An Exercise in Absurdity – Christian and Islamic Claims

Successor religions to the Hebrew /Judaic religion of the Torah have gone in different directions, however they each share a common claim of succession to Judaism.  Thus, Christianity considers the Old Testament as being obsolete and the Jews as being rejected.  Their “sin” was not for example the violation of Sabbath or Idolatry laws, but the rejection of Jesus as a divine Messianic figure.  To top this, the Christian nation, if there is such a thing, has called itself the new Israel.  Islam also makes a similar claim.  The 7^th Century religion claims that Jews were rejected by God for their sins, presumably for rejecting Mohammed as a prophet, and the Koran as the ultimate prophetic work.  It also claims that the Old Testament was changed by Jewish scribes (since it does not favour Mohammedan claims).  This allegation made about the TNK, which it at the same time accepts.

The falsity of such claims is shown in the Torah itself. 

 Lev 26

44 And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

Despite the punishments meted out to Israel – which are specifically for violation of Written Torah (and not Mishnah, new testament, Talmud or Koran)  do not result in the creation of a New Israel or a new Covenant.

New Covenant religions  have had success in terms of numbers, power, nationhood and oppression.  These criteria, however are not issues which justify the concept of a new covenant. It should also be noted that the Talmud itself, in Erubin 21b, boasts of a new Covenant, which it claims is more cherished than the Old Testament. The Talmud is in fact doing precisely what Christianity and Islam have done.

In the same Lev 26 we read:

15 and if ye shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhor Mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant;

The rabbis teach in the said Talmud Erubin that we should be more scrupulous in the observance of rabbinic laws than of Torah law.  Furthermore, the violation of torah law is on 2 fronts.  1) The violation of the law against adding  (Deut ch. 4, and 13) and 2) the changing and violation of many other laws throughout the torah, including but not limited to the Temple service and Priestly garments.  Thus the permission to consume tail fat; the changing of the Omer counting  etc are still practiced even without a Temple.

This constitutes a rejection of the Torah statutes and an abhorrence of ordinances, as in Lev 26:15.