4.

 

The Expert Opinion of Priest Pranaitis

 

 

It was only at the end of the preliminary investigation, when the case was submitted for additional examination and was in the hands of N.A. Mashkevich, that the judicial authorities recognized the need to carry out a so-called “ritual expert examination” – to question a competent person about the Judaic rite in general and the blood doctrine in particular.

The expert opinion on these issues was given to the investigator by Roman Catholic priest I.B. Pranaitis, a master of theology, a former professor of the Hebrew language at the Petrograd Roman Catholic Theological Academy, who wrote in 1892, in Latin, a rather interesting book, Christianus in Talmud Iudaeorum: sive, Rabbinicae doctrinae Christiani secreta [English edition: The Talmud Unmasked: The Secret Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians], with the corresponding texts in ancient Hebrew with their translation into Latin.

During the proceedings in the case of Yushchinsky’s murder, Pranaitis was the curator (administrator) of all Catholic churches of the Turkestan region, a position equivalent to the rank of bishop.

His examination by the investigator took place from November 15 to 23, 1912. In court, Pranaitis basically confirmed his expert opinion given during the preliminary investigation.

Pranaitis’ expert opinion is below.

[Some fragments were not included by Zamyslovsky in this book due to their blasphemous nature. They were translated using the edition of Pranaitis’ expert report published in 1913 in Saint Petersburg under the title Tayna krovi u evreyev (The Jewish Blood Secret). – Translator’s Note.]

 

 

* * *

 

To the question whether any sources of Jewish religious teachings contain direct references to the existence of the so-called “blood doctrine” among the Jews, i.e. direct prescriptions of the law which would require the use, by the Jews, of blood of non-Jews in general and that of Christians in particular for religious purpose, I answer that I have not met, in the sources of Jewish religious teachings known to me, such direct references to the above-mentioned doctrine, in the form of definite and exact commands of their religious law, which would be explicit and clear enough to not allow any other interpretation. And one cannot conceive that printed sources available to anyone interested in Jewish religious teachings would contain such references, because no one would announce publicly about his criminal activities.

Nevertheless, it does not mean yet that the Jews, indeed, do not have such doctrine, that the Jews never murdered non-Jews in general and Christians in particular for religious purpose, and that there are no ritual murders at all and the accusation made against the Jews in this regard is an absurdity and a fabrication.

All those who made disclosures in this area of Jewish religious teachings describe this doctrine quite definitely, as an extraordinary secret that is being transmitted by word of mouth from one generation to another, to the chosen ones, under pain of heavy punishments, and with special incantations.

Still, even among the Jews that converted to Christianity there are those who reject any disclosures of the negative aspects of Jewish religious teachings and defend Jewry against all accusations, even if these are well-grounded (professors Khvolson and Levison); and there are those who expose the negative aspects of Jewish religious teachings, but completely deny the existence of the said blood doctrine among the Jews (Alekseev and others).

To clear up this apparent contradiction, one can quote Iore Dea (157, 2, Hagah), which says:

“If a Jew is able to deceive the Akum by pretending he is an Akum (himself), he may do so.”

Thus, rabbinism teaches that the Jews may adopt Christianity insincerely, for the sake of appearances. A Jew who was christened sincerely, or one who was christened for the sake of appearances, but then became a Christian by conviction, angered God and must be killed – such thesis is found in Iore Dea (158, 2, Hagah):

“Apostates who were christened (for the sake of appearances) and then joined the Akum to worship idols as they do are the same as those who were christened to anger God, and they are to be thrown into a pit and left there.”

Thus, an insincere christening and an insincere profession of faith are clearly mentioned here as allowed actions, and only a sincere adoption of Christianity is a sin that angers God. This thesis, recognized by rabbinism, is mentioned by Jewish professor Graetz in his History of the Jews (vol. XI, p. 368). In the eulogy to Börne and Heine he reproaches, quite unfoundedly, the priests who baptized them for not having allegedly required them to profess their faith sincerely. “They both,” writes Graetz, “renounced Judaism outwardly, but only as fighters who take possession of the enemy’s armor and banner in order to strike him more certainly and kill him more thoroughly.” Doctor Graetz was a professor of the Rabbinic Seminary in Breslau. The same idea was advanced by Iost, a tutor at the same seminary, in his History of Jewry (II, 444), where he mentions a whole number of Jewish scholars and scientists who were baptized for the sake of appearances, with the view of advancing Talmudism under the mask of Christianity. English Lord Disraeli, according to the Jewish newspaper Fanfulla (April 21, 1881), had only been baptized to acquire the rights of citizenship, which allowed him to become the head of the government, while in his heart he remained a true Jew and never concealed his dislike for non-Jews. His love to the Jews, on the other hand, grew each year. From Archives Israélites (April 28, 1881) one finds that special prayers were written in English synagogues in commemoration of him. Despite his baptism, he was never considered a Jewish apostate.

Having mentioned earlier that the blood doctrine is being transmitted from one generation to another, I find it necessary to quote, from the very sources of Jewish religious teachings, references to the existence of secret teachings among the Jews.

The sanctity of the Kabbalah is so high that one is forbidden, under pain of anathema, to impart it to the uninitiated.

The Zohar (Vayikra, III, 106a) says:

“It is not allowed to impart these words (of the Kabbalah) to anyone who is not from the community of reapers of the field (i.e. Kabbalists), for, should it not be acted according to this, God will damn those who will impart (these words) to the uninitiated.”

Having said that I have not met, in the sources of Jewish religious teachings known to me, any direct commands of the law, which would not allow any other interpretation, to use human (non-Jewish) blood for religious purpose, I would like to proceed now to the second question that you, Mr. Investigator, had asked me.

The question was: “Is it allowed, from the perspective of the Jewish religious law, to use human (non-Jewish and, in particular, Christian) blood for religious or any other purpose?”

I would like to explain that this question has been a subject of heated controversy for a long time. Some do not admit categorically a positive answer to this question, while others, on the contrary, claim that it must be answered affirmatively.

The former say: There are and can be no ritual murders because they are forbidden by the Law of Moses. Neither the Talmud nor the whole rabbinic literature have even a hint that the Jews would need Christian blood for any purpose whatsoever. The Talmud says nothing at all about Jesus Christ or Christians. All words used in the Talmud to designate non-Jews, such as Goi, Akum, Abodah Zarah, Nokhri, Min, Am Haaretz, etc., do not refer to Christians. All accusations made against the Jews are a product of the ignorant Middle Ages. Scholars of all times have condemned the “blood libel”. There are, also, Papal bulls which attest that the Jews do not use Christian blood. History brings no proven case of a ritual murder. Even if there were cases of sadism, it was the work of some fanatics, heretics. Why should the whole Jewry be accused? Is it not true that Christianity has sadistic sects too? Is it not true that the early Christians were accused of murdering children and consuming their blood? Is it not true that there were many sorcerers and magicians among Christians?

To this, their opponents object: The Law of Moses passed away, just like the night passes away when the day dawns. Moses was replaced by another prophet: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.” (Deuteronomy 18:15) The Old Testament, full of mentions of the coming Messiah, ended its existence at the moment that had been predicted by the prophets (Daniel 9:24-27), when “the Most Holy”, “Messiah the Prince” was anointed, when Jesus the Nazarene was born. His death brought “an end to sacrifice and offering.”

This fact is clearly realized by the Talmud:

“During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand (Leviticus 16:21); nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the westernmost light shine; and the doors of the Temple would open by themselves.” (Talmud, Yoma, 39b)

The synagogue became similar to a straw from which all the wheat was threshed; to an eggshell from which a nestling hatched; to a house that emptied after its inhabitant had left. And when the city and the sanctuary were destroyed (Daniel 9:26) and not one stone was left upon another in the beautiful Jerusalem Temple (Matthew 24:2), the possibility to sacrifice whatsoever disappeared. The Jews, having rejected Christ, saw themselves rejected.

“From the day on which the Temple was destroyed, the gates of prayer have been closed... a wall of iron has intervened between Israel and their Father in Heaven.” (Berakhot, 32b)

“[...the Judeans,] who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost,” writes Paul, a Pharisee and a fierce persecutor of the early followers of Christ, the murderer of Saint Stephen, who knew his fellow Jews very well. (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16)

Having remained without the sacrificial altar and the priesthood, the Jews fell under the rule of those who had taken the place of priests – rabbis, who were scholars and interpreters of the books of the Old Testament. Everyone interpreted in his own way. In the lack of an authority from above, they contradicted one another. What was forbidden by Hillel’s school was allowed by Shammai’s school, and vice versa. From such interpretations, the Talmud was composed, and it became the holy book of the Jews:

“There is nothing superior to the Holy Talmud.” (Mizbeach, Hamelech, chapter V)

The Talmud is put above the Holy Scripture:

“There is greater stringency in respect to the teachings of the scribes (rabbis) than in respect to the Torah.” (Sanhedrin, 88b)

“Even the contradictory interpretations should be considered as the words of the living God” (Erubin, 13b)

“My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the scribes (rabbis) in the Talmud than of the words of the Bible, as there are only commands and prohibitions in the words of Bible. Anyone who departs from the words of the rabbis deserves death... Anyone who mocks at the words of the rabbis will be tormented in boiling excrements.” (Erubin, 21b)

“If one has learnt Scripture and Mishnah but did not attend upon rabbinical scholars, he is godless.” (Sotah, 22a)

Even if today rabbinism, for tactical reasons, denies the mandatory nature and the significance of the Zohar with the whole Nistar (the secret teaching of the Kabbalah), in the Zohar itself (Tikunei, 82a, 114a-b) we read that it is a grave sin to deny the wisdom of the Kabbalah.

