Over the past few years, I have been thinking and writing quite a bit about the veracity of Jewish belief. The following list is not meant to be exhaustive but is rather should be viewed as chapter headings for larger discussions. This list is also the basic outline of a book I have been toying with writing. I apologize for two things. Firstly, I did not include sources for most of my points. Again these are more chapter headings, each justifying a much larger discussion. If you want to know more about a topic, please comment and I will do my best to point you in the right direction. And secondly, some titles are a bit cryptic given their brevity. I apologize.
THE TORAH GOT THE CREATION STORY ALL WRONG
Human genetics (as well as the genetic imprint of all living things) points to a long lineage spanning billions of years. Additionally, there is no genetic bottleneck in the human lineage where we came from a single man and woman 6000 years ago (Adam and Eve) or a single family 4500 years ago (Noach and his family).
The sun is much older than the earth, yet in Chumash, it is either created at the same time, or it is created on the fourth day.
The Torah mistakenly assumes that flowering plants and trees existed before animals.
The entire concept of calculating the molad that we perform every month in shul is predicated in the earth being a literal 6000 years old
The stars were not created on the fourth day. Every heavy element on our planet exists as a result of stars exploding billions of years ago.
Every area of human inquiry points to a very old earth, bursting with life for millions of years. For billions of years before Adam, animals were killing and eating each other - utter cruelty for some unknown cosmic reason.
We can trace the activity of humankind for tens of thousands of years – watching as they conquered fire, created rituals, learned how to communicate, traveled the world, built cities, etc. all with incredible detail over a very long period of time – none of which fits with humanity having started with two people, 5780 years ago.
There is no rakiyah. (Chazal very clearly understood the rakiyah as a translucent hard dome that prevented the “upper waters” from falling onto earth. Chazal also understood that the upper waters seeped through the rakiyah and, despite falling into the ocean, was picked up by clouds and delivered as rain to dry land.)
The Torah incorrectly assumes that there were great sea creatures and birds before there were land animals.
The Euphrates, the Gichon, and the Tigris do not connect at any juncture.
There is no Garden of Eden on this planet (When asked why our satellites could not locate the Garden of Eden, the Steipler answered that Hashem hides it from the satellites. Okey Dokey)
The Torah incorrectly records that iron and bronze were invented at the same time, 5000 years ago.
Oh, I almost forgot. “fallen ones” come to earth, have sex with women, and give birth to giants. That’s why there are so many giants wandering the earth, duh.
COUNTER-APOLOGETICS
Gerald Schroeder – If you twist your eyes just right and massage the data long enough and throw in a couple of utterly unfounded assumptions – one can read the Torah as endorsing an old earth model. Don’t worry about all the other issues besides the age of the universe because I am about to say a lot of sciency things and I might even include a picture – all of which is obviously above your head and not me trying to divert your attention away from the weakness of my actual argument.
Rabbi Gottlieb – God is testing us by creating old looking earth. But everything is OK because he gave us the Torah which has the right story – so he wasn’t really tricking us. Got it.
Rabbi Meiselman – The Torah refers to day and night before it, the sun existed, which doesn’t make too much sense. Instead of admitting yet another plot hole, I posit that time doesn’t mean anything during the days of creation. I am now going to laboriously and monotonously write for 400 pages until you lose interest and forget what your original question was in the first place.
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan – If you mash together two conflicting – never heard before – opinions in kabbalah, and you combine them with a few contractions in Tosfos - we are actually in the midst of a 50-billion-year kabbalah cycle of existence. Again, don’t focus too much on the details or how accepted this approach is amongst actual scholars – after all, you are all balli teshuva so I can say whatever I want and get away with it, right.
Rabbi Gedalya Nadel – Yeah, evolution is true, and Adam was an Iron Age farmer who was imbued with the spirit of God while he was picking carrots in the field. I am too chashuv to be put into charem so I can say what I want. But I am not going to say it. I am just going to have my talmidim write my thoughts based on recordings so that the gedolim can say that they misunderstood me.
THE MABUL DID NOT HAPPEN
Everything we know about the world contradicts the assertion that a gloabl flood wiped out all animal and plant life 4500 years ago and the world was repopulated by a single set of parent animals who spent a year on a boat.
Every one of the descendants of Noah and his children recorded in the tables of nations seem to be one of the “founders” of a tiny geographic area in the Ancient Near East. No mention of the forefathers of the Tasmanians or the Inca or the Zulu, etc. Shockingly, it almost seems as if whoever was writing the Chumash had no idea that there were massive human populations on every continent other than the one he or she inhabited.
The story of the flood just happens to seem like it was ripped off verifiably older versions of ANE flood stores like the Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
We have civilizations that have an uninterrupted history going straight through the Mabul. They don’t seem to notice that they all died during a big flood - smack in the middle of their history.
We have uninterrupted ice samples that trace yearly weather patterns for over 165,000 years. There is no noticeable variation during the times around when the flood would have happened. Just regular thaw and frost cycles like every other year. This reality is especially egregious according to the gemaros that the global flood consisted of vicious boiling water!
