Francis’ Library of Judaica

This post will be updated as Call Me Jorge... continues to discover and write about books Francis has added to his private collection.  Francis is a consummate collector and avid reader of Judaica. Also included will be books Francis has written or had translated into Hebrew for his rabbinical compatriots.

• Francis adds more rabbinical books to his library — Professor Nathan Aviezer drops by for a visit and presents Francis with two books, In Fossils and Faith: Understanding Torah and Science and In the Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science.  Aviezer explains the creation of the world through a combination of Talmud, Orthodox Judaism, and evolution while leaning heavily on two kabblaists, Maimonides and Nachmanides.

• Pynchas Brener becomes rabbi #89,324 to visit Francis at the Vatican — Rabbi Pynchas Brener comes calling at the Vatican and bears a gift of Agadá: Zuron Yosef y Rajel which explains that the Last Supper was a seder meal. (See ‘What book did Francis receive from Rabbi Pynchas Brener?’ for more information.)

• Blasphemies in Francis' book, Rome and Jerusalem: Rabbi Talks with Pope — Francis has his 2010 book with Rabbi Abraham Skora, Sobre el cielo y la tierra, translated into modern Hebrew, על רומא וירושלים :שיחות בין אפיפיור לרב (Rome and Jerusalem: Rabbi Talks with Pope). The book contains blasphemy against Our Lord Jesus the Christ and refers to Catholic priests as “idol worshipers”.  It is published by Koren Publishers Jerusalem, known for publishing the Talmud of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

• Francis receiving a blasphemous gift, the book, “Chagall: Love, War and Exile” — A a delegation from the American Jewish Committee met with Francis and presents him with a copy of Chagall: Love, War and Exile which contains a color photo of his favorite blasphemous painting, Chagall’s “White Crucifixion”.

• The ongoing kabbalistic process — Nostra Aetate — In 2015 for the 50th anniversary of Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate בעת הזאת: מסמכים ומחקרים על הכנסייה הקתולית והיהודים לנוכח השואה ובעקבותיה was published. The title translates in English as, In Our Time: Documents and research on the Catholic Church and the Jews in light of the Holocaust and its aftermath. This book is a translation into modern Hebrew for the first time of Nostra Aetate and includes speeches given by John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis in the Great Synagogue in Rome, the notes they placed in the Western Wall, and conversely speeches by them in Yad Vashem as well as in Auschwitz.

• Francis adds a copy of ‘Mystic Tales From the Emek HaMelech’ to his kabbalistic library collection — A group Chasidic Jews from Poland stop by for a private audience with Francis. They sing Chasidic songs and give him a copy of Mystic Tales From the Emek HaMelech. It is full of Talmud and Lurianic Kabbalah.  The Emek HaMelech is the kabbalah that was accepted by the Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s words on the levels higher than the Atzilus (part of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life) also based on the Emek HaMelech.

• Francis adds another Talmudic Jewish book to his library — Orthodox Rabbi Shmuel Goldin visits and brings a gift, Unlocking the Torah Text Bereishit.  In the book, Rabbi Shmuel Goldin presents Jacob’s Ladder from Genesis through the mirror of a synagogue located in a concentration camp in the Theresienstadt ghetto. 

• How many books on Talmudic Judaism does Francis have in his personal library? — Francis scored big for his library the day he had several groups of Talmudic Jews come for a private audience! Among the books gained: Communitati et Orbi, To the Community and to the World; Die Zukunft Europas und das Judentum: Impulse zu einem gesellschaftlichen Diskurs; one unidentified book; and כלל ופרט בין ירושלים לרומי - Between Jerusalem and Rome: The Shared Universal and the Respected Particular Reflections on 50 Years of Nostra Aetate.

• What book did Francis receive from Rabbi Pynchas Brener? — Rabbi Brener comes bearing gifts for Francis, a kippah, and a copy of Agadá: Zuron Yosef y Rajel, which is the Sephardic Agadá (haggadah) for the seder meal.  The book also explains that following the laws of the seder meal brings one freedom.

• New printing of Babylonian Talmud - Tractate Berakhot extolled in L’Osservatore Romano — Francis unofficial newspaper,  L’Osservatore Romano publishes a glowing article on the Talmud Babylonian Tractate Berakhot. The two volumes contain the Shema prayer (Francis is so obsessed over) and also blessings/prayers for the moon, the sun, the Amidah, getting out of jail, etc... Francis is a huge fan of publications that Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is involved with.

