Menasseh ben Israel's Mission to Oliver Cromwell: Being a reprint of the pamphlets published by Menasseh ben Israel to promote the re-admission of the Jews to England, 1649-1656Manasseh ben Israel
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Menasseh ben Israel's Mission to Oliver Cromwell: Being a reprint of the pamphlets published by Menasseh ben Israel to promote the re-admission of the Jews to England, 1649-1656
Manasseh ben Israel
Jews -- Great Britain
Sir, I hope I have given satisfaction to your worship, touching those
points. I shall yet further inform you with the same sincerity,
concerning the rest. _Sixtus Senensis_ in his _Bibliothæca_, lib. 2.
_Titulo contra Talmud_, and others, as _Biatensis_, _Ordine_ 1. _Tract._
1. _Titulo_ Perachot. averre out of the _Talmud_. cap. 4. “that every
_Iew_, thrice a day, curseth all Christians, and prayeth to God to
confound, and root them out, with their Kings and Princes. And this is
especially done in the _Synagogue_, by the _Iewes_ Priests, thrice a
day.” I pray let such as love the truth, see the _Talmud_, in the quoted
place; and they shall find nothing of that which is objected: onely
there is recited in the said fourth Chapter, the daily prayer, which
speaks of _Minim_, that is, _Hereticks, ordained_ in _Tabne_, (that is a
town not farre from _Ierusalem_, between _Gath_ and _Gazim_, &c.) the
Talmud hath no more. Hence _Sixtus Senensis_ by distillation, draws
forth the foresaid calumnie, whenas, what the _Talmud_ rehearseth
briefly, to be made onely by the wise men in the said Town, he saith,
was a constitution in the _Talmud_ long after.
Now let us see what was done by those wise men in the said Town; and let
us examine, whether that may justly offend the Christians.
There is in the daily prayers a certain Chapter where it is thus
written, _la-Mumarim_, &c. that is, _For Apostates, let there be no
hope, let all Hereticks be destroyed, and all thine enemies, and all
that hate thee, let them perish. And thou shalt root out the kingdome of
pride forthwith, weaken, and put it out, and in our dayes._ This whole
Chapter speaketh nothing of Christians originally, but of the _Iewes_,
who fell in those times, to the _Zaduces_, and _Epicureans_, and to the
Gentiles, as _Moses_ of _Egypt_ saith, Tract. _Tephila._ cap. 2. For by
Apostates and Hereticks are not to be understood all men, that are of a
diverse religion, or heathens, or Gentiles, but those renegado _Iewes_,
who did abrogate the whole Law of _Moses_, or any Articles received
thence; and such are properly by us called _Hereticks_. For according to
the Law of Christians, he is not properly an Apostate, or Hereteck, who
is originally bred a scholler and a candid follower from his youth of a
diverse law, and so continueth: otherwise native _Iewes_ and _Hagarens_,
and other Nations that are no Christians, nor ever were, should be
properly called Apostates, and Hereticks in respect of Christians, which
is absurd, as it is absurd for the _Iewes_ to call the Christians
Apostates, or Hereticks. Wherefore it speaketh nothing of Christians,
but of the fugitive _Iewes_, that is, such as have deserted the
standard, or the sacred Law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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