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.
Baba Kamma 113a: Jews may use lies to circumvent a “Goy” Gentile
This is yet another made-up quote and something taken out of context.
The page deals with a discussion on tax collectors who were ripping off people at the time and enriching themselves on the back of citizens by claiming taxes that didn’t belong to them. It didn’t matter whether they were Jewish or not.
The discussion revolves around whether you are allowed to lie in order to protect yourself and your money from those thieves. The same way you’d be allowed to lie to “circumvent” a non-Jew about whether you were hiding a Jew in your attic during the Second World War.
In Jewish law, it is forbidden to lie to anyone, whether Jew or Gentile, and it is forbidden to cheat or to profit from lying.