Mafteach, in the appendix to volume I of the Przemysl edition of the Zohar, tells about this as follows:

“A greater sin is committed by the one who (in reality) denies the wisdom of the Kabbalah and says that there is only peshat (direct interpretation); it would be better for him to not having been born.”

The high authority of the Kabbalah also follows from the following fact: In the work Kneset ha-Gedola, in the beginning of Kelale ha-Poskim, by Radbaz, as well as in Sefer Yuhasin and in Shaalot u-Teshubot by Mahari Halevi, it is written that everyone must fulfill the commands of the Kabbalah which are not found in the Talmud or in Poskim, that is in the books of Tur, Shulchan, and others. Furthermore, if any place in the Zohar is in contradiction with the Talmud, one must follow the Zohar. In the Zohar (III, 244b) it says: “The rabbis of Mishnah and Gemara adjusted their Talmud in accordance with the secrets of the Kabbalah.”

Thus, the sources of Jewish religious teachings should be considered today the Shulchan Aruch and the Zohar, which practically replaced the Law of Moses (the Talmud with Mishnah and Gemara). The Shulchan Aruch is a relatively recent code of law, which has a high authority among modern Jewry and governs the life of a Jew in all its moments, while the Zohar is a comprehensive collection of kabbalistic texts.

In view of what has been said above, in order to answer the proposed question one must solve the following particular questions:

Is it allowed, from the perspective of Jewish religious teachings, the murder of a non-Jew in general and that of a Christian in particular by the Jews, and how does the Jewish religious law regard such murder?

Is it allowed, from the perspective of the same teachings, the use of human blood as food or for any other purposes?

The solving of these particular questions, in view of the undeniable historical facts of murders interpreted in history as ritual, would offer a basis for making certain conclusions and giving an answer to the general question.

Before solving the above-mentioned problems, I must consider another particular attendant question which allows the advocates of the unreachable height of Talmudic teaching to relate inconvenient places from the sources of Jewish religious teachings to persons other than Christians, to whom such places actually relate. This question always generates a lot of controversy, even if, in my opinion, it is solved completely clearly and simply in the same sources. I am talking about the very rich terminology in Hebrew used to define non-Jews in general and Christians in particular. I mean, here, terms and expressions such as Goi, Akum, Abodah Zarah, Minim, Amme Haaretz Haolam, Nokhri, Kuthi, and many others; over 50 of such terms are found in the Talmud. This terminology is never used in strict accordance with the etymological interpretation of a term, so, as a result, each of these terms is used to define a non-Jew, whether he is a Christian, a Gentile or someone else.

 

Goi means “a nation”, “a people”. It is used very seldom for Israel (e.g. in Exodus 19:6), and is mainly applied to other nations (e.g. in Deuteronomy 28:36, 49, 50) or the Gentiles (e.g. in Psalms 2:1).

In Buxtorf’s Lexicon, the term Goi is defined as follows:

“This is how the Jews call everyone who does not belong to the nation of Israel; this name is applied mostly to Christians, as the Turks are called Ishmaelites. Even an individual stranger is called Goi, despite all linguistic rules. Rabbi Solomon (in his interpretation of Deuteronomy 7:2) writes: ‘Show them no mercy (i.e. do not praise them).’ One is forbidden to say: How beautiful this Goi (i.e. this Christian) is! Instead of this (term), some editions use the term of Kuthi. The same, and much more, is said about this place by rabbi Bekhai (p. 196, 4). Fem. gend.: Goia – a Gentile, a Christian woman.”

 

Akum – The first letters of the words Abhde Kokhabhim u’Mazzaloth – worshippers of stars and planets. However, this term is applied to Christians as well.

“Thus, if a gift is sent to the Akum, even in these times, on the eighth day after the feast of Nithal (Christmas), which they call Naye Yar (the New Year)...” (Iore Dea, 148, 5, 12)

“Here, in our city (Kalisz), an issue of hiring the Akum for sweeping the streets has been raised, so that they would do their job on Saturday.” (Commentary to the Shulchan Aruch under the title Magen Abraham, note 8 to section 244 of Orach Chayim, written by a rabbi from Kalisz who died in 1775.)

Apparently, it was not the worshippers of stars they needed to sweep the streets in Kalisz as there most probably were no such persons in Kalisz in the 18th century and they would have had to be brought from elsewhere.

 

Abodah Zarah – A foreign cult, idolatry.

“And be it known that these Christian people who follow Jesus, although their teachings vary, are all Abodah Zarah – worshippers of idols.” (Maimonides, commentary to Abodah Zarah, 78c)

 

Minim – Minaeans, heretics, and, in particular, Christians.

“Minaeans are those who believe in two gods (like the heretics of Manicheans)... Minaeans are people who distort the word of God into evil, like the Sadducees and Baithosees.” (rabbi Solomon, interpretation of Rosh Hashanah, 17a)

Saint Jerome in his letter to Saint Augustine writes:

“In our own day there exists a sect among the Jews throughout all the synagogues of the East, which is called the sect of the Minei [Minaeans], and is even now condemned by the Pharisees. The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarenes; they believe in Christ the Son of God.”

The Jews have a prayer called Birkat ha-Minim which is directed against heretics and apostates who converted from Judaism to Christianity or Mohammedanism. It is read daily to call down everlasting destruction on them. The curse against the “proud state” (Rome) and all the enemies of Israel, especially Christians, is added to it.

Maimonides calls this prayer (in Hilkhot Tefillah, chapter 7) Birkat Linshumdim – prayer against the baptized.

Kad ha-Kemah (80a) says that it was composed in the town of Jaffa and, due to great necessity, added to the eighteen prayers (Shemone Esre) for a very important reason: so that the “godless” (i.e. Christian) kingdom be destroyed.

The Jerusalem Talmud, published in Krakow in 1602, says that the prayer of Shel Minim (against the heretics) was written much later than the eighteen prayers (Shemone Esre) in the town of Jaffa “in the time close to the appearance of that Nazarene (Jesus) who taught that one must abandon the Law of Living God.”

In Tsemah David (vol. 1, p. 36, b) it says:

“The Sanhedrin was transferred from Jerusalem to Jaffa forty years before the destruction of the Temple, in 4385, and it was there that rabbi Samuil, in the presence of rabbi Gamaliel the Elder, wrote the prayer against the heretics, according to the treatise Sanhedrin, chapter I.” This circumstance clearly tells when this prayer was written, for what reasons, and against what kind of heretics it is directed (Buxtorf’s Lexicon, the word Min).

“Rabbi Meir calls the books of the Minaeans Aven Gilaion (volumes of iniquity) because they call them Euangelion (Gospel).” (Shabbat, 116a)

 

Notzrim – Nazarenes.

A Notzri is anyone who “follows the delusion of That Man who ordered to celebrate, instead of the Sabbath, the first day after the Sabbath (Sunday).” (Abodah Zarah, 6a)

 

Amme Haaretz Haolam – Peoples of the earth, rabble, ignorant people, idiots.

“We have trespassed against our God, and have taken pagan wives (Nokhrioth) from the peoples of the earth (Meamme Haaretz).” (Ezra 10:2)

“Then all the peoples of the earth (Amme Haaretz) will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.” (Deuteronomy 28:10)

“And do not be afraid of the people of the earth (Am Haaretz), because we will devour them.” (Numbers 14:9)

“The people of the earth – Abodah Zarah, idolaters.” (Zohar, I, 25a)

 

Nokhrim – Strangers, foreigners, as opposed to Israel, Gentiles.

Kuthim – The Samaritans.

 

All these terms, despite their different etymological meaning, can be found in different sources when the same texts are quoted by the rabbis, and thus they replace one another, *) being used as synonyms to define the same term of a non-Jew, as opposed to a Jew.

 

*) To show this, one can bring a countless number of examples; here are just several of them:

1) in Abodah Zarah, 25b – Goi; in Iore Dea, 153, 2 – Akum;

2) in Jebbamoth, 61a – Nokhrim; in Kerithuth, 6b – Goim;

3) in Orach Haim, 39, 1 – Akum; in Gittin, 45b – Nokhri;

4) in Choshen ha-Mishpat, 266, 1 – Akum; in Baba Metzia, 31a – Nokhri;

5) in Orach Haim, 20, 2 – Akum; in the commentary of Ateret CohanimGoi; in Yad haHazaka, Hilchot Tzitzit, 2, 7 (by Maimonides) – Kuthi.

 

As I now proceed to the question of whether it is allowed, from the perspective of Jewish religious teachings, the murder of a non-Jew in general and of a Christian in particular, I must point out that no matter what contradictions appeared between different rabbinic schools, they were nevertheless united in their hatred against non-Jews, whom they call by the general term of “peoples of the earth” – Amme Haaretz (Numbers 14:9, Deuteronomy 28:10).

