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Do Jews Curse Christians?

The patristic authority Jerome (342-420) complained bitterly, in his commentary to Isaiah, about the Jews’ condemnation of notsrim (believers in Jesus, “the Nazarite”), in the benediction of the daily Amidah known as Birkat ha-Minim: "The Jews . . . after having been invited by the Lord to do penitence . . . up to the present day persevere in blasphemy and three times a day in all their synagogues they anathemize the Christian name."

Relevant Links
The Polemical Prayer  Koren Sacks Siddur. Hebrew text of Birkat ha-Minim, with English translation by Jonathan Sacks. (PDF)
“To suppress and extirpate all Hereticks”  Fred MacDowell, On the Main Line. In 1706, Isaac Abendana published Discourses of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews; it includes a précis, reproduced here, of the 18 sections of the central daily prayer that contains the Birkat ha-Minim.
Three Blessings   Yehudah Mirsky, Jewish Ideas Daily. Over the centuries, three contentious blessings in the morning prayer service have been interpreted, revised, translated, excised, and, in varying ways, restored. 

His complaint echoes even harsher early Christian polemics, such as that of the Church Father Epiphanius (315-403): "Not only do Jewish people have a hatred of their enemies; they even stand up at dawn, at midday, and toward evening, three times a day when they recite their prayers in the synagogue, and curse and anathemize them. Three times a day they say, 'God curse the Nazoreans.' For they harbor an extra grudge against them . . . because, despite their Jewishness, they preach that Jesus is the Christ, the opposite of those who are still Jews, for they have not accepted Jesus."

As Ruth Langer's masterful new book Cursing the Christians? amply documents, the frequency and vehemence of the Church’s condemnations of the prayer ebbed and flowed over centuries, tending to escalate during eras of heightened religious tensions—notably throughout the period of anti-Jewish theological disputations in 13th-century Spain and France. In that context, we find one of the nastiest assaults on the Jewish liturgy leveled by the disputant and apostate, Nicholas Donin, who writes of Birkat ha-Minim that

"Three times every day in a prayer they consider more important than others, the Jews curse the clergy of the Church, the kings, and all other people. This prayer is in the Talmud and must be recited with feet together and one should not speak of anything else nor interrupt it even if a serpent is wrapped around one’s ankle. This [prayer] men and women recite in a whisper. The priest then recites it twice in a loud voice and all respond 'Amen' to every such curse."

A chilling image.  But is Birkat ha-Minim really about Christians at all?

Rabbinic understandings of the prayer's meaning and purpose were never unanimous, and its text was highly unstable for centuries.  Sometimes, the prayer was changed as the result of Christian censorship, other times as the result of Jewish apologetics.  Still other changes were occasioned by sensitivities to Jews coerced into apostasy.  Correspondingly, opinions about the identity of those condemned by its maledictions fluctuated significantly in different times and places. In Christian Northern Europe, especially in the High Middle Ages, there was widespread consent among the rabbis that Birkat ha-Minim was indeed formulated with Christians in mind, and was still to be directed against them.  In Italy and Muslim lands, the matter was far more muddled.

But it was particularly during times of persecution of Judaism by the Roman Catholic Church that many rabbinical authorities apologetically reversed this understanding, denying that the entreaty for the downfall of Israel’s enemies had anything to do with Christians. Among the dozens of interpretations that Langer analyzes, the most surprising is that of Rabbi Jacob Emden of Hamburg, one of the leading talmudic scholars of the 18th century. Not only does Emden rule out any connection between Birkat ha-Minim and Christianity; he goes so far as to proclaim that its curses are directed at any “meshumad” (apostate)—Jew, Christian, or Muslim—who converts from spite, rather than sincere conviction. Amazingly, Emden includes Christian converts to Judaism in the category of the meshumadim and minim condemned by the prayer.

Unsurprisingly, given Emden’s lifelong persecution of suspected sectarians, Emden insisted that the term minim, expunged by Church censorship in the mid-16th century, be reinstated, and that worshippers intend Sabbateans (believers in the false messiah Shabtai Tzvi), rather than Gentiles, while intoning its curses.

All such denials that Gentile Christians were the intended objects of the prayer notwithstanding, Christians (“notsrim” in Hebrew) are explicitly mentioned by name in many of its early variants.  But while notsrim became an undifferentiated term in later Hebrew usage, during Christianity’s early centuries, as Epiphanius makes clear, the word probably referred solely to Jewish believers in Jesus’s ministry—and not to his Greek Gentile followers. 

