A pregnant non-Jew is no better than a pregnant animal from Planck's Constant

The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion - The Beckwith Company (1920)

Photo Credit: Wiki

Being an anti-Semite a few hundred years ago was not easy. Here's the problem: because his own life was miserable and poverty-ridden he needed to blame someone other than himself. This is an ancient and primitive excuse for one's own failures. You didn't plant the right crop this year? Sacrifice a goat to placate the Gods; hence the scapegoat.

But who to blame? Who was rich, talented, and smart in his city and country? Who held lofty positions of power and glory? Obviously it was the hated Jew.

If it weren't for Jews like Benjamin Disraeli, Mayer Rothschild, Marcel Proust, and Heinrich Heine, who didn't deserve their fame, he could have been Prime Minister, a rich banker, a famous writer, a great poet.

But how does one denigrate a people who are successful, skillful, and educated? Well, the only recourse is to lie, to fabricate evil deeds and intentions. So began blood libels, false accusations that Jews murder children to use their blood in their religious rituals and holidays.

In order to convince other non-Jews that claims such as these are indeed true, the anti-Semites fabricated books and other literature, purported to be written by Jews of plots against non-Jews.

So was created the well-known fabrication The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, an antisemitic tract purporting to describe a plan to achieve global domination by the Jewish people.

Despite the fact that this lie was discredited as long ago as 1921, the Nazis used it to prove that Jews were a threat to Germany. In the present era, Muslims have taken up the lie to turn non-Jews against Jews and the State of Israel.

But it is getting harder and harder to fool non-Jews with this egregious nonsense because of sites like Snopes and Wikipedia which have debunked most of these fantasies, and so, we see more esoteric and convoluted fabrications being created, the kind not easily found on the Web.

Anti-Semites (including many Muslims) leave links to mostly antisemitic blogs and websites where distortions, fabrications, and deceptions are listed as proof of Jewish perfidy and hatred of non-Jews. One antisemitic site links to another and that to another in a mutual circle-jerk each providing "proof" of this or that lie against Jews.

Many of these lies are spread through emails with subject lines such, "Non-Jews as seen in the Jewish Talmud" or "Jewish Racism towards Non-Jews as expressed in the Talmud."

For example, Eman, an anti-Semite visitor left this comment in response to my article My Atheist Heaven: "A pregnant non-Jew is no better than a pregnant ANIMAL. Talmud: Coschen Hamischpat 405." as "proof" that Jews hate and despise non-Jews.

Let's pretend that it came from the Talmud, a compendium of Jewish Oral Law. Such a statement contradicts a basic tenet of Jewish Law: Genesis 1:26-27; "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over...all the creatures...So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis does not say, 'Let us make Jews in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over...all the creatures..." There is nothing in all of Judaism where a human being, Jew or not, pregnant or not, is equal to an animal.

But let us actually examine "Talmud: Coschen Hamischpat 405."

First off, it is spelled Choshen Mishpat and it is not part of the Talmud. The spelling this visitor used, "Coschen Hamischpat," is the same as used in the "Der Sturmer"- the official magazine of the Nazi party and lifted from there. Anti-Semites hope that the casual reader will not know these details and actually believe that Jews despise non-Jews.

The Choshen Mishpat has nothing to do with Jewish opinion of non-Jews. It is a compilation of Jewish law pertinent to finance, torts, legal procedure and loans and interest and put together more than a thousand years after the Talmud.

Let's forget about the Nazi spelling - what does Choshen Mishpat 405 really say?

Jeff Rense Program, Quotes 'With Attitude' From The Jewish Talmud
CLAIM "A pregnant non-Jew is no better than a pregnant animal." Coschen hamischpat 405

RESPONSE The above quote is a wrong inference from a fiscal law in Shulchan Oruch, Choshen Mishpat 405.3, that relates to times when slavery was a standard and accepted practice across the world.

It states that if an ox gored a pregnant woman, and this resulted in the loss of the fetus, the owner does not have to pay for the loss of the fetus (medical expenses and other damages are discussed elsewhere). If an ox gored a pregnant non-Jewish slave-woman, the owner of the ox has to pay for the loss of the fetus to the owner of the slave-woman (because the owner would have had another slave to work for him had the woman given birth). The same applies if the ox gored a pregnant cow, or a sheep, because had the animal given birth, the owner would have had an extra one.

The law is clearly hinged on the rights of the owner, and does not compare non-Jews and animals in any way. It is purely legal, and does not have any philosophical or social implications.

So Eman, the phrase "A pregnant non-Jew is no better than a pregnant ANIMAL" does not appear in the text of either the Talmud or Choshen Mishpat 405, the actual law discussed has nothing to do with Jewish opinions of non-Jews, and it is a lie repeated on Muslim and neo-Nazi websites who themselves lifted it from a Nazi antisemitic magazine.

Anyone who reads the Torah knows that we are all Bnei Adam, sons of Adam, which is the Hebrew for human beings. Gentiles are unquestionably human, created in God's image, and Jewish law recognizes this as do the rabbis of the Talmud. While there are rituals that apply only to those who are part of the organic Jewish nation, with regard to rights such as the purchase of land or to spiritual status, gentiles are included. It is a major Jewish sin to hate anyone, Jew or non-Jew.

This article available in Danish here.