Rabbi Mike Profile picture
Jan 3, 2022 27 tweets 4 min read Read on X
There is a direct line from the Gospels to the Gas Chambers. This #thread will be Part 1 in a series to show the dangers of the anti-Jewish rhetoric, dangers of theory put into practice, and why Jews have such PTSD when confronted with proselytizing and antisemitism. #Threads
@profunditly @jasonrpublic That “Christ” (Greek for Messiah) is supposed to forgive sins or bring salvation is a Christian, not Jewish, idea – and it is one that redefines the Messiah’s agenda away from what Jews intended when they originated this concept
@profunditly @jasonrpublic representation of the nation.”44 In other words, the “suffering servant” is most likely the nation of Israel, not a specific person. Some rabbinic texts do suggest the servant is a messianic figure, but most scholars believe this to be unlikely...
@profunditly @jasonrpublic ...as “nowhere else does Deutero-Isaiah refer to the Messiah, and the absence of a belief in an individual Messiah is one of the hallmarks of Deutero-Isaiah’s outlook (in contrast to that of First Isaiah).”
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Some commentators believe the character refers to later
prophets such as Jeremiah, but the rabbis of the Talmud identified the suffering servant as Moses...
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Within the Jewish historical context, the answer is no. As Robert Alter states, “Virtually no serious scholars today see this as a prediction of the Passion, but it certainly provided a theological template for interpreting the death of Jesus.”
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Jews do not see the context of the Isaiah texts with having to do with Jesus at all but rather see the identity of the servant as the collective Israel and that “the nations are stunned that such an insignificant and lowly group turns out to have been so important to the divine.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Some thought this referred to Cyrus. But it's definitely not Jesus.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Any idea that people are so sinful that god personally must die for them is not Jewish. We don’t hold that we’ve all inherited some original Sin and need to offer satisfaction for it, so none of this is of any interest to us.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic These are the things the Gospel writers built their character of Jesus around, using Jewish motifs, two generations after Jesus died.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic The Gospel writers didn't know Jesus, they heard stories here and there, but they had to build him as a motif to work. They based his life on Moses, had him quote Jeremiah, ripped into Jewish texts to make them "point" to him.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic There has never been a "son of God" in Judaism. That's Greek mythology. And Jesus' short term prophecies did not come true. He prophesized the kingdom of heaven to come soon. It didn't. He failed. Y'all had to create a "spiritual apocalypse" to justify it.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic There has never been an idea of a "second coming" either. Even the Ben Josef/Ben David were DIFFERENT people in those theories.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic The issues of “blame” for Jesus’ death first arose in the 60s, as Christians became increasingly fearful of Rome. This made it advantageous for Christians to protect themselves by shifting blame for Jesus’ death away from Rome and onto the Jews (rebels against Rome).
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Thereby Rome and Christians would seem allied, with the Jews thought their common enemy. Thus did a Jew put to death by Rome become a “Christian” put to death by ”Jews.”
@profunditly @jasonrpublic The names of the Gospels are pseudapigrapha, names that are those of Jesus' disciples. The actual writers were not eye-witness accounts. The entire story is ahistorical, so much so that it's laughable. Even the synoptics don't agree on things.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic You should ask Jews what Jewish texts mean. Quit with the supersessionsim and replacement theology. The idea that Christians know Jewish texts better than Jews is an arrogance that is unforgiveable.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic
@profunditly @jasonrpublic (Christ is the Greek word for “annointed one), is simply a semantic tactic to not realize you have indeed converted to another religion.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Moreover, there has never been in the history of Biblical or rabbinic Judaism the idea that the Jewish God would or could impregnate a human woman, and that God’s “son” would be a God/Human hybrid, but also representing the anthropomorphic God as well.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic These ideas ring more as pagan mythology, popular in the 1st century CE in the Roman-occupied Judea.
As for history, Judaism and Christianity existed side-by-side as a hybrid entity, somewhat like the many denominations of Judaism in America today, until the 5th century CE,
@profunditly @jasonrpublic when the Church and Jewish rabbinical orthodoxy were established, thus drawing the fine line between the two religions. Messianics attempt to relive those moments between the 2nd and 5th century CE when Judaism and early Christianity were more cohesive.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic However, this “hybrid” identity, for all the reasons above, was abandoned by both Jews and Christians as it was a temporary and unsustainable undertaking.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Messianic revisionist thinking
@profunditly @jasonrpublic Also, Jesus predicted the "last days" in his lifetime. He was wrong.
@profunditly @jasonrpublic These were real christians, real churches, doing horrible horrible things in the name of Jesus. You cannot deny it or minimize it or erase it.
For more helpful info, check out my book:

