The Talmud is the Leaven of the Pharisees

Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

The Talmud is the Leaven of the Pharisees

The bigoted, supremacist beliefs revealed in the Talmud are, of course, offensive to all those of true Israel, however the blasphemous and Satanic beliefs and practices of Kabbalah are most shocking to Christians when we first learn them. Talmudic Judaism, as revealed in the Kabbalah, is a polytheistic religion. The primary deity in Talmudic Judaism is Ein Sof, who is genderless and without form.

by HOIM Staff

In Matthew 16 it is written:

"Then Jesus said to them, 'Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees'...Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees..." (Matthew 16:6 &12, NKJV).

The Messiah clearly warned his first century disciples, and us today, to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," yet some still insist on quoting from the Talmud as if it is authoritatively from YEHOVAH God. However, we are going to show evidence that will prove that the Talmud is the leaven of the Pharisees.

Just a quick note though. Leaven is an ingredient that must be added to bread dough to make bread rise. Without adding leaven to bread dough, a baker can still make bread but it will be matzah or unleavened bread. So in like manner, the leaven of the Pharisees is that man-made doctrine they added to the scriptures which are the Matzah or Unleavened Bread of life (unleavened as in free of man-made dogma).

The Sect of The Pharisees

The sect of the Pharisees grew very powerful after the city of Jerusalem and YEHOVAH's Temple were destroyed in 70 A.D. The most powerful "rabbi" within Pharisaism arose in the early 2nd. century, and he took it upon himself to put the "oral law" into a written form, called the Talmud. His name was Akiba. He perceived that those who followed the Messiah to be a serious threat, so he promoted a false Messiah (Bar Kochba) as a scheme to legally kill the Natsarim -- the followers of the Messiah. As Bar Kochba rose up as the false Messiah, his followers made the mistake of challenging the Roman occupation. Since the Natsarim would not fight Rome -- especially over this false Messiah -- this gave Bar Kochba (and the instigator, Akiba), the legal authority to execute them -- at least in their eyes.

So, many of the Messiah's followers were killed, and even more driven away. As a result, Rabbinical Judaism (Pharisaism) took complete control over the early development of the post-Temple era, and is still alive and well today as an apostate form of religion, mostly due to this "Talmud," begun by Akiba. Within its pages are fabulous tales of Akiba's greatness, and horrendous tales about the Messiah.

After the Pharisee rabbis began teaching their Talmud they eventually stopped teaching the Torah to their congregations, causing the Pharisees who followed their teaching to stop believing what the Torah actually says and causing them to follow "what thus saith the rabbis" instead. By the time the Messiah came along, the Pharisees no longer believed in the Torah. Notice what the Messiah said:

John 5:45-47: "Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" (RSV).

It doesn’t matter which translation or version of John 5:45-47 is used because the Messiah’s message to the Pharisees of his day is still the same. "You don’t believe I am your Messiah and Savior because you don't believe the Torah because you have departed from it in your sectarian teachings for the sake of your Talmud."

The Judahite historian Josephus shows that the Pharisees were in power during the Messiah's lifetime, and controlled the religious life of the people of Judea, the Temple functions, and exerted tremendous influence even when isolated Sadducees were named as high priests, or given other offices by the king. The people followed them. They did not allow any tampering with the Pharisaic regulations and laws concerning public worship, prayer, and sacrifices. They were in supreme religious control of the people from the time of Salome Alexandra, till the Jewish revolt against Rome in 66-70 A.D. And when leading Pharisees supported that rebellion, they were once again looked to for leadership.

Josephus speaks of them as "the most accurate interpreters of the laws," and "unrivaled experts in their country's laws," and "the most precise exponents of the laws." Their fame and renown as the leading legal scholars of the laws of Moses and the unwritten laws was undenied and undoubted.