Non-Jews are not even considered human beings:

“You are my flock, the flock of my pasture are men... You are thus called men, but the Goim are not called men.” (Kerithuth, 6b, commentary to Ezekiel 24:31)

“God created them in the form of men for the glory of Israel, for it is not becoming to the son of a king (an Israelite) that animals in their natural form serve him; but these must be animals in the form of human beings.” (Midrash Talpioth, 255d)

But most of all the hatred of the Jews is directed against the followers of the one who “was the cause of the destruction of Israel and caused the rest of them to be dispersed and humiliated, so that the Law was changed and the greater part of the world was seduced to worship another God.” (Maimonides, Hilchot Melachim, IX, 4)

In 1880, a rabbinic school published in Przemysl an edition of the Zohar with a text which said (vol. III, sheet 282) that in the other world godless people find themselves in a place full of excrements. According to this text, it is a place “where they throw the dead bodies of dogs and asses, and where the sons of Esau (Christians) and of Ishmael (the Turks), also Jesus and Muhammad, uncircumcised and unclean like dead dogs, are buried; and this is a coffin of the godlessness (Abodah Zarah), where the uncircumcised are buried, who are dead dogs, abomination and horrible stench, covered in mud and stinky, an evil (depraved) generation and a great rabble that attached itself to Israel... dead bones and unclean flesh... it has been written about it: Throw it to the dogs.”

How much hatred, malice and blasphemous attitude to Jesus Christ and the Holy Virgin Mary can be found in numerous Jewish religious books!

 

[Insert from the 1913 book: Jesus is called by them Yeshu, which is composed of the first letters of Yimakh Shemo Uzikro, i.e. “May his name and memory be obliterated”. The name of our Savior in Hebrew is Joshua, which means “salvation”. As a mockery of Christ’s name, the Jews call him Elloyoshia, i.e. “god that cannot save”.

In the prayer read by the Jews when they leave the synagogue, in which they thank God for creating them different than the other nations, they add the words “who prostrate themselves in front of the vanity and emptiness, venerate it, and invoke the god that cannot save”.

We find the same in the works of Rasha who interprets the words from Psalms 18:41 – “Yeshavveu veen Moshiach”, i.e. “They cried for help, but there was no one to save them” – as “Such is the foreign god.”

Regarding this, Buxtorf remarks: These wailings are apparently being put into the mouth of Christians and the Abodah Zarah; it is Jesus who is meant by the term of “foreign god”. Therefore, it is at his name that the Jews mock by resorting to the casuistry: Yeshavveu veen Moshiach.

Furthermore, the epithet Notzri (the Nazarene) is applied to Jesus Christ. This epithet means the same as Ben Nezar, which, however, was also the name of a famous robber mentioned in the Talmud, in the treatise Ketubot (51, 2). Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508), as he explains the words of prophet Daniel, “I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them” (Daniel 7:8), writes: “Note that the rabbis derive this little horn from Ben Nezar, i.e. Jesus the Nazarene, and associate it with the impious kingdom, i.e. the kingdom of Edom, for this kingdom belongs to His people.” (Mayanei HaYeshua, 66b)

The Pure Virgin Mary is called by the Jews not Maria, but Charia, which means manure, feces.

Saints (kedoshim in Hebrew) are called by the Jews kedeshim, i.e. cinaedos – sodomites. Women saints are called kedeshot – whores.

The Sunday is called yom ed – the day of calamity. The feast of Christmas is Nital, i.e. downfall. Easter is called not Pesach, but Ketzach (destruction) or Kesach (gallows). A Christian church is called not beth hatefillah (house of prayer), but beth hattiflah (house of stupidity or vanity) or beth hatturah (house of shame). A Christian sermon is called defecation. In the Jerusalem Talmud we read: “If you find them during defecation (mozobelim instead of mezabechim – sacrifice), you must exclaim: ‘Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed!’ (Exodus 22:20)” – End of the insert.]

 

The current situation of the Jews after the destruction of the Temple is called by the Zohar (I, 25a) “the Fourth (Edomite, Roman) Captivity”, “a time of war to death”.

“Make no covenant with them [the Akum]... Either turn them away from their idols or kill them.” (Maimonides, Hilchot Akum, X, 1)

“When the Jews have more power, it is a sin to leave among us a Goi who worships stars and planets. Even if fate brought him to us by accident or he came to us as a wandering merchant, we must not allow him to pass through our country.” (Maimonides, Hilchot Akum, X, 1-7)

All Old Testament instructions regarding the fight against the Amalekites, Edomites and other neighboring Gentile peoples are also applied to the idolaters of the most recent times.

“The people of the earth are idolaters, and it has been written about them: Let them be wiped off the face of the earth. Destroy the memory of the Amalekites. They are with us still in this Fourth Captivity, namely, the Princes [of Rome]... who are really Amalekites.” (Zohar, I, 25a)

The fact that the Jews use the term of idolaters for Christians is absolutely clear from a whole number of texts:

1) In the Talmud (Abodah Zarah, 7b), the Christian Sunday is called a “feast of idolaters”.

2) Maimonides (in Abodah Zarah, I, 3) writes: “Be it known that the Nazarenes, the followers of the delusion of Jesus, although their teachings vary, are all idolaters, and you should treat them like idolaters... This is how the Talmud teaches.”

3) Rabbi Asher in Halachot (Abodah Zarah, 83b) says directly: “The cross is idolatry.”

4) “Everything the prophets said about the destruction of the Edom in the last days was said about Rome, like I set it out when I explained Isaiah (34:1): Come near, you nations, and listen; for when Rome is destroyed, Israel will be saved.” (David Kimchi, in the beginning of his commentary to prophet Obadiah)

 

To throw off the Edomite yoke, liberate themselves from the Fourth Captivity, subjugate all the nations to their rule, destroy the Church of Christ, restore the destroyed Jerusalem Temple – this is the goal for which the Jews strive.

 

“Rabbi Jehuda said to Rabbi Chezkia:

‘He is to be praised who is able to free himself from [the enemies of Israel], and the just are much to be praised who get free from them and fight against them.’

Rabbi Chezkia asked:

‘How must we fight against them?’

Rabbi Jehuda said:

‘By wise counsel thou shalt war against them.’

By what kind of war? The kind of war that every son of man (i.e. Israel) must fight against his enemies, which Jacob used against Esau – by deceit and trickery whenever possible. They must be fought against without ceasing, until proper order be restored (until all the peoples of the earth become our slaves). Thus it is with satisfaction that I say we should free ourselves from them and rule over them.” (Zohar, I, 160a)

 

To reach this goal, a Jew is allowed to use any means: lies, deceit, trickery, perjury, and finally, merciless slaughter.

“Where a suit arises between an Israelite and a Goy, if you can justify the former according to the laws of Israel, justify him and say: ‘This is our law’; so also if you can justify him by the laws of the Goim, justify him and say [to him]: ‘This is your law’; but if this cannot be done, we use subterfuges to circumvent him. This is the view of R. Ishmael, but R. Akiba said that one should not lie so as not to profane the Name of God if a Jew is caught lying; but the Name of God is not profaned if the Goy does not notice that you are a liar... The Name of God is not profaned if, for example, a Jew lies to the heir of a Goy: I gave a thing to your father, but he is dead; now you return it to me – as long as the Goy does not know that the Jew is lying.” (Baba Kama, 113b)

“A Jew is selling to an Akum; his [the Jew’s] companion appears and gives short measure or short weight or short change to the Akum; he must share this profit with his companion, whether he helped his companion for money or for free.” (Choshen ha-Mishpat, 183, 7, Hagah)

“If a Jew is able to deceive them [idolaters] by pretending he is a worshipper of the stars, he may do so.” (Iore Dea, 157, 2)

A Jew can perjure with a clear conscience:

“She (the mother of the Mamzer) said to him, ‘Swear to me.’ And Rabbi Akiba swore with his lips, but in his heart he invalidated his oath.” (Kallah, 1b)

One should not save a Christian from an inevitable death, and one must remove everything which could save him.

“Having noticed that a heretic who denies the Torah fell into a deep pit, with a ladder in it, take the ladder quickly away saying, ‘I need it to take my son off the roof; I will bring it right back,’ or something of that kind. However, do not kill the Kuthim who are not our enemies, but do not save them from an inevitable death either.” (Choshen ha-Mishpat, 425, 5)

“Do not kill the Akum who are not our enemies, but do not save them from an inevitable death either. For example, if you see one of them fall into the sea, do not pull him out even if he promises you a lot of money.” (Iore Dea, 158, 1)

“Do not have pity for them, for it is said: Show no mercy unto them. Therefore, if you see an Akum in difficulty or drowning, do not go to his help. And if he is in danger of death, do not save him from death. But it is not right to kill him by your own hand by shoving him into a well or in some other way, since they are not at war with us.” (Maimonides, Hilchot Akum, X, 1)

Finally, the Talmud encourages and commands to kill non-Jews in general and Christians in particular.

“They (the Goim) have been a stumbling block for them (the Israelites), therefore rabbi Shimon said: Kill the best of the Goim, crush the brain of the best of the snakes.” (Mekhilta, IIa, chapter Beshalach)

We read the same in Jalkut Rubeni (93a), which corresponds to the chapter Beshalach:

“In the Talmudic treatise Soferim it says: Kill the fairest of the godless people (in the original – the Akum).”

