Medieval Jewish and Christian Commentators, My Gentile Defense of Judaism, Part 1

What is the background of the three main medieval Jewish
Commentators, Rashi, Rambam, and Ramban, who commented on the
Book of Deuteronomy in the Torah, the first five books of the Old
Testament?
What are the core principles of Judaism and Christianity? How are they
similar? How do these faith traditions differ?
Why do the Jewish versions of the Torah use multiple names for God?
Which Laws should Christians follow? Can Christians draw inspiration
from all the Laws in Deuteronomy and the Torah?
How can Deuteronomy be both a Book of the Law as well as a Book
encouraging the Love of God and love of neighbor?

Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video.
Please feel free to follow along in the PowerPoint
script we uploaded to SlideShare, which includes
illustrations. Our sister blog includes footnotes, both
include our Amazon book links.

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Deuteronomy, Book of Law, Book of Love of God
https://youtu.be/mN765l5O2f8

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What is the core directive of both Judaism and
Christianity? The two-fold love, that we should both
love God with all of our hearts and with all of our
souls and with all of our mind and with all of our
strength and really with all of our all, and that we
should love our neighbor as ourselves. And all else is
commentary, as the rabbis teach us.

At roughly the time of Jesus, an inquirer
requested of both Rabbi Shammai and Rabbi
Hillel, “Convert me to Judaism on condition that
you will teach me the entire Torah while I stand
on one foot.” Shammai pushed the man away
with the building rod he was holding.
Undeterred, the man then came before Hillel
with the same request. Hillel responded, “That
which is hateful unto you, do not do unto your
neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is
commentary. Now, go and study.”

Who had the correct approach? Both rabbis were correct, both
have valid lessons to teach. Likewise, Christians can learn from
both the teachings of the church fathers and the medieval rabbis.
One difference between the two faiths is Christianity and their
Greek culture wants everything to be logical and fit together and
seeks to harmonize any apparent discrepancies in the Holy
Scriptures. On the other hand, Judaism seeks to find differing
lessons for verses of scripture that seem to conflict. One example
is that the commandments for DO NOT COVET are worded
differently in Exodus and Deuteronomy, so we can learn from
their differing emphasis.

A key work by St Augustine reaffirms this two-fold Love of
God and love of neighbor. St Augustine is my favorite
Catholic saint because, in every major work, he explicitly
reminds us that this two-fold Love is the core of Christian
beliefs. In his foundational essay On Christian Teaching, he
teaches us that all Holy Scripture, properly interpreted,
must increase in our heart our two-fold Love of God and
neighbor, and that if any biblical story appears to violate
this two-fold Love, then it MUST be interpreted
allegorically.

How do the rabbis interpret the harsh penalties, such
as death by stoning and putting out the eyes and
limbs of offenders, for some of the various laws in
the Torah? They simply say that these strictures
emphasize the importance of obeying these moral
laws, but that the modern penalties should be
reasonable, fitting the crime.

Two Jews Study
the Talmud,
Adolf Behrman,
early 1900's

The best example of the allegorical
interpretation of the Old Testament is
the famous verse in Psalm 137:
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your
little ones
and dash them against the rock!
By the Waters of Babylon, by Arthur Hacker, 1888

This is a favorite verse of the Eastern Monastic
Church Fathers in the Philokalia, they interpret this
verse as exhorting us to eliminate all the sins in our
life, both large and small.

The rabbinical example is the Mitzvah about the red heifer.
The precise meaning of the phrase “red heifer” mentioned
in a law in Deuteronomy is lost in the sands of history, so it
is interpreted by the rabbis as teaching us that we should
obey all the commandments of God, even when they do
not make sense to us. Likewise, although Christians believe
that many of the dietary, ritual, and festival laws are no
longer binding, a spiritual allegorical interpretation
remains.

This will be an introduction to our reflections on how the major of the last book of
the Torah, Deuteronomy, is both a book of the Law as well as a book exhorting us to
Love God in close to twenty passages. We will also examine the commentaries by
the medieval rabbis Rashi, Rambam, also known as Maimonides, and Ramban, also
known as Nachminides. Rabbi Ibn Ezra is also a highly esteemed medieval rabbi, but
his works are famously terse.
Born in the eleventh century in France, Rashi was the most esteemed commentator
of the Jewish Torah, as well as the other books of the Jewish Bible and the Talmud.
Much of the rabbinical writings discuss his commentary. We use the Jewish Bible,
the Medusa Chumash Torah, that has both the Hebrew and the English, with Rashi’s
commentary, and with commentary of his often-terse commentary. Rashi’s
commentary is also available on the internet.