In reading the gospel accounts dealing with the Pharisees, one truth becomes very obvious: The Pharisees exercised great power in Judea, over the people. Although they were not the political rulers (Herod was the king, and Pilate was the governor, during the time of the Messiah), they exercised the rulership of the religious sphere. Although the Messiah roundly scores the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, wickedness and sins, in Matthew 23, yet this very same gospel account makes the indictments all the more severe, because the Messiah introduces his negative evaluation of the Pharisees with the statement that they sat in Moses' seat and exercised authority from YEHOVAH God. The Messiah himself told his followers, in effect, that in spite of the heinous sins of the Pharisees, their religious office and authority concerning the laws of YEHOVAH God were still to be respected and obeyed!

The debt that true Christianity owes to the Pharisees is substantial. Even though many of them became hypocrites, and fools, and blind guides, as the Messiah said, nevertheless they, and they alone, preserved the laws of YEHOVAH God, the Torah, and the unwritten laws governing the calendar, the Temple, rituals, sacrifices, and so forth. They alone preserved the knowledge of the exact Holy Days of YEHOVAH God, the annual festivals, and the methodology for computing the calendar new moons, months, and leap years.

However, when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., traditional Judaism was transformed into a predominately Pharisaic Judaism as the other ancient sects of Judaism (Sadducees, Essenes, Herodians, etc.) were absorbed and assimilated into the Pharisee sect. At that point the only other Jewish sect in existence was the Nazarene sect who had accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and Savior.

Today in our modern world, traditional Judaism is once again sectarian represented by the Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic, Reform, Conservative and Fundamental sects of modern Judaism. But modern Judaism is still largely Pharisaic in its Talmudic teachings. Many, if not all, modern Jews depend more on what rabbis like Rambam and Rashi say instead of reading and interpreting the scriptures for themselves without the man-made rabbinical nonsense getting in their way of accepting Yeshua as their Messiah and Savior.

The Concept of "Rabbi"

The concept of "rabbi" is central to the Talmud's idea of eternal life. Without a "rabbi," one cannot possibly acquire eternal life -- according to the Talmud! And, all rabbis are infallible. Akiba's Talmud also declares that YEHOVAH God is but one of 70 rabbis, and He must go along with what the majority says. Unfortunately, many Messianic leaders today quote from this Talmud, unwittingly using Akiba's rationalizations in their own teachings. Since the Messiah was called a "Rabbi" (my Teacher), it is likely that he was mistakenly thought to be a Pharisee, or the dominance of Pharisaism was so great that all who taught were customarily referred to by this term. The word "rabbi" is not found anywhere in the Old Testament.

According to Wikipedia:

"A rabbi is not an occupation found in the Hebrew Bible, and ancient generations did not employ related titles such as Rabban, Rabbi, or Rav to describe either the Babylonian sages or the sages in Israel. For example, Hillel I and Shammai (the religious leaders of the early first century, had no rabbinic title prefixed to their names. The titles 'Rabban' and 'Rabbi' are first mentioned in Jewish literature in the Mishnah. The term was first used for Rabban Gamaliel the elder, Rabban Simeon his son, and Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai, all of whom were patriarchs or presidents of the Sanhedrin in the first century. The title 'Rabbi' occurs (in Greek transliteration ?aßß? rhabbi) in the books of Matthew, Mark, and John in the New Testament, where it is used in reference to 'Scribes and Pharisees' as well as to Jesus. According to some, the title 'rabbi' or 'rabban' was first used after 70 CE to refer to Yochanan ben Zakkai and his students, and references in rabbinic texts and the New Testament to rabbis earlier in the 1st century are anachronisms or retroactive honorifics. Other scholars believe that the term 'rabbi' was a well-known informal title by the beginning of the first century CE, and thus that the Jewish and Christian references to rabbis reflect the titles in fact used in this period.

"The governments of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were based on a system that included the Jewish kings, the Jewish prophets, the legal authority of the high court of Jerusalem, the Great Sanhedrin, and the ritual authority of the priesthood. Members of the Sanhedrin had to receive their ordination (semicha) in an uninterrupted line of transmission from Moses, yet rather than being referred to as rabbis they were called priests or scribes, like Ezra, who is called in the Bible 'Ezra, the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of God's commandments and of His statutes unto Israel.' 'Rabbi' as a religious title does not appear in the Hebrew Bible.