The same is said in the treatise Abodah Zarah (26b, in the first lines of Tosafot).

Eisenmenger says that in his copy of the Talmud, published in Amsterdam, these words have been omitted in chapter 15 of the above-mentioned treatise Soferim, because the Jews had been afraid to include them, and makes the conclusion: “Since they are commanded to kill the best of the Goim or the Gentiles and godless people, it means that they are allowed to kill any Christian without distinction.” (Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, 1700, part II, chapter III, p. 215)

The Jews and their advocates deny that the Jewish religious law allows murder, by quoting the commandment “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). Eisenmenger objects to this in the same book (p. 210) by quoting primary sources; he says that the Jews interpret this commandment in the sense that it only refers to the Jews, and, consequently, it does not apply to Christians or other nations.

Such interpretation can be seen from the commentary of rabbi Levi ben Gershon to the Pentateuch (77d, chapter Vayishma Yithro), where Gershon teaches as follows:

“The words ‘You shall not kill’ mean that you should not take the life of an Israelite, because they [the Israelites] are allowed to kill animals, as it clearly follows from many places of the law. Thus, they are commanded to kill certain nations, such as the Amalekites and others, leaving no one alive. It follows from here that this commandment only refers to the Israelites.”

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon is in agreement with that; in his book Yad haHazaka (part 4, sheet 47, chapter I, no. 1, section Hilchot Rotzeach), he writes:

“Anyone who kills an Israelite violates the prohibitive commandment, for it was written: You shall not kill.”

Since this commandment only forbids to kill Jews, and the other nations are excluded, it is obvious that the killing of Christians is allowed.

Furthermore, the Jews and their advocates object by saying that the words “Kill the best of the Goim” should be understood in the sense that one should kill the best of the Goim in wartime, and it does not mean that the Goim could be killed in peacetime. To this, Eisenmenger objects, absolutely correctly (Eisenmenger, Ibid., p. 215):

“To this, I say that sometimes these words are indeed given such interpretation in rabbinic books. *) However, since the words ‘in wartime’ are not found (yet) in the old book of Mekhilta or in the treatise Soferim, one must conclude that these words were only included in other books later, by other persons, so that Christians and people of other nations who read or hear about such godless teaching would not reproach the Jews with it, and also so that the command to kill the best of the Goim would not stir an excessive zeal of those Jews who have a particular weakness for Christian blood, and the killing of several or many Christians would not lead to the murder of all the Jews, who had already been repeatedly subjected to harsh persecutions and the expulsion from many countries for murders and other crimes...”

 

*) Thus, in Sefer Toledot Adam ve-Hava, 160b, Part 6, it says: “In another place, we say: Kill the best of the Goim, and the Jerusalem Talmud, in the treatise Kiddushin, explains that it should be understood as referring to war, while in peacetime they [the Goim] are taken out of a pit, but are not thrown there, even if they are idolaters and transgress the seven commandments (of Noah).” Such interpretation is also found in the book Be’er Hagolah, 44c, or in the Tosafot to the Talmudic treatise Abodah Zarah, 26b. (Quoted from Eisenmenger, Ibid.)

 

If we were to admit that, indeed, the command was only to kill the best of the Goim in wartime, but not in peacetime as well, then why does the above-mentioned book Mekhilta say that rabbi Shimon uttered his words, “Kill the best of the Goim”, because the Egyptians were a stumbling block for the Israelites when the latter lived in Egypt? War is not mentioned here at all, and there is no reasonable way to impose such interpretation. Furthermore, had the case been about the murder in wartime, the Jews would have not been afraid to announce publicly about such meaning of these words, because one is allowed to kill enemies during a war. However, the attempts of the Jews to hide or conceal such sense (by reinterpretation or omissions) is a clear and indisputable proof of the fact that there is something wrong here.”

Here, it could be added that even if one were to admit that the Jews and their advocates are right in interpreting the words “Kill the best of the Goim” by adding “in wartime”, then, in view of the above quote from the Zohar (I, 25a) about the “Fourth Captivity” – a time of permanent war to death, their argument has no sense whatsoever for the time of the “Fourth Captivity”.

The above quote, “Kill the best of the Goim”, can be found in many sources, sometimes in a slightly different form.

For example, Rabbi Salomon Iarchi says, in chapter 14 of Exodus, the Amsterdam edition: “The best of the Egyptians deserves death.” The letters of the word “Egyptian” in old Hebrew are almost the same as those of “Notzrim”, so one can easily read one word instead of the other.

Edzar tells that he saw an edition where it was said directly: “Kill the best of Christians (Notzrim).”

Rabbi Yochanan said: “A Goi who studies the Law deserves death.” (Sanhedrin, 59a)

The same is written in Mattekh Aaron, 60a.

An objection to this quite clear text is made by quoting another text from Sanhedrin: “A Goi who studies the Law is equal to a chief priest.” This text is also given in Abodah Zarah (3a), but the same source, in Tosafot, explains it as follows: “The words that a Goi who studies the Law is equal to a chief priest should be understood as referring to their seven commandments (of Noah), because, if we were to mean here the other commandments (from the Law of Moses), it would be wrong, for we said in the Talmudic treatise Sanhedrin, in chapter seven entitled Arba Mifot, that a Gentile (in the Hebrew text – Goi) who studies the Law (of Moses) deserves death.”

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Rambam) speaks very clearly on this subject in Yad haHazaka (part 4, chapter 10, treatise Hilchot Melachim, no. 9):

“A Goi who studies the Law deserves death. He must only study his seven commandments.”

From this, it can be clearly seen that a non-Jew who studies the Law of Moses (which quite a few Christians do) deserves death, and, consequently, a Jew may kill him.

In the Talmud, in the treatise Pesachim (49b), it says:

“Rabbi Eliezer said: It is permitted to pierce a non-Jew even on the feast of the Atonement when it falls on the Sabbath. Then, his disciples said to him: Rabbi, you should rather say to sacrifice (instead of “pierce”). He replied to them: No, for it is necessary to say a berakh (a prayer, a doxology) while sacrificing, but there is no need of a berakh when you pierce someone.”

Some object to this completely clear text by saying that it speaks about a figurative death by impoverishment, about the confiscation of property. This objection has not a leg to stand on because the rabbinic criminal law does not list figurative death as a punishment, and also because the words of rabbi Eliezer about a sacrifice with a berakh and a piercing without a berakh would have no sense if property were to be confiscated as a punishment by figurative death. These words undoubtedly indicate that this text means an actual killing.

The sources of Jewish religious teachings do not confine themselves to the permission to kill non-Jews in general and Christians in particular, but go even further – they recommend, encourage, praise and command to kill. The slaughter of non-Jews, and, consequently, that of Christians, is a sacrifice pleasing to God. The idea that the murder of a non-Jew is a sacrificial act can be found in many places.

“Take the life of the Klipoth *) and kill them, and thus you will please Shekinah (the goddess of the heaven) the same as one who offers incense to Her.” (Sefer Or Israel, 177b)

 

*) Klipoth – shell, husk. One of the names used for non-Jews, in contrast to grain, i.e. the Jews.

 

In the same work (p. 180) it says: “A Jew must remove thorns from his vineyard, that is root out the Klipoth, as there can be nothing more pleasing to God than the eradication of the impious and the Klipoth by us.”

“[Anyone who] sheds the blood of the impious is just as pleasing to God as the one who offers a sacrifice to Him.” (Yalkut Shimoni, 245, p. 772; Bamidbar Rabbah, 229c)

Here, the word “impious” undoubtedly refers to Christians, because Christians are considered by the Jews to be impious godless people, a godless nation, while Christianity is called by them a “kingdom of the godless”, a “godless kingdom”, “the godless kingdom of Esau” or “the godless Roman Kingdom”, as it was proven beyond doubt by Eisenmenger in his above-quoted work (part I, chapters 16 and 17).

After the Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed, the Jews were only left with a single kind of sacrifice – the slaughter of non-Jews, including Christians.

“The only sacrifice required is that we remove the unclean from amongst us.” (Zohar, III, 227b)

“The goat that was sent to Azazel on the Day of Atonement is a proof that we must be the death of the Klipoth.” (Mikdash Melech to p. 32a of the Zohar)

“Every Jew must free the holy people, which in the fifth millennium (Anno Mundi) fell under the rule of shells (Klipoth) and the godless Akum, may their name be erased... And if one asks how I could help him, He (God) says: You must erase the memory of Amalek, for the goddess of the heaven (Matrunita) will not be pleased until you revenge yourself upon Amalek by exterminating the Goim and their children.” It was said by “holy” rabbi Israel Yaffe in Sefer Or Israel, 38b.

The murderers of non-Jews, and, consequently, those of Christians, are granted the highest place in the heaven.

