Apologetics and Polemics

Defense of a credal position and the rebutting of attacks against it. The beginnings of Jewish apologetics are generally dated to the Hellenistic period, when Jewish writers sought to defend Judaism against the criticisms of Hellenism and paganism. Two noted works were Philo's Apology on behalf of the Jews and Against Apion by the historian Josephus, who vindicated the Jewish religion against the calumnies of an anti-Jewish propagandist, Apion. The Hellenistic Jewish apologists defended themselves against accusations, explained the nature of Judaism, and also counterattacked with a critique of paganism. Apologetics are also to be found in the Talmud and Midrash, often in the shape of fanciful arguments between rabbis and pagans (philosophers, officials, even rulers), the arguments of opponents being cited and then refuted.

The rise of Christianity, and later of Islam, led to an extensive apologetic literature. The argument with Christianity can be detected in various passages in both the Talmud and the liturgy, although these were often later deleted by Christian censors. Modern talmudic scholarship has revealed previously unsuspected apologetic (usually anti-Christian) nuances in talmudic texts. When Abbahu said "If someone tells you 'I am God,' he is a liar; 'I am the son of man,' his end is that he will regret it; 'I am going to heaven'---he will not fulfill it" (TJ Ta'an 2:1, 65f)> The object of the statement is not spelled out, but its meaning must have been obvious to Abbahu's audience.

In the Middle Ages, Jewish apologists were concerned with answering the attacks not only of other faiths but also of Jewish sects regarded as heretical. The outstanding example were of the Karaites, who at one time threatened to become serious rivals to rabbinical Jews. The replies to Karaism, notably by Saadiah Gaon (tenth cent.), led eventually to a decline in their following. At this time, Jews were forced by the Church into verbal apologetics which took the form of Disputations. Apologetics can also be found in the writings of many outstanding Jewish medieval scholars: David Kimḥi's commentary on the Bible contains many excursuses which are anti-Christian polemics; Judah Halevi's famous Kuzari---based on a supposedly historical disputation between a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew and which persuaded the king of the Khazars to embrace Judaism---is in fact a 12th-century Jewish apologetic against Christianity and Islam. Other notable Jewish polemical works included Joseph Kimḥi's Sefer ha-Berit, which defends Judaism and shows its excellence; the satirical Al Tehi ka-Avotekha of Profiat Duran, written in Spain (c. 1400); the Sefer ha-Nitsaḥon of Yom Tov Lipmann Mülhausen, summarizing an early 15th-century disputation held in Prague; and the outstanding Ḥizzuk Emunah of the Karaite Isaac ben Abraham of Troki (16th cent.), which was translated into Latin and was widely read in Christian circles. A widespread apologetic literature also grew up among ex-Marranos settled in northern Europe who sought to persuade others in a similar position of the superiority of Judaism to Christianity. A leading example is Manasseh ben Israel's Vindiciae Judaeorum (1656), which was directed to non-Jewish readers.

Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem (1783) was written as a defense against criticism of his earlier writings and aroused considerable discussion in Christian circles, but his presentation of Judaism proved highly influential in paving the way to the granting of civil rights to Jews.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, "ritual murder" accusations and anti-Semitic manifestations, culminating in Nazism, evoked a certain Jewish apologetic response. However, the advent of Emancipation, the growth of Jewish nationalism and especially Zionism, the post-World War II acceptance of religious and cultural pluralism in major countries of Jewish residence, and the replacement of Jewish-Christian polemics by dialogue have all helped to diminish the role of apologetics in modern times.

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