History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 1 [of 3]: From the Beginning until the Death of Alexander I (1825)Dubnow, Simon
History
History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, Volume 1 [of 3]: From the Beginning until the Death of Alexander I (1825)
Dubnow, Simon
Jews -- Poland -- History; Jews -- Russia -- History; Poland -- History; Russia -- History
Martin Chekhovich was particularly zealous in holding theological
disputations, both in Lublin and in other cities, "with genuine as well
as pseudo-Jews." The results of these disputations are embodied in
several chapters of his books entitled "Christian Dialogues" (1575) and
"Catechism" (1580). One of his Jewish opponents, Jacob (Nahman) of
Belzhytz,[117] found it necessary to answer him in public in a little
book written in the Polish language (_Odpis na dyalogi Czechowicza_,
"Retort to the Dialogues of Chekhovich," 1581). Jacob of Belzhytz
defends the simple dogmas of Judaism, and accuses his antagonists of
desiring to arouse hostility to the Jewish people. The following
observation of Jacob is interesting as showing the methods of
disputation then in vogue:
It often happens that a Christian puts a question to me from
Holy Writ, to which I reply also from Holy Writ, and I try to
argue it properly. But suddenly he will pick out another passage
[from the Bible], saying: "How do you understand this?" and thus
he does not finish the first question, on which it would be
necessary to dwell longer. This is exactly what happens when the
hunter's dogs are hounding the rabbit which flees from the road
into a by-path, and, while the dogs are trying to catch it,
slips away into the bushes. For this reason the Jew too has to
interrupt the Christian in the midst of his speech, lest the
latter escape like the rabbit as soon as he has finished
speaking.
Chekhovich replied to Jacob's pamphlet in print in the same year. While
defending his "Dialogues," he criticized the errors of the Talmud, and
made sport of several Jewish customs, such as the use of _tefillin_,
_mezuza_, and _tzitzith_.
A serious retort to the Christian theologians came from Isaac Troki, a
cultured Karaite,[118] who died in 1594. He argued with Catholics,
Lutherans, and Arians in Poland, not as a dilettante, but as a profound
student of the Gospels and of Christian theology. About 1593 he wrote
his remarkable apologetic treatise under the title _Hizzuk Emuna_
("Fortification of the Faith"). In the first part of his book, the
author defends Judaism against the attacks of the Christian theologians,
while in the second he takes the offensive and criticizes the teachings
of the Church. He detects a whole series of contradictions in the texts
of the Synoptic Gospels, pointing out the radical deviations of the New
Testament from the Old and the departure of the later dogmatism of the
Church from the New Testament itself. With calmness and assurance he
proves the logical and historical impossibility of the interpretations
of the well-known Biblical prophecies which serve as the substructure of
the Christian dogma.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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