• update on the new member of the Pontifical Academy Of Life — Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, M.D. — Francis appoints the author of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics to the Pontifical Academy Of Life. This encyclopedia is a must read for those who want to understand Jewish ‘value$’.

• L’Osservatore Romano recommends Daf Yomi (Daily Talmud Lessons) — Exactly as the title of this post sounds, Francis’ unofficial mouthpiece, L’Osservatore Romano, endorses one reading a page of the Talmud a day.  In only 7 years and 5 months, the entire 2,711 pages of the Talmud can be read by following the recommended ‘Daf Yomi’ program.  It should be no surprise, as Francis not only has read the Talmud and the Kabbalah but often draws concepts from them which see the light of day in his homilies and interviews.

• World Congress of Mountain Jews visit Francis to discuss the creation of a ‘World Council of Mono-religions’ — Another day at the Vatican, another group of Talmudic Jews stopping in for a visit. Interestingly, they present him with two volumes written by a Russian Orthodox priest, Jesuits in Russia, from the reign of Catherine II to the present day — Parts 1 & 2: 1867-1870. The work “is decidedly anti-Catholic and anti-papal.”

• Francis received Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s book — Francis’ friend, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, drops in for a general audience where he sat in Francis’ VIP box.  After Francis is finished blathering, the rabbi hands him a copy of his book Listening to God which more appropriately should be called Listening to the Insane Delusions and Ravings of the Rabbis.

• How Francis spent his 80th birthday in 2016 — Francis spent time with kabbalist friends celebrating his birthday. Among the gifts given to him by Rabbi Isaac Sacca was a replica copy of the Birkat Kohanim (Blessing of Priests) from the oldest known Hebrew Bible. Francis made use of this gift as he performed the Birkat Kohanim publicly during his Angelus Address on New Year’s Day in 2019 and privately later in the year when Isaac Saaca again visited the Vatican with a motley crew of Talmudic Jews.

• Fresh off the ‘drukn’ — The Bible of Friendship — Francis writes the preface to La Bibbia dell’Amicizia: Brani della Torah/Pentateuco commentati da ebrei e cristiani in which he implies that Christianity is anti-semitic at its core and invokes a Talmudic curse on Christians in a macabre jest.

• Francis receives a copy of ‘The Jewish Annotated New Testament’ — How many Judaic books can one man have? This time its a copy of the New Testament with glosses explaining how Jesus was a Jew and that the “anti-semitism” of the New Testament resulted from hateful non-Jews’ wrongful interpretations.  Cites the Talmud, the Kabbalah, the Mishnah, the Zohar, the Pirkei Avot, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and an assortment of other Judaic literature in defense of its laughable arguments.

• Rabbi Shmuley Boteach met with Francis — After a general audience, Francis meets with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who gives him a copy of his book Kosher Jesus.  This book states the Gospels give the wrong impression of Jesus. Boteach wants readers to believe that Jesus never declared himself God or meant to abolish Jewish law and Christianity emerged from a few savvy people after the destruction of the Second Temple. It’s a piece of blasphemous trash from a member of the Chabad mafia and a shady rabbinical family of weapons dealers.

• Francis gets a Hebrew Bible — Francis accepts a Jerusalem Crown — Hebrew University Bible from Menahem Ben Sasson.  It has the rabbinical stamp of approval from the Rambam (aka Maimonides) himself. There is nothing Catholic about this book as it uses the Talmud and the midrashim to explain the text.  Francis it appears can never have enough Talmudic Jewish books and commentaries on the Old and New Testaments.

• Francis’ rabbinical chums drop by the Vatican for a visit — Francis receives a facsimile of the Alba Bible from the president of the HispanoJudía Foundation, David Hatchwell. The Alba Bible is a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Castilian by Rabbi Moïse Arragel of Guadalajara interpreted through the lenses of the Zohar, Midrashim, Talmud, and Targumin. It also features rabbinical commentary from Abraham ibn Ezra, Maimonides, Nahmanides, R. Joseph Kimhi, R. Asher ben Jehiel, Shlomo ben Aderet, R. Ya'acob and Nissim of Gerona. Francis must be ecstatic to have added another rabbinic bible to his collection.

• Dreams do come true... if you are a kabbalist! — Francis personally receives an English translation of the Tikkunei HaZohar at a general audience and the following week receives an Aramaic copy of the same book with a symbolically infused reliquary and light emitting diode kabbalah tree of life cover. How long until we see Francis practice what this book specifically espouses?

More to come...