Customer Reviews

Judaism's Strange Gods

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Having been raised in Orthodox Judaism I can credit most of his critic. Debunking Judaism has been such a taboo for decades that the only recent book that has a little bit of this is was Prof. Shahak's Jewish History, Jewish Religion. I had actually been waiting for a book like Hoffman's for years.
Readers will learn many things that are sprayed over many books difficult to find and that they would probably never get. Hoffman's has made the compilation nobody else dared to write. For example the talmudic interpretations of the passage over Noah's Son Ham and how they were used to justify slavery and racism of blacks.

What may anger even more Orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Christians is Hoffman's contention that Orthodox Judaism is in noway the religion of the Tanakh (Old Testament), but that its theology, structure, etc. are based on the Mishnah and the rabbis' interpretations of the Mishnah.
Actually one just has to read the introduction to Prof. Neusner's The Mishnah : A New Translation to see Hoffman's point vindicated, or other books by Prof. Neusner such as Rabbinic Judaism : Structure and System.
The only thing orthodox Judaism has in common with the religion of the Hebrews is the holy feasts. But this also Reform Judaism has, with the advantage that it does not have some the latter theological superstitions.

The bad point with this book is Hoffman's resentment against "Jews" -- he should rather speak of orthodox Jews. On the other hand I can understand the resentment he may feel when seeing his fellow Christians (the book is written for Christians, BTW, but I found this to be no problem) interpret the Old Testament in the "light" of the Talmud or believe that Orthodox Judaism is to be equated with the religion of the Old Testament.

All in all, a unique book filling in a big gap -- and I hope more books in the future will dare debunk orthodox Judaism. And a book that is religiously politically incorrect : not for the religious fundamentalists!

I got a first edition copy of this book direct from the publisher earlier this month and I was surprised and glad to see Amazon.com put it up on their site during banned books week. This is a controversial but highly enlightening book. Even though the author regards Judaism as a post-first century AD novelty and usurpation, he's pro-Jewish, he wants to free Jews from Judaism (and Christians from being chained to it). The book jacket says the author went to college in NY and worked in New York for the AP as a reporter. With a name like Hoffman and maybe being a New York native, I wonder if he's a Jew?

Issues of ethnicity and the predictable charges of hate aside, it's a great read for the massive scholarship and rare info. In a book of 144 pages there's a large amount of unusual information and quotations from rabbis and Israeli historians and professors that I've never encountered anywhere before.

The main idea is that Judaism is the religion of the Pharisees and that it's against not only Christ but the Old Testament too! He has reams of material from the Talmud and other holy books of Judaism showing that it's these works that take priority over the Bible and that they adapt and misinterpret the Bible so much that they end up blotting the Bible out.

The book takes Christians out of their sense of being step-children and puts them at the front and center as THE continuation of the Israelites (I Peter 2:9), contrary to Judaism and the "Khazars" (the author says the people we think of as being descendants of Abraham are really "Khazars" from east Europe). The section that prodded me the most is in a footnote on p. 97 analyzing the good fig tree and the evil fig tree (Matthew 21:19). It basically asks, "Who really are the grafted-on converts?" The answer surprised me!

We tend to think we have this topic down pat and then we divide up on opposite sides and then it's a stand-off going nowhere. But with this book there's a new angle introduced and hard to find facts. Christians and Jews with an open mind should read it because it solves a lot of problems. It lifted burdens off me and made me think from a new angle, which is quite a bit to get out of a book.

"Judaism's Strange Gods" is a must-read for anyone who is not content with the carefully controlled opinion and news that we are fed. If you wish to understand why there exists so much illogic and capriciousness in public policy, and why there is such a nasty undercurrent in today's "entertainment," you must read "Judaism's Strange Gods." If you are a Christian, you must read "Judaism's Strange Gods." Using mainly Jewish sources, Mr. Hoffman reveals the basis of problematic Jewish attitudes and behavior. Almost all of today's Jews are adherents of a religion that would better be called "rabbinism." Rabbinic Judaism is not the religion of the Old Testament Israelites, but is a man-made belief system based on the Talmud and other associated man-made rules. Cleanly and beautifully written in the best tradition of logical exposition, "Judaism's Strange Gods" will lift confusion from your mind. Interested? You must read this book!