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm

Rambam, or Maimonides, was born in the twelfth century in Moorish
Muslim Spain, was perhaps an equally influential rabbi. He summarized
the Oral Law in an influential fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah. One of the
major works of Rambam is his summary from the Talmud of the 613
Mitzvoth, with 248 positively stated commands, followed by 365 negative
commands. The 248 commands correspond to how many bones the
ancients thought were in the human body, though we now know there
are many more, and the 365 days of the year. Each of the Ten
Commandments is included, and all of the other commandments
elaborate on one or more of these Ten Commandments. He also penned
the Guide to the Perplexed, which was a Jewish reflection of Aristotelean
philosophy.

Rambam or Maimonides teaching students about the 'measure of man', 1347 / Monument in Cordoba, Spain

Ramban, or Nachminides, living in the thirteenth century, was born in Christian
Spain soon after the years of the Reconquest from the Muslim Moors. He defended
Judaism in a disputation with Christians, arguing persuasively that the Christian
belief in the Trinity doesn't make any logical sense. And of course, this greatly
offended the Spanish church authorities, and he felt compelled to emigrate to the
Middle East. But he does make a good point, that Christianity doesn't make any
logical sense. Christianity is based on the thought that Jesus both God and man,
part divine and part human. And that we have a Trinity of God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Yet we have one God, which makes no logical sense.
There is a verse in the New Testament that says that the teenage Jesus learned, but
if God is omniscient, knowing everything, how can the young Jesus learn? Think
about that too hard and you will tangle yourself up into all kinds of conundrums. It's
best not to interpret that verse too heavily, just accept it.

How does St Augustine make sense of the
Christian Trinity? He summarizes its
essence in seven declarations:
• The Father is neither the Son nor the
Holy Spirit.
• The Son is neither the Father nor the
Holy Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit is neither Father nor the
Son.
• God the Father is God.
• God the Son is God.
• God the Holy Spirit is God.
• There is only one God.
St Augustine Washes the Feet of Christ, Theodor Rombouts, 1636

Furthermore, the Ecumenical Councils and Church
Fathers teaches us that Jesus is equally God and
equally man, but also that the will of Christ is equally
divine and human. You can argue that Christianity
invented theology to try to explain the Trinity of God.

Emperor Constantine and bishops of the First Council of Nicaea, 324 / Council of Ephesus in Nuremberg Chronicles

Judaism has fewer doctrinal differences than Christianity, the differences
between Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews are generally
disagreements on practice, to what degree the laws should be followed
literally, or whether the meaning of some laws are more allegorical. This
may reflect that Jews are less polemic about their differences, less will to
attack others over disagreements over interpretation. For example, when
Ramban disagrees with certain teachings of Rashi, he never personally
attacks the venerable commentator, but rather speaks of him with
profound respect. This, and the Jewish tendency to welcome varying
interpretations, enables Judaism to avoid some of the polemic arguments
that are so common in Christianity.

In the
synagogue,
by Jakub
Weinles,
around 1900

Why are we interested in this topic? Much current
and classic Christian theology begins with the
premise that Jesus is a God of mercy, while the Old
Testament Father is a God of judgment, and that, as
St Paul exhorts, “the letter” of the law “kills, but the
Spirit gives life.”

My reflections are based solely on my reading: I've only attended one bar
mitzvah and one synagogue service. That was not possible in the ancient
world before the invention of the printing press, if you wanted to study
the Torah using the Talmud and the writings of the Jewish rabbis, you had
to visit the synagogue. Often you just could not study these works
without becoming involved in the synagogue. Christians who mixed these
faiths we called Judaizers, and this practice was condemned by both St
Paul the Apostle and St John Chrysostom, though we observed that
Chrysostom’s criticisms crossed over into anti-Semitism. This is why these
condemnations are directed towards the Judaizers among the Christians
rather than the Jews themselves. Unfortunately, in medieval Europe
these attitudes evolved into virulent anti-Semitism by all Christians, and
possible the most extreme form was the anti-Semitism of Martin Luther.

https://youtu.be/J8cxz5uUvdw https://youtu.be/fVVyupNwydw
https://youtu.be/FQmBggJAhKg https://youtu.be/AafwB0tA5a8

I have always been baffled by those who claim that Christians no longer need to
study the Law, because if you seek to learn how to live a godly life, don’t you want
to know how? Similarly, I am baffled by Protestants who likewise neglect the study
of the Church Fathers and the Catholic Catechism for similar reasons.
Our reflections are respectful to all mainstream Judeo-Christian traditions, we
prefer to learn from these traditions how to live a godly life, we are reluctant to
criticize and find fault so we can argue that our traditions are superior. St Augustine
and I both agree, you need to attend a church, you need to choose a faith tradition.
But for my internet persona, I prefer to not reveal my denomination.
In that spirit, the criticisms of the Pharisees made by Jesus in the Gospels seem like
insider criticisms. You can be harsher and you're self-criticizing than you can when
you're criticizing people outside your tradition.

