History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)Graetz, Heinrich
History
History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)
Graetz, Heinrich
Jews -- History
"Even at the present time much of the same sort of thing
happens in Poland and Germany, where circumstantial tales are
told and songs sung in the streets, how the Jews have murdered
a child, and sent the blood to one another in quills for the
use of their women in childbirth. I have discovered this
outrageous fraud in time, and abandoned Christianity, which
can permit such things, in order to have no share in it, nor
be found with those who trample under foot Israel, the first
begotten Son of God, and shed his blood like water."
Moses Germanus was Paul reversed. The latter as a Christian, became a
zealous despiser of Judaism; the former, as a Jew, an equally fanatical
opponent of Christianity. He regarded its origin as gross fraud.
One cannot even now write all that Moses Germanus uttered about the
teaching of Jesus. He was not the only Christian who at this time
"from love for Judaism" exposed himself to the painful operation and
still keener shame and reproach of circumcision. In one year three
Christians, in free Amsterdam to be sure, went over to Judaism, amongst
them a student from Prague.
Even more than the anticipated greatness of Israel, Jewish literature
attracted learned Christians, and inspired them with a sort of sympathy
for the people out of whose mine such treasures came. The Hebrew
language was studied by Christians even more than in the beginning
of the seventeenth century. In the middle and towards the close of
that century Hebrew Rabbinical literature was most eagerly searched,
translated into Latin or modern languages, quoted, utilized, and
applied. "Jewish learning" was, not as before a mere ornament, but
an indispensable element, of learning. It was regarded as a disgrace
for Catholic and Protestant theologians to be ignorant of Rabbinical
lore, and the ignorant could defend themselves only by abusing these
Hebraists as semi-rabbis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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