I started reading this book and at first I thought,
"Ah, I've read all this before." If you've read any books
like "The Temple and the Lodge" and the books written
by authors who suggest that Judeo-Christianity is based
on demon worship, then part of this information won't
be shocking or new to you. The thing that begins to become
clear in this book is that not ALL Christianity is Judaically
based Christianity. This book begins to show the lines where
Judaism begins and where the ancient religion of the Children
of Israel ended. Which is pretty historically mind-bending
because it's so different from what's generally accepted
to be Old Testament history in relation to contemporary Judaism.

One thing that I'm sure is distressing to a lot of people
is some of the racist, supremacist and hateful language
of the Talmud. Which, I dunno, I think people like to think
that only whites have a monopoly on racial hatred or
xenophobia or whatever, but the more I read about the world
around me, the more I see that's simply not true. I guess
if I were Jewish I'd be pretty shocked to see what some
of the rabbis have written. It's awfully hateful stuff, and
a bit hard to read. Kinda makes the stomach turn and
the mouth taste like metal.

So, the book is pretty intense and I don't recommend
reading it right before you go to bed. I'm sure some people
say it's hateful against Jews but I think sometimes the
carpet has to be pulled back on peoples and religions and
some of their beliefs called into question. I don't think
Jews should be exempt from that scrutiny any more than
anyone else on Earth should be. I just find it kind dangerous
and very perplexing that if one looks into the disturbing tenets
of Buddhism or Islam, one is a scholar of religions, but if
one looks into the tenets of Judaism, one is an anti-Semite.
That part is very disturbing; much more disturbing
than the book itself.

This book indirectly dispels the false teachings of dispensationalists. If you don't know what a dispensationalist is, all you have to do is go to the prophecy section of Christian bookstores. For some reason inexplicable to me, dispensationalists like Hal Lindsay, Hagee, and Timothy LaHaye, Jenkins, Dave Hunt etc. have a virtual monopoly of the prophecy book shelves. They disseminate some false teachings which are unorthodox and not in accordance with traditional Christian teaching regarding the Church. It's nice to get a dose of reality for a change.

This book was intended to be provocative, and judging by the passionate reviews against and for it displayed in this page, it has succeeded completely.

The first thing to be known before reading it, is: it was written from a Christian perspective. The author is a Christian, and his profound knowledge on Talmudic and Kabbalistic literature makes him a probable convert from Judaism. "The religion of the God of Israel is Christianity", says he with very little impartiality. And that is, in my opinion, the first of the book's weaknesses: the arguments it presents are not scientific, but theological. Instead of just pointing out the Oral Torah as an opportunistic fraud, the author calls it "a diabolic fantasy", "a heinous hoax concocted in hell", besides using Jesus' words in the Gospels to condemn it.

Although too vehement like any discussion involving more faith than reasoning, most of the argumentation is very accurate. The "strange gods" of the provocative title are the Talmud and the Kabbalah, more revered by Jews, in Hoffman's opinion, than God himself and the Bible he inspired. Rabbinic Judaism is indeed a Babylonian distortion of the original Judaism, introduced by the infamous Pharisee sect after the Israelite exile in Babylon (Hoffman believes it is even more recent, flourished in Babylon centuries after Christ was crucified). The Karaite movement and the Ethiopian Falasha, the former labeled as heretic and the latter discriminated by Orthodox rabbis, are much closer to original Judaism than Rabbinism. Talmud, and not the Bible, is the book that primarily determines the practices and doctrines of Orthodox Jews, and such words are endorsed by Prof. Israel Shahak, who was raised to be a rabbi. The theory of the Khazar origin of Ashkenazic Jewry is also more than plausible. However, I disagree with the author's exaggeration of the influence of Kabbalism in the West, and its supposed creation of 18th century's Age of Enlightenment.