So as the question mark punctuating the title of Langer's erudite study suggests, resolving such matters is far from simple. Indeed, Langer reveals a host of uncertainties regarding just about every aspect of this blessing. On the most basic level, it is unclear when the prayer was composed and by whom. Nor can we know with any certainty its original formulation, on account of numerous medieval variants, and the half millennium following the redaction of the Talmud from which no manuscripts are extant.

Still, among the most surprising of Langer’s revelations is the malleability of this malediction’s intended “victims,” thanks to its many versions which refer, variously, to "apostates, sectarians, heretics, Nazareans, Thine enemies, the enemies of Thy people, the evil Empire, the insolent government,” and—most insipidly and commonly ever since the prayer underwent Church censorship—the “malshinim,” Jewish talebearers.

Langer questions whether it is indeed the case, as the Talmud recounts, that the first-century Sages instituted this appeal to God to destroy the Jewish followers of Jesus. The answer to this foundational question depends on the resolution of thorny historical and theological issues. Langer does a fastidious job untangling, if not always resolving, the many controversies that have arisen among both theologians and scholars, Jewish and Christian, in connection with the genesis and purpose of Birkat ha-Minim.  In addition to her remarkable detective work on the textual history of the prayer, in which minim and notsrim were often replaced with alternate terms such as meshumadim and malshinim, Langer offers fine analyses of all the relevant Hebrew terms which at one time or another were introduced into the execration—all of which carry multiple meanings.

Ironically enough, the Church Fathers who railed against this prayer were in essential agreement with the talmudic rabbis about its origins—if not entirely about its precise objects. Patristic writers commonly cited John 9:20, which recounts how the parents of a blind boy miraculously cured by Jesus refused to admit to the Pharisees any knowledge of a miracle "because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if any one should confess him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue." The alleged means by which the Jews effected the banishment of believers in Jesus from the synagogue was the institution of a prayer cursing them. The Talmud's account of the prayer's etiology places it barely a generation later, when the sage of Yavneh, Gamliel II, established it in response to the proliferation of sectarians following the Temple's destruction, in 70 C.E. 

Modern scholars, while not uncritically accepting the talmudic account, have tended to concur with the early dating of Birkat ha-Minim suggested by both Christian and Jewish ecclesiasts—a dating consonant with the anti-Judaism of the Church Fathers.  But following the approach of the most recent revisionist talmudic scholarship (the work of Daniel Boyarin in particular), and based on a deft and thorough review of the earliest reliable sources testifying to its existence, Langer disproves the long-accepted arguments for the prayer’s antiquity, instead estimating its origins in late 4th-century Roman-ruled Palestine. 

Langer’s concluding chapter on the fate of Birkat ha-Minim in the modern period is of particular interest, shedding much light on shifting attitudes among modernizing Jews to the faith of their Christian neighbors. Birkat ha-Minim proved particularly repugnant to a universalist Reform movement, which had no place for a prayer calling upon God to “bring low, break, and destroy” the Gentiles. The earliest Reform liturgies in Germany transformed the prayer from an ad hominem curse of wicked adherents of other faiths into an abstract entreaty to eliminate wickedness from the world.  But even this didn’t last long, and Reform congregations, Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El first among them, began to expunge Birkat ha-Minim altogether from the liturgy. This is but the last of many instances cited by Langer demonstrating the degree to which a single paragraph from the Jewish liturgy might serve as a barometer of Jewish feeling toward its "daughter-religion" (to borrow a favored euphemism of Pope John Paul II).

Langer concludes her study with a provocative rumination on the Jewish outrage provoked by the current pontiff’s restoration of the Latin Mass, with its various derogations of Jewish faith. As she wryly observes, there was at least some measure of inconsistency, if not hypocrisy, in this anger, given similar Jewish appeals for the conversion of the “nations of the world” to belief in the God of Israel, most strikingly in the Aleynu prayer. Then again, there is absolutely no reference to notsrim, and almost none to meshumadim, in contemporary versions of Birkat ha-Minim.  While a few prayer books, mostly those used by Hasidim, re-instated the word minim, almost all current normative versions of the blessing—including those found in strictly Orthodox prayer books, such as the ArtScroll siddur—refer only to the malshinim.  Thus, in a final irony, Jews today have preserved the variant that resulted from Church censorship. 

For British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the irony is a fortuitous one. In Sacks’ edition of the 2009 Koren Siddur, he offers what may be the most ingenious interpretation of all, one that eliminates any challenge posed to ecumenical harmony by Birkat ha-Minim:

The text of this paragraph underwent several changes during the centuries. Its original object was the sectarianism that split the Jewish world during the late Second Temple period. There were Jews in the Hellenistic age who turned against their own people. Faith (emunah) in Judaism involves the idea of loyalty—to a people and its heritage. This prayer is a protest against disloyalty.