Let's Talk: A Rabbi Speaks to Christians a.co/d/0xfGKQ0

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More from @RabbiHarvey

Aug 1, 2023
Follow me for a day and you will see the same tiresome critiques of Jews and Judaism that have been crystalized into a series of repetitive tropes, that originate and date from the first four centuries of Christianity. #thread #threads
A quick survey of the first four centuries of Christianity was, almost from the beginning, opposed to Jews and Judaism. It's difficult to find any extant Christian texts from the eastern Mediterranean, from Egypt to Syria to Asia Minor, that does not speak about the Jews.../2
...with some antipathy.
We see the same tropes repeated for the next 1400 years, even into the 21st century on social media, as those structures and seedbeds of antisemitism were formed formally by Christian leaders and authors. /3
Read 10 tweets
Jul 28, 2023
I was recently asked the question as to whether it is possible to be a Christian without also being a supersessionist?
The answer I would give is "maybe, but it would be difficult."
The reason being is that supersesionism is baked into the foundational texts.../1
...of Christianity itself. It calls itself the "new Israel" (thus making the Jews the "old" Israel). It calls Christians "fulfilled Jews," but accepting Jesus makes a person not a “fulfilled” or “completed” Jew but a Christian. It presupposes that Jesus is.../2
..."predicted" in the Tanakh (rather, the Greek translation of a different manuscript, with books in a different order, and called the "Old" Testament, thus meaning that the "New" Testament replaces it." Of course, for motifs that they may claim point to Jesus.../3
Read 9 tweets
Jul 20, 2023
Guys. Seriously. Stop it.
A quick #thread in response to this absurdity.
Messiah - anglicized form of the Hebrew Mashiach, meaning “anointed one”
Anointment being a ritual for inaugurating figures ascending to divinely sanctioned positions, such as king, priest, or prophet./1
Ancient Judaism envisioned the Messiah as a restored human king in Jerusalem, likely descended from King David, preoccupied with the entire people (not individuals), and a strong leader who will vindicate God in demonstrating the political, military, and economic freedom.../2
and strength of God’s people by overthrowing Israel’s foreign oppressors, fulfilling biblical prophecies as Jews interpret them, and ushering in God’s kingdom.
A more contemporary variant conceptualizes such an idealized Kingdom as a universal reign of peace that fulfills.../3
Read 13 tweets
Jul 20, 2023
Commented on this obscenely incorrect tweet and then realized there was far more to say. So why not join me tonight with a #thread about how the portrayal of Pharisees in the Gospel accounts were not only skewed, but ahistorical in nature, and for an agenda: #Threads Image
So to put it simply, no, the Pharisees, in real life, were not any of these things. The Gospel authors, (the evangelists) who wrote 40-100 years after Jesus' encounter with that particular sect, are not a firm historical account by any means on this group of people. /2
I'll speak briefly as to the fact that Jewish-Christians at the time of the Evangelist writings worked hard to distance themselves from the Jews living in the Roman Empire, due to their witnessing of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE as well as brewing tensions that.../3
Read 30 tweets
Jun 28, 2023
Okay folks, I realize that in past #threads regarding anti-LGBTQIA I have focused primarily on the clobber passages, but it seems that even with explicit proof within the Bible, some of our Christian friends still believe the sin of #Sodom was homosexuality.
Let's settle this./1
Let's start back in Genesis 14, where we read that the King of Sodom has engaged in a great battle in the Valley of Siddim. We get a little idea of Sodom when we see that it loses the battle, has all its possessions taken, and the Kings throw themselves into pits while.../2

...the people of Sodom (and Gomorrah) escape to the hill country. Could this be a turning point for the people of Sodom to become inhospitable? Also, the sages ask, "why would Lot settle and remain in such an evil place after it was attacked and he was robbed as well?"/3
Read 26 tweets
Jun 26, 2023
I am surprised by the fact that many in the comments had never considered this paradox, I guess that speaks to the strength of sheltering in religion. Nevertheless, here is that #thread I promised discussing this concept: https://t.co/wmqHZZtVaI
Long ago, I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop with a student, studying Torah, when I was asked a question. The question concerned a moment in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, as we know, is the last book of the Torah, and contains Moses’ final speeches to the Israelites.../2
...before they travel without him over the River Jordan, into the promised land. As Deuteronomy explains, once the Israelites enter the promised land, they are to go city by city, eradicating the peoples who currently dwell there—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites../3
Read 21 tweets

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