“In the palaces of the fourth heaven are those who lamented over Zion and Jerusalem, and all those who destroyed idolatrous nations... And those who killed off people who worship idols are clothed in purple garments so that they may be recognized and honored.” (Zohar, 1, 38b and 39a)

An objection to this quote is that it does not speak about those who killed idolaters, but rather about the killed Jews who are splashed over with blood as if it were purple. However, in the Amsterdam edition of the Zohar in both places of the above-quoted text one finds the word “ketole” – “killers”. One must replace the letter “Vav” with the letter “Yod” to turn “ketole” into “ketile” – “the killed ones”. In order to remove any doubts as to how one should understand “purple”, a footnote was added to this word, which says: “lebush nikbad” – “garments of honor”.

Having attached to the extermination of non-Jews, including Christians, the characteristics of a religious feat prescribed by the law, and those of a sacrificial act which replaced the sacrifice in the Temple for the period of non-existence of the Temple and the Altar, Jewish religious teachings, in conformity with this, combine and associate the notion of a sacrificial goat with that of the nation of the Edomites, the Christian nation. The basis for such association is found by the interpreters in the word “sair”, which means not only “goat”, but also “hairy” – the name which was used for Esau, the progenitor of the Edomites (Ish Sair). Eisenmenger explains this issue in his above-mentioned work (part II, chapter II, pp. 158-159) as follows: The scapegoat, on whom all the sins of the Jews were placed and who was then driven into the desert as a gift to the devil, designates, according to rabbinic teachings, Esau and his descendants, who are Christians today. This is why not only Esau, but also Christianity is called “Sair” – hairy or shaggy, or the goat-like demon of the desert.

The fact that the goat which was driven into the desert and given to the devil means Esau can be seen from Yalkut Hadash, 102c, under the title Yamim Noraim. In chapter 103 of the book Magalekh Amikot it says: “Jacob told to Esau (Genesis 33:14) to go to Seir (a woody area, the name of the country of the Edomites) (Genesis 32:3): and Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, because he (Esau) was the goat which was driven away (into the desert) on the Day of Atonement as a gift for Azazel.”

Another place says in a similar way: “In that moment, the Holy and Blessed One removes all the sins of the Israelites and places them upon the impious Esau, as it was said (Leviticus 16:22): And the goat (Sair) shall bear upon him all their iniquities. Not the goat, but the impious Esau, as it was said (Genesis 27:11): Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man (Ish Sair).” (Yalkut Shimoni, interpretation of Isaiah, p. 58, column 1, no. 366)

What kind of meaning lies in the above-mentioned notion of “goat” can be seen from the following quote: “Had the nations understood the real meaning of this goat, they – may God prevent it – would not have left an Israelite alive not even for a day.” (Yalkut Hadash, p. 101, column 3, no. 21)

“The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. (Deuteronomy 30:7) – This sentence will be fulfilled against the nation which descends from Esau.” (Emek Hamelech, p. 146, column 4)

“Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the Lord’s. (Obadiah 1:21) – This means that his kingdom is not complete until he revenges himself upon the mountain of Esau, that is, as the Chaldean Oracles say, ... upon the great city of Esau, Rome.” (rabbi Solomon, the commentary to Obadiah 1:21)

So far, I have pointed out places from Jewish religious teachings which prove that the murder of non-Jews in general and of Christians in particular by the Jews is allowed, for the reasons of the hate that runs all through the teachings of Talmudic rabbinism in a sharp and clear form. However, it would not be enough to limit ourselves to this explanation alone. The sources of Jewish religious teachings have enough places which offer another reason for the extermination of non-Jews by murder, a mystical reason.

The whole mystical teaching of Judaism is concentrated around the expected coming of the Messiah. On the ground of the messianic idea, Jewish mysticism created the teaching that God, having created the world, dropped particles of his divine holiness into living creatures in the form of sparks, and, when the light and dark sides were created, a part of these divine sparks fell on the dark side (the dark side consists of non-Jews, the Klipoth, i.e. husk or shell, which retains these sparks). Overall, 288 divine sparks fell on the dark side (Hayim Vital, Peri Etz Hayim, 33b). The liberation of such sparks from the klipoth (the dark side) and their return upward, to their original source, accelerates the arrival of the Messiah. Thus, such moment depends upon the liberation of all these 288 divine sparks from the klipoth (shells, husks, the dark side of the creation). From here it follows the thesis that a Jew who waits for the Messiah with all his heart must strive for the liberation of such sparks by killing the Klipoth, just as Moses killed the Egyptian.

 

[Insert from the 1913 book: In order to explain and confirm the above theory, I would like to quote from the works of Hayim Vital (1543-1620), a great authority among the Jews. In the work Shaar Hakdamot (shaar 6, derush 2, sheet 33b) he writes: “The mystery of the said thing is that in order to combine (mate, copulate, unite) the Little Face and His Wife, we raise the female waters in two ways: firstly, by prayer as we bow to the ground (with prostration or a long low bow), for through it (the prayer) they (those who pray) raise the divine sparkles, which are found in shells (husks, crusts, klipoth) everywhere, up to the mountain; and secondly, by killing the shells (klipoth) and removing them from this world, for in this case they (the klipoth) raise with them the divine sparks situated in the shells, through the mystery of the female waters, up to the Wife of the Little Face, and by way of this the Little Face unites with his Wife and puts the sparks in order. (Things happen) similarly with the Little Face and his Wife, for, as they are raised to the Father and Mother (i.e. the Higher Sephiroths – the Wreath and the Queen) during their coupling, they take the splinters (sparks) of the Father and Mother with them and raise them up to the Mother, bring them through the mystery of the female waters to Her (the Mother), and put the sparks, which are raised up each time by small splinters, in order. And this thing continues until all the sparks are removed from the shell, become separated (released from the shells – klipoth) and are put in order. And then the Messiah will come, as is known.”

From the above text it can be seen that by killing the shells (klipoth), which causes the rising of the sparks, the coupling of the Lower Sephiroths (called the Little Face and His Wife, Rachel) takes place. Both these Sephiroths bring then the sparks to the Higher Sephiroths (the Father and Mother), when the sparks are raised during the coupling of the Lower Sephiroths. The sparks are called “splinters” of the Father and Mother because they were dropped into shells from the higher potencies of the Deity (the Father and Mother) according to the mystery called Khabu. In this way, a Jew (partially by praying, and partially by killing the klipoth) brings these sparks to the intermediary Sephiroths – the Little Face and His Wife – who return them to the original divine source. As a result, God is being strengthened in his fight against Sammael (the Evil Spirit – the “head of the shells”) and Lilith (his wife), who try to prevent the coming of the Messiah, until God is finally able to send the Messiah, who, as is known, will only come when all the sparks are removed from the shells.

The same “genius” Hayim Vital in his work Sefer ha-Likutim (13b) explains: “Cain’s soul, which had originated from the filth of the Serpent (it is assumed that Cain was an offspring of Eve and the Serpent who seduced her), passed into the Egyptian, who was an Akum... Therefore, Moses, into whom, as we know, Abel’s soul had passed, had to save the good soul of his brother Cain, which had mixed with the evil soul of the Egyptian, so he killed him (the Egyptian) not with a sword, but by the Name of God.” – End of the insert.]

 

The fact that the murder of a non-Jew, and, consequently, that of a Christian, is given the significance of a sacrificial act, that is a ritual significance, can be seen from many places of the Zohar.

Thus, in part two of the Zohar (40b, to Exodus 12:3) it says:

“Each of them must take a lamb for their families, one lamb for each family. We have the teaching that three are united (equal) between them: the firstborn of an animal, the firstborn of a female prisoner, and the firstborn of a maidservant *), for all the rest (the salvation of Israel) is related to these three kinds (of the firstborns). In what way? Because it was said: ‘a lamb.’ Everything is united in a lamb. The real lamb is united with the typical lamb **), and they cannot be separated when they are killed. And yes, they are united. For it was written (Exodus 12:6): And you shall keep it (the lamb). Tie it, and it must remain in your hands until you sacrifice it. And it must be done until the Messiah comes, as it was written: Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? ... Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone... I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. (Isaiah 63:1-3) It was also written (Isaiah 34:6): For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. Also, it was written (Zechariah 14:9): The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name. ***)”

 

*) The Przemysl edition of the Zohar mentions here the firstborn of a maidservant, while the Amsterdam edition does not.

 

**) That is one which is called a lamb figuratively, allegorically.

 

***) One, the symbol of the unity of God, is Ehad in Hebrew. The numeric expression of the word Ehad is thirteen. Compare it with the text below.

 

From the Zohar (part II, 119a) it can be seen that the sacrifice must be performed in a certain kabbalistic way:

“And their (Am Haaretz’s – non-Jews’) death must be with a shut mouth, like that of an animal which dies with no voice or speech. While praying, he (the slaughterer) must say: I have no mouth to speak, and no brow to raise my head. And he says a prayer of thanksgiving and vows to the Holy One, may his name be blessed, that every day he (Am Haaretz) must be killed in Ehad in the same way as cattle are killed – with twelve tests of the knife and with the knife, which amounts to thirteen.” *)

 

*) Every pious Jew, before he dies and passes into eternity, must say a short last prayer, whose all power and main significance lies in its last word, Ehad, which means “one”. It shows that God is one, i.e. the unity of God is professed. See the expert opinion of professor Troitsky in the next chapter.

 

As I quote this text, I find it necessary to draw attention to the comparison of this text with the results of the forensic medical report and the autopsy report for Andrei Yushchinsky, namely: during Yushchinsky’s murder, his mouth was shut (traces of the injury to the mucous membrane of the mouth made by the teeth) and a group of stab wounds, 13 in number, was made in the area of his right temple.

Those who deny Jewish ritual murders mention, among their arguments, the circumstance that after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 A.D. blood sacrifices, due to the lack of the Temple and the Altar, ceased, and were allegedly replaced, out of necessity, with prayer and good deeds. Indeed, after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple blood sacrifices, one of the most important rites of the Jewish religious cult, should have ended due to the lack of the Altar, but exactly because of its importance this rite should have been replaced with something else. As far as I know, no sources of Jewish religious teachings contain any reference to the replacement of blood sacrifices with prayer and good deeds. However, I find a reference to the possibility of making blood sacrifices even after the destruction of the Temple in the treatise Eduyot, VIII, 6 (sheet 30a), which says:

“Rabbi Joshua said: I heard that sacrifices are being made, even if there is no Temple... for the first consecration sanctified both that time and the future.”

“Rabbi Joshua said: I heard that sacrifices are being slaughtered, even if there was no libation... for the first consecration sanctified both that time and the future.” (Tosefta, 3h)

This text says that sacrifices are being made or slaughtered, i.e. Rabbi Joshua, who lived in the 2nd century A.D., mentioned, as a rumor, that sacrifices were being made during his time, that is after the destruction of the Temple. Furthermore, the replacement of sacrifice with prayer could only apply to burnt sacrifices and sacrifices of thanksgiving, while sacrifices “for sins and offences” remained without a corresponding equivalent in Jewish religious rites.

As I now proceed to the question of how Jewish religious teachings regard human blood, I find it necessary to mention that the use of blood by the Jews for ritual purpose does not imply that it must be obligatorily consumed as food – the assumption on which the objections of those who deny ritual murders are based. Ancient sacrifices in the Temple were undoubtedly ritual acts, even if they were not associated with the consumption of blood as food. From the above-quoted texts it can be seen that the murder of a non-Jew, and that of a Christian in particular, by a Jew, in accordance with the command of the religious law, is in itself a murder for religious reasons and for religious purpose, i.e. for the purpose of fulfilling the command of the religious law, regardless of how such murder is carried out and how the blood that could be extracted during such murder is used.

Nevertheless, the sources of Jewish religious teachings attach great importance to blood. For example:

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.” (Leviticus 17:11)

The Mishnah (treatise Zevachim, chapter VIII, paragraph 7; 8, 16) explains: “What is the blood of the soul? The blood which flows out. And what is a squeezed blood? The one which does not flow out... If it (the blood of the soul) got mixed with the squeezed blood, he is told not to sprinkle. And if he sprinkled, the mixture is considered a mixture of wine and water: if its form changed – pasul, and if it did not – kosher.”

In the same source (chapter I, 2a, 1-6), Rabbi Joshua says:

“All sacrifices slaughtered not in their own name are valid [kosher], save that they do not free their owners of their obligation, with the exception of the Passover-offering and the sin-offering [hattat]. [This holds good of] a Passover-offering in its proper time; and a sin-offering at all times.”

In the treatise Kerithuth, chapter V, it says:

“A person that ate an olive’s bulk of blood of cattle or clean animals or birds must make a sin-offering (hattat). One is only liable for blood from shechita (blood that is obtained during a slaughtering done according to a Jewish rite). For blood from piercing, tearing or bloodletting, even if the soul goes out with it, there is no liability... The blood of two-legged creatures (i.e. people) and the blood of eggs and reptiles is forbidden, but there is no liability for it.”

In the treatise Chullin (chapter VI, paragraph 2; 6, 4) it says: “If a person slaughtered (an animal) for a medicine, to give it to a gentile (for food), or to feed dogs, he must cover the blood. If a person pierced or torn, or if the shechita (slaughtering) was done by a gentile, the covering is not necessary.” Furthermore, in Tosefta (6, 1) it says: “If a person slaughters because he needs blood, he must not slaughter by way of shechita, but what should he do? He either pricks or pinches.”

The virgin blood of the Klipoth (dam betulim) is considered a highly valuable sacrifice.

 

[Insert from the 1913 book: “Also, for the mentioned fourth way of a man with a virgin (Proverbs 30:19), I found an explanation in the words of the teacher (Isaac Luria), may his memory be blessed, and I will shortly describe it here. The fact is that we do not realize how precious a virgin’s blood is in the celestial world. For by everything which is to be damned below (on the earth) contempt is caused above (to the celestial beings); but then, even if she is untouched, even if she is a virgin who did not know a man, she still comes from the shells (klipoth) – may God save us from them! And not only this, but also the coupling (between the King and Shekinah) is only done by lessening strictness and by strengthening clemency. And by what means? By bringing there red blood, which administers justice by itself, even if it is clean (has the power to cleanse and redeem). And this is a very important matter, and thus I explain the (fourth) way.” (Hayim Vital, Sefer ha-Likutim, 156a.)

A controversy is stirred up by Delitzsch and others with respect to this text. However, if this is not sacrificial blood (dam betulim), but rather virgin one, then we can only assume that Hayim Vital, a man of unquestionable authority in Israel, either advocates the marriage between a Jewish man and a non-Jewish woman, which is strictly prohibited by the Judaic law, or recommends a Jewish man to deflower a non-Jewish (and, consequently, a Christian) woman, which, from the perspective of Jewish religious teachings, is equivalent to bestiality (zoophilia). – End of the insert.]

 

Those who deny Jewish ritual murders claim that the consumption of blood as food is undoubtedly prohibited by the Jewish religious law, so the addition of blood to matzo and any other similar use of blood contradicts the law. This claim is not quite true, because a text in the Talmud does allow to consume blood as food.

In the treatise Machshirin (chapter 6, paragraph 4) it says: “There are seven liquids that do not cause susceptibility to uncleanness and may be eaten: dew, water, wine, oil, blood, milk and honey.”

Thus, blood is listed among such drinks as milk, water, wine, etc.

The same source also speaks about the drinking of blood from bloodletting, i.e. blood obtained by piercing a blood vessel. Some translations of this fragment add the words “to a sick person”, which, however, do not appear in the original text.

Maimonides in his explanations to this text says: “The author means here that blood from bloodletting (dam hakkiza) is to be given to animals and people to drink, because they usually drink it.” Maimonides also says: “Blood from bloodletting used for treatment is considered clean.”

Thus, the healing properties of blood are recognized by such authority as Maimonides, and the consumption of blood for medical purpose is allowed by the Jewish religious law.

The reference to Mayer – that in this scholar’s opinion it is allowed to consume boiled blood – only confirms the claims of those who expose the Jews and say that blood is added to a special kind of the Passover bread (matzo) called afikoman, which is eaten at the end of the Passover Seder, because the blood in matzo would be in a boiled state, which the Jews are allowed to eat, according to Mayer. Similarly, the blood in the ashes of a rag soaked in blood and then burned would be in the same state, according to those who expose the Jews.

As to the question of why the Jews need blood of non-Jews and, in particularly, that of Christians, those who expose this secret of Jewish religious teachings mention a whole number of purposes. Namely, the Jews need blood as a constant sacrifice of hate towards their biggest enemies, Christians (like the vendetta in Italy, or the blood feud in the East); they need it because even the rabbis doubt whether Jesus Christ was not the true Messiah and believe that if he was, they would be saved through the blood of his followers; and finally, they believe that blood has magical properties.

The scholars who deny Jewish ritual murders say that the accusations of such murders are a result of the medieval ignorance, and point to witch trials and medieval sorcerers and exorcists among Christians. However, they do not mention that all those “sorceries”, the result of the medieval ignorance, were of Jewish origin, and that all magic formulas were based on the Hebrew alphabet. The Talmud (completed in the 6th century A.D.) contains a lot of “magical” advices and instructions:

“If a person wants to see the devil, he must take the uterus of a black cat which gave birth for the first time and is the daughter of a black cat which gave birth for the first time; burn it in fire, grind it up, fill his eyes with the ashes, and then he will see them (the demons).” (Berakhot, 6b)

“When a ship is about to sink, white sparkles appear above it. If one hits them with a stick on which the words ‘Ehye Asher Ehye Yah Hashem Tsebaoth Amen, Amen, Selah’ are inscribed, the waves will calm down.” (Baba Batra, 73a)

“Johani, the daughter of Retibi, was a widow and a witch. When it came time for a woman to give birth, she would close her womb with witchcraft. When the woman would be in great pain, Johani would say to her: ‘I’ll ask mercy for you, perhaps my prayer will be answered.’ Then she would go and nullify the witchcraft and the baby would come out. One time, she had a workman in the house. She went to the house of a woman in labor and the workman heard the sound of the witchcraft banging inside a vessel as a fetus bangs in the womb of the mother. He came and opened the stopper of the vessel, the spell departed, the baby was born, and everyone found out that Johani was a witch.” (Sotah, chapter III; Wagenseil, p. 529)

Wagenseil makes a commentary to this text:

“In the past, witchcraft was often practiced by the Jews; it was done by very respectable rabbis, as proved by Gerson in chapter 17 of his work on the Talmud. But even today there are Jewish wizards, as proved by Friderick Francisc von Oettingen, a baptized Jew, in his book Schlangebalg which was directed against his fellow Jews. Although Sabbatai Zevi, as he was answering to these accusations, tried to whitewash his people, he would often confirm, rather than refute, what his opponent wrote, for everybody knows that the part of the Kabbalah called Kabbalah Maasit (Practical Kabbalah) is a real witchcraft.” (Wagenseil, Sotah, p. 592)

In connection with the above quotes from the sources of Jewish religious teachings and the thoughts about their sense and meaning, I find it necessary to mention several historically recorded cases of the slaughter and murder of Christians and Christian children by the Jews. History knows a lot of them, but I believe that not all of such cases were recorded by history. I will only restrict myself to several of them.