We have fossilized trees that are older than the Mabul that would not have survived the flood.
Penguins did not trek down Mount Ararat and travel from Turkey to Antarctica. Sloths also did not trek and swim down to Australia. Moths that only survive on fir trees in Central America also did not hop from fir tree to fir tree from Turkey to the Americas. None of this happened.
Architecture, pottery, language, and all the hallmarks of each civilization doesn’t change suddenly after the Mabul. Consider how strange that is. The people in location A were making pots and pans with X pattern using process Y, living in houses with Z architecture. Suddenly a flood comes, and they all die. Then, hundreds of years later, Noach’s descendants repopulate the location and shockingly continue making pottery, houses, art, etc., in the exact same manner as the random dead people who inhabited the same place. Strange.
There was no point in history when “all of humanity” dwelt in Babylon.
We can trace the origins of languages and study how they developed from early proto-languages and branched off into different directions. It is patently clear that 70 languages did not suddenly arise because God got angry at everyone for building a tower.
COUNTER-APOLOGETICS
Rabbi Meiselman – The flood was a magic flood with magic water. Maybe magic water doesn’t leave any evidence of its existence like regular water. Boom, issue solved.
Rabbi Nadel – It was a local flood. Sure the pesukim and Chazal and every single Rishon and Acharon in the entire history of our tradition clearly understood that the flood covered the whole world and killed every living thing, but since when was I concerned with fitting anything into the sensible reading of the words.
Very Modern Rabbis - The Torah never meant the story to be understood literally, rather it the Torah was trying to recast the Epic of Gilgamesh with a new, gentler message. Whatever you say, man.
THE EXODUS AND THE CONQUEST
Despite the Torah continually referring to camels, there were no camels in the time of Abraham or in Egypt at the time of the plagues.
Egypt was in the middle of a golden age when the Torah records that their entire economy collapsed, and they lost their entire army in the Yam Suf.
According to Chazal that only 1 out of 5 people left Egypt - 10 - 15 million Jews were hanging around Egypt. All those people needed houses and food and clothing before they died, yet the idea of a population that large living in Egypt is utterly laughable.
Chazal record that when the sea split, all the water in the entire world split. Strangely, no other civilization except ours seems to remember this once in a universe event.
The idea of 2.5 million people, a population that would have represented a huge chunk of the total Egyptian population, picked up and left Egypt overnight, just doesn't match the reality we know.
The Torah writes that the Jews were forced to build the city of Pisom and Ramses. Pisom did not exist until 500 years later.
The Torah records that the Jews took the long way through the desert to avoid the Philistines, yet the Philistines did not arrive until hundreds of years later.
Egypt had well-established garrisons all along the desert during the time that the Torah records the Jews leaving Egypt.
Moshe sends messengers to the king of Edom, asking for passage through his lands. Edom did not exist until around 500 years after the Exodus.
We have records of Egypt conquering Eretz Yisroel and defeating the Jews a mere 80 years after the Torah records the Exodus. This reality does not correlate with our account of events.
Despite the wandering Jews being the size of a small state, and despite our archeological techniques being able to precisely track tiny Bedouin tribes that wandered the desert during the same time, and despite Klal Yisroel spending 38 years camping out in one spot, there is no trace of the Jew's 40-year stay in the midbar.
The population of Eretz Yisroel at the time of the conquest was tiny, think tens of thousands. If the Jews had 600,000 fighting men, they could have simply walked in and taken over, end of discussion. Yet Klal Yisroel seems terrified, with lots of talk about massive cities, etc.
There is no evidence of a large scale conquest in Canann during the time the Torah says that there was.
The sun never stood still while we were attacking a city. Firstly, we revolve around the sun. Secondly, is planet earth stopped in its tracks, everything would instantly die. https://io9.gizmodo.com/xkcds-creator-explains-what-would-happen-if-earth-stopp-1625068208
Chazal records that the meraglim brought back fruit that took ten men to carry. Various diagrams show how it took eight people to carry one bushel of grapes. Yet, we have seeds from those times, and surprise, surprise, no massive grapes, and olives, etc., just regular-sized fruit like the rest of the universe. (https://www.sefaria.org/Sotah.34a.10?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en)
The Torah refers to the great wall around the city of Jericho during the time of Yehoshua's conquest. Jericho was not walled until the Late Bronze Period.
Sefer Yehoshua describes the jews conquering and destroying the great city of Ai. The pesukim provides quite a bit of detail, helping scholars locate the exact site. Ai was indeed a great city, but it was destroyed 1000 years before the conquest. indeed, during the time of Yehoshua, it is very clear that the site was utterly abandoned.