But this exhortation to value the spirit over
the letter of the law is also exclaimed in
the Old Testament, as King David sings in
the Penitential Psalm bewailing his sin with
Bathsheba:
You have no delight in sacrifice;
If I were to give a burnt offering, you
would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a
broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you
will not despise.
This exhortation is repeated many times by
the prophets.
King David Playing the Harp, by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

Christian Attitudes and Jewish Exegesis

Does the Christian Gospel reject the Jewish Law, or does the Christian
Gospel reaffirm the Jewish Law?
Early in its history, Christianity faced the heresy of the Gnostic Marcion,
who declared that the judgmental god of the Old Testament was a
vengeful demiurge, and that Jesus was the newly righteous god, which
led him to declare that the Christian Bible should omit the Old Testament.
Marcion’s Bible contained only ten Pauline epistles and an edited version
of Luke.
Marcion’s teachings were rejected by the early church. Early Church
Fathers, including St Irenaeus and St Justin Martyr, embraced the Old
Testament as part of the Christian Scriptures.

https://youtu.be/bG1okLOum2E https://youtu.be/L5KLUjK7SCQ
https://youtu.be/s1Gz3pwImO8 https://youtu.be/-E3r8Z4IE1c

What is another key difference in emphasis between
Christians and Jews when they study the books of the
Old Testament? While Jews reflect on the entire
Torah during the annual readings in their Synagogue
services, and recite the Shema, Christians skip
around, favoring those parts that point to Jesus
Christ.

One overriding principle of Jewish exegesis is the
most important commands are repeated in both
positive and negative forms. One example of this is
the negative commandment DO NOT MURDER: the
positive form of the command is to love your
neighbor as yourself. Of course, Christians can
include the number of times a command is repeated
in the Old Testament and the New Testament to
judge their importance.

Solomon Alexander
Hart - The Feast of the
Rejoicing of the Law at
the Synagogue in
Leghorn, Italy , 1850

Another principle of both Jewish and Christian biblical exegesis is you
should not interpret any verse by itself. You should read the chapters
surrounding the verse, then interpret it in the context of first the book as
a whole, then the Bible as a whole. Another tendency that makes me
cringe is when people want to look up the meaning of biblical words in
the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Don’t do that! Find out the biblical
meanings of the words.
The Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, the Psalms, and the
Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are similar in style: they
have many couplets where the second sentence rephrases and amplifies
the first sentence, poetry that echoes thoughts and beliefs rather than
syllables.

Rosh Hashanah,
from The Holiday
Series: Six Paintings
of Jewish Holidays,
by Arthur Szyk,
1948

Passover, by
Arthur Szyk,
1948

One good example is the first Psalm,
which is a collection of couplets whose
lines rhyme in thought rather than in the
spoken word:
Happy are those who do not follow the
advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers,
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and
night.
Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom
Kippur, by Maurycy Gottlieb, 1878

They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the
judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,
for the Lord watches over the way of the
righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom
Kippur, by Maurycy Gottlieb, 1878

The First Psalm celebrates the Law as Gospel, our
delight is to study the Law. As CS Lewis in his
commentary on the Psalms observes, not only are we
to obey the Law as expressed in the Decalogue and
the other laws, but our delight is also to study the
Law, to meditate on the Law day and night.

When we reflect on the two-fold Love of God, we must
remember the spiritual struggle with the demons that CS
Lewis depicts in his Screwtape Letters. The deceiver would
rather that we not be religiously devout, but if he fails in
this effort, the deceiver seeks that we should instead be
judgmental and hypocritical. Likewise, the deceiver would
rather that we not study Scripture, but if he fails in that
effort, the deceiver seeks that our studies would be
corrupted by conceit and pride in our learning, which are
dangers for both Jews and Christians.

Another example is this verse in
Matthew that follows the Lord’s
prayer:
For if you forgive others their
trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also
forgive you,
but if you do not forgive others,
Neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses.
The Return of the Prodigal Son, by
Pompeo Batoni, 1773

In the Jewish tradition, the word of God is holy and should
not be said, so we do not know the ancient pronunciation
for sure, many English translations render it as Jehovah or
Yahweh. But in the Hebrew Bible, this holy word is
replaced by either Adonoy, for the merciful aspect of God,
or Elohim, for the judgmental aspect in God. Wherever the
English translation renders the name as Lord, Lord; in
Hebrew, the underlying Hebrew is rendered as Adonoy,
Elohim.

