The Trial of the Torah
The Death of Moses, Alexandre Cabanel, 1851
From Wikipedia:
The Disputation of Paris (the Trial of the Talmud) took place in 1240 at the court of King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis). It followed the work of Nicholas Donin, a Jewish convert to Christianity who translated the Talmud and pressed 35 charges against it to Pope Gregory IX by quoting a series of blasphemous passages about Jesus, Mary, or Christianity. Four rabbis defended the Talmud against Donin's accusations.
Now, I am quite sure there is a God, and that God need fear no inquiry. The question of the Torah’s legitimacy has been thrust into prominence by recent events. Personally, I don’t believe in original sin; there was a fall of the angels, but it was not possible for humans to avoid the consequences. I don’t think it’s possible for God to rest; God is in all things, as active intelligence. If you knew how much of God’s intelligence is in you right now, you would freak out. So when we read in Leviticus, If you do any work on the Sabbath, I will cut off your soul from among my people, it seems unreasonable.
Circumcision comes from Egypt. I first read about this in Moses and Monotheism, Freud’s book about Akhenaten. I was not a fan of Freud, but I liked that book, I reread it.