While Sacks’ interpretation is problematic as history, he is wise to reiterate that the dominant current usage of malshinim refers solely to Jewish betrayers of their own.  But Sacks does one better.  Like a modern-day Balaam, he doesn’t just nullify a curse—he transforms it into a blessing.  What was once a prayer for the destruction of one’s enemies becomes an entreaty for Jewish unity and fidelity to God.

Allan Nadler is a professor of religious studies and the director of the program in Jewish studies at Drew University. He is currently on sabbatical in Montreal, serving as Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at McGill University and Interim Rabbi of Congregation Beth El.                       

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COMMENTS

fgill on July 17, 2012 at 3:05 am (Reply)
Hmmm..., no comments yet. I wonder why.
Wiesje de Lange on July 17, 2012 at 7:04 am (Reply)
The name "notsrim" is a totally common name for people of the christian faith, nothing special about it.
I write and speak for a Dutch organisation called christians for Israel/Notsrim lema'an Jisrael and no one intends any unpleasantness. Those good people, and you find them all over the world, are called "Notsrim - Christians - lema'an Jisrael, for (meaning "not against") Israel.
Wiesje de Lange on July 17, 2012 at 7:10 am (Reply)
Iif Jews did curse Christians it would be very understandble but they don't: Jews are not like that.
Eliyahu Konn on July 17, 2012 at 11:42 am (Reply)
One would do well to consider this "blessing" originated 175-164 BCE.

http://netzarim.co.il/Shared/Birkat%20Ha-Minim,%20the%20Notzrim,%20and%20Jerome%20(XML).htm
Snag on July 17, 2012 at 12:50 pm (Reply)
Great article, confirms most of my grandmother's observations and an experience of co-existence with them in and around Lvow during the period between WWI/II and my great grandmother's during Poland's partition. One of their expressions every time they had to pass the church a roadside chapel a cross or anything affiliated with Christianity they turned their heads to check if there're no witnesses and if it was "clear" spitting over their shoulders and whispering curses ,...
Sergio HaDaR Tezza on July 17, 2012 at 2:00 pm (Reply)
Lots of ignorance at work...
In the Italian Minhag, which is Minhag Qadum, one of the most ancient from Erets Israel, the word used for Christians IS "minim", until today.
No such a thing as "notsrim" which is a term used by Ashkenazim in Israel.
The XIX Berachà with the word "minim" was instituted EXACTLY because of betrayals and informing on Jewish scholars, of which there is trace in the gospels themselves... In fact, while the Romans forbade under penalty of death the teaching of Torah and persecuted our Rabbis, the acrobat (who was constantly followed by Roman spies) was going around public places and markets calling on those he knew as teachers (the Perushim, called Pharisees in the gospels) saying: "you teach...but I tell you...", causing the immediate arrest of the poor rabbis...
FOR THAT he was considered also a MOSER (HaMevin yavin)
Unfortunately, especially among Ashkenazim, in spite of the fact that it was an Italian Rabbi, Kalonimos, who started the Jewish presence in Ashkenaz in the VIII Cent. V.E., few have knowledge of the above mentioned minhag and nusach, A.K.A. "minhag loaz" or "Bene' Roma" practiced by the most ancient Jewish Community in the West...the only one where roasted goat is eaten on Pesach (see the Ghemara allowing it while mentioning Toros, who was responsible for the Taharà of the Beth HaMiqdash during the Shalosh Regalim), where there is no afiqomen, etc. One of my friends from Rome has documents about his ancestors being Ambassadors from Judea in 253 A.E.V...and Jewish last names are in the Forum next to Caesar's seat...
YM on July 17, 2012 at 3:11 pm (Reply)
All of the ArtScroll Nusach Sefard siddurim include the word "minim". They also include the censored sentence from Alenu. I say both with much gusto.