"All of the above personalities would have been expected to be steeped in the wisdom of the Torah and the commandments, which would have made them 'rabbis' in the modern sense of the word. This is illustrated by a 2000-year-old teaching in the Mishnah, which observed about King David,

'One who learns from their companion a single chapter, a single halakha, a single verse, a single Torah statement, or even a single letter, must treat them with honor. For so we find with David King of Israel, who learned nothing from Ahitophel except two things, yet called him his teacher [Hebrew text: rabbo], his guide, his intimate, as it is said: "You are a man of my measure, my guide, my intimate" (Psalm 55:14). One can derive from this the following: If David King of Israel who learned nothing from Ahitophel except for two things, called him his teacher, his guide, his intimate, one who learns from their companion a single chapter, a single halakha, a single verse, a single statement, or even a single letter, how much more must they treat them with honor. And honor is due only for Torah, as it is said: "The wise shall inherit honor" (Proverbs 3:35), "and the perfect shall inherit good" (Proverbs 28:10). And only Torah is truly good, as it is said: "I have given you a good teaching, do not forsake My Torah" (Proverbs 4:2).'

"With the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish monarchy, and the decline of the dual institutions of prophets and the priesthood, the focus of scholarly and spiritual leadership within the Jewish people shifted to the sages of the Men of the Great Assembly (Anshe Knesset HaGedolah). This assembly was composed of the earliest group of 'rabbis' in the more modern sense of the word, in large part because they began the formulation and explication of what became known as Judaism's 'Oral Law' (Torah SheBe'al Peh). This was eventually encoded and codified within the Mishnah and Talmud and subsequent rabbinical scholarship, leading to what is known as Rabbinic Judaism."

In adding their doctrine/leaven to the Scriptures, the Pharisees were in transgression of the Torah. Notice the following:

Deuteronomy 4:2 & 12:32: "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you….Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it" (NKJV).

Furthermore, the Scripture also says, "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He chastise you, and you be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:5-6, NKJV).

The Evidence Against the Talmud

The first piece of evidence we bring is from Jewish historian Flavius Josephus who wrote,

"What I would now explain is this that the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the Torah of Moses…." (Josephus, Flavius; The Antiquities of the Jews 13-10-6-297).

Josephus went on to write that the Sadducees rejected these observances that were handed down orally from their fathers.

In the second piece of evidence, the 1995 edition of Nelson's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts identifies these orally transmitted observances of the Pharisees as the oral traditions when the authors/editors wrote on page 508:

"The oral traditions of an important Jewish group of the first century are made known to us through collections compiled after the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) and also after the failure of the Bar Kochba rebellion (A.D. 135). These traditions called the oral Torah concern in large part questions and responses which focus on legal issues. Basically, these collections of traditions represent the viewpoints of the Pharisees and their descendants."

The term "oral law" is also used interchangeably with "oral torah" for the oral traditions of the Pharisees.

Of the oral law, which is our third piece of evidence, the 1956 edition of Colliers Encyclopedia states, on page 196 of volume 15:

"ORAL LAW, in Judaism, laws and traditions not contained specifically and in detail in Scriptures, which are designated as the 'Written Law'….During and after the Hadrianic persecutions…systematic recording and compilation of the Oral Law was begun and culminated in the compilation of the Mishnah (c. A.D. 200), the basic text of the Oral Law. All subsequent compilations of traditions, including the expositions and interpretive discussions of the Mishnah which produced the Talmud and other Rabbinic literature, are classified as Oral Law."

Furthermore, on page 21 of volume 19, of the 2009 World Book Encyclopedia it also says of the oral law:

"Talmud is a collection of Jewish religious and civil laws, together with scholarly interpretations of their meaning. The Talmud ranks second to the Bible as the most sacred and influential written work of the Jewish religion…The Talmud consists of two parts, the Mishnah and the Gemara. The Mishnah is the written version of traditional Jewish oral law. Short passages of the Mishnah followed by thorough explanations, which make up the Gemara.