Chazal records that the meraglim were the size of grasshoppers compared to the giants that lived in Eretz Yisroel. The meraglim's tiny size allowed them to scout the land without being caught. Despite Eretz Yisroel teeming with giants, and despite Eretz Yisroel being one of the most archaeologically studied places in the world, no one has found of these giants. Not one giant toenail has been unearthed to date. Also, remember that Og was killed in the midbar, and according to Chazal, he was larger than the Empire State Building. Again, not one townhouse sized pinky bone has been unearthed to date.
COUNTER-APOLOGETICS
Archaeology shmarkeology.
Well, it is actually a machlokes amongst archeologists, so there. All you need to do to verify the Torah's account is only look at a few pieces of evidence taken out of context, and propose a radical re-dating of every major event in the entire region for several hundred years, and ignore all advances in radiocarbon dating in the past fifty years, and sideline the very vast majority of expert archeological opinions in favor of a tiny minority of (mostly) religious archeologists, and extrapolate that tiny minority opinion far beyond their original intention, then you can find a time gap where we can squeeze the exodus events.
But the Ipuwer Papyrus describes the plagues!!!
The Egyptians wouldn't record their defeats!! And yes, it is totally ok to pretend that the only way we know anything about Egypt is from victory steles, not from the thousands of other indices, including: letters, court records, treaties, pottery, hymns, grain orders, troop reports, etc.
OTHER ISSUES WITH THE TORAH
The Torah puts people to death for practicing magic. The Torah also records many cases of people employing magic for various ends. Chazal is also brimming with stories, advice, and tips for dealing with magic and witches. Nevertheless, magic does not exist.
Chazal constantly talk about demons, how to see them, the damage they cause, people having conversations with them, etc. Demons do not exist.
Chazal believed that the entire world crowned Avraham Avinu as their king. No other nation besides ours seems to have any memory of this coronation.
Chazal believed that Moshe Rabbeinu created coinage, specifically the Shekel, for Klal Yisroel. Coins weren't invented for another 800 years.
Chazal and the Rishonim and Acharonim were convinced that people's fates are determined by astrology. People's fates are not determined by astrology.
Lots of Parshas Mishpatim seems to be copied from the older Code of Hammurabi
There seem to be lots of older myths of saviors being put as babies into baskets into rivers.
The Mishkan seems to be a riff on Ramses war tent
OUR MESORAH IS RIDDLED WITH HOLES
A huge chunk of our current religious thought relies on the Zohar. The Zohar is a forgery. No serious academic thinks otherwise. No religious Jew would argue for the Zohar's authenticity if not for the fact that they were religious.
The Vilna Goan claimed that Rav Shimon Bar Yochi appeared to him whenever he taught the Zohar. If the Zohar is a forgery, the Vilna Goan is delusional.
Shlomo Hamelech definitely did not write Shir Hashirim. The only way Shlomo Hamelech wrote Shir Hashirim is if he mysteriously decided to use a form of Hebrew and Persian words that only entered the Jewish lexicon hundreds of years later.
Shlomo Hamelech definitely did not write Koheles: http://kefirahoftheweek.blogspot.com/2015/12/vort-loanwords-in-kohelet-and.html
Our famed mesorah chart is riddled with errors, impossibilities, and was created based on pure conjecture.
The song of the Sea was definitely written long after Klal Yisroel settled in Eretz Yisroel https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-song-at-the-sea-what-does-it-celebrate
Dreidels are a German game - not "neis gadol haya sham"
Dressing up on Purim is almost certainly a practice adopted a few hundred years ago from
Lag Ba'Omer is just made up (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-urban-myths-of-lag-baomer/)
Unbeknownst to the people who wrote Nach, there seems to have been a Temple full of Avodah Zarah, almost as big as the first Bais Hamikdash, surviving for 300 years during the time of the first Bais Hamikdash - less than a 50-minute stroll from Yerushalayim!
The vast consensus of historians is that the Jewish people are descendants of Canaanim who always worshiped a pantheon of gods, including El and a bunch of others.
The Megilah seems to be an adaptation of stories about Murdok (Mordechai) and Ishtar (Esther) - two major Persian deities.
The Esrog originated from Asia and certainly wasn't widespread in Eretz Yisroel until pretty late in Jewish history
Oh yeah, we misplaced 165 years. Poof, gone. Just like that. Missing. The first bais HaMikdash was around far longer than our records, the second bais HaMikdash was around for less than our records, and we misplaced 8 Persian kings that ruled over us.
The Torah seems to have absolutely no knowledge of an afterlife. https://www.unasp.br/ec/sites/centrowhite/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The-Afterlife-Views-and-the-Use-of-the-TaNaKh-in-Support-of-the-R.pdf?fbclid=IwAR24LVrSYntroq_kga5XwFWpzIEKdBrJzPrMJFMDxHwa1lQ-sydGWZgkTvw
The Torah also seems to have no idea about the concept of Moshiach, the End of Days, and reward and punishment in the next world. These ideas first start making their mark in Jewish thought exactly when the jews began being influenced by the Babylonians - a culture that possessed these traditions. http://kefirahoftheweek.blogspot.com/2015/08/eschatology.html
Chazal seem to have no knowledge about reincarnation. Strangely, gilgulim first make their appearance in Jewish literature exactly when those ideas were being popularised by the surrounding cultures.
Chazal had no idea why we light Chanukah candles and simply made up a story about the missing oil. See http://kefirahoftheweek.blogspot.com/2014/12/why-do-we-light-hannukah-candles.html and https://ajewwithquestions.blogspot.com/2016/12/chanuka-and-miracle-of-oil.html?fbclid=IwAR1orP0Sxv2rQaUpPxrAL32prg0M4V6jMqL3Lmw5ZYppAom-xP_bPt2G26U
Shlomo Hamelech, if he existed, did not have anything close to the riches and power that Nach believes he possessed. He was a local chieftain at best. Nothing more.
The people in the time of Ezra seem shockingly unfamiliar with Yom Kippur
Sefer Ezra records that the Jews kept Succos for the first time during Ezra's reign
The people in the Elephantine Papyri seem to have no idea how to keep Pesach. Definitely not the way Rabbi Blumenkrantz envisions Pesach. They also had no problem asking the kohen gadol for help donating to their avoda Zarah temple.
Chazal record a number of pesukim that simply don't exist
Chazal horrifically miscounted the number of letters in the Torah
There are some pretty serious differences between the Septuagint, the Masoretic text, and the dead sea scrolls.
The Rishonim were all over the map when trying to count how often various words appeared in the Torah.
THEOLOGICAL ISSUES WITH JUDAISM
A perfectly beloved god simply would not have created a place of eternal torment. There are simpler, better ways to get the job done – creating a world where people can choose to embrace bliss – without involving pots of boiling semen.
A benevolent got would not cause animals to suffer and force them to eat each other in order to survive.
If God is all-knowing, then he does not have free will
The god of Jewish theology is utterly incapable of love.
If you think about the concept of Nehama Di'Kesufah, it stops making sense very quickly.
It is impossible to love or form a relationship with the god of Jewish theology
The concept of bechirah is incoherent in Jewish thought
MORAL ISSUES WITH THE TORAH
If a Jew rapes a 6-year-old gentile child, THE CHILD is put to death - exactly like an ox that was involved with relations with a Jew. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Forbidden_Intercourse.12.10?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
One of the most revered people in the Jewish tradition, King David, seduced and had sex with a six or 8-year-old girl. At the time, he was also married to a woman who he married after giving a dowry of 200 foreskins ripped off his enemies.
The Jewish people once lined up tens of thousands of children under three years old and made a Nazi-style selection on them, killing some and sparing the others.
The Torah raises no moral condemnation against slavery.
It is unequivocal from the pesukim down to modern poskim that it is forbidden to save a dying gentile on Shabbos. Even during the week, if there is no concern for arousing animosity, it is quite difficult to find a basis for saving a dying gentile.https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Berurah.330.8?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
It is forbidden to return a gentile’s lost object. If you are sitting behind a newlywed gentile on the bus and see her ring slip off her finger, many poskim forbid returning the lost ring to her. https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.76b.2?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If one damages a gentile they do not have to pay. If a gentile damages a jew, they are fully culpable. https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Kamma.38a.2?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If a person is negligent to some level and causes another to die, for example, he is chopping wood and the blade flies off the handle and kills someone, the blood relatives of the deceased can KILL the person who caused the damage. Some sages say it is a mitzvah for the blood relatives to exact vengeance. There is nothing just about such a system. https://www.sefaria.org/Makkot.7b.17?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If a gentile accidentally kills a jew, they are put to death. If a jew deliberately kills a gentile he does not receive any punishment. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Murderer_and_the_Preservation_of_Life.5.4?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If one finds a gentile foundling in the forest, they can keep them as a slave forever. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Slaves.8.20?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If a father kills his child while beating him or her, he does not receive any punishment https://www.sefaria.org/Makkot.8b.6?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If you see a gentile overpaying you, you can keep your mouth shut and pocket them money. The Gemara records numerous sages who indulged in this practice. https://www.sefaria.org/Tur%2C_Choshen_Mishpat.348.3?lang=he&with=Prisha&lang2=he
The Torah encourages every Jew to seek out and kill anyone who leaves the faith. https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh%2C_Yoreh_De'ah.158.2?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=he
If a 13-year-old boy violates Shabbos in front of witnesses, he is put to death
The Netziv allows husbands to rape their wives forcibly. http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=1096&pgnum=241
If a Jewish city decides that they no longer believe in the religion – the entire city, man woman and child – are put to death.
