The following contribution is
by “Hoss Cartwright”
For what it’s worth, here is a small piece on my experience with the Talmud, and a couple of graphics.
I mentioned that HWA should have used Talmud in his research. Ralph commented about a book that paralleled the Talmud with Paul’s letters. I’ve heard of a few books that make similar analyses, for example, showing Jesus as a typical Jewish rabbi.
While part of the Talmud is the written version of the Oral Law (and that’s a whole kettle of gefilte fish) it contains collection of Torah commentary, which I heard described as a “600 year long Bible study”.
Part of the Talmud derives 613 commandments, positive commands (thou shalt) and negative commands (thou shalt not) from the Torah. How many times had “God changes not!” been used by HWA to show we should keep a select, modified subset of the Law? Why were we told not eat unclean meat, but not told to wear tzitzis (tassels)? Both laws appear in the Torah as equally binding. The overseer of a new COG once wrote he would, time permitting, analyze each of the 613 commandments and tell us which ones we must still keep, and which were no longer required. There was a time when that would have put him between a bunch of rocks and a hard place, and Jesus’ comment on those who teach breaking “the least of my commandments.”
“Binding and loosening” was not authority given to Apostles to change laws; it gave authority to make judgements on how laws apply. Pharisees 
had their Halachah (“walk”) that determined how they kept each law; Jesus accepted some of these customs and rejected others. For example, giving thanks before a meal was a Pharisaic tradition, in addition to the biblically-implied command is to give thanks after a meal. He rejected ritual hand washing before eating bread, and pointed out the “Biblical incorrectness” of abuses of Korban (Offering).
In Paul’s dealing with Gentiles, circumcision most likely referred to ritual conversion to Judaism, which the Talmud called the “Eighteen Measures” (not the Eighteen Truths). Ritual conversion required, amongