His writings for modern Jews offer Spiritual, Ethical, and eco-Judaic lessons in plain English and with relevance to contemporary lifestyles. He is the author of countless articles, editorials, letters, and blog posts, and he has recently published two books: In our Passover seders, which I hope we make sure our friends of various faith communities attend besides just our Jewish friends and family, we continually read about rabbi Gamliel. In all of the seders I have had or have been to, with many ministers invited or in attendance, not one, ever mentioned how Gamliel kept the new sect of Paulistic followers of Rabbi Y'shua, which turned into what we call today Christianity, nor how he is mentioned in the Christian bible. For if this scheme or this undertaking is of human design, it will destroy itself. But if it is of God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God. They were won over by him. As we know from Tractate Sanhedrin, a death sentence, cannot be carried out unless all 70 judges are unanimous , and sleep on the verdict over night, and if God speaks to just one of them, to be merciful, and he announces such the next day, the death sentence is commuted. We also know that the rabbis were quite lax to carry out a death sentence, stating that any court that does such once in 7 years, or even once in 70 years, is a ''bloody court. Well, historically from Flavius Josephus, Roman-Jewish historian, albeit somewhat inaccurate, we know that Gamliel saved Peter's life as being an Apostate, by following the Sanhedrin's very rules. And Peter of course is said to be the first Pope. His name was Shimion, aka Simon, but Y'shua called him the Rock, Cephas in Aramaic, Petras in Greek, and Peter in English. And he is the ''rock'' which the Church's foundation was laid. The records of the Catholic church actually record that Gamliel was an Ebionite, and a Jewish follower of Y'shua, but did not believe in his divinity, which of course made Ebionites aka Evionim in Evrit, still Jews, but eventually all apostates to the Church by the time of the Nicean creed and Constantine. Many Evionim exist today. Sometime after the death of Constantine One, the Eastern Roman Catholic soldiers, dug up Rabbi Gamliel's bones in Jerusalem, relics were a big thing in Catholic churches back then, with churches competing with ''who had the skull of James'', or ''who had the finger of John'' , and years later, eventually buried him, with full Catholic ceremony and honors. At the baptistery at Pisa, right next to the Leaning Tower, and after you buy your souvenirs of the Tower, you can go inside and see the only Rabbi to be buried inside a Catholic church's crypt. As mentioned above, as we need to remember, Jews who read the Christian bible 1700 years ago, or at least heard the old tales before they were written, 1900 years ago, knew of Hebraic as well as Talmudic law. Most Christians theologians did as well. A modern average Christian is clueless to Hebraic and Talmudic law when reading the texts and this has lead to some awful conclusions about Jews, whose rabbis, via the Talmud, changed our religion from a cult involving priests and animal sacrifices to one involving prayer and mitzvoth. Frankly, so are many Jews today, who are mired in Hebrewism, lost from Judaism as taught in the Talmud, and need Jewish Renewal, and Jewish Spiritual Renewal, to understand. Gamliel, via God talking to him that night, and this doesn't need to be mentioned as it is understood to those of the time , let Peter and others live, and hence, allowed the Church to be born. Christian Scriptures portray this leading sage in such a positive light because they claim Gamliel became a follower of Paul. Its inclusion helps to form a bridge between what the Christians consider the Old outdated covenant and their New one. This is not unusual, as our rabbis, made sure that they gave themselves authority, to make what we call today Talmudic law, by saying that God gave it all to Moses, who passed it to Joshua, who passed it to the Elders, who passed it Prophets, who passed it to the Great Assembly. And note that Moses' own brother, the High Priest Aaron, was not taught any of the ''oral law'', and neither were any Kings, not even David or Solomon! Judaism and their rabbis were setting the stage to supplant the priests and move forward. So, just as our Rabbis lobbied in Yavnah to keep the books of the Maccabees out because they had animus to the Hasmoneans, who made a real mess of things and actually invited the Romans into Judea to help them rule, Constantine had every reason to lobby the Gamliel story in, and as well the books of the Maccabees. As a transdenominational Rabbi, working with Jewish renewal and Jewish Spiritual Renewal, I understand our sages understood that Judaism is pluralistic. While we believe we have the path to God for Jews, we also teach in the Talmud, that God has had theophany with others Prophets in other religions and given them different paths to Him. I am one of these transdenominational Rabbis that looks at the Christian bible in many parts as cliff notes to our Talmud and Torah, except no one is giving credit to the sages who originally quoted as rabbis are supposed to do. The Torah teaches us this more than 100 times over by repeating, ''V'YeDabar Adonai al Moshe L'Amor... God spoke to Moses, saying:'' We see this over and over in the Talmud, when a rabbi teaches : ''Rabbi Dostai ben Yannai said in the name of Rabbi Meir. So I have no problem seeing Rabbi Gamliel mentioned in Acts, or frankly Rabbi Y'shua, Rabbi Saul, and the whole rest of Jewish folk whose names are mentioned, but in a non-Evrit manner. Mary for Miriam, for example. Matthew 5:28: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Talmud Beracoth 17b: In the case of the recital of the Shema', since everybody else recites, and he also recites, it does not look like showing off on his part; but in the case of the month of Av, since everybody else does work and he does no work, it looks like showing off. Talmud Bava Batra 10a - 10b: What kind of charity is that which delivers a man from an unnatural death? When a man gives without knowing to whom he gives. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And he answered them: I pray of you, let me go free today and I shall ask nothing more! And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; - Matthew 5:43 They who are insulted but insult not back; who hear themselves reproached but answer not; who serve out of love and rejoice in their affliction--of them it is written in Scripture: They that love God are as the going forth of the sun in its might. Talmud Yoma 23a, Gittin 36b and Shabbat 88b - They who are insulted but insult not back; who hear themselves reproached but answer not; who serve out of love and rejoice in their affliction--of them it is written in Scripture: They that love God are as the going forth of the sun in its might. Talmud Yoma 85b - Yom Kippur atones for all sins, but first you must reconcile your conflict with others. Talmud Rosh Hashanah 17a - Only if you forgive others will God forgive you. Jerusalem Talmud Pe'ah 15b - It happened that Manobaz had squandered his father's wealth to charity. My father laid up a treasure of money; I laid up a treasure of souls. My father laid up treasure for this world; I laid up treasure for the heavenly world. Talmud Pirkei Avot 2:14 - Do not judge your fellow until you have been in his place. Talmud Pirkei Avot 4:10 - Do not be a judge of others, for there is no judge but the one God. Talmud Sotah 1:7 - By a person's standard of measure, is he, too, measured. Talmud Shabbat 127b - How you judge others, does God judge you. If someone says to another, 'Cast out the speck that is in your eye! Talmud Bava Mezia 59a - Do not rebuke your fellow with your own blemish. Talmud Shabbat 31a - What is hateful to you, do it not unto others -- this is the entire Torah, and the rest is commentary. Talmud Pirkei Avot 3:17 - One who studies Torah but does not do good deeds is likened to one who builds with a foundation of straw, so that even a minor flow of water will destroy it. So upon whom is it for us to rely? Upon our father who is in heaven. Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Our Father who art in heaven Talmud Yoma 85b, Sotah 49b, and Pirket Avot 5:20; and Midrash Vayikra Rabbah ch 32. Thy kingdom come, May God's kingdom be established during the days of your life. Kaddish prayer said multiple times in every Jewish prayer service Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Do thy will above and give comfort to those below, and to everyone his need. Talmud Beracoth 29b And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. One who is merciful toward others, God will be merciful toward them. Talmud Shabbat 151b And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: Bring me not into temptation, and lead me away from iniquity... Talmud Berachot 80b For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. For Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty TaNaK, 1 Chronicles 29:10 As we can see because Y'shua was indeed a Pharisee Talmudic rabbi, from the House of Hillel, from the liberal tradition, as were his followers, he was teaching to those in Judea who were either followers of the more strict school of Rabbi Shammai, or still considered themselves Hebrews, and following the cult of the priests. The priests at the time of Y'shua were corrupt, not of the line of Aaron, nor Kohan's, but were Hasmoneans and Roman puppets. The Talmudic rabbis despised them saying 'if you meet a priest and his is arrogant, you can be sure of his lineage. Y'shua was preaching to Jews and Hebrews Talmudic spiritual Judaism and in cases were Talmudic law was trumped by Talmudic law, he was quick to tell those who would listen. Unfortunately, in the Christian bible, the words Jew and Hebrews get interchanged, and it sounds as if Talmudic Jews were still mired in the Temple priestly cult which Y'shua, as the rabbis too, were against. While it was true that Hebrews could give a wife a ''get'', a divorce, with very little grounds, and the wife had no say in the matter, Talmudic Judaism, developed the Ketubah, the pre- nuptial agreement, protecting a wife if a divorce occurred, and the Rabbis developed grounds for divorce, until rabbi Gershon actually gave women the right to have an equal say in the matter. As I have written in many articles, there are major differences between Judaism and Hebrewism and the Christian bible points out much of what is wrong with Hebrewism, which was a secondary religion to Judaism, for at least 500 years, in the 'known' world, except for the area around Jerusalem where the priests still had power, given to them by the Romans. Shalom, Rabbi Arthur Segal, Hilton Head Island,SC Bluffton, SC Jewish Renewal Jewish Spiritual Renewal.
