The Good Samaritan and the Heartless Jew: Rabbi Tovia Singer Explores Toxic Scriptures
May 14, 2016 2:42 pm
In this eye-opening broadcast, Rabbi Tovia Singer illustrates how the parable of the Good Samaritan was carefully crafted by the author of the Book of Luke in order to stereotype the Jews for all time as an icon of unredeemed humanity: the image of a blind, stubborn, and callous people. This dehumanization, no doubt, became fixed in the Christian mind, and was the vehicle that formed the psychological prerequisite to the Church’s unrelenting atrocities against Jewish communities centuries later.
Category: Small Bites
The idea that Pilate, who had countless Jews slaughtered for offending his sense of power over the Jews, would hesitate to slaughter a Jew accused of insurrection against Rome is beyond laughable.
This one instance makes my point: “Josephus recounts an incident in which Pilate spent money from the Temple to build an aqueduct. Pilate had soldiers hidden in the crowd of Jews while addressing them and, when Jews again protested his actions he gave the signal for his soldiers to randomly attack, beat and kill – in an attempt to silence Jewish petitions.”
To paint Pontius Pilate as a kind hearted man is an insult to the countless thousands of Jews AND Samaritans he slaughtered.
Unfortunately there have been times when Christians and others used stories like the Good Samaritan against the Jews but that is not the intent of the story. The story is to show the importance of compassion – even when provided by an outcast. As a Galilean, Eshua (Jesus) was not readily received by Judeans. One must keep in mind that in the common generic use of the term “Jew”, Eshua and his disciples were Jews making a negative interpretation of this parable moot except for those who are too preoccupied or self-righteous to show compassion. Rabbi Singer points to the compassion in both Jewish and non-Jewish people. This is very important.
My husband and I listened with interest and read the account in Luke. We didn’t come to the same conclusions though. It seemed like Yahushua was specifically referring to priests and not the Jewish people in general. In fact, much of what he said was an indictment of the religious leaders, and he prophesied the destruction of the temple due to an unrighteous priesthood. The priests were predominantly Sadducees and worked to keep good relations with Rome even to the detriment of the common people. We didn’t get the impression that Luke was trying to say the Jewish people were a problem but rather that the leaders at that time were not living up to their positions as representatives of the Eternal. The story refers to a “certain priest” and a Levite. Should they not have been educated in the Torah? Would they not have known the laws requiring them to help? Yet they broke the Torah, those who had the greatest responsibility to uphold it. This is the main point. Also, the lawyer had asked “who is my neighbor” and then Yahushua turns the point “backward” at the end of the story and tells him to BE a good neighbor not necessarily judge who is one’s neighbor. He makes the point that it is not good to prejudge people. One would automatically expect a priest to do rightly and a Samaritan not so rightly. The story emphasizes to let each man’s actions speak for themselves. I think that Christianity has definitely generalized this story and concluded “Jews” are bad, unhelpful, unkind people, but I don’t think we need to continue to fail to miss the actual points being made in this story. We also think Luke was pointing out who was behind the execution of Yahushua…again it was the priests and lawyers, those who’d been on the receiving end of much of Yahushua’s criticism, and who, due to their positions, could have had an impact on Pilate’s decision. Certainly he wouldn’t have acceded to the common people and again Luke makes the point that it is the LEADERS who were instrumental in executing an innocent man, again a violation of the Torah. Thank you so much for your videos. We really like to hear your comments. They are always thought-provoking and educational.