Transcript of interview with Yossi Gurwitz, (courtesy of Ken Adachi) Dec 9, 2023
"Judaism as a religion has been frozen in time for the last 1800 years. Generally speaking, Rabbinical Judaism, as it appears in the Talmud … is the source of Judaism, not the Bible. The source of Judaism is the Talmud…
Okay, let's get this exactly right: it defines only Jews who believe in the religion are men - as full humans. And everyone else is some level of 'other', that must be pushed aside or, in extreme cases, destroyed.
But if you kill a non-Jew then you're guilty, but there is no penalty. God will punish you. And that is - how shall I put it? - a bit problematic. When you say something is a crime, but there's no punishment for committing it, then it's not really a crime. That's the Talmud.
The worst case, in my opinion, is the case of Maimonides, who decrees…that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a 3-year old girl. That age of consent is - problematic. And second of all, he decrees that if a Jew rapes a three-year-old non-Jewish girl, then she must be executed. Her, not him - because she tempted him to sin. And for this reason, you have to treat her like an animal that puts obstacles in a person's way. And he quotes some verse about a bull or something like that. And the rabbis know that these parts of the religion that are misanthropic, that are discriminatory to non-Jews, pose a problem for them. Because if they try to implement them - there are some rules that are very unpleasant, like that three-year-old-girl we were just talking about - if they try to implement them, there will be a pogrom.
So to avoid that situation, the Talmud defines two different states of reality. There's one called "Darkei Shalom" [Peaceful Ways]. In other words, "This is the actual religious law, this is how you are supposed to act." "However, since it would cause a huge mess, and people will die. So due to 'peaceful ways', you don't act that way." Now, until what point does the "peaceful ways" rule still apply? Just as long as the other situation does not exist, which is "When Israel is Mighty". That's when there is a Jewish regime. It is independent, and it is merciless, it can do what it likes. Under those circumstances - it's all over, you go back to the letter of the law.
No more "peaceful ways", no more nothing. Now when you think about Jewish history, lots of people talk about the Hasmonean Wars which was pretty much one of the only times that Jews wielded weapons and they think about what the Hasmoneans did to the Hellenized Jews [who assimilated Greek culture]. Which was to make them extinct, to destroy them. A small genocide. And I remind people of this frequently, every time Hanukah rolls around. But they didn't stop there.
They embarked on campaigns of looting and conquest and at the beginning, during their first 20 years, wherever they arrived, they would destroy the local temples. It was prohibited for a place that was under Jewish rule to have a pagan temple. That's what we're talking about. They also forced the Edomites to convert to Judaism on pain of death. It was a forced conversion. Something we learn the [Spanish] Inquisition did later on. They took people and told them: ;"Either you're dead, or you're converting to Judaism". And things only got worse from there.
Now, when religious zionists look at reality, they say: "We've got a state. We've got weapons. We've got a Jewish army. This hasn't happened for 2, 000 years." "What this means is that God wants us to bring about the Messiah, that God wants us to build the Temple."
In other words, the only difference between the time of Maimonides - he died in 1204 - and the time of the Messiah, is who is subordinate to whom. Are the Jews subordinate to "kingdoms", to other nations? Or can they subordinate other nations? And that is how Maimonides begins his Book of Kings. He explains what the rules are for a king, what a king can do. It emerges from the belief that, yes, there can be a king. You don't have to first have a temple. You don't need God to come down from the sky and point at someone and say, "That's the Messiah". You can have a king, and if he is victorious, then he'll also be the Messiah. And then you look at what religious zionists are doing about this. They want a Messiah. They want him now.
There must be a cleansing. Religious law prohibits contact with non-Jews. Of course, the Kosher laws prohibit you from eating with them. Other laws forbid you from treating them fairly. You are forbidden to return a lost item to a non-Jew - except in order to "keep the peace". There is no prohibition on stealing from a non-Jew - except in order to "keep the peace". You can't say "hello" to them - unless there is no alternative. And so on and so forth.