Hoffman's book is important simply because it belongs to a major movement against Jewish fundamentalism leaded by Jewish intellectuals like Prof. Albert Lindemann and Prof. Israel Shahak, among many others. Everyone knows that Orthodox Jews work restlessly against the peace process in Middle East, and that Yitzhak Rabin's assassin was indoctrinated by them. Almost everyone is familiar with Rabbinic Judaism's hatred towards Jesus Christ, whose name is not even pronounced by Orthodox Rabbis, who refer to him by words like "the Nazarene", "that man" and so on. Not to mention that the Talmud contains the most offensive and imbecile things ever written against the founder of Christianity.

The accusations of racism against Rabbinic Judaism in Hoffman's book are even more distempered, but unfortunately very pertinent. Few people know that Orthodox Jews give thanks in their prayers for not being "women, gentiles or servants". Jewish scholar Norman Cantor says in "The Sacred Chain", Chapter 10: "Racism is itself a central doctrine in traditional Judaism and Jewish cultural history. The Hebrew Bible is blatantly racist, with all the talk about the seed of Abraham, the chosen people, and Israel as the light to the other nations. Orthodox Jews in their morning prayers still thank God daily that he did not make Jews `like the other peoples of the earth'. If this isn't racism, it is hard to envisage what is."

Regrettably, any educated and traveled Jew who could sympathize with the author's contempt for Orthodox Rabbis, gets offended by his opening statement that "Christianity is the only religion that represents the Old Testament creed of Yahweh", feeling immediately compelled to take their side.

Now, the reason why I think this book is not only important but also necessary, is that it defies the paranoiac and widely spread notion that anything said against Jews or Judaism can cause another Holocaust. This is not only hysterical, is also very convenient for fanatics and fundamentalists, who make themselves untouchables. No one should be above criticism, and the word "Anti-Semitism" must stop being used as an excuse for censoring free debate. The monopoly of persecution suffering mustn't be detained by Jews, or by followers of any other faith as a matter of fact. Someone in this very page has talked about censoring and forbidding this book, and that kind of statement (as if censorship could change for the better anyone's opinions about the censor) is the really dangerous one. If Catholics, for instance, must accept the publishing of a book that calls Pius XII "Hitler's Pope", there is no reason why religious Jews should not accept all kinds of criticism and opinions contrary to their own. Nazis used to make bonfires to burn Jewish books; it is nothing less than distressing to see now some Jews, among all people, invoking such methods of disagreement.

Shocked by the horrifyingly evil quotes from the Talmud in Hoffman's "Judaism's Strange Gods" and Fr. I. B. Pranaitis's "The Talmud Unmasked," I went to our local university library and VERIFIED the quotes myself in the Steinsaltz translation of the Talmud. With my own eyes I witnessed (and photocopied for reference) the evil promoted by the Talmud (...). Hoffman carefully explains how the Talmud oppresses observant Jews in its micromanagment of their lives (...), so indeed the Talmud is in its essence anti-Semitic ---but the Talmud's treatment of non-Jews is utterly reprehensible. No wonder Jews want to talk about the Gospels, but not the Talmud!

The Talmud is the written compendium of the oral traditions, the "precepts of men," condemned by Jesus in the Gospels [Mark 7:6-9 and Matthew 15:3-6]. Hoffman throughly references his explanation that Judaism is NOT Old Testament Judaism, but, as the Jewish Encyclopedia itself boasts, the contemporary extension of Pharisaism (the same Pharisaism which was so thoroughly condemned by Jesus in his harshest recorded judgment in Matthew 23). Remember that Jesus condemned the Pharisees and their converts to hell [Matthew 23] for "voiding the commandments of God," defecting from the Mosaic Law, and substituting the "precepts of men."