 

Socrates Scholasticus in his Historia Ecclesiastica (book VII, chapter 13) says that, in 418, the Jews slaughtered Christians in Alexandria, and, in 419, crucified a Christian boy in Imnostar near Antioch.

Cluverius writes that, in 614, the Jews bought out 90,000 prisoners of war, mainly Christians, from Persian king Khosrau II and killed them in a very cruel manner.

Dio Cassius in Roman History (book 68) writes that the Jews in Cyrene attacked the Romans and Greeks, slaughtered them brutally, ate their flesh, made belts for themselves of their entrails, anointed themselves with their blood and worn their skins for clothing.

In more recent times, since the 12th century, history has known very many cases of murders of Christians by the Jews for ritual purpose, accompanied by the crucifixion, exsanguination and circumcision of the victims. Such cases were recorded by very reliable historians (Baronius, the Bollandists, or Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century).

Some of the victims of ritual murders, such as Simon of Trent, were canonized by the Catholic Church, which is very careful and slow in this regard. The records of the Trent trial are kept at the Vatican Library. A well-known Polish writer of the 16th century, Piotr Skarga, at the end of his hagiography of Saint Simon of Trent, mentions cases of ritual murders that occurred in Poland during his time.

In 1485, the Jews assassinated Great Inquisitor Pedro de Arbués for ritual purpose. He was only canonized in 1865.

The altar in the Sandomierz pulpit has an icon showing the murder of a Christian boy by the Jews. It also has (or, at least, had until recently) a special bench for Jewish delegates who had to attend the sermons due to the fact that the Jews had committed this murder.

In a sacristy in Leczyca, Warsaw province, a small coffin with the remains of a child killed by the Jews is still being kept. The sacristy’s walls are painted with pictures of murders of Christian children by the Jews. *)

 

*) A similar painting can be found in the Roman Catholic church in Zborow, Galicia. The photograph of the painting is reproduced here. The caption in Polish (see the photograph) says: “The torments of infant Szymon, the son of Adam and Eva Studzinski, three and a half years old, who was kidnapped by the Jews on Good Friday, and on Saturday, after the Sabbath, at night, murdered by the Jews in a cruel and unheard-of way in the Markowy tavern, near Zhitomir, during the reign of Kazimierz IV, on March 26, 1475.”

 

 

History also knows a lot of cases of such murders which were followed by the trial and punishment of the murderers.

In 1182, for the murder of a 12-year-old boy in Pontoise, the Jews were expelled from France. The same year, Philip II of France ordered 85 Jews to be burned at the stake for the crucifixion of a Christian.

In 1293, in Krems, two Jews were sentenced to death for the murder of a Christian child.

In 1305, in Weissensee, several Jews were sentenced to death and executed for the murder of a boy called Konrad before Easter.

In 1331, in Überlingen, a Christian boy was crucified by the Jews, and his body, pricked all over and covered with a lot of small wounds, was found in a well. The Jews were brought to trial and executed.

In 1380, in Hagenbach, Swabia, the Jews kidnapped a boy and tortured him. They were caught in the act as they were killing the boy. They were sentenced to death and burned at the stake.

In 1401, in Diessenhofen, Switzerland, a four-year-old Christian boy Konrad Lori was murdered by Johann Zahn at the instigation of Jew Wittelman, who bought the child’s blood from him for 3 guldens. The murderers were tried and executed.

In 1442, in Lienz, Tirol, on Good Friday, the Jews kidnapped a three-year-old girl Ursula, exsanguinated her by means of a large number of pricks and small wounds, and threw her body into the water. After a trial, they were executed.

In 1470, in the village of Endlingen, Baden, the Jews killed a whole family of beggars (the father, the mother and three children). They were exposed, and, having confessed, were sentenced by margrave Karl von Baden to be burned at the stake.

In 1476, in Regensburg, blood of eight Christian children was gathered by the Jews for kabbalistic purposes. In the dungeon under the house of Jew Josel, the remains of the children and a blood-stained stone altar were discovered. 17 Jews were sentenced to death and executed.

In 1514, in Halt, Saxony, Jew Pfefferkorn confessed to have kidnapped two children, one of whom he sold to other Jews and murdered him together with them. The murderers were tried and executed.

In 1540, in Heiningen near Neuburg, a four-and-a-half-year-old boy Michael was tied by the Jews to a pole upside down, tortured in various ways, and prickled and cut all over his body. A part of the extracted blood was found at the Jews from another town (Potemn). After three days of tortures, the child was killed and his body was thrown away in a forest and covered with leaves. It was there where the body was discovered. This event took place before Easter. The Jews were sentenced to death and executed.

In 1572, in Berlin, the Jews bought a child from a beggar and, by reproducing the sufferings of Jesus Christ, tortured him to death. In 1573, they were brought to trial and executed.

In 1598, in Vjazniki, a baby called Albert was tortured and killed. The murderers, having been interrogated separately, gave identical testimony. The baby had been kidnapped before Easter. Jews Itsek, Zalman, Moshko and Aaron had tortured him by pricking all over his body and cutting his veins, and then strangled him. His blood, as the murderers explained, had been added to the dough for unleavened bread and mixed into wine. Aaron confessed that when the Jews can get Christian blood before Easter, it is used for the above-mentioned purpose. The body had been thrown into a swamp. When asked why they had not buried the body, Itsek answered that the Jews cannot do it because the burial of a Goi is an unclean act and, consequently, a deadly sin. The murderers were tried in Ljublana and executed.

In 1610, a Jew called Schmul kidnapped a boy in Staszna and sold him to the Jews from Szydlowiec. The latter began to torture the boy, but were caught in the act, and then tried and executed.

In 1669, in Metz, a Jew called Rafael Levi kidnapped a boy, who was then murdered by the Jews. The boy’s remains were found in a forest in the place indicated by the Jews, who claimed that the child had been eaten by wolves. However, his clothes were intact and put on, apparently after his murder. They did not even have traces of blood on them. The murderers were tried and executed. In an intercepted letter, Levi wrote to the elders of the Metz synagogue asking them to help his family. “I put myself into this unfortunate situation for the sake of the community,” he wrote, and asked them to bury him according to the Jewish rite if he were to be executed, adding that otherwise he would not forget them.

In 1853, in Saratov, two boys, Maslov and Sherstobitov, were murdered by the Jews (see chapter VI below).

In 1881, in Galicia, a young girl called Francisca Minch was brutally murdered by the Jews, and her body was thrown into a ravine. The three Jewish murderers were sentenced to death. However, the sentence was annulled, and a new trial took place. Once again, the Jews were sentenced to the death penalty for the ritual murder. Still, after a group of deputies filed a petition to the Minister of Justice, the death penalty was not carried out.

In 1899, a Jew called Hilsner was found guilty of the murder of Agnessa Grusha in Polna (Bohemia) and sentenced to the death penalty. After the sentence had been annulled, he was again sentenced to death.

 

The above cases, recorded in history by the contemporaries and documented by court sentences, are complete enough to consider that ritual murders are not fabrications, but actual and properly confirmed events.

I consider it appropriate to talk about the Papal bulls that allegedly defend the Jews against the accusations of ritual murders. The collections of such bulls are distributed lately each time a ritual murder trial occurs (the 1853 Saratov case, the 1892 Xanten case, and this one). I could find such bulls neither in Bullarium Magnum by Laerzio Cherubini, nor in Collectio Conciliorum by Mansi. The Jews have shown that they can make up such bulls themselves. Thus, Schudt in his Iudaeus Christicida (chapter XIII, p. 293) produces a “bull” of Pope Gregory to French king Philip, and in the same book, on p. 299, proves that this bull is obviously false: firstly, because no Pope Gregory ever lived at the same time with any king Philip; and, secondly, because the text of this bull is sanctimonious (it says that the Jews are not guilty that Christ proved to be not as they had expected). But even the bulls which were published in Kiev in connection with the Beilis case say nothing about whether the Jews actually use Christian blood or not. The Popes wanted justice to be done, so, on the one hand, in order to defend Christians against the Jews, would issue bulls which prohibited their flock to establish any relations with the impious murderers of Christ; and, on the other hand, when angry Christians lynched the Jews and the latter asked to protect them, the Popes would charge local bishops to calm the angry minds so that they would not believe every rumor, not accuse without reason, and not punish without trial.

