Libels about the Talmud are almost as old as the Talmud itself, and have been used as a justification for centuries of Jew-hate. Misquoting Talmudic texts or taking them out of context is an age-old method used to incite antisemitism.
In fact, most people do not even know what the Talmud is: the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah with stories interwoven.
The libels continue to this very day and are being disseminated online by the worst of the worst.
The supposed quotes and meaning behind them that we are seeing these days come from a Third Reich book: Unmoral im Talmud (translation: Immorality In The Talmud) By Nazi Alfred Rosenberg.
I have decided to publish this new series as an online, easy-to-find record for fighting these libels. The responses are primarily based on those given by Rabbi Yisrael M. Eliashiv, who goes by the name Shevereshtus on Twtter/X, but in some cases also other sources. Each post will deal with one of the libels.
Soferim 15: Even the best of Goyim should all be killed
This is a mistranslation and has been taken out of context. In a discussion about generalities, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said that you should kill in a time of war even the best members of your enemy nation, instead of having mercy on them.
From where does he derive this opinion?
In the Exodus from Egypt, after the ten plagues when the Jews were in the midst of the sea, they were pursued by Pharaoh and the rest of the Egyptians on chariots. Which raises the question: How could they have chariots if all of their animals died in a plague? Those who feared G-d brought the animals inside per Moses’ instructions. So if they believed in the words of Moses, they believed that G-d was sending those plagues on Egypt, and yet they still decided after seeing all the miracles and knowing what they put the Jewish people through, to pursue them at sea in order to kill them.
This is why Rabbi Shimon says that, in a time of war, don’t have mercy on ‘the best’ of your enemies but rather kill them. We can see from this that they might have been the best members of their society but they still ultimately wanted to go through with their murderous intent.
The Torah states unequivocally that ALL men were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). In fact, the Talmud emphasizes that Adam was created from the dust of all four corners of the earth (so to speak), so that no one nation could claim superiority. And of course, it is forbidden for a Jew to kill a Gentile. (source: Talmud Sanhedrin 57a; “Taz” Y.D. 158:1).
