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The Kuzari begins by disproving Aristotelianism, Christianity, and Islam, after which it proves Judaism.

The Kuzari's disproof of Christianity is essentially as follows. Seeing is believing; if you can prove to me that G-d appeared as a fetus in a virgin and went on to found Christianity, that would be one thing. But you've only made broad claims: you have not - cannot - prove to me that Christianity is true, and therefore I must continue my search for the truth elsewhere.

This proof suffers from the obvious problem that a lack of proof for is not a proof against. Do any other Jewish works offer a proof that Christianity must not be the truth, regardless of whether you accept that Judaism is?


This question discusses specifically proofs for Judaism. As this is a disproof for Christianity from a Jewish perspective, I don't see how it could be a duplicate. I am not sure, however, whether this would be considered comparative religion.

b a
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DonielF
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  • I'm not sure whether or not this is on-topic; I'm going to skip it in the review queue. I would just note, however, that I think it's probably on-topic, because it appears to me that the question seeks to understand a Jewish sefer. – MTL May 08 '17 at 02:33
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    @Shokhet It doesn't seek to understand a Jewish sefer (Kuzari) but rather answers from "other Jewish works". – Double AA May 08 '17 at 03:36
  • May I ask close voters why they voted thus? – DonielF May 08 '17 at 03:57
  • "a lack of proof for is not a proof against" - but it does show that it is a completely unfounded claim – ray May 08 '17 at 05:56
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    @ray Perhaps. I'm asking if anyone provides a stronger proof. – DonielF May 08 '17 at 11:11
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    There is a popular mistake when reading the Kuzari sec. I to think that he is offering proofs or disproofs. The whole point of this section is that religion can't and shouldn't be founded on proofs. See paragraphs 13 and 63 where he succinctly says so outright. Judaism stands on "I am Hashem your G-d Who took you out of Egypt", a memory of encountering G-d. It is a common misunderstanding; everyone who speaks about "the Kuzari Principle" makes it.So, I think you (1) misrepresent what the Kuzari is trying to do in his dismissal of Christianity; and (2) ask something R' Yehudah haLevi wouldn't. – Micha Berger May 08 '17 at 15:58
  • @DonielF why do you have to disprove something which has no basis whatsoever? do you have to disprove that the moon is not made of green cheese? – ray May 08 '17 at 20:21
  • @ray A disproof could be a proof that it has no basis. I don't have to prove that the moon isn't made of green cheese - Neil Armstrong did that for us when he brought back moon rocks in '69. But tell a Christian that Christianity is baseless and you're just asking for an argument. Don't you want to go into that argument with a counter argument to defend yourself? – DonielF May 08 '17 at 20:27
  • @ray I took our moon and cheese discussion over to Worldbuilding. Any other questions about my logic? (Only on this site can you turn a missionary question into a scientific debate about dairy spoilage.) – DonielF May 08 '17 at 20:44

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The ‬Radak, in his commentary on Tehillim, has a section where he discusses Judaism's objections to Christianity. In addition, throughout the commentary, he explains why the Christian interpretations to various verses are incorrect (either grammatically or dogmatically).

These were originally removed by censors, but restored from manuscript later. You can read about it (with examples and specific verse references) in the intro to the Kook edition here.

Here are some of the dogmatic objections. I may have missed some, but the intro to the Kook edition and this article should cover them all).

Verse 2:12 (Section starting "And the Christians explain this refers to Jesus").

Verse 7:8

Verse 19:10

Verse 22:32

Verse 45:18 and and of Chapter 72 (missing from our versions as well, and brought in the introduction).

End of Chapter 87 and Chapter 110 (missing from our versions as well, and brought in the introduction).


I think it was these commentaries that were published separately as "Teshuvat HaRadak LeHaNotzrim"

Menachem
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  • At the moment this seems like a link-only answer. Do you mind summarizing the links? – DonielF May 08 '17 at 03:56
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    The question was: Do any other Jewish works offer a proof that Christianity must not be the truth, regardless of whether you accept that Judaism is? The answer is that the Radak does. The links are just to make it easier to see where he does – Menachem May 08 '17 at 03:57