If a person raises small animals in Jerusalem, every Jew is actively encouraged to kill the person. https://www.sefaria.org/Shulchan_Arukh%2C_Yoreh_De'ah.158.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=he
If you borrow money from a gentile and they die without telling anyone about the loan, one is exempt from paying the money back to the gentile's children. https://www.sefaria.org/Kessef_Mishneh_on_Mishneh_Torah%2C_Robbery_and_Lost_Property.1.2.1?lang=bi
It is forbidden to give a gentile good advice https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Murderer_and_the_Preservation_of_Life.12.15?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If a gentile father decides that he wants to sell his child as a slave, a jew is allowed to buy the child in the slave market and make him work as a slave for the rest of his life. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Slaves.9.2?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If one has an old slave who, after serving you faithfully for many years, wants his freedom, it is forbidden to free the slave out of pity. The Sefer HaChinuch explains that the reason the Torah encourages and even enforces the Jews owning slaves is that we are the most superior race on earth (mivchar mi’min ha’enushi). As such, it is our right to devote ourselves to divine service while other – lower races - tend to our menial needs, such as planting our fields and washing our clothing. This is why the Torah forbids freeing gentile slaves. One is only allowed to free a slave if there is a religious need requiring his or her freedom (for example, one needs another person to complete a quorum for prayer.) Sans such a reason, it is the will of God for gentiles to serve the physical needs of the Jews. https://www.sefaria.org/Gittin.38b.3?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he. https://www.sefaria.org/Sefer_HaChinukh.347.3?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If one wants to incentivize his slaves to work harder, he can use his female salves – even children, as sex workers and offer time with them as a reward for hard work. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Slaves.3.5?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he (The Rambam distinguishes a Jewish slave from a Jewish slave. A master cannot share a female slave with multiple Jewish men. But gentile male slaves can share one gentile female slave.)
Only men inherit their parent's property.
Women are legally excluded from all positions of authority (Kol minui shel sirrah) https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.1?lang=he
If a twelve-year-old child steals bread and wine from his parents, his parents can have him killed
If a gay person wants to consummate his relationship with his life partner, the Torah commands that he – and his partner - are to be put to death.
A Jewish soldier can rape and keep any gentile woman he finds during wartime. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.8.2?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If the gentile woman who was captured during wartime does not renounce her gods and accept Hashem within 12 months - she is put to death. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.8.9?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
A gentile can be tried and killed in a court of one judge. Any Jew can act as a bais din to kill a gentile. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.9.14?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
A gentile is killed based on the testimony of a single person, even his relative. That witness can also act as the judge and executioner for the gentile. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.9.14?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
A gentile is put to death for violating any single one of the seven Noahide laws. For example, if a gentile steals a penny, he is liable to be put to death by any onlooker. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.9.9?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
Unlike a Jew, a gentile does not need to receive or acknowledge any prior warning that his actions carry the death penalty before being tried and killed. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.9.14?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
If a Jewish king desires, he can mobilize an army at any time to plunder the nations around him. https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.3b.29?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
When a Jewish army attacks other nations, Jews are commanded to provide a chance for peace. To this end, the Jews make the following ultimatum: We are offering you the chance to surrender and become our serfs. Half of your entire economy (land and material possessions) will be confiscated. You will become our subjects, and your people can be drafted at any time as slaves for the king's projects. You must also reject your God and accept Hashem. If not, all males will be killed. https://www.sefaria.org/Mishneh_Torah%2C_Kings_and_Wars.6.1?lang=he&with=all&lang2=he
COUNTER-APOLOGETICS
The Right-Wing Charedi Rabbonim:
There is no problem here. The goyim are wicked. Stop with your American liberal narrishkeit and have a little humility. Who are you to question God's morality? Maybe God knows a little more about the world then you do?
The Modern-Orthodox - But Maybe It’s A Machlokes...
“Sure, the Rambam says to behead anyone who doesn’t accept Hashem, BUT here are many many obscure Rishonim who - if you read them in just the right way - can possibly be construed as potentially arguing on the Rambam. Also didn’t you know that the Meiri says that there are no ‘real’ gentiles nowadays? And also, if we stack these four non-normative and speculative opinions on top of each other, it is conceivable to consider everyone – even Avodah Zarah worshipping Hindus – as geiri toshav nowadays. So there you go – problem solved.”
The Ultra-Modern-Orthodox - Meta-Halacha To The Rescue
“Sure, the strict halacha says that you cannot save a drowning gentile, but one must look at the meta-halachic principles. Here are a couple of ambiguous over-puffed statements about the responsibility of being a 'light unto the nations'/the mercifulness of Jews/the importance of glorifying God’s name, and with these, we can magically wipe away all your problems.
Additionally, it says that you can save a gentile if there is a concern that they may hate the Jews and possibly hurt us if we refuse to treat them. As such, I can distort this “aiva” loophole and interpret it as actually a code for a divine moral imperative teaching us to create a world of harmony and love. Silly, you think we really meant what we said in our huge legal tomes codifying halachic practice for all time. Of course not! All that really matters is some vague non-halachic statements in Perki Avos that can be taken out of context. I will now say a bunch of sophisticated words that don’t really mean anything, and act offended that you even considered the clear and unambiguous statements of Chazal to represent the Torah's view on the matter.
Also, the Torah's use of the death penalty is purely theoretical. Sure, God prescribed the death penalty for tying a double knot on Shabbos, wearing dirty clothing in the Bais HaMikdash, practicing sorcery, cursing your parents, separating the ‘bad from the good’ instead of the ‘good from the bad’ on Shabbos, bowing down to an idol, committing infidelity, convincing other people to reject Hashem, bearing false prophecy, contradicting the rulings of the other sages, cursing God, making tea on Shabbos without pouring the water back and forth from one cup to another three times, and numerous other infractions, but God never meant it LITERALLY, dummy. Sure, he created an enormously robust system of judicial procedures on how to administer the death penalty, and there are numerous cases in the Gemara of people being put to death, but look here, I found a rabbi who said that if he was a member of bais din -which he wasn’t – no one would get killed. Ever. Even murders. Aren't we amazing! God is just trying to teach us how much he hates double knots and uses a very practical system of death penalties as a TEACHING INSTRUMENT to make his point. Gosh, don’t you know anything.”
Left-Wing, Borderline Conservative, Modern Orthodox - The Evolving Torah
You think God really meant all this stuff to last forever. Of course not! Don’t you know that the Rambam says that God created the concept of korbonos simply because the Jews like animal sacrifice, not because it signifies anything important? Back then everyone was a bunch of pagans, and God was easing them into a better moral system. God simply couldn't come out and tell them outright that they could no longer own other human beings as property. So He started small by giving them thousands of ritualistic laws, telling them to chop off part of their penis, and subtly imbuing them with a moral code by making laws such as the one that forbids coveting your neighbor's slave. The hope is for the Jews to evolve past this system and eventually forbid slavery altogether, not just the prohibition of coveting slaves. While the Torah contains many barbaric laws and cannot be changed because it is the eternal word of the Creator of the universe, nevertheless God planted inside the Torah seeds of morality that we are supposed to use to evolve our moral sensibilities and outgrow the Torah's laws."
BIBLICAL CRITICISM
The basic ideas of Biblical Criticism offer better explanations to read problematic pesukim then Talmudic exegesis:
Kayin and Hevel
Korach: http://kefirahoftheweek.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-rebellion-of-korach.html
Brothers throwing Yosef in the pit: http://kefirahoftheweek.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-story-or-stories-of-joseph-and-pit.html
Who killed Golias
Who was Yisro
SYSTEMATIC ISSUES WITH ACCEPTING JEWISH BELIEF
Even if God really appeared on Mount Sinai and gave us the Torah – how can we trust God – especially when he tells us to hurt other people. All we actually would know is that there is a very powerful being who is making all sorts of claims about himself. That’s it. Everything else is conjecture.
Trusting our religion because of the brilliance of our sages makes no sense.
Trusting religion because of ecstatic otherworldly feelings makes no sense
Trusting religion because of miracles makes no sense
The concept of yeridos hadoros doesn’t map with reality
For all its self-strutting arrogance, Lumdus, as practiced in yeshivas around the world for the past hundred years, is utterly ridiculous.
Our rabbonim fought valiantly against the Copernican model of the solar system. Now they are fighting against evolution. How does that make you feel? https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54694fa6e4b0eaec4530f99d/t/54a04248e4b0d99a53e347fc/1419788872031/Torah+Umaddah-+Reuven+Landa.pdf?fbclid=IwAR24LVrSYntroq_kga5XwFWpzIEKdBrJzPrMJFMDxHwa1lQ-sydGWZgkTvw
Our entire religion centers around the authenticity of the events at Har Sinai. Yet, no one could go near the mountain on pain of death while Moses spent 40 days “speaking with God” Isn’t that strange?
It always makes more sense to believe naturalistic explanations over supernatural ones. Stated differently, the burden of proof for religion is spectacularly high.
Every testable claim made by the Torah fails.
JUDAISM FAILS THE OUTSIDER TEST OF FAITH
Judaism may sound all rational and deep in a kiruv seminar, but when viewed from an outsider perspective, it is revealed for what it is – utterly nuts. Consider the fact that our religion:
Makes us swing chickens around our heads once a year to atone for our sins
Prescribes the death penalty for people who tie a double knot every seventh day of the week
Says that the king of Egypt was one amah (a foot and a half-sh) cubed with an amah long penis. https://www.sefaria.org/Moed_Katan.18a.12?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Says that giants roamed the land less than 4,000 years ago
Is based on a book where the average lifespan is 600 years
Features talking donkeys, staff-snakes, and giant frogs that generate baby frogs every time you hit them
Has hundreds of trained "vaginal blood experts," so there will be someone in every Jewish community who can look at married peoples underwear and decide how "red" the blood is.
Puts people to death for witchcraft - we even had a chief rabbi who personally killed 80 witches in one day. Witches! Like Hermione and Ms. McGonagall! Killed.
Says that every animal on the planet hung around on a boat for a year – and a whole 3rd of the boat was used to store poo
Believes that if someone has sex with a three-year-old girl on her birthday, that her hyman will not grow back, but if the rabbis add an extra month to the year, then her hyman will regrow.
Had thousands of priests who were trained to cut the necks of sacrificial birds using their fingernail.
Believes that there is an un-passable river made up of giant stones somewhere in Africa that thunders along all day every day except on Shabbos. https://www.sefaria.org/Bereishit_Rabbah.11.5?vhe=Midrash_Rabbah_--_TE&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Believes ice/fireballs once fell from the sky
One of the most revered people in Jewish history cut off 100 peoples foreskins in order to marry a woman, married her, then married her sister, cheated on them both with another married woman (who happened to be 6 years old), got her pregnant, had the husband killed, and spent his old age with a specially hired beautiful woman who lay naked with him all day "keeping him warm."
Another hero married two sisters, and their maids, (no seriously, close your eyes for a moment and imagine marrying your wife's housekeepr. Then imagine marrying your sister in law, and then marrying her housekeeper.)
One of its most celebrated stories involves a man who almost sacrificed his child because god wanted to see how loyal he was.
Believes that monkey were once people who got God angry (https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.109a.5?lang=bi&with=Steinsaltz&lang2=en)
Has well over 100 laws on how to go to the bathroom.
Believes that there is a worm that is guarded by a demon and a chicken that can cut stones with its body like a laser cutter. https://www.sefaria.org/Gittin.68a.7?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=bi
Believes that there is a tower someone in Iraq that is two-thirds submerged in the ground and that anyone who walks in its shadow forgets everything they know. https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.109a.7?vhe=Wikisource_Talmud_Bavli&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Believes that a lady turned into table salt because she looked at a bunch of angles pancaking a city
Allows people to take blood vengeance - -Viking style - and kill people who accidentally caused the death of a relative.
Does not allow people to boil hotdogs from the hot springs of Tiberias on Shabbos because the springs are heated from the fires of hell and constitute cooking by fire.
Reveres an x-rated erotic love poem as one of its holiest books
Has us empty our pockets in front of a body of water in order "for the fish to take our sins."
Have children send home parsha sheets that include the sentence," if a man has a wife that he loves and a wife that he hates…
CHAZAL GOT ALMOST EVERY SINGLE FACT ABOUT NATURE WRONG
Human Anatomy:
They assumed that the baby born from the first drop of semen came out of the birth canal second
They assumed that boys are born facing down, and girls are born facing up, mirroring the (unimaginative) positions of the parents during sex (https://www.sefaria.org/Niddah.31a.6?lang=bi)
They assumed that girls flip over as they exit the birth canal
They assumed that the gender of a baby is decided based on which parent “ejaculates” first
They assumed that children born during the eighth month of pregnancy are less healthy than children born during the seventh month of pregnancy,
They assumed that vaginal blood transformed into breast milk.
They assumed that there was a special source for vaginal blood
They assumed that semen came from the brain. https://parsha.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-did-chazal-know-that-drop-exudes.html?fbclid=IwAR24LVrSYntroq_kga5XwFWpzIEKdBrJzPrMJFMDxHwa1lQ-sydGWZgkTvw
They assumed that women give birth exactly 271 days after conception. Some rabbis refired from sex on various days to avoid their wives giving birth on Shabbos. (https://www.sefaria.org/Niddah.38a.19?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en)
Chazal assumed that a woman could not become pregnant if she has sex while standing (https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.37b.14?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en)
Chazal assumed that until the Churbon, Jewish girls did not have pubic hair. https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.21a.23?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Chazal Assumed that there was a bone in the human body that never disintegrates, cannot be ground down, even with a hammer, and is only nourished from food eaten one night of the week. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/14098579_The_Bone_Called_Luz
Chazal assumed that one could determine if a girl is a virgin by placing her on a barrel of wine and smelling her breath. If she was not a virgin, the wine vapors would travel up her vagina and come out her mouth.
Astronomy
Chazal assumed that the orbit of the sun represented a sad face – the sun came out of a window in the rakayh, transverses the sky, went out another window of the rakyah, and returned to its starting position.
Chazal assumed that every six hours, the wind would start blowing from another direction. David used this reality to make a wind harp that woke him up exactly at midnight every night. https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.3b.29?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Chazal assumed that the flood came because god removed two stars from their location, allowing the heavenly waters to pour down.
Science
Just like the rest of the world at the time, Cazal believed that the universe was comprised of four elements, earth, air, fire, and water. None of those are elements.
Chazal made a number of mathematical errors
Chazal believed that ditches deeper than two(ish) feet contain vapors that kill animals and people that fall into it.
Chazal believed that Shlomo Hamelech forged the menorah by taking 1000 units of gold and refining it 1000 times. Each time the gold lost 1/1000 of its volume from in melted out impurities. In the end, Shlomo Hamelech had 1 unit of pure gold which he used to craft the menorah. Fact check, that is not how purifying gold works.
Chazal had absolutely no idea what caused thunder and lightning and came up with all sorts of ridiculous explanations. https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.59a.7?vhe=William_Davidson_Edition_-_Aramaic&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Chazal wildly overestimated the number of people that could fit into the Bais Hamikdash: http://ajewwithquestions.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-surpisingly-small-size-of-beis.html
Zoology
Chazal had some very silly ideas about fish (http://daatemet.org.il/en/torah-science-ethics/scientific-errors-in-torah/what-the-sages-knew-about-fish/)
Chazal assumed that foxes had venom in their claws
Chazal assumed that it takes seven years for snakes to gestate
Chazal believed in mermaids
Chazal believed in a half mouse, half dirt creature
Chazal believed that lice spontaneously generated
Chazal believed that bats lay eggs
Chazal believed in salamanders that spontaneously generate and live in fire
Chazal believes that there was a massive land animal whose poop could dam up an entire river. This animal survived the flood by being tied to the outside of the taivah.
Cazal assumed that Hashem allows snakes to mate with turtles, producing very dangerous snake babies who go out and punish transgressors.
Chazal believed that a giant bird once dropped an egg, which cracked and flooded a bunch of cities.
Chazal believed that one cannot drink water that was uncovered because perhaps a snake drake from the water and poisoned it. That is not how it works. Snakes do not shed venom when they drink as backwash. Also, snake venom is only dangerous if deposited into the bloodstream, not if ingested. http://www.talmudology.com/jeremybrownmdgmailcom/2016/9/21/bava-kamma-115b-drinking-snake-venom-2tgc4-xt9y8
Chazal believed that feeding a person the liver of a dog that bit him or her will cure the person any infection resulting from the bite.
Chazal believes that ravens were punished for having sex on the taivah and therefore ejaculate into their partner’s mouth. (Chazal also say that Cham became black because he had sex on the taivah) https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.108b.15?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
Chazal has a long discussion of how a woman should avoid a snake who is trying to have sex with her. Chazal also offers advice on what to do if the snake inserts itself into a woman’s vagina. (Spoiler: she should stand on two barrels, spreading her legs. Under her legs, she should grill meat with herbs and boiling wine. The snake will smell the food and come out to feed.)
I’ll just leave this here: “When the gazelle wishes to mate, he first seeks out a female gazelle. But the female gazelles, whose vaginas are narrow, find mating painful, and so refuse the males. Filled with desire, which is unfulfilled, the gazelles seek out the female antelopes and mate with them. Because of their unfulfilled desire, the gazelles have accumulated a great quantity of semen, which is poured into the white-rumped antelope’s womb. These masses of semen, argues the sage, are the white balls found in the white-rumped antelope’s womb. Therefore these formations are permissible for consumption, for the semen of pure animals is permitted for consumption even before slaughtering.”
Chazal did some pretty silly experiments to figure out if ants have a queen.
General Superstition
Chazal forbade one from relieving himself between a palm tree and a wall because demons will have to pass through and will harm the person. But if there is enough space for the demons to go in a different path, one can relieve himself. (https://www.sefaria.org/Pesachim.111a.3?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en)
Chazal believed that one could see demons if they put ashes in their eyes. These ashes must be from the burned placenta of a black female cat who is the daughter of a black female cat.
PROOFS TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF JUDAISM FROM KIRUV RABBIS
The Kuzari (cue dramatic music)
Jews are amazing!!!!
Jewish survival
The impact of the Jewish people on world history
The miracle of Israel after the holocaust
Jews are morally superior (Kellerman)
Nobel prizes
Prophecies
Deuteronomy prophecies
Germanic prophecies
Chazal knew future science
Gender of the embryo
Hemophilia
Eight-day and vitamin k
Lunar cycle
Number of stars
Fins and scales
World was round
The Torah speaks badly of Moshe and Klal Yisroel
The unchanging nature of the Torah in the past 2 millennia - 9 letters
Bible codes
APPROACHES USED BY KIRUV RABBIS TO CREATE DOUBT IN CRITICAL THINKING AND THE SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISE
Where did the first reproducing cell come from, hu?
Evolution shemvolution! The scientists change their minds every twenty minutes!
Secular morality is evil!
The kalam cosmological argument (presented without attribution to the Christian sources – mainly William Lane Craig - whom they are plagiarizing)
Who said radiocarbon dating is accurate?
What is the source of consciousness? Checkmate
The fine-tuning argument (also presented without attribution)
Pascal's wager (Presented using the parable of ink spilling on a page and forming words. Bonus points if the kiruv lecturer presents the parable as if his audience never heard it before.)
OTHER IDEAS TO INCLUDE IN BOOK
Interviews
Eight interviews - Emphasis on yeshivish and Chassidic backgrounds
My story
A general short guide for going OTD
Surviving a mixed marriage
For teenagers living in their parent's house
For people in the Chassidic community – gaining independence while living in the closet
Managing difficult family members
Finding resources to help cope with guilt, loneliness, and anger
Managing Yomim Tovim and life-cycle events while in the closet
Understanding the data from the Nishma Research report
Our message to the frum community