"The scholars who wrote the Gemara did not always agree in their interpretations of the Mishnah. As a result, the Gemara includes many debates on small details of Jewish law….These interpretations were memorized and handed down orally. The Mishnah’s contents were collected from about A.D. 70 to 200. The Gemara, which has two versions, was written between about 200 and 500. The Palestinian Gemara was completed about 425, and the Babylonian Gemara about 500. The Talmud laid the groundwork for all future Jewish observance."

This oral law of the Pharisees is called "the tradition of the elders" in Matthew 15:1-3 where we read,

"Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 'Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.' He answered and said to them, 'Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?'" (NKJV).

The Talmud is Not Inspired

While the Talmud may contain some historical information that can be beneficial in our Biblical studies, we should never quote any of the rabbinical commandments from the Talmud, or authoritatively stand on them as if they are from YEHOVAH God. The reason is because those rabbinical commandments having nothing to do with YEHOVAH -- nor did He have anything to do with establishing them. The Talmud contains 3,000 man-made commandments that in some cases stand in stark contradiction to what the Torah of Moses actually teaches.

The scripture makes it clear that transgression of the Torah is sin. As it is written, "Whosoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4, NKJV).

The Messiah himself told the Pharisees that they had rejected the Torah and replaced it with their Talmud. Notice what he says:

Mark 7:5-13: "Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.’

"And he said to them, ‘All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother; and, He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban -- (that is, dedicated to the temple); and you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do’" (NKJV).

In his general epistle, the apostle James said, "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10, ibid.). And yet, in his aforementioned dialogue with the scribes and Pharisees, the Messiah points out not one, but two commandments they transgressed for the sake of their tradition.

The fact is, from YEHOVAH’s point of view, the Torah is part and parcel of His Covenant with Israel. When an Israelite transgresses the Torah, from YEHOVAH’s perspective, that Israelite is departing from, or walking away from, His Covenant with Israel. When that happens the Israelite ceases to be one of YEHOVAH God’s covenant people and spiritually becomes a goy (gentile).

Failure to teach the Torah is a sin or transgression of the Torah. YEHOVAH God makes this plain in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 6:6-7: "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up" (ibid.).

The Talmud is Not a Book!

We must remember that the Talmud is not a book; it's a record of questions, debates, and decisions over a 1,200-year period. One could think of it as if there were a board of directors making decisions over a 1,200-year-long corporate meeting, and the Talmud is the "minutes" of that meeting. There is a Babylonian Talmud, and a Jerusalem Talmud. The former is usually the one that is quoted, and is magnitudes larger. It is of entirely human invention, and definitely not to be confused with inspired Scripture.

The Talmud is full of disgusting prescriptions, and claims that the Messiah's mother Mary was a whore, and that the Messiah is the offspring of a Roman soldier. It also states that both the Messiah and his mother are being punished in a very unsavory place for their sins. The Talmud says that a man who has sexual intercourse with a young girl who is not mature is the same as the girl hurting herself on a stick -- and that it is as nothing at all. The Talmud is an extremely poor guide to consult for definitive answers as to how we should live -- the Bible is our sole resource for how to live a pleasing life for YEHOVAH God, NOT the Talmud.

I want to reiterate what I’ve already stated. I see nothing wrong with gleaning historical background information from the Talmud but that is where we should draw the line. In addition to the 3,000 man-made rabbinical commandments, the Talmud also contains too much Kabbalah to be useful for anything else other than gleaning from it historical background information. The Talmud is, in fact, the leaven of the Pharisees of which the Messiah warns us to beware. YEHOVAH God will not hear their prayers because, "He who turns away his ear from hearing the Torah, even his prayer is an abomination" (Proverbs 28:9).

