Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

The Talmud Unmasked

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Originally published
  
1892

Author
  
Justinas Pranaitis

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Similar
  
La France juive, On the Jews and Their Lies, The War Against the Jews, Anti‑Semite and Jew, "Facts are Facts"

The Talmud Unmasked (Latin: Christianus in Talmud Iudaeorum: sive, Rabbinicae doctrinae Christiani secreta) is a book published in 1892 by Justinas Bonaventure Pranaitis (1861–1917). The book, generally regarded as antisemitic, is a collection of quotes from the Talmud and Zohar which purports to demonstrate that Judaism despises non-Jews and promotes the murder of non-Jews. Pranaitis drew on the earlier works of Jakob Ecker and August Rohling.

Contents

Presentation of the book

The Talmud Unmasked is a collection of alleged quotes from the Talmud, the Zohar and other Talmudic works purporting to demonstrate that:

  1. Jews do not regard non-Jews as human beings
  2. the Talmud contains blasphemies against Jesus and offensive passages about Christians
  3. Judaism despises non-Jews
  4. the Talmud urges Jews to do a variety of harms to Christians, such as murder and theft, and teaches that each death of a Christian serves as a substitute for the Temple sacrifices, which would then hasten the arrival of the Jewish messiah.
"By means of numerous citations in Hebrew and Latin translations, he sought to demonstrate that the Talmud obliged Jews to injure Christians in multifarious ways, and to work for their elimination. Pranaitis drew on the works of the German anti-Talmudists Jakob Ecker and August Rohlong. The book received the imprimatur of the church and was published by the press of the Academy of Sciences."
  • Michael, Robert, Dictionary of antisemitism from the earliest times to the present, Scarecrow Press, 2007, p 369:
    • "According to Pranaitis, the Talmud urged Jews to murder Christians, as each death of a Christian serving as a substitute for the Temple sacrifices, would hasten the arrival of the Jewish messiah. The Talmudic and Torah prohibitions about consuming blood were circumvented, according to Pranaitis, by boiling the blood."

    Structure and themes

    A portion of the book's outline is as follows:

    Chapter I. Christians are to be Avoided Chapter II. Christians are to be Exterminated

    Accuracy and fabrication

    Pranaitis could not read Aramaic (the primary language of the Talmud), and probably used works by August Rohling and others as his sources.

    The book includes numerous quotes from the Talmud and the Zohar. His ignorance of some simple Talmudic Aramaic concepts and definitions, such as "hullin", was demonstrated during the Menahem Mendel Beilis blood libel case in which he testified as a "Talmud expert".

    Antisemitism

    Scholars classify The Talmud Unmasked as an antisemitic and anti-Talmudic work, comparable to Der Talmud Jude by August Rohling (1871) and The Traditions Of The Jews by Johann Eisenmenger (1700).

    Use by apocalyptic cults

    Jeffrey Kaplan describes how the book was used by cults to support apocalyptic theories, particular relating to the end-of-times.

    References

    The Talmud Unmasked Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA