A 33-year-old British rabbi stirred controversy when he burned a Bible on the eve of Passover and posted a photo of the book-burning on social media. He has since apologized for the act and deleted the offensive post but not before the media picked it up and it went viral.
Rabbi Shneur Odze was incensed when he found the Bible in his synagogue which he suspected had been left on purpose by a member of a Christian group. What annoyed him was that the book was placed there during Passover, the holiest time in the Jewish calendar.
The book was a Hebrew-English Bible published by the Society for Distributing Hebrew Scriptures. He took it out to the street, set it on fire and posted it on Twitter.
"Grateful to whoever put a missionary bible amongst our synagogue's books. Was wondering what I'd burn my Chametz with," he wrote in the caption, referring to the leavened bread.
Odze deleted the post when the media picked it up and explained himself, saying he was offended that the Bible was left in his Manchester synagogue without permission. He also defended his action as in line with Orthodox tradition, considering the book was a Hebrew New Testament that was made to appear like a Jewish Bible.
It would have been fine if it contained only the Old Testament, which Orthodox Jews consider holy, he said, but the book was produced by "an extreme proselytizing Christian sect of former Jews trying to convert practicing Jews to a belief in Christ as the prophesied Messiah."
Giving the Bible away wasn't an option as it would compound the fraud, he told Daily Mail, while throwing it away would be to "disrespect what is still a religious tract." It left him with no other recourse but to burn the book, though he conceded it unwise to post the pictures.
This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
