Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/49

17 Apostasy and Apostates from Judaism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

17

Antonius Margaritha, son of the rabbi of Ratisbon, published a

German work



"

Der Ganz

Jildische

Glaub," Augsburg, 1530, wherein he repeated the charge that blasphemy against Jesus Luther's existed in the liturgy of the Jews, especially in the '"Alenu." Luther acSource. knowledges having derived from this source the arguments in his polemical work against the Jews. In 1614 Samuel Frederic Brenz of Osterberg, Swabia, who had been baptized in 1610 at Feuchtwang, Bavaria, published a book full of venom against the Jews under the title " Judischer Abgestreifter Schlangenbalg," an "exposition of the blasphemies the Jewish serpents and vipers utter against the guileless Jesus Christ " a work in seven chapters, wherein the prayer " 'Alenu " was made an especial object of attack. This attack was refuted by Solomon Zebi Uff enhausen in a work entitled " Der Jildische Theriak," Hanover, 1615, and translated into Latin, together with Brenz's book and comments defending the Jews, by Johann Wfilfer, Nuremberg, 1681. As a rule the Apostates delighted in tormenting their former brethren, and this seems to have been

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the chief recommendation for their employment as censors of the Talmudic works. Wolf in his " Bibliotheca Hebraea " (ii. 1003-1013) has a list of 80 names of converted Jews that wrote against Judaism before 1720. It would be unfair, however, to bring all these under the category of such Apostates as were imbued with a spirit hostile to their ancestral faith. number of them perhaps felt called upon to denounce Judaism and the Talmud in view of the lucrative positions as teachers and missionaries offered them, and not because of their zeal for their new faith. Prom the Jewish writings they could deduce arguments in favor of the Christian faith. Among these was Christian Gerson, baptized in 1600, He was prominent as at Halberstadt. Other Emi- a defamer of the Talmud, and was nentApos- criticized for his unfairness by the great French Bible critic Richard tates.

A

Simon. He wrote a German work, frequently published and translated into other languages, "JUdischer Talmud," published in 1607; and "Der Talmudische Judenschatz," published in 1610 being a translation of chapter xi. of Sanhedrin

— — as a specimen of Jewish superstition.

Paulus Ricip, who was professor of Hebrew in Pavia, and physician of the emperor Maximilian, prepared a translation of part of Joseph Gikatilla's cabalistic work " Sha'are Orah " in 1516, and thus awakened Reuchlin's interest in the Cabala. He commenced a translation of the Talmud in order to prove from it the Messianic character of Jesus. Moses Gershon Cohen of Mitau assumed the name of Carl Anton, professor of Hebrew in Helmstadt,

and wrote on Shabbethai Zebi in 1753. He took a prominent part in the Jonathan Eibenschiitz controversy, and published a number of books in the service of the Church. Aaron Margalita was another apostate who attacked the Talmud. By his charges against the

Haggadah he caused Frederick of Prussia

ban upon an edition of the Midrash in 1705. Many Jews, disappointed in the hopes raised by II.—

to put a

Asher Lamlein's Messianic predictions for the year 1502, took refuge in the haven of Christianity. A number of Jews were, owing to their high social standing, so closely affiliated with the Christian world that, in critical times, they Christian lacked sufficient self-abnegation to Affiliation, wear the badge of suffering along with their humbler brethren. Among these and at the same time one of the victims of

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the great Spanish persecution of 1391 was, singularly enough, the ancestor of the Abravanel family,

Samuel Abravanel, who, as a Christian, adopted the name of Juan de Sevilla. In the year of the expulsion, 1492, it was Abraham Benveniste Senior, chief rabbi and tax-collector of Seville, who with his son and son-in-law also rabbis went over to the Church, assuming the name of Coronel. King Ferdinand, Queen Isabella, and Cardinal Torquemada are said to have stood sponsors at their baptism.

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The

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the anti-Talmudical mysticism in in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which formed the undercurrent of the Shabbethai Zebi and Frankist movements, ended in a state of wild confusion and despair, and the consequence was the conversion of hundreds to Christianity. Chief among these Apostates were Wolf Levi of Lublin, a nephew of AntiJudah Hasid, who assumed the name Talmudical of Francis Lothair Philippi and beMysticism. came surgeon and the son of Nehemiah Hayyun, the Shabbethaian, who became an opponent of his former brethren, and denounced, before the Inquisition at Rome, Talmudic and rabbinical works as inimical to the Church. Jacob ben Lob Frank of Galicia, the leader of the Podolian Shabbethaians, and the Frankists who took their name from him, became likewise public accusers of the Talmud in the very center of Talmudic study. After a disputation with the chief rabbis of Poland, tide of

Poland and the East,



they accepted baptism in Lemberg, 1759. A few weeks later Frank himself followed them, and assumed the name of Joseph. For those that apostatized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, see Conversion to Christianity. Islam, from the very outset, has emphasized the absolute

monotheistic character of the faith

in sharp distinction from the Trinitarian dogma and the divinity of Jesus (sura iv. 169; v. 76-77, 116; ix. 30; xix. 36, 91-95; ii. 110; "He is God alone; He vi. 101; lxxii. 3; cxii. 2. of

Abraham,

Nor is there like unto is not begotten. one "). Quite naturally, therefore, the Jews took a somewhat different attitude toward Islam than toward Christianity. They rejected Mohammed's claim to prophecy, but Apostates agreed with him in the fundamentals It is doubtful how far of his faith. to begets not

Him any

Islam.



!

those

Jews of Medina who were num-

bered among the " Ansar " (Helpers) The most imreally apostatized to the new faith. portant of those who went over to Mohammed's side was undoubtedly 'Abd Allah ibn Salam, the most learned of all the Jews. With him were associated Ka'b al-Ahbar and Wahb. When the Jews who still desired to remain true to their faith retired to Khaibar, Yamin ibn 'Umair and Abu Sa'd ibn Wahb