My Rabbi Told Me So!

By Rabbi Leopold Cohn
WE HAVE CELEBRATED Rosh HaShanna. We have fasted the whole day of Yom Kippur. We have "geschloogen Kapooras" (ceremonial slaying of chickens). We have spent many hours in the synagogue reciting prayers. In short, we have done about everything a pious Jew is supposed to do. And now, let us ask the question: Why did we do all this?

Among the many answers offered, this one invariably is given as if it were the reason of all reasons:

Our Jewish Fathers did so and so and therefore we their children ought to do the same. These customs and practices are our priceless Jewish heritage, and it is proper and right for us their children to cherish that heritage and follow our fathers' footsteps.

But we might ask, "Who told your fathers to do these things?"

"Oh, this," they reply, "goes too far back into ancient history. Long ago we had very wise and learned Rabbis and they instituted and elaborated these practices and customs."

In other words, we are doing these things because our "Rabbis told us so!"

Where Is Their Authority?

But where did the Rabbis obtain the authority to tell us what to do? The supreme authority for Judaism is the Bible. But nowhere in this divine revelation of GOD do we find any foundation for such Rabbinical claims. On the contrary, a great deal is said in the Word of GOD to discourage any attempt on the part of Rabbis to arrogate to themselves such authority.

For instance, in Deuteronomy 4:2 we read:

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your GOD which I command you.

From these and other words of the Scriptures it is clearly evident that any claims to authority to initiate and institute customs and practices other than commanded by GOD are altogether baseless and contrary to the expressed will of GOD.

Just How Sound Are They?

"True," someone might say, "the Rabbis have no authority to initiate and invent new commandments, yet the customs and practices which they elaborated are legitimately derived through a sound and logical process of reasoning from the Word of GOD."

Let us therefore examine a few of the practices and customs of the Rabbis and see whether they are the results of such a legitimate process.

A great part of orthodox Jewish homelife is taken up with the question of "Milchig and Fleishig" (milk dishes and meat dishes). To the orthodox Jew this is a serious question.

Is there any real and clear foundation in the Bible for the multitude of laws connected with this matter? No! The only thing that is pointed to by those who seek scriptural proof for this custom is the fact that three times in the law we find this commandment, "Thou shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk."

"Why three times?" inquired the Rabbis. "Oh, a great mystery must behidden in this," they suspected. And forthwith they began to unravel that mystery by developing from this command the intricate system of "Milchig and Fleishig."

Straight Common Sense Thinking

Another instance is the Rosh HaShanna. The Rosh HaShanna seems to become the badge of Judaism, the capstone of the Jewish religion. But if we look into the Bible for this capstone, it is conspicuous for its absence.

The New Year of the Bible, it is most emphatically stated, is the first of Nisan, the Passover month. Of that month it is said in Exodus 12:2: "This month shall be unto you the first month of the year." Other people may choose other times or seasons for their New Year, but to you of the house of Israel, Nisan is the first month. And the first day of the first month is the Jewish New Year!

Common sense joins hands with the hand of GOD in proclaiming this month to be the first month of the Jewish calendar. It was the month of liberation from slavery, the month of the birth of the Jewish people as a nation. Then it was also the spring of the year, nature's new year!

Defying GOD, Defying Common Sense, Defying Nature

How on earth the Rabbis made the first day of Tishri, the Fall of the year, the month of calamity and golus for Israel, the Biblical seventh month, into the Jewish New Year is beyond comprehension! It is against the Word of GOD, it is against common sense and against nature. And yet the Rabbis succeeded in deceiving and misleading the Jewish people on their mere say-so!

Still another example: The custom of Kapooras Schloogen. If this act had any real sense and foundation in the word of GOD, then it is all that the Jew or anyone else would need for the forgiveness of sins. The words accompanying the waving of the cock or the hen over the head are as follows:

This (rooster or hen) is my ransom, this is my exchange. This goes to death, but I go into eternal life and happiness.

What more could we need? There is forgiveness of sins, there is atonement, there is eternal life.

But there is a heartbreaking flaw in the whole transaction. It has no foundation in the Word of GOD! It is like the signing of a big check by a beggar who does not have a cent in the bank.

This Check Can Be Cashed

The Bible has only one way of atonement, and that is: The blood of the Korban upon the altar!

In Leviticus 17:11 we read:

I have given it (the blood) upon the altar...for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.

The Word of GOD speaks of two kinds of sacrifice which have the power to make atonement for sin, the one kind to succeed the other in the course of GOD's revelation to man:

The sacrifice upon the altar in the temple of GOD in Jerusalem, which was in force as long as the temple abode in Jerusalem.
The sacrifice of the servant of GOD - the eternal Lamb of GOD upon the Cross of Calvary, who was offered for the whole world when the first sacrifices were done away with.

We have already see what GOD said of the first sacrifices: of the second, we have these words of the Prophet Isaiah:

He was wounded for our transgressions...the chastisement of our peace was upon Him...the LORD hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all...He the righteous servant shall make many righteous, because their sins He bore.

Thus, the Lamb of GOD was sacrificed upon the Cross of Calvary, and we have the assurance in the Word of GOD what He had the power to make an atonement for the soul. Of no other method devised by men do we have such assurance from GOD.

Then, dear reader, why not play safe? On one hand, you have the uncertain promises or the say-so of the Rabbis; on the other hand, the sure Word of GOD. In which of the two will you put your trust?

May GOD grant that you will make the right choice.