1000 Verses – a project of Judaism Resources

Following the Majority – A Response to Itzhak Shapira

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpYAEGJ_jx4

Itzhak Shapira posted a video response to Rabbi Eli Cohen’s accusation against his book. Rabbi Cohen pointed out that Shapira’s attitude toward Israel’s respected teachers is contradictory. On the one hand Shapira praises the rabbis while on the other hand he accuses them of conscious intellectual dishonesty.

Shapira responds to Rabbi Cohen’s argument by using a “straw man.” Shapira pretends that Rabbi Cohen doesn’t understand that you can love someone and disagree with them at the same time as if that is all that Shapira has done.

Shapira doesn’t “disagree” with the rabbis. He ridicules them and he charges them with consciously misleading those who read their words.

Shapira can be compared to someone who claims to love another person but is convinced that the object of his love is a convicted criminal when in fact he is not. Not only is he convinced that the object of his love is a criminal but he broadcasts his accusations to the general public. What kind of love and respect is that?

In his short presentation Shapira presents his belief in a divine Messiah as a valid opinion within the stream of Jewish thought. According to Shapira, it is only the rule that we are to follow the majority that has Judaism rejecting the belief in a divine Messiah. Shapira would have his audience believe that the belief in a divine Messiah is a legitimate minority opinion within Judaism.

This is completely false. The entire concept of following the majority only applies within the framework of a legitimate disagreement that may occur within the parameters of a discussion about the Law.

The belief in a divine Messiah (or of any divine entity aside from the One Creator of the world who is above and beyond all finite existence) is a rejection of the very heart of our covenant with God. No teacher in Israel ever proposed such a belief and anyone who does propose such a belief has effectively cut him or herself off from the covenant community that is loyal to the God of Israel.

Yes, there are those who would love to redefine the God of Israel. But these people cannot consider themselves part of Israel’s covenant with God. Our covenant with God is predicated on the fact that we were appointed as witnesses to the world that no part of finite existence is worthy of worship. And that every facet of finite existence owes all of its devotion to the One Creator of all.

The idolatry that Shapira is promoting stands in direct opposition to everything that Judaism stands for.

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/response-to-line-of-fire-15/

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As the Sun Spreads its Wings

Itzhak Shapira claims that I falsely slander him in my  review of his book. Let me step back and allow you to judge if I indeed  slandered him. All of the information is on the table for everyone to see. You  can read my reviews of his work here https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/the-school-of-matthew/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/spiritual-responsibility/

and you can view his defense here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP5NiPhK90I

You can  read the comments of Shapira together with those of his “expert” witness,  Yehezquel Italqi, in the comments section of the articles related to this  discussion –

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/open-response-to-itzhak-shapira/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/response-to-yehezkel-italqi/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/second-response-to-yehezqel-italqi/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/second-response-to-itzhak-shapira/

The  only piece of information you might be missing is the original comment of the  Metzudat David. If you cannot read Hebrew then you cannot read the words of that  commentator.

I  hereby present you with a word for word translation of the Metzudat David in  question. The Metzudat David is commenting on the words: “and healing in her  wings” from Malachi 3:20 (4:2).

1  Biz’richata – with her shining

2  Yihe’ye – there will be

3  Lachem – unto you

4  Refua – healing

5  V’taanug – and pleasure

6  V’dima – and he (the prophet) compared

7  P’risat – the spreading

8  Ha’or – of the light

9  Uz’richata – and its shine

10  Li’prisat – to the spreading

11  K’nafayim – of wings

12  Ki – because

13  Hashmesh – the sun

14  Yifros – spreads

15  Oro – its light

16  Al – over

17  Ha’aretz –the earth

18  Ki’knafayim – like wings

19  Ha’prusot – that are outspread

20  V’chen – and so it is

21  Ne’enmar – written (in Joel 2:2)

22  K’shachar – as the dawn

23  Parus – spread

24  Al – over

25  He’harim – the mountains

Shapira translated word #22 (k’shachar) with the English  words: “as blackness.”

