Fallacious Bible Criticism and Antisemitism

I want to apologize to the people in class, today. I don't feel I was very articulate. I hope I didn't offend anyone. I mamash think something needs to be said/written against the works of Richard Friedman and other Bible Critics like him. The Rabbi's point about the antisemitic underpinnings of Friedman's work is very good and it needs to be emphasized for the unity of yiddishkeit. And I am not sure I can convey the power of the Rabbi's work, his new book project.

You don't know very much about me, although you do already know that I am studying to convert. But also, I come from a Evangelical-Christian upbringing. All through my upbringing the impression, albeit subtle, was that Christians knew and understood the Bible far better than the Jews of today. It disturbs me to no end that I was raised to think that (somehow) Jewish people don't understand their own Bible--that they are somehow ignorant or illogical when it comes to understanding the facts about Torah--whether it is about the origination, authorship, efficacy, understanding, history, or basic exegesis of the text. To me the absurdity falls on the non-Jew. What seems most logical is that if you really want to understand Torah, it is essential that you would go to a Jewish Rabbi who studies, lives and embodies Torah everyday! It is the subtlety of Richard Friedman and of my Christian upbringing (and even perhaps anyone who is outside Orthodox Judaism, i.e. Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionalist, etc) that propels the lie. It is subterfuge and it works because people don't (currently) care much. It is my hope that you are able to expose the subtle sophistry of this kind of Bible Criticism, that you bring about unity in the Jewish community, and a strong defense against this sort of antisemitism.

I have read Asher Norman's book, "Twenty-Six Reasons Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus". The power of the information in that book, I feel, is that it builds a strong defensive against the campaign to both pull Jews away from their faith (and spiritual heritage) and also to discredit Jews and Judaism in general. It compels Jews to cling to the truth.

I feel like a book that speaks out against fallacious contemporary Bible Criticism has the potential to build up the Jewish community in very much the same way. It would also enable a Jew to stand up against disparaging campaigns that work to create a schism within Judaism. It would move Jews to cling to the truth.