paris, 1923)...."
2. "Rab Hanina and Rab Oschaya were seated on the eve of every Sabbath studying the Sepher Ietsirah; they created a three-year old heifer and ate it." -- Talmud treatise Sanhedrim, folio 65.
3. Koran, Sura LXXXVII. 10.
4. Zohar, section Bereschith, folio 55, and section Lekh-Lekha, folio 76 (De Pauly's translation, Vol. I. pp.431, 446).
5. Adolphe Franck, La Kabbale, p. 39; J.P. Stehelin, The Traditions of the Jews, I. 145 (1748).
6. Adolphe Franck, op. cit., p. 68, quoting Talmud treatise Sabbath, folio 34; Dr, Christian Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, p. 85; Drach, De l'Harmonie entre l'Eglise et la Synagogue, I. 457
7. Adolphe Franck, op. cit., p. 69.

JESUS CHRIST IN THE TALMUD

(4) cf. Baring -Gould, op.cit., quoting Talmud, treatise Sabbath, folio 104, (S. Baring-Gould, The Counter Gospels, 1874)
(5) Ibid.,p.55, quoting Talmud, treatise Sahhedrim,folio 107, and Sota,
folio 47; Eliphas Levi, La Science des Esprits, pp.32,33.

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