Heresy in Judaism

Jewish heretics (minim, from minuth, Hebrew for "heretic") are Jewish individuals (often historically, philosophers) whose works have, in part or in whole, been condemned as heretical by significant persons or groups in the larger Jewish community based on the classical teachings of Rabbinic Judaism and derived from halakha (Jewish religious law).

The Greek term for heresy, αἵρεσις, originally denoted "division," "sect," "religious" or "philosophical party," is applied by Josephus (B. J. ii. 8, § 1, and elsewhere) to the three Jewish sects—Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes (comp. Acts 5:17, Acts 26:5, and, with reference to the Christian sect, the αἵρεσις of the Nazarenes, Acts 24:5,24:14, 28:22). In the sense of a schism to be deprecated the word occurs in 1 Corinthians 11:19, Galatians 5:20, and particularly in 2 Peter 2:1; hence αἱρετικὸς ("heretic") in the sense of "factious" (Titus 2:10). The specific rabbinical term for heresies, or religious divisions due to an unlawful spirit, is minim (lit. "kinds [of belief]"; the singular "min," for "heretic" or "Gnostic," is coined idiomatically, like "goy" and "'am ha-areẓ"; see Gnosticism). The law (Deuteronomy 14:1) "Ye shall not cut yourselves" (לא תתגדדו) is interpreted by the Rabbis: "Ye shall not form divisions [לא תעשו אגודות אגודות], but shall form one bond" (after Amos 9:6 [A. V. "troop"]; Sifre, Deut. 96).

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