The prayer was authored by Shmuel Ha'Katan, as is well-known. It is well past irony to look to "minim" to explain a prayer against "minim".
Ruth Langer on July 17, 2012 at 5:05 pm (Reply)
As my book demonstrates, "minim" is the term used by all the European rites to refer to Christians, in the second line of the berakhah until it was censored. "Notzerim uminim" appears only in the geniza manuscripts where it is almost universal as well as in a few manuscripts from Arab countries like Aleppo. What is unique about the Italian rites is that almost all manuscripts address the first line to "malshinim" instead of the otherwise universal (pre-censorship) meshummadim. But this may well be self-censorship by Italian Jews who seem to have pretty universally adopted the Roman rite in the 13th c.
Frank Imossi on July 18, 2012 at 2:49 pm (Reply)
As a Catholic studying Torah under a rabbi in a Catholic church I am seeing that we are all beloved children of Hashem who need to begin admitting our own part in the conflicts of past and present and seek to forgive and love one another for the well being and happiness of all willed for us by our common Lord. It is a matter of the spirit, not law, not politics, not scholarship, not history. Harboring angry resentments and self righteous indignation is toxic to the person holding these negative sentiments and to the society in which they live. I have learned to love my Jewish kindred despite their shortcomings and mine.
Allan Nadler on July 18, 2012 at 5:45 pm (Reply)
My esteemed colleague, Prof. David Berger of Yeshiva University, wrote to corrrect a mis-impression in my piece that it is mainly the Hasidim who currently employ the term "minim" in their version of Birkat ha-Minim. I cite the relevant section from Prof. Berger's email:

"the ASrtscroll Nusach Sfard siddur and the widely used Kol Yaakov nusach Sfard siddur have ve-khol ha-minim ke-rega yovedu, though the Tikkun Meir nusach Sfard siddur has ve-khol ha-rish'ah ke-rega toved. A widely used edot ha-mizrach siddur has la-minim ve-lamalshinim as the first two words. So the minim version retains wide currency."

He is, of course, correct. That said, it is important to recall that the initial portal for the use of what is called Nusach Sfar'd in Ashkenazic lands was via the changes in the liturgy introduced by the early Hasidim (the so-called Nusach ha-Ari), which is why it became widespread in parts of Poland, Galicia and Hungary, and is not used by Lithuanian Jews, or Livak, to say nothing of true Mitnagdim.

I stand corrected by Professor Berger and I am grateful for his input.
Empress Trudy on July 18, 2012 at 5:58 pm (Reply)
My response is only 'so what if they do?'. I would remind the other 99% of the population of the west to stop screaming they're oppressed.
Phil on July 19, 2012 at 2:11 am (Reply)
"But Sacks does one better. Like a modern-day Balaam, he doesn’t just nullify a curse—he transforms it into a blessing. "
Whoa there, I looks like you are comparing Rabbi Sacks to Balaam. I know you didn't mean to, but the grammar you chose to use indeed makes that distasteful comparison.
Allan Nadler on July 19, 2012 at 9:59 am (Reply)
I am grateful to Phil for his comment, as it allows me to clarify the analogy. I too was a bit concerned about not creating any impression that I was comparing rabbi Sacks to Balaam personally in every respect. The comparison was -- and I thought this was sufficiently clear -- ONLY to their shared ability to transform a blessing into a curse. The figure of Balaam is notoriously complicated as it is: when we enter a shul, his are the very first words we intone: "ma tovu ohalekha Yaakov". Highest
praise indeed (you can look that up in the Koren Siddur). And yet, in rabbinic parlance this prophet is often referred to an "Bilam ha-rasha", the evil Balaam. So, for the record: whatever Balaam was or was not, I hold Rabbi Sacks in the very highest regard and the farthest person from a rasha I can imagine: he is a brilliant thinker, major Jewish leader, and -- most importantly, as I have had the privilege of knowing since I first met him in 1973 when we were both rabbinical students at Jews' College -- a good and most decent person. The final paragraph in my piece was intended as homage.

"I know you don't mean to", Phil, but you come perilously close to turning my blessing into a curse ;-). Thanks for your input.
A in LA on July 24, 2012 at 4:23 am (Reply)
Teshuva, repentence, is comprised of three parts: regret, request for forgiveness and compensation for damages. Christianity, a faith which says to judge a tree by the fruit it bears, has nearly 2000 years to make up for the murderous antisemitic hatred it sowed before it earns removal.

Dry up the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent trying to convert Jews. Turn those efforts, instead on converting more Walid Shoebats from murderous Islam to American-style Christianity and to convert secular Europeans to acting like they have faith in a loving G-d.
George Watson on September 5, 2012 at 11:04 pm (Reply)
Sad that any prayer would ask for the destruction of anyone as if G-D needed to be reminded of what He should be doing.

I can remember listening to Evangelical Preachers dispute with Jewish Students
at U.C. Berkeley and being struck by how similar the arguments were to the disputes between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees in the Gospel of John.

That Polish Jews used to spit when passing a Church or a Crucifix is something
I had heard before but I thought it was said out of anti-semitic feelings.

We all have blood on our hands.

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