- Editor's Note:
-
- Last June tens of millions of evangelicals unquestioningly
accepted Israel's account of its attack on the Free Gaza flotilla. The
" Israel can do no wrong" mentality is so ingrained in the religious
right that Christians reflexively believe that, in any dispute with the
Arabs, doubting Israel is out of the question.
-
- Yet Orthodox Judaism, the official position of the State
of Israel, makes an astounding provision for observant Jews: They may,
by reciting the Kol Nidre prayer on the eve of Yom Kippur, receive pre-forgiveness
for all the lies, deceit, broken contracts, etc. they may indulge in for
the next year.
-
- Is Israel telling the truth when it claims its commandoes
were innocently surprised by knife and baton-wielding resisters, forcing
Israeli soldiers to shoot more than 50 activists, some with up to four
gunshot wounds each?
-
- International investigations are attempting to answer
that. Meanwhile, Israel's leaders, including Netanyahu, have clear consciences.
As Orthodox Jews, a little over a year ago they undoubtedly prayed the
Kol Nidre prayer, absolving them from having to tell the truth about the
flotilla affair.
-
- Read this reprint of my November 2008 article which reveals
an ominous reality: The group Christian Americans should least trust is
a nation led by Orthodox Jews.
-
-
- KOL NIDRE: JUDAISM'S LICENSE TO LIE
- By Rev. Ted Pike
- (17 Nov 08)
-
-
- Seventy-eight percent of American Jews voted for Obama
and there are now a record 46 Jews in Congress (nearly six times their
proportion to Jews in the American population). As never before, Americans
can expect Jewish influence in government. During the Clinton and Bush
administrations, Jews attained saturation-level presence in government
and cabinet positions.1 Undoubtedly Obama will be surrounded by powerful
Jews; he already appointed an Orthodox Jew as his chief of staff. Will
these powerful Jews legislate and judge justly? Will they reflect what
is regarded as a common Judeo-Christian tradition of high moral values?
-
- It's highly unlikely. In fact, the more religiously observant
a Jewish congressman, federal judge, or attorney general is, the more at
variance he will probably be with Christian values. Let me explain.
-
- Every year through the fall session of Congress, relatively
little is accomplished because of lengthy interruptions from Thanksgiving
and Christmas holidays. Today, though Jews constitute only 1.5 percent
of the US population, Congress also frequently shuts down so Jewish members
may debark, some flying home, for the Jewish holidays. First comes Rosh
Hashanah, then Yom Kippur, and finally Sukkoth. (See, " Does Congress
Always Take Off for Rosh Hashanah?", "Congress quiet on Jewish
New Year") The more religious a Jewish legislator, the more important
he attends synagogue on the eve of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. This
highest Jewish holiday is preceded with rites and collective recitation
of the Kol Nidre prayer.
-
- The Kol Nidre says, "All vows, obligations, oaths,
and anathemas [curses]which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby
we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the nextwe do repent.
May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of
no effect: they shall not bind us nor have any power over us. The vows
shall not be reckoned vows; the obligations shall not be obligations; nor
the oaths be oaths." 2
-
- What is the meaning of this strange and disturbing prayer
recited by millions of Jews every fall? Surely, you may say, it cannot
literally mean what it says: that Jews invalidate all their promises, contracts,
agreements, and even curses throughout the coming year? If that were true,
the word of a religious Jew would be meaningless. No rational person could
trust anything he said, not to mention elect him to high office.
-
- Overturning God's Law
-
-
- To understand the Kol Nidre prayer, let's first consider
the opposite: God's ancient command to His chosen people to fulfill all
their oaths and promises. "When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord
thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the Lord thy God will surely
require it of thee...that which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep
and perform" (Deuteronomy 24:21, 23)
-
- Yet the Jewish Encyclopedia tells us God's requirement
of promise-keeping ultimately became so burdensome to Jews that, as a result
of "their longing for a clear conscience," compassionate rabbinic
authorities overturned God's law around the 8th century AD. They collectively
absolved entire congregations, instructing them to recite what has became
known as the Kol Nidre prayer. 3 At first, the prayer allowed forgiveness
for broken promises and curses of the previous year; later, in the twelfth
century, it granted pre-forgiveness for sins of unfaithfulness for the
following year. Both forms are observed today. Kol Nidre, from its beginnings,
was controversial and "aroused bitter controversy" among rabbinical
authorities. 4
-
- Dissident, non-Talmudic Karaites also proclaimed it a
sham and said it made the word of a Jew worthless. Christian critics leveled
the same charge (but are now called "anti-Semitic" for doing
so). Such criticism provoked more than a millennium of suspicion, persecution
and discrimination against Jews (i.e. much of the "senseless anti-Semitism"
with which historical Christianity has been charged).
-
- Yet the Jewish people were willing to suffer unspeakable
persecutions rather than give up the intoxicating moral release of Kol
Nidre. It "became the most beloved ritual of the Day of Atonement."
5 Today synagogues are packed worldwide on the eve of Yom Kippur as millions
of Jews, deeply moved by the high drama, pageantry and haunting melodies
of Kol Nidre, affirm that their "vows, obligations, and oaths"
or curses are forgiven and forgotten by God.
