Ursula, the Talmud and Europe

Lorenzo Maria Pacini
Strategic Culture Foundation

We learn from Ursula, the friend of all Europeans, that Europe’s roots are in the Talmud. Thanks, but we can do without it.

To each his own—An old video of the President of the European Commission has resurfaced in the alternative media, in which she stated that “The values of Europe are the values of the Talmud”. The phrase immediately caused a scandal and the video was circulated everywhere. It is an old video, dating back to when she received an honorary PhD at Ben Gurion University.

The confusion is more than legitimate. The words were clear: Talmud. Not Judaism, not Judeo-Christian roots as conservative politicians have often claimed, but the Talmud. A clear and unequivocal word, pronounced in a prepared speech.

Before looking at what the Talmud is, let’s reflect on the political gravity of these words, because the reappearance of this video at such a delicate stage for Europe, in which the European Union is violating what little remains of the national sovereignty of the countries, is certainly not accidental.

Europe has no Jewish roots. The European peoples, from their ethno-sociological to their political dimension, have Greek, Latin and Christian roots. Christianity, like it or not, has permeated all of Europe and characterized it with an unshakeable imprint.

As the economist Giovanni Zibordi, quoted by Prof. Paolo Becchi, pointed out, “Why does Europe have Talmudic values? Nobody knows exactly what the Talmud is, but it is not the Bible. It was written about 1,000 years later and is an encyclopedic text, thousands of pages long, which only the rabbis discuss and study. Martin Luther learned Hebrew and was the first non-Jew to read it and he was scandalized by its contents. Hence his reputation as an anti-Semite. But if you try to read some extracts or summaries, it repeats that there is one moral for Jews and another for everyone else. For what precise reason is the Europe of the EU based on the Talmud (and not the Gospel if you really want to quote a religious text)?

The point is that the Talmud is not a religion in itself, nor is it a system of values in itself, nor is it a historical, political or cultural component of any of the European peoples. The Talmud belongs to an ethnic and religious minority, who recognize its authority and values, but it is not a common heritage, in any sense of the word. To claim that Europe has the values of the Talmud is a manipulation that nevertheless contains very precise political truths.