1913 Mendel Beilis trial & debunked misinterpreted verse in Holy Talmud. Of course all non Jews just as human

Submitted by Gedalyahu (United States), Mar 22, 2022 at 00:24

The most classical anti Semities' misinterpretation of the holy Talmud is regarding the term ADAM that it says applies specifically to Jews.

What they don't [want to] realize is that it is actually in the BIBLE, Ezekiel.34.31:
[https://www.sefaria.org/Ezekiel.34.31?ven=Tanakh:_The_Holy_Scriptures,_published_by_JPS&vhe=Miqra_according_to_the_Masorah&lang=he]

'For you, My flock, flock that I tend, are ADAM; and I am your God—declares the Lord GOD.'

Which the Talmud verse is based on. (Like the entire Talmud is, based on the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh).

But still it's ludicrous to suggest that the Bible considers others supposedly "not human".

This was part of what Rabbi Maze mentiined when replied to the antisemitic prosecutor at Mendel Beilis trial.

[Source: Rabbi Y. Galinsky, VeHigadeta, Vayikra, p. 196.]

Some Hebrew words have multiple/different meaning, depending on the context. So what is the specific meaning of ADAM in this case?

____

100 Years Since The Mendel Beilis Trial- Blood Libel Refuses To Die

Debbie Maimon, December 25, 2013

https://yated.com/100-years-since-the-mendel-beilis-trial-blood-libel-refuses-to-die/

... The conversation then turned to various defense strategies and the meaning of various Talmudic quotations. The two leaders even examined various publications by anti-Semites in order to anticipate the approach the prosecution would use and how to counter it.

At the trial, Czarist prosecutors triumphantly played the "racist card" in an effort to demonize the Talmud for inciting Jew against non-Jew.

"How dare the Jewish sages claim that [the Jewish people] are called adam, man, while [Gentiles] are not called adam?" they demanded, quoting the Talmud.

Rav Meir Shapiro, head of the famous Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, was appraised of this hostile and dangerous challenge at the Beilis trial. He wrote to Rabbi Mazeh advising him to explain Chazal's statement as a simple description of the nature of the Jewish people as areivim zeh lazeh, responsible for each other (Shevuos 39).

"According to this principle, the fate of Mendel Beilis touches the entire Jewish people," Rav Shapiro said. "The Jewish people tremble for his welfare and would do everything in their power to remove the prisoner's collar from him."

"How would the Gentile world react if one individual had been accused of a similar crime and was standing trial in a faraway country? No more than the people of his own town would show any interest in the libel. Perhaps, at most, people in other parts of his own country would criticize the proceedings. But people in other countries? They wouldn't take the slightest personal interest in him."

"This is the difference between the Jews and all other peoples," Rav Shapiro wrote. "The Jews are considered adam, the singular form of the word man, signifying solidarity and oneness. When one Mendel Beilis is put on trial, the entire Jewish world stands united at his side. With other peoples of the world, nothing like this can be expected. They may very well be considered anashim, but they cannot be considered adam, a nation that stands together as a single man."

_____

"You're called Adam"
Rabbi Hanoch Gabhard
https://daat.ac.il/chazal/maamar.asp?id=365

The people of Israel are considered as one body, that every Jew and Jew is an organ in this body, when the foot steps on a nail, the infection spreads throughout the body, when the mouth eats poison, death spreads throughout the body, and when the tongue dares face the king, it is commanded to hang the whole body and so on.

Like a group of sailors, who on a ship each have a cabin separately, one can not say goodbye to his friends on the ship and only take care of his room, while ignoring the actions of the feverish neighbor in his room and making a hole in the bottom of the ship, the whole ship will drown!

When he is at the helm doing his work faithfully, everyone will have the privilege of arriving safely at a safe shore.

Everyone shares a destiny - for better or worse.

The late Rabbi of Lublin sent Rabbi Maza'a to assist Mendel Bailis in his trial in 1902.
The judge asked Rabbi Maza'a, why on the verse: "A man will die in a tent" (Desert 19 / Yad), the Talmud of the Jews demanded: "Israel is called 'man' and the nations of the world are called 'man'!" Why do you not consider us humans[sic, supposedly]?

Rabbi Maza'a answered the question: If the judge had been tried, would any gentile from a distant land have come to help the judge?

As expected, the judge's answer was negative. Rabbi Maza'a continued and said to the judge: Sages were precise in their language: "Israel is called Adam"! - In a single language, because we are all one body, when it hurts in one place, the pains will spread to the whole body, so we are called "man" - one, the one comes to the aid of his friend, because he feels his pain, a phenomenon that does not exist in the nations of the world. "Person" - one, but separate, and not rescued for mutual help, except when they are siblings to joint parents, or other obvious reasons. But the Jew, it is enough for him to hear that a Jew is in trouble, and he will already look for what he can help him with. For this reason I came from a distant land to help the tried.

____

Shemot: Of Rachmanut and Redemption

Rabbi Asher BranderJanuary 15, 2009
https://www.ou.org/life/torah/reflections_shemot_5768_of_rachmanut_and_redemption/

On October 8, 1913, the Beilis trial opened. The indictment accused "Menachem Mendel the son of Tuviah Beilis, 39," of having murdered "together with other people, not discovered, under duress of mysterious religious obligations and rituals, one Andrei Yustchinsky."Jew and non-Jew in Russia and around the world awaited the outcome with breathless anticipation.
In short order, the trial became an examination of the Talmud's view on various issues. The prosecutor was prepared with an avalanche of quotes from the Halachic (legal) and the Aggadic (homiletic) portions of the Talmud. Anti-Semites around the world had done their homework and had rallied to the cause of condemning the Jewish people and the Jewish religion in a court of law.
The lawyer that headed the defense team was the legendary Oscar Gruzenberg. He knew that the prosecution's attack was going to be directed against the Talmud and other works of Jewish scholarship and that the expertise in devising a defense would have to be provided by the rabbis. Rabbi Mazeh, Chief Rabbi of Moscow, was chosen to head the rabbinic advisory team for the defense..
The crucial question was posed: "How dare the Jewish sages claim that [the Jewish people] are called adam, man, while the idol worshipers are not called adam?"
The illustrious Rabbi Meir Shapiro taught "that kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh, all Jews are responsible for each other. (Shavuot 39) According to this principle, it stands to reason that the fate of Mendel Beilis, for example, which is in essence the fate of one single Jew, nevertheless touches the entire Jewish people. The Jewish people tremble for his welfare and would do everything in their power to remove the prisoner's collar from him. What would have been the reaction of the gentile world if one specific gentile had been accused of a similar crime and was standing trial in a faraway country? Clearly, no more than the people of his own town would show any interest in the libel. Perhaps, at most, people in other parts of his own country would criticize the proceedings. But people in other countries? They certainly wouldn't take a personal interest in him.
"This, therefore, is the difference between the Jewish people and all other peoples. The Jews are considered adam, the singular form of the word man, an indication of the extreme solidarity of the Jewish people. For us, when one Mendel Beilis is put on trial, the entire Jewish world stands at his side like one man. Not so the other peoples of the world. They may very well be considered anashim, the plural form of the word man, but they cannot be considered adam, a nation that stands together as a single man."

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".