-
- All Jewish encyclopedias and authoritative works on Kol
Nidre include a powerful disclaimer. They say Gentiles should not feel
threatened by Kol Nidre! The prayer's Kol Nidre, we are told, applies only
to breaking vows to oneself or to God. It may not be employed to justify
breaches of confidence, curses of Gentiles, or lies under oath in civil
courts.
-
- Testimony from a Christian Jew
-
-
- I posed the question to a Christian Jew, Milton (Brother
Nathaniel) Kapner.
-
- "What is the reason behind the mass appeal of Kol
Nidre," I asked. "Do millions of Jews seek absolution from Kol
Nidre because they are tormented with guilt for violating oaths to themselves
and God?"
-
- Until age 21, Kapner, now 57, was a convinced Jew involved
in conservative, Orthodox, and ultra-Orthodox Judaism. At 21, even after
finding Christ, he spent a year of intense study with ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher
rabbis and scholars.
-
- "Kol Nidre," he said, "is a big show.
The Jews get worked up by the high drama and cantor singing the haunting
Kol Nidre melody. They persuade themselves that every lie they have told
over the past year is forgiven. They're off the hook!"
-
- "Are they repenting of lies to God, or also to the
Gentiles?" I asked.
-
- " All lies and broken vows to everyone are covered,"
he replied, "except for legal contracts that are enforced by law."
He said most Jews consider Gentiles inferior. Most ultra-Orthodox consider
them sub-human. Kapner said just as promises made to animals are worthless,
so the Talmud (even without Kol Nidre) teaches that promises to the goyim
are meaningless.
-
- The Talmud frequently says Gentiles may be deceived and
defrauded. Jews are above "barbaric" Gentile laws and courts.
6 Also the Jewish Zohar (Kabbalah) repeatedly describes Gentiles as beasts
and even demons. (This is substantiated in detail in my 354-page book,
Israel: Our DutyOur Dilemma, available at www.truthtellers.org.) (See,
"Have You Read the Talmud Lately?", "The Jewish Kabbalah:
Root of Mideast Violence")
-
- What about the testimony of Jewish authorities that Kol
Nidre does not apply to contracts between Jews and Gentiles? "That's
all for Gentile consumption," Kapner said.
-
- Can You Trust Your Jewish Congressman?
-
-
- Of course, especially in the US, many Jews are so assimilated
and secularized that, though usually liberal, they have shed any high regard
for Kol Nidre or the Talmud. Yet according to Kapner's personal experience,
a religious, Kol Nidre-reciting, Jewish businessman can cheat you without
guilt for the next year. Henry Ford, a businessman who dealt with many
Jews, comments: "It requires no argument to show that if this prayer
be really the rule of faith and conduct for the Jews who utter it, ordinary
social and business relations are impossible to maintain with them."
(The Dearborn Independent, Nov. 5, 1921)
-
- We should also keep in mind Kol Nidre's permission to
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust to lie under oath (as in the Nuremberg
trials). Can we continue to accept as fact their testimony of seeing countless
Jews destroyed in gas chambers and ovens?
-
- It also means an observant Jew in Congress can renege
on any promises he makes his constituents in the past or coming year. Gone
also is any duty of federal or Supreme Court justices to be loyal to their
oath to the Constitution and the United States of America.
-
- Do I have this wrong? Incredibly, I don't. Despite the
suspicion and revenge Kol Nidre has aroused, modern Judaism still considers
its recitation one of the most sacred duties of Jewish life, liturgy, and
tradition. It is so important that as Congress evolves into the "American
Knesset," congressional leaders, under control of the all-powerful
Zionist lobby, are eager to please Jewish members by sending them home
to take advantage of this moral loophole in Judaism.
-
- Perhaps, with Jewish activists flooding Congress as never
before, promoting perverse Jewish "hate crime laws" and "workplace
bias" legislation, as well as bills that persecute Christian/conservative
activism, (See, Lobby Reform Bill Cripples Free Speech) we can understand
why many Jewish members of Congress need the moral absolution provided
by Kol Nidre. There will be a lot of lies to constituents and breaking
oaths to uphold the constitution by First Amendment-destroying Jews this
session of Congress. Such treachery could really strain anyone's conscience.
But Jewish members of Congress return after reciting Kol Nidre with consciences
cleansed. After all, who cares about governing according to the will of
the lowly goyim?
-
- For them, ruling according to Kol Nidre is the will of
God.
-
-
-
- Endnotes:
-
- 1. Michael Collins Piper's books such as The New Jerusalem
extensively document the preponderance of Jews in the highest echelons
of American government. They are available www.americanfreepress.com.
- 2. Article on "Kol Nidre," The Jewish Encyclopedia,
New York, London : Funk & Wagnalls, 1906.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Article on "Kol Nidre," The Encyclopedia
Judaica, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, LTD. Israel, 1996.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. The Talmud says Gentiles can be deprived of justice
(Baba Kama, 113a), can be cheated (BK, 113b), are animals (Iore Deah 148,
12 Hagah), may be killed (Sanhedrin 59a, Choschen Hamischpat 425.5, Abodah
Zarah 26b), can be led to death or not saved from death (Choschen Ham.
425.5, Iore Deah 158).
-
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network,
a Christian/conservative watchdog organization.
-
- TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this subject.
Call (503) 631-3808.
-
- The freedom-saving outreach of Rev. Ted Pike and the
National Prayer Network is solely supported by sale of books, videos and
your financial support. All gifts are tax-deductible.
-
-
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