Maimonides offers both criticism and praise of Jesus, and also Islam. Below is the full version of his halachic work on this issue.
Laws
of Kings, Laws 11:10-12 (Kapach Edition):
“[10] …Can there be a greater stumbling
block than this (Christianity)? That all the prophets spoke that the Messiah
will redeem Israel and save them, and gather their dispersed and strengthen
their Mitzvot, and this (one, i.e., Jesus) caused the Jews to be destroyed by
the sword, and scattered their remnants and humbled them, and exchanged the
Torah, and caused the majority of the world to err to serve a god other than
the Lord. [11] Nevertheless, the thoughts of the Creator of the world are not
within the power of man to reach them, ‘for our ways are not His ways, nor are
our thoughts His thoughts.’ And all these matters of Jesus of Nazareth and that
of the Ishmaelite who arose after him are only to straighten the way of the
king Messiah and to fix the entire world, to serve God as one, as it is stated
(Zephaniah 3:9), "For then I will turn to the peoples (into) clear speech,
to all call in the name of God and serve Him unanimously. [12] How (will this
come about)? The entire world has already become filled with the mention of the
Messiah, with words of Torah and words of mitzvot and these matters have spread
to the furthermost isles, to many nations of uncircumcised hearts, and they
discuss these matters and the mitzvot of the Torah. Some say: “These
mitzvoth are true, but were already nullified in the present age and are not
applicable for all time.” Others say: “Hidden matters are in them (mitzvot) and
they are not to be taken literally, and the messiah has already come and
revealed their hidden (meanings). And when the true Messiah stands, and he is
successful and is raised and exalted, immediately they all will retract and
will know that fallacy they inherited from their fathers, and that their
prophets and fathers caused them to err.”
I have underlined
the last section, because it is touching
a problem that concerns all interpretations of the Torah and TeNaCh.
a) He points out
that the new religions have revised the Torah, and now practice a new version,
for whatever ideological reasons.
b) He points out
how mysticism and re-defintion of the Torah was used by new religions.
c) That
eventually reason will prevail, and fallacies will be recognized in the new
versions of the Torah. Furthermore, the
appeal to tradition and new revelation is accepted as a logical fallacy.
All of the above
apply equally to Rabbinic "Judaism".
As I have pointed
out, in several of my posts, e.g.
the Rabbis of the
Talmud and Mishnah created their own New Testament, and this is clearly stated
so in the Talmud. They also reinterpret the Torah, make certain laws obsolete,
and the Mitzvot are not to be taken "literally" - precisely how
Maimonides criticizes the Christians.
To go further,
and on this the Rambam would agree, the Kabbalah texts have altogether changed
Judaism, even that of the Talmud. It
espouses pantheism, polytheism, and dualism.
We hope the
Rabbanites will also accept reason and recognize their many fallacies.
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