Christian-Zionism and the Jews

The cult of Christian-Zionism is a Babushka doll of Yiddish lies, and to ascertain the truth about how Christians are to relate to what today are called Jews, and what today is called Israel, we must begin taking apart each lie, one by one.

As already mentioned, Judaism today is not based upon the Torah. It is antithetical to everything in the Old Testament. It is based upon the Babylonian Talmud, the "oral law" of the rabbis which was a fusion of Canaanite blood ritual magic and the Egyptian and Babylonian mystery religion. It’s a mystery cult. That is what the Messiah condemned during his ministry, and three centuries later Jewish rabbis wrote down their abominable beliefs in the Talmud.

Observant Jews today follow Halachic Law. They will say it’s from the Torah. Jews will say they "keep Torah" or "study Torah". They lie. They only follow the Talmud and Kabbalah. They never read what we call the Old Testament, and they think Christians are foolish to believe we can understand it without the Talmud.

Torah Judaism is the religion given to the Israelites through Moses, and was based around first the tabernacle and then the temples. The Torah Judahites of the first century became Christians, because they could recognize the Messiah; those who followed what became Talmudic Judaism were Edomite Jews and, later, Khazar Jews. These were not, and are not, Israelites.

Despite what Christian-Zionist pastors teach today, David was not a "Jew." Daniel was not a "Jew." Elijah was not a "Jew." Moses was not a "Jew." Jacob and Isaac were not "Jews." Abraham was not a "Jew." The group of people who are called Jews today are a racial mixture from all over the Middle East and Eastern Europe, with not even a biological connection to the Israelites of the Old Testament. If you think the biological descendants of the ancient Israelites are owed the little strip of land between Egypt and Lebanon, then it should probably go to the Palestinians who have more Israelite blood in their veins than the so-called Jews.

If you’re a Christian and you "stand with Israel", you don’t know your Bible. YEHOVAH God is not a supremacist real estate agent. Read Galatians 3:16:

Galatians 3:16: "Now to Abraham and his seed [of Jacob/Israel] were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds' [plural], as of many [races] , but as of one [Israel], 'and to your seed,' who is Christ."

Talmudic Judaism is the religion of the rabbis which comes from the worship of the golden calf at the base of Sinai. It is based around synagogues, which only came into being during the Hellenistic Period just before the Messiah. The word itself isn’t even Hebrew. It’s Greek.

Today’s Judaism is Pharisaism. Three centuries after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the rabbis wrote down their "oral law" in the Mishnah and the Gemara. These became the Babylonian Talmud. Later, the Zohar was added, which laid down the principles of Kabbalah, which is sorcery. There is also the Palestinian Talmud, although it’s used less frequently.

When Jews talk about "Torah," they’re lying. They don’t read it and they don’t know it. Their religion is an affront to everything YEHOVAH God revealed about Himself to Moses and the Israelites.

The reality is, the Old Testament is Christian. If the true Jews (Judahites) followed the Old Testament, they’d come to know the Messiah. The Messiah said as much in John 8. YEHOVAH’s relationship with Jacob/Israel goes back much further than the Jews of the first century A.D., and the promise of a Messiah was first made to Eve (Genesis 3:15). Salvation was offered to a unique race -- the descendants of Jacob/Israel; it was always to the genetic children of the promise who believed on the coming Messiah.

The deity the rabbis spend most effort seeking through their mystical practices, however, is Metatron. Even a cursory overview of the description of Metatron reveals it’s another name for the being the Bible calls Satan, the god of this world. He is the god of the Talmud.

Once Christians understand this, the great falling away we have seen in the church becomes more understandable. We have chased after strange gods.

We haven’t been fighting a futile, 50-year culture war against "the left." We’ve been fighting it against Talmudic utopianism. That’s the spirit behind globohomo, and we have made an idol of it in the postmodern church.

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Preparing the Way for the Return of YEHOVAH God and His Messiah to This Earth!

Hope of Israel Ministries
P.O. Box 853
Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A.
www.hope-of-israel.org

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