The same Pope Innocent IV whose four alleged bulls were produced in the Kiev edition of bulls published this year, in his real bull from May 9, 1244 (Cherubini, Ibid., vol. I, p. 62), which begins with the words “Impia Judaeorum perfidia” (Impious Judaic perfidy), ordered to burn the Talmud, which contains “the mocking of Christ the Lord and the Holy Mother of God, senseless tales and unheard-of nonsense,” and strictly forbade Christians to work as wet-nurses and maidservants for the Jews. There are no Judeophilic or Judeophobic Popes (professor Khvolson, On Some Medieval Accusations Against the Jews..., pp. 174-175), but only fair judges. If “[Pope] Sixtus IV wrote in the favor of the Jews in 1475, when he did not want to canonize the alleged martyr Simon of Trent” (Khvolson, Ibid., p. 175), it only proves that such things as the canonization are not done arbitrarily, under the pressure of the crowd only. In 1477, the same Pope Sixtus IV established a commission of six cardinals to investigate this case, and, in 1478, the conclusions of this commission were found to be right and correct. Finally, in 1480, after the murderers of the child had been executed (Tobias, Samuel, Angel, Vital, Mohar and Israel were first broken at the wheel and then burned, while the two murderers who had been baptized were beheaded) and when the fame of miracles near the coffin of the martyr child was growing each day (especially in Lombardy), the same Pope Sixtus IV sent three cardinals to Trent to investigate thoroughly these miracles, and then approved their investigation and beatified martyr Simon. It was only a century later, when the Jews, during the Reformation movement, began to treat Christians with particular hostility, that Pope Gregory XIII (who published the bull against the Jews under the name of Antiqua Judaeorum improbitas – Cherubini, Ibid., vol. II, p. 452), having investigated thoroughly the case of child Simon of Trent once more, canonized him solemnly. The famous Roman sluggishness in all matters is particularly apparent when one is to be sanctified. Therefore, when we read in the Martyrology “Die 24 Martii Tridenti passio sancti Simeonis pueri, a Judaeis saevissime trucidati, qui multis postea miraculis corruscavit” (“On March 24, in Trent, the martyrdom of child Saint Simon, murdered brutally by the Jews, who then shone with many miracles”), we can be sure that this was indeed the case.

Those who defend the Jews against the “blood libel” object to such evidence as court sentences by claiming that those sentences prove nothing because they were passed in trials where torture had been used. They forget that history knows a whole number of court sentences (all the guilty verdicts in such cases in the 19th century) passed in trials where no torture was used and where the murderers were persistently condemned by the jury even after the annulment of such verdicts; furthermore, during the trials on such cases, details that were typical for such trials and had been established at the trials of the previous centuries were reproduced with an almost photographic accuracy.

If we were to believe those who deny the existence of Jewish ritual murders, we would have to assume the bad faith of all judges who have presided over such trials in the course of many centuries and up until the present day, and passed guilty verdicts for the accused; we would have to assume the complete groundlessness of such verdicts, despite the fact that in some cases, as it can be seen from the above historical references, the Jews were caught in the act, that is we would have to deny the obviousness. We would have to disbelieve a whole number of testimonies of historians of all European nations, among which the Jews lived; to dismiss, for no reason, the disclosures made by Jewish converts to Christianity; and, finally, to reject the facts of discovery of exsanguinated bodies, prickled all over and having the signs of the circumcision. We would have to admit that all cases of ritual murders recorded by history have been a provocation carried out systematically in the course of many centuries; that chroniclers of all countries lied, as if they were in collusion, when they wrote about the completely similar circumstances of murders and repeated one another in the slightest details; and that all testimonies of eyewitnesses, including the illiterate ones, were fabricated by them with an extraordinary knowledge of the details of the murders.

From the above quotes from the sources of Jewish religious teachings I deduce the following theses based on these quotes:

1) The Jewish religious law does not forbid to kill Christians; moreover, it allows, encourages and commands such murders; thus, from the perspective of this law, there are no impediments for the murders of Christians by the Jews.

2) The Jewish religious law attaches huge significance – symbolical, magical and medical – to blood in general and human blood in particular.

3) The said law even allows to consume such blood as food.

4) The above quotes have direct references to the possibility of the replacement of bloody sacrifices that existed before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 A.D. with the slaughter of non-Jews and, in particular, Christians after the destruction of the Temple.

On the basis of these theses and taking into consideration the proved facts of ritual murders of Christians by the Jews, I come to the following conclusion:

1) Ritual murders of Christians by the Jews are a reality rather than a fabrication.

2) Such ritual murders are the result of sadism, i.e. extreme and monstrous limits of conclusions made from the whole Jewish religious teachings and its various interpretations.

3) Until proven otherwise, the murder of Andrei Yushchinsky in Kiev, taking into consideration its nature and environment, the apparent lack of reasons, the way the injuries were inflicted, the crime instrument, the nature and great number of injuries whose purpose was to torture and torment, the location of these injuries on the victim’s body, the exsanguination of the victim, the lack of almost all the blood that flew out of the body both on the clothes and at the place of discovery of Yushchinsky’s body, and the time of the murder (before the Passover), has all the distinctive and characteristic features of a typical ritual murder.

 

* * *

 

From the works written about the Jewish blood doctrine, investigator N.A. Mashkevich examined the book of Greek monk Neophytes, published in Greek in 1834 in Constantinople in the Patriarchal Typography, which is apparently a reproduction of the original edition published in 1803 in Moldavia and then translated into modern Greek and Arabic, and later into French. Today, Neophytes’ book is a big bibliographical rarity. Its title is “The Refutation of the Religion of the Judeans and Their Rites by the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testament”. Chapter One says: “A Hidden Secret, Now Discovered. About the Judeans. About the Blood They Get from Christians, and Its Use, with Proofs from the Holy Scriptures.”

Monk Neophytes, a former rabbi who converted to Orthodox Christianity, tells how he himself was initiated into the blood secret. As he reached the age of 13 (the first Jewish adulthood), his father, in accordance with the Jewish tradition, laid a “power wreath” on him, and then, as they were alone, his father began to inculcate in him hate towards Christians, as a duty imposed by God, after which he revealed the blood secret as the most sacred and important rite of the Jewish religion.

“My son,” continued Neophytes’ father, “I adjure you with all the elements of heaven and earth to keep this secret always deep in your heart and trust it neither to your brothers or your sister or your mother or, later, to your wife; to no mortal man, and especially to no women. If God will give you even ten grown-up sons, do not open this secret to all of them, but only to the one you will consider the smartest and most capable to keep the secret, just like I do with you now. You must watch carefully that this son of yours is committed and zealous for our faith... May the whole earth refuse to accept your body and belch it out of its depths if you ever, under any circumstances, even out of extreme necessity, reveal this blood secret to anyone except the one I mentioned, even if you become a Christian for the sake of benefit or for other reasons. Now take care not to betray your father by giving away this divine secret which I revealed to you today. And if you do not, may my curse befall you in the very hour you commit this sin, and may it follow you all your life until your death, and for all eternity.”

According to Neophytes, the blood secret is not clearly mentioned in any of the Jewish books, and is being transmitted by word of mouth exclusively and is known not to all Jews, but to the chosen ones only. There are three reasons to use Christian blood: 1) hatred towards Christians; 2) superstitions from the area of magic, witchcraft and Kabbalah; and 3) belief in the spiritual reality of blood.

The religious rites during which Christian blood is used are as follows:

 

Marriage. The bridegroom and the bride prepare themselves for it by observing a strict 24-hour fast, abstaining themselves even from water until the sunset. Then, a rabbi comes, takes a freshly baked egg, peels it, divides it into two halves, sprinkles them with special ashes, and gives one half to the bridegroom and one to the bride. As they eat the egg, the rabbi reads prayers. What kind of ashes are these? They are obtained after rabbis soak a rag in Christian blood, dry it and burn it.

Circumcision. A rabbi takes a bowl with wine, into which one drop of blood of the circumcised child and one drop of Christian blood (apparently, in the form of the same ashes or powder) have been put. Having shaken the mixture, the rabbi puts his little finger into the bowl, and then into the child’s mouth with the words, “And as you lay there in your blood I said to you: Live!” (Ezekiel 16:6)

Wailing for Jerusalem. On July 9, the Jews, sitting on the ground, spread the above-described powder on their foreheads, and eat a baked egg that has been sprinkled with such powder.

Passover. As they bake unleavened bread, the Jews make separately a baked bread, into which they add a little powder with Christian blood. Each Jew, even a little child, must eat at least an olive’s bulk of this bread. Such bread is called (in Greek) epikomion.

Death. Having come to the deceased person, a rabbi takes the white of an egg and a little Christian blood, shakes the mixture and sprinkles it on the deceased’s chest, saying the following verse from the Ezekiel’s prophecy: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses.” (Ezekiel 36:25)

 

All these depressing bloodsheds, in Neophytes’ opinion, make true the words of Jeremiah who prophesied about the Jews as follows: “On your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor” (Jeremiah 2:34), and even more those of Ezekiel: “Thus says the Lord God: You eat flesh with the blood... and shed blood.” (Ezekiel 33:25)

As a result of these countless murders, Israel was banished from many countries, thus making true another prophecy of Ezekiel: “You did not hate bloodshed, therefore blood shall pursue you.” (Ezekiel 35:6)