Page 51 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg
P. 51
Alfred Rosenberg
Christians infected with his mentality), not to mention at all in earlier
ages. This is indeed attested by Jewish writers and rabbis, to be sure
in a gentler manner than Chamberlain, but saying essentially the
same thing.
When, for example, Napoleon called together in 1807 the
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famous universal Jewish Synedrium in Paris and, with the aim of
clarifying contentious questions, gave the Jews many a nut to crack,
the latter drafted as their answer an entire series of articles in which
they washed themselves white as innocent lambs.
But the introduction to these answer-notes says: "Praised
be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has placed on the throne of
France and Italy a ruler after his own heart". And to the question
whether the Jews considered all Frenchmen as brothers, the rabbis
gave the most diplomatic answer: that they "according to the law of
Moses consider all individuals of the nations as brothers who
acknowledge God, the creator ofheaven and earth, and living among
whom the Jews enjoy privileges or even just a friendly acceptance".
Here therefore the Jew is not set against the Frenchman, Italian and
even not the Christian, but to him is placed the choice of a "brother"
according to what he means by "privileges" or "benevolent
acceptance" and what he makes of the belief of the same in God the
creator of heaven and earth.
But since this God, as the first words show, is the God of
Israel, the diplomats ofthe Grand Sanhedrin say in fine words exactly
the same thing as the Talmud, that the one who does not recognise
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Jehovah as the Only One is hardly a man, let alone a brother.
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[See below p. 86.]
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Maimonides says the following about the commandment of Jehova to destroy all
idolaters: "Four generations suffice, since a man cannot look beyond four
generations of his descendants. One should therefore, in an idolatrous city, kill an
old idolater and his family up to his great-grandchild. It has therefore also been
determined that to the commands ofGod belongs also the commandment to kill all
the descendants of the idolaters, including small children. We find this command
repeated everywhere in the Pentateuch (Deut. 1 2: 1 6)". And Maimonides concludes
decisively "All this in order to destroy without a trace that which brings forth such
a great corruption". Munk's translation ofLe guide des egarees, Paris, Vol.1, Ch.LlV.
[Moses Maimonides (1 1 35-1 204) was a Sephardic rabbi who codified the Talmudic
Law in his 14 volume Mishneh Torah and wrote a philosophical treatise on the
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