The PERVASIVE root principle of the Talmud is that non-Jews are non-humans. Critics of this book claim the Talmud quotes are fabricated or quoted "out of context," but you can verify the accuracy of the quotes yourself, AS I HAVE, in the Steinsaltz translation of the Talmud. Keep in mind that there are MANY expurgated translations of the Talmud for Gentile consumption, sanitized of the horrifying Talmud doctrines that non-Jews are non-humans, "You are called men, but the Goyim [Gentiles] are not called men." -Kerituth 6b; "The progeny of the Goyim is like an animal." -Sanhedrin 74b Tosephoth; "All Gentile children are animals." -Yebamoth 98a

When challenged, Rabbis, like several reviewers of this book, will dissemble quoting some sweet Talmudic passages, but the characterization of non-Jews as non-humans PERVADES the Talmud with baleful moral consequences. Because we are not human, Gentiles are owed no debt of morality or decency - not honesty [Baba Kamma 113a, explaining the lies protesting the innocence of the Talmud], not property [Baba Mezia 24a], not even life! - "The best of the Gentiles should all be killed" -Abhodah Zarah 26b Tosephoth and Minor tractate Soferim 15, 10. Despite recent criticism of the Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion, the Talmud [Sanhedrin 43a] actually boasts that the Sanhedrin arranged Jesus' death even though the Romans were inclined towards acquittal.(...). [Sanhedrin 54b](...).

Several reviewers mock Hoffman for describing the Talmudic precepts as diabolical. What would YOU call a "religious" book that treats everyone but the religion's followers as NON-HUMAN? What would YOU call a "religious" book that condones murder and other crimes against everyone but the religion's followers? "Holy?" I think not! "Satanic" seems a perfectly appropriate description. Hoffman should be praised for revealing the TRUTH, exposing the diabolical precepts of Talmudic Judaism.

No wonder today's Pharisees want to bury this very accessible and thoughtful book.

Finally someone had the guts to write this book. Absolutely amazing and well written.

Wow! This book helped solve some huge questions I had about the bible. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 it says that it's "shameful for women to speak" and that they should not talk in church. "As the law also says"

I could never find a verse in the Old Testament where it said women had to shut up.

So at church they would have women preachers and we just ignored this verse but it always bugged me.

Till I read this book and then you learn that in the Talmud which is considered "law" by Jews (but not by Jesus or Paul) it says women are basically morons, who need to shut up.

"A woman's voice is prohibited because it is sexually provocative" (Talmud, Berachot 24a). *"Women are sexually seductive, mentally inferior, socially embarrassing, and spiritually separated from the law of Moses; therefore, let them be silent" (summary of Talmudic sayings). *The Talmud Called the Voice of a Woman "Shameful" *"It is a shame for a woman to let her voice be heard among men" (Talmud, Tractate Kiddushin) *"The voice of a woman is filthy nakedness" (Talmud, Berachot Kiddushin)

So 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is Paul's retort to a Talmud quoting Judaizer in Corinth who probably freaked out when he saw women baptized in the Holy Spirit prophesying, speaking in tongues, and doing other miraculous kinds of things.

That's why Paul tells him (my paraphrase) I know the Talmud too. All people (women too) should desire to speak in tongues and prophesy and if you don't agree you're ignorant so be quiet.

This book really drives home the point that tradition based religion really destroys the bible. The Talmud and the Catholic Catechism should both be handled carefully and never raised above the Torah or Bible or you will get something broken.

I also learned that the Talmud teaches that it's okay for Jews to lie and cheat Gentiles. This breaks the 9th commandment.

Baba Kamma 113a. Jews may use lies ("subterfuges") to circumvent a Gentile.

So there are tons of examples where the Talmud makes the law of God (the bible) of none effect.

Excellent book if you love the Bible.

This is one of those books that on the surface appears to contain distorted bigoted lies or at best half-truths. However so far everything I have been able to check has proven to be correct. Prior to purchasing this book I also bought a complete 18 volume Talmud set so I could verify it myself. Wow! Much of what is called the word of God by modern Jews is absolute Biblical blasphemy. The worst part is that the American Christian Church has created a Jewish identity that does not actually exist in God's word, and then filtered much of our theology (and along with that the worship of Israel) through those lies. We are embracing lies and think we are on a solid biblical foundation. It is no wonder the American Christian Church is losing more and more influence in our nation. Every Christian, or at least every Christian leader, needs to know the facts revealed in this book.