Now  you have all the information. You can make your own judgment.

Incidentally, it is worth noticing that in his video  defense Shapira insists on translating the word “shachar” in Isaiah 8:20 with  the English word blackness.

Here again I present a word for word translation of the  closing phrase in Isaiah 8:20.

1  Asher – that

2  Ain – there is not

3  Lo – to it

4  Shachar – light

Shapira translates word #4 (shachar) with the English  word “blackness.”

You  be the judge.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Shapira is not a Trinitarian

( – but he is still an Idolater)

Itzhak Shapira published a response to my critique of his interview with Dr. Brown that took place in August of 2013 (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/response-to-line-of-fire-14/ ). Shapira’s response can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu4EWiw9Os4

Shapira’s video only addresses one word of my critique. That word is “trinity.” I had assumed that Shapira is a Trinitarian Christian.

If you take out the word “trinity” from my critique and you put in the words “worshiper of Yeshua,” every one of my arguments will still stand. It is obvious that Shapira has no response to my arguments so he needs to nitpick on irrelevant words in order to appear as one who is presenting a defense.

Why did I assume that Shapira is a Trinitarian?

Simple; he claims to have been ordained by the IMACS which is a subsidiary of the MJAA. The statement of faith of the MJAA declares that the organization believes in the trinity. Furthermore; Shapira quotes extensively from Trinitarian books (such as “Can Three be One”) and from various Trinitarian Christians (such as Dr. Michael Brown). At no point does Shapira distance himself from the beliefs of those he quotes from.

Is Shapira a Trinitarian? It makes no difference. As long as he directs worship to a man and encourages others to do the same then he has taken a stance against the very heart of what Israel stands for as a nation before God.

P.S. I find it odd that Shapira demands a public debate with me as if he were interested in having his audience hear both sides of the argument. If he would truly be interested in having his audience hearing both sides of the story he would tell his audience where they could read my responses to his works. His failure to take this elementary step makes me wonder.

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Itzhak

You  seem to be offended that I “assume” so many terrible things about you. I have  great news for you. I do not “assume” anything about you. Before I wrote  anything about you I read your book from cover to cover several times. And I  have backed up every one of my accusations with quotations from your  book.

If  my accusations are false it should be easy for you to demonstrate your innocence.  Instead of tackling my arguments head on you complain to the audience about your  “victimhood”.

I  asked you the same question several times and you have still not answered it. What was  the Metzudat David trying to teach us when he compared Joel 2:2 with Malachi  3:20?

Your silence speaks volumes.

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Yehezqel

In  your response to Annelise you accuse me of “claiming to have a higher  level of samchus (authority) over Tzachi.” In your response to me you tell me  that I am supposed to be the “real rabbi.” (These responses are found in the comment section on this blog.)

Yehezqel, at what point in my critique of Shapira do I  invoke “authority”? Please point out to me where in my critique of Shapira do I  attempt to bolster my credibility by calling myself a rabbi?

It  is Shapira who is claiming authority as a “Jewish insider” with “encyclopedic  knowledge” and who is pulling the wool over the eyes of people who cannot read  the texts that he is quoting.

All  I am doing is exposing his incompetence to the public who cannot read Hebrew. I  do not need to be a rabbi in order to do this. All I need is the ability to read  Hebrew to some level.

Yehezqel, it seems that you are proficient in Hebrew;  perhaps your proficiency exceeds mine. In your response to Annelise you speak of  your commitment to the standard of pursuing righteousness which you define as  demanding accountability. This being the case will you have the integrity to  explain to the audience how obvious it is that Shapira misunderstood the words  of the Metzudat David?

PS  As a postscript I will address one other point that you made in your response to  me. You take me to task for assuming that Shapira did not realize that the word  k’shachar in the context of the Metzudat David can mean “like dawn.”

The  reason I made that assumption is because I was judging him favorably. If he knew  that the word can mean “like dawn” and he still translated it “like blackness”  then his lack of comprehension of the words of the Metzudat David is only more  pronounced.

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As a response to my “Open Response to Itzhak Shapira” Yehezkel Italqi posted a lengthy comment in defense of Shapira. Here is my response to Yehezkel.

Yehezkel

So in your opinion if someone “undermines the simple meaning of the word shachar” then his writing is rendered “cheap entertainment.”

Using your yardstick where does Shapira land up?

Yes I did stress, and I continue to stress, that Shapira mistranslated a verse from the Bible.

The entire thrust of my critique of Shapira is to demonstrate his lack of competence. Now my question to you Yehezkel is this. Did Shapira realize that the most natural translation of “k’shachar” in Joel 2:2 is “like dawn”? Perhaps he realizes this truth now, but at the time that he wrote his book I believe that he did not. If he realized that the natural meaning of the word “k’shachar” in context of the Metzudat David is “like dawn” then why would he run to the JPS to translate the word in a way that completely violates the point the Metzudat David is trying to make? If Shapira would have been capable of reading the verse in the original Hebrew he would not have used the JPS in this instance.

In case you believe that Shapira is truly capable of the understanding Bible I suggest that you watch his video presentation entitled “Response to Objection 2: “Hebrew 101″ – Blackness vs. Dawn. An Answer to R’ Blumenthal objection.” In this presentation he presents two verses from the Bible in his effort to justify the JPS translation of “k’shachar” with the words “as blackness.” He quotes Isaiah 8:20 and Isaiah 14:12. In both of those instances the Metzudat David together with the JPS translate the word “shachar” as “dawn” or “light” and not as “blackness.” If this is not a demonstration of incompetence then what is?

Incidentally, the Yerushalmi you quoted proves that “shachar” refers to the first rays of light and NOT to the blackness of night.

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In response to my post “As Dawn Spread Over the Mountains” Itzhak Shapira posted a comment in an attempt to defend his original rendition of the Metzudat David. Here is my response to Shapira.

Itzhak

I have twice pointed out to you and to the public that you have mistranslated Joel 2:2 IN THE CONTEXT of the comment of the Metzudat David. In your video you quoted my first review but you labeled this objection as the “first one” and it is in my second review that this objection appears first (in my first review this objection is # 68). It is for this reason that I took the liberty of presenting the words from my second review. It is obvious to one and all (except perhaps to you) that in my second review I was elucidating the same objection that I had presented in my first review.

Nothing that you have said or written mitigates what I have written in either of my reviews. It is plain for all to see that in the context of misrepresenting the Metzudat David you have mistranslated a verse from the Bible. You have demonstrated to the public that you are incapable of understanding the simple words of Metzudat David.

In your defense you could have told the public that you made a mistake and you took the JPS translation and inserted it into the Metzudat David even though it is obvious that the Metzudat David was not following the JPS translation.

No, you couldn’t do that.

Instead you tried to defend yourself. In the process you tell the audience that you gave them a literal translation of the Metzudat David. What audacity!

Let’s do this word for word. (These are the Hebrew words of the Metzudat David followed by Shapira’s translation.)

Biz’richata – During the sunrise of the sun of righteousness

Yiheye – there will be

Lachem – ?

Refua – healing

V’taanug – and delight

V’dima – that will resemble

P’risat – ?

Ha’or – ?

Uz’richata – ?

Li’prisat – the spreading

K’nafayim – of wings

Ki – ?

Hashmesh – ?

Yifros – ?

Oro – ?

Al – ?

Ha’aretz -?

Ki’knafayim – ?

Ha’prusot – ?

V’chen – as it is

Ne’enmar – written

K’shachar – as blackness

Parus – spread

Al – over

He’harim – the mountains

So you fail to translate 12 out of 25 words and you call that a “literal” translation? And then you tell your audience that what I have done is “criminal”?

For those who cannot read Hebrew, the two phrases that Shapira has not translated read as follows: “the spreading of light and its shine,” and: “for the sun spreads its light over the earth like outspread wings.”

The entire point of the Metzudat David is that the metaphor of the sun spreading its wings that is found in Malachi is also found in Joel where it speaks of the dawn spreading over the mountains. To translate Joel 2:2 as if it spoke of blackness spreading over the mountains IN THE CONTEXT of the Metzudat David is to miss the entire point of the Metzudat David.

In your second attempt to defend yourself you put words in my mouth and then you attack those words. I never said that shachar has “nothing to do with blackness.” The fact that you spend your time refuting words I never said demonstrates that you have no response for the words that I did say.

What do YOU think the Metzudat David was trying to teach us when he compared Joel 2:2 to Malachi 3:20?

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As Dawn Spread Over the Mountains

In the summer of 2013 Itzhak Shapira published a book entitled “The Return of the Kosher Pig”. In this book Shapira attempts to bring support to various Christian doctrines from the writings of Judaism’s sages. I have written two reviews demonstrating that Shapira’s arguments are based on his lack of understanding of the texts he quotes. In the review entitled “The School of Matthew” I listed over 80 errors that I found in Shapira’s book (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/the-school-of-matthew/ ).

On December 14 2013 Shapira presented this response to one of my objections: Response to Objection 2: “Hebrew 101” – Blackness vs. Dawn. An Answer to R’ Blumenthal objection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP5NiPhK90I

With this response Shapira has only further confirmed his abysmal lack of comprehension of the basic Jewish texts.

In both of my reviews I exposed Shapira’s mistranslation of the comments of Metzudat David on Malachi 3:20. I hereby quote from Spiritual Responsibility (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/spiritual-responsibility/ ):

“On page 191 of his book Shapira quotes the comments of Metzudat David (a popular Jewish commentator) on Malachi 3:20 (4:2). The commentator elucidates Malachi’s metaphor which attributes “wings” to the sun with a reference to a passage in Joel 2:2. In the book of Joel the dawn is described as “spreading” over the mountains. The Metzudat David explains that the spreading of the light of dawn that Joel speaks of can help us understand the spreading of wings in the verse from Malachi.

Shapira completely missed the point of the Metzudat David and he translated the verse in Joel with the words: “as blackness spread upon the mountains”. Check out these passages in your own Bible (Joel 2:2; Malachi 3:20 (4:2) – see Strong’s concordance #7837).

The commentary of Metzudat David is written in a simple Hebrew. The style of the Metzudat David is not complicated. The comments of the Metzudat David are enjoyed by school-children. Yet Shapira cannot navigate his way through a simple comment that is designed for the child and for the layman.”

Shapira defends himself by telling us that the JPS translates the word “k’shachar” with the words “as blackness.”

The JPS on Joel 2:2 has nothing to do with my objection. My objection was focused on Shapira’s mistranslation of the comments of the Metzudat David.  I present here the full translation of the Metzudat David’s comment on the phrase in question: “and healing in its wings. With its shining you will have healing and pleasure, he (the prophet) compares the spreading of the light and its shine to the spreading of wings because the sun spreads its light over the land like outspread wings as it is written “k’shachar parus al he’harim” (Joel 2:2).”

Here are Metzudat David’s comments on Joel 2:2: “k’shachar. Like the light of dawn spread over the mountains so will the locusts cover the mountains.”

Shapira goes on to say that the purpose of my critique was to demonstrate that the verse in Malachi was not Messianic. Shapira did not understand my review. I was not discussing if the verse in question is or isn’t Messianic. I was demonstrating that Shapira is incapable of reading a comment that a sixth grade school-child should be able to read.

In his defense Shapira has demonstrated that he is incapable of admitting a mistake even when his error is as obvious as the dawn spread over the mountains.   

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal