INTRODUCTION
The Hebrew Chronicle of Prague of 1615 is one of only a several major jewish historical works to come down to us from European history. (1) The reason that we have so few contemporary jewish historical works (although we do have quite a lot of rabbinical and jewish devotional literature) is due to the fact that jews did not consider non-jewish sources to be truthful (as they did not come from the pen of jews), the events of the real to be of any great importance apart from in so far as they affected jews and that to dwell on the affairs of "'this world'" meant to infect one's biological holiness as one of the "'Chosen of Yahweh/Hashem'" with the impiety, immorality and dishonesty of gentiles. (2)This attitude is still commonly expressed among those affiliated with mainstream Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Judaism. (3) For example the 'dean' of modern jewish studies; rabbi Jacob Neusner, has explicitly commented thus:
"'The basic theory of gentiles, all of them assumed to be idolaters, is, first, gentiles always and everywhere and under any circumstance are going to perform an act of worship for one or another of their gods. Second, gentiles are represented as thoroughly depraved (not being regenerated by the Torah), so they will murder, fornicate, or steal at any chance they get; they routinely commit bestiality, incest, and various other forbidden acts of sexual congress. Here is how the Mishnah law expresses these premises: do not leave cattle in gentile's inns, because they are suspect in regard to bestiality. And a woman should not be alone with them, because they are suspect in regard to fornication. And a man should not be alone with them, because they are suspect in regard to bloodshed.'" (4)
Neusner then clarifies the attitude of mainstream Judaism; in general, towards non-jews as follows:
"'The basic thesis is identical: the gentiles cannot accept the Torah because to do so they would have to deny their very character... Now the gentiles are not just Rome and Persia. There are others. The claim is, it is natural for the gentiles (not just Rome and Persia) to violate some of the Ten Commandments - specifically, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to steal - yet these are essential to the Torah. So, the reason that the gentiles rejected the Torah is that it prohibits deeds that the gentiles do by their very nature. The subtext here is that Israel ultimately is changed by the Torah, so that Israel exhibits traits nurtured by God and imparted by their encounter within the Torah.'" (5)
Neusner's words account for the general opinion of Orthodox Judaism; as few would or could reasonably contend that Neusner is not only a major figure in Orthodox Judaism, but a highly-respected academic authority on it, but we should also cite another authoritative opinion in the form of the now deceased Lubavitcher Rebbe; Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who headed one of the largest and certainly the fastest growing Hasidic movement in modern Judaism. Schneerson is recorded; in an official devotional book published by his followers, as insisting and believing as follows:
"'Before I left his" [Schneerson's] "office the Rebbe gave me a newly printed copy of Tanya and his blessing for a successful trip. Then he gave me an additional copy and told me, 'Sometimes one encounters Jews on a flight. In that event you should have another Tanya ready.'"
"I asked what the book was about, but couldn't understand a word of his answer. I opened it to the bookmark, and asked him to at least tell me what was on that page. He read and translated it into English. Most of it was beyond me, except for one passage describing how even the lowliest of Jews would sacrifice his life for Kiddush Hashem, to sanctify G-d's Name." (6)" And in a flash I understand what my parents had been hollering about the whole time: even the worst Jew is forbidden to marry a gentile.'" (7)
It would be redundant to analyse these statements as this is not our purpose here, but they will suffice to indicate to the reader the sound factual basis on which we can make the statement that jews; historically and currently, view non-jews (and thus necessarily anything produced by non-jews such as literature) with disdain, which then allows us to understand why the Hebrew Chronicle of Prague; from now on referred simply as the Chronicle, is rather unusual as opposed to being "'just one of many'" such contemporary jewish historical sources, which I am sure you; my reader, assumed there would be.
The Chronicle was originally written about 1611 by an unknown author and later additions in different handwriting were added by its owner or owners between 1631 and 1708 who we may reasonably assume were different people from the original author. (8) The Chronicle's importance for anti-Semites and those interested in a critical approach to jewish studies is firstly; as we have said, that it is a rare jewish contemporary historical record of events: secondly; because the Chronicle demonstrates historical jewish attitudes and interpretations of the events of the day and thirdly; it refers to several important interactions and largely unreported events in relation to uprisings and attacks upon the jews by the non-jewish populations of central and eastern Europe.
Jewish primary sources; such as the Chronicle, deserve far greater scrutiny than has been afforded to them by contemporary anti-Semites and do repay the effort of tracking down translations and/or original works as they nearly always contain much in the way of explicit and implication information that is of practical use to anti-Semites whether intellectually-inclined or not. Information; we might add, that jewish and philo-Semitic opponents of anti-Semitism and critical perspectives within jewish studies rarely have the ability to cogently respond to. This is opposed to the very ready; even "'off-the-shelf'" answers and critiques, (9) that these same jewish and philo-Semitic opponents use against those who tread the well-worn paths of anti-Semitic critique of the jews using arguments that have not often been updated to take into account; or more specifically counter, jewish counter-arguments and/or new research on the jewish question from either side of the debate.
Our rallying call as anti-Semites "must" be: up and at 'em! We can no longer afford to sit around trotting out old outdated arguments on the jewish question: we must seek to innovate and evolve to match swords with the ancient enemy once again. That is what it means to be an anti-Semite!
The second part of this article; to be published tomorrow, will be a full and complete analysis of the Hebrew Chronicle of Prague and should; I hope, provide plenty of useful information and a fresh perspective on an important historical source that anti-Semites and those adopting a critical perspective in jewish studies have largely ignored.
REFERENCES
(1) The edition to which I refer is Abraham David (Ed.), Dena Ordan (Trans.), Leon Weinberger (Trans.), 1993, "'A Hebrew Chronicle from Prague, c. 1615'", 1st Edition, University of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa. In referring to the Hebrew Chronicle I shall give both the page reference from David and the original folio reference.
(2) Lionel Kochan, 1977, "'The Jew and His History'", 1st Edition, MacMillan: London, pp. 19-87. This isn't to say however that we cannot pick up hints and what jews generally thought about specific events from the rabbinical literature, but rather that is often hard to discern and an amount of subjective license has to be used in order to apply it to our knowledge of the events of the world and in jewish history itself as a sub-discipline. For a standard in-depth discussion of jewish historiography and the sources which it utilizes please see Salo Baron, 1964, "'History and Jewish Historians: Essays and Addresses'", 1st Edition, Jewish Publication Society of America: Philadelphia.
(3) More extreme sentiments are often expressed on the fringe of Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Judaism: in spite of the fact that the sentiments of the mainstream are pretty extreme by their very nature.
(4) Jacob Neusner, 2004, "'Making God's Word Work: A Guide to the Mishnah'", 1st Edition, Continuum: New York, p. 74
(5) Ibid, p. 77
(6) "'Kiddush Hashem'" refers to the jewish concept of martyrdom and in Schneerson's usage it means that one cannot be a martyr if one marries a gentile, because one is not living in accordance with the divine laws of Hashem (and strictly speaking against them) as laid down for the jews; as the "'Chosen People'", in the Torah.
(7) Aharon Dov Halperin, Tuvia Natkin (Trans.), 1998, "'Our Man in Dakar and other stories of the Lubavitcher Rebbe'", 1st Edition, Sifriyat Kfar Chabad: Kfar Chabad, p. 17
(8) David, Op. Cit., p. 8
(9) For a simple example of the kind of "'off-the-shelf'" critiques of anti-Semitic arguments authored by jews please see the Anti-Defamation League, 2003, "'The Talmud in Anti-Semitic Polemics'", 1st Edition, Ktav: New York
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