Why do Christians reject the Talmud?

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Rabbi said:
. Personally, I don’t view him as the Messiah but as a person who COULD HAVE BEEN, and should have been, had we not failed him. How did we fail him? No one gave him much support, and hence, he sadly died. I know that Catholics have a very different understanding of Jesus, and it’s all very interesting stuff.
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I find this interesting, you believe in Jesus as someone who could of been the Messiah (presumably you agree with his teachings?) but you do not believe in his Ressurection. Is there a specific reason why, I am curious)
 
Kind of. I don’t think “converting”, at least as we usually use it, is an accurate term though, as early on they were all Jews. They weren’t “converting to a new religion”, per se. Very very early on, as evidenced in Acts of the Apostles, the Apostles fully considered themselves and the other followers of Christ to be Jewish. It really wasn’t until Paul entered the scene that they debated and allowed non-Jews to also be Christians…and Paul clearly hit some resistance on that among the other Apostles, suggesting they may have even initially required, or at least wanted the followers of Jesus to be Jewish first (Obviously Paul prevailed).
 
Fair assessment. I would just point out to you that the Hebrew word for Pharisee just means interpreter, as in interpreting law. It is also noteworthy, I think, of mentioning that the Parisees also gave us the prophets, and yet, Christians somehow reject our Oral Torah when they accept the former. In fact, the whole Bible is based on oral tradition. As you know, biblical Hebrew is made up of 22 constants and no values, it was the rabbis who introduces vowels into the text so that you could read your Bible, so isn’t it odd that Christians reject the teachings of our Sages? Even Jesus himself said that the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, and if that doesn’t mean they possesses sole knowledge of Torah, what does it mean?
 
This is very interesting. You speak of the doctrine of the “New Israel,” but may I pose a question? What do you make of the passage (I sadly forget the specifics but it’s somewhere in Jeremiah) where G-d says that He will never reject Israel, the Jewish people, until the deaths of the earth can be reached, or the farest stars, mapped? This seems to contradict Catholic teaching of the New Israel. Just one last point, if the Almoghty, blessed be His name, didn’t have interest in the Jewish people He would not have preserved us from the Holocaust and created the modern state of Israel. Again, it isn’t the Church which has took dwelling in Israel, but the Jewish people. These are nothing more than thoughts to munch on.
 
Thank you for your response. As I understand your question, you are asking why I personally reject Jesus as the Messiah even though he had the potential. To sum it up, Jews pretty much believe that there is a candidate at least once per every generation. Was Jesus the candidate of his generation to be the Measiah? Who can really say, but based on his life of righteousness, and they many followers he has, I think it is a logical assertion. Now, as far as him raising from the dead, it doesn’t concern me, here’s why:

We read although Tanakh that the Messiah is to bring peace, not do miracles. Jesus himself said miracles proved nothing, so did the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), so how can we be sure when the Messiah has come? Well, for one, the prophets were sure to point out that he’d regather world Jewry, what happened in Jesus’ time? There were no Jews to be gathered in any large form, they were already living in Israel. The Messiah, we’re told, is also to build the Third Temple. Well, the Second Temple was still standing in Jesus’ time. Lastly and most importantly, the Messiah is to bring a lasting world peace. A short time after Jesus’ death, the Jewish world was in ruin. In came the Romans in 70 CE, and guess what? They burnt the Holy of Holies, and the Jewish nation was dispersed across the globe. This, my friend, doesn’t sound like the world peace promised in Tanakh, and on that basis alone, do we reject him as Messiah and son of G-d. Yes, we wished he had succeeded, but we failed to take him seriously when it mattered most, and the Romans put him to death as a traitor to the empire and claimed king of Israel.
 
Sadly, there is a strain of replacement theology in some branches of Christianity. However, not all hold that view. Paul’s epistles to the Romans actually refutes this though. As you probably know, Paul was himself a Jewish Christian.
 
Paul would say that G-d would never reject Israel, however, not all who are descended of Abraham are Israel. His point is that Israel are those who believe in G-d’s promises delivered to Israel. He will always retain a remnant for Himself that hold to his promises. In addition he warns the Gentiles not to become conceited that they have been grafted in to Israel where some have been unfaithful to the promises G-d has given as they are there by G-d’s grace through faith, and not by merit.
 
Yes, the majority of Jews that I know (I obviously can’t speak for the whole community) do not derail Jesus, it wouldn’t be proper to do such and is a lower level of appreciation and respect.

Yes, I follow some of Chabad but am myself not a Hasid. I think that movement was very special and important in Judaism. The Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidic Judaism, helped many Jews retain their spirituality in a time of poverty and crisis. Without him, the Orthodox movement may have slipped into the Reform camp. Today, there are many Hasids out there and they lead a more spiritual life then some and put more emphasis on Kabbalah than Talmud, which actually leads to some taking halacha (practical law) from Kabbalah rather then Talmud, which does make much sense as halacha could only be made with a sitting Sanhedrin. Moreover, the Rashbi (author of the mystical Sefer HaZohar) surely would have disagreed of placing his Kabbalah above Talmud, but I must admit that this is solely my opinion. Outside of this, I have no problem with the Chabad movement, and their site is one of the best Judaism has to offer in the internet world.
 
I am not sure if you are familiar with Dr. Michael Brown or not, but he is a Messianic Jewish Christian who has an outreach ministry specifically to Jews. I wonder if you might be interested in hearing him sometime as I think he does a nice job explaining our faith to the Jewish community. He has a series of books addressing Jesus kosher roots, and a radio show called the Real Messiah.
 
I see, he might have been talking about the “remnant of Israel” in Zephaniah 3:13. It is also noteworthy that, in our belief, those Gentiles who have converted to Judaism are given an extra layer is soul (this doesn’t mean they are anymore special than the common non-Jew, just that they have the responsibility to fulfill Torah and hence, need an extra layer in order to accomplish the hard task), and therefore, this doesn’t contradict Paul’s teaching here.

The very reason many rabbis try to steer away Gentile conversion is due to the very nature of having to keep 613 mitzvot, it is obvious that a righteous Gentile only has to keep 7 (this does not mean a Gnetile’s spiritual worth to a Jew is 7 to 613), and therefore, understand that it’s no easy task to keep most all of Torah, and for that reason, they press the potential convert to turn away and hope he returns, which would prove he’s serious.
 
Yes, I’ve heard of him before. Thank you, I read a bit of his one book and found it facisinating even though I didn’t agree with everything. He is a very good public speaker.
 
I thought he might be familiar to you. His material would definitely be helpful as he is much more familiar with the elements of Mishnah than I could be.

With regard to the difference you made between Jews being obligated to observe the 613 laws of the Torah vs. Gentiles observing 7, Paul addresses this somewhat indirectly in his letter to the Ephesians where he describes how in Christ Jew and Gentile have been reconciled before G-d and are being built into a single house or temple. I think you would find Ephesians 1-2 fascinating in that regard.

The big point here for Paul is that Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law (both the moral requirements as well as the ceremonial and cleanliness or holiness codes) and died for our sin. His righteousness is imputed to us by G-d, hence the penalty for our sin is paid (John calls him the Lamb of G-d). Hence before G-d there is no longer the distinction between Jew and Gentile because people from both nations are reconciled to G-d by faith through Christ’s atoning sacrifice. So for us, the Holiness codes regarding the ceremonial cleanliness distinctions between Israel and Gentile have been rendered as no longer necessary because we are united in one faith by Christ. I hope that makes sense.
 
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