206 • chapter 5
examination of the torah,^78 one finds that the prophets refer to “their
nation with the name ‘Israel’ in matters of encouragement, consolation,
and praise,” whereas, in instances of “censure and rebuke,” the names
“house of Jacob,” “Children of Jacob,” and “Jacob” are used. Pirkei
avot does not offer a share in the world to come to all of the children
of Jacob (that is, all Jews), but rather only to “all Israel” (that is, all
who are worthy).
to substantiate his theory that the name Israel is reserved only
for the meritorious, Moyal provides a scriptural proof- text, citing the
phrase “an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.” this line serves, for
Moyal, as further evidence of the use of Israel or Israelite exclusively
to denote an ethical individual. the source of this line, intriguingly, is
neither a prophet in the hebrew Bible nor a rabbinic dictum; rather,
these are the words of Jesus found in the Gospel of John. “When Jesus
saw Nathaniel coming toward him,” John 1:47 reports, “he said of him,
‘here is truly an israelite in whom there is no deceit.’ ” Moyal makes no
effort to disguise the source of this phrase; he openly identifies it as one
that appears “more than once in the Gospels [al- injīl].”^79 this argument
functions on a number of levels. First, of course, is the explicit conten-
tion that, when properly understood, the opening line of Pirkei avot re-
veals nothing morally damning about Judaism. Somewhat more subtle
is the implication that Judaism and Christianity are so fundamentally
linked that the meaning of a phrase in the sacred canon of Judaism can
actually be ascertained through a knowledge of Christian scripture.
Finally, in responding to Christian attacks on the ethics of the talmud,
Moyal, in a shrewd polemical tactic, attempts to undermine the criti-
cism by using christian scripture as his definitive proof- text.
In fact, the New testament appears frequently in Moyal’s at- Talmūd.
In his exegesis of rabbi hanina’s instruction to “pray for the peace of
the government” (Pirkei avot 3:2), Moyal notes:
the speaker did not limit his directive only to the peace of the
Israelite government, despite the presence of the roman occupa-
tion at the time and the limitation of legal authority to roman ad-
ministrators and, similarly, collecting taxes and tithes. [rather,]
he [hanina] commanded obedience to the ruler without regard to
his religion [dīnihi] or nationality [wa- jinsiyyatihi]. according to
this principle, the author of the Gospel who came after him said(^78) Following common convention in arabic, Moyal often uses the term torah to refer
to the entirety of the hebrew Bible, though he is certainly aware of the sense of torah as
the Five Books of Moses. See ibid., 25n.1.
(^79) Ibid., 59. perhaps Moyal has in mind romans 9:6, in which paul the apostle claims
that “not all Israelites truly belong to Israel.”