Moses on Mount Sinai, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1900

Similarly, in one of the most famous icons of Jesus in
the fifth century from the oldest continuously
occupied monastery in the world at Mount Sinai in
the deserts of Egypt, one half of His face shows the
compassionate Jesus, while the other half shows
Jesus, the judge, who separates the lambs from the
goats at the end of the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Pantocrator_(Sinai)
Dual mirrored images of Jesus icon
Jesus Pantocrator Icon, St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai
St Catherine’s Monastery in the
Sinai desert has many of the
oldest icons in the world.
This icon of Jesus is from the
sixth century and shows the
two sides of Jesus.
The left side is the
compassionate Jesus.
The right side the Jesus who
will separate the goats from
the sheep on the final day of
judgement.

Ancient Israel Was a Warrior Culture

When reading the Old Testament, remember that both the ancient Greek
and ancient Jewish city-states were ancient warrior cultures. Unlike today
when we look forward to a retirement funded by Social Security, in the
ancient world you worried that a hostile enemy would plunder your city-
state, rob you of all your possessions, execute all military-age men, and
enslave the women and children. The Babylonians were
uncharacteristically kind when they deported the Jews, though the Psalms
hint they were guilty of many cruelties. However, the Babylonians did
permit the Jews to settle in their own communities in Babylon. There they
might have been the equivalent of serfs, but their independent community
was sufficiently prosperous to support rabbis who studied the Torah.

https://youtu.be/7QAZ_s6zw4E https://youtu.be/9xKxqAbJ2qY
https://youtu.be/vl8KGL5Yx2w https://youtu.be/9hgSbcgbCJw

https://youtu.be/DpmuhZJUJn0
https://youtu.be/7lI2ZQ50wRc
https://youtu.be/bGHHD7XTvr0
https://youtu.be/ynIx-AVI2f8

The Assyrians were crueler, perhaps they obliterated
the culture of the ten lost tribes of Israel by enslaving
them. Perhaps this is why the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel
were lost in the sands of history. In the cold and
cruel ancient world, you cannot expect the ancient
Jews to love their enemies. This means that the laws
in the Torah command the Hebrews to love their
Hebrew neighbors.

Even in the ancient world, these cultures lost their warrior
ethos several generations after they were conquered by an
empire, whether it be the Persian Empire in ancient Greek
history, or the Roman conquest of Judea before the time of
Christ. Along with losing their warrior ethos, they also lost
their fear that neighboring powers might attack and defeat
their city-state since they were under the protection of
Rome. This meant that, unlike Moses, Jesus could exhort
us and his followers to love both our enemies and our
neighbors.

Roman Army
Besieging a Large
City, by Juan de la
Corte, 1600's

Roman Battle,
by Simon Peter
Tilemann, 1641

Another confirmation that ancient Israel was a
warrior culture is witnessed in the Song of the Sea in
Exodus, sung by the Jews after they crossed the Red
Sea. Scholars speculate that this is one of the oldest
verses in the Old Testament.

Pharaoh's army engulfed by the Red Sea, by Frederick Arthur Bridgman, 1900

Song of the Sea in Exodus:
I will sing to the Lord,
for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my might,
and he has become my salvation;
Moses and Israel Crossing the Red Sea, by Henri Frédéric Schopin, 1855

Song of the Sea in Exodus (continued):
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.

We still think that way today, we still want God to help us to be successful
in our career, help us be successful in our marriage, and help us to be
successful in our life. But whether you are a Jew or a Christians, your faith
should be deeper than merely selfish demands for success, our faith
should instead be anchored in our Love of God and love of our neighbor
regardless of the success or defeats we suffer in our lives. Love should
trump prosperity, Just because life denies us prosperity and brings us
suffering instead, we should still Love God and love our neighbor
regardless of the successes or failures we experience in our lives. Love
should trump prosperity. Even if life denies us prosperity, bringing us
suffering instead, we should still Love God and love our neighbor,
because after all, all else is commentary.

This reflection introduces our reflection on how
Deuteronomy is first a book of Love, exhorting us to
Love God in about twenty verses.

We have another video reflecting on the commentaries of the medieval
rabbis, Rashi, Rambam, and Ramban, plus many modern summaries of
the modern collections of the moral teachings from the Talmud and
Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament.
What other scholars have noted the similarities between the style of the
Torah and the Synoptic Gospels? We have noted that Professor Peter van
’t Riet has written a book on this topic, Reading Torah, the Key to the
Gospels. Plus, we have viewed an excellent DVD series of short movies on
the Decalogue recommended by Robert Ebert, the later movie reviews,
plus have several more books on the Decalogue and the Torah, we plan a
video on these topics sometimes in 2024.

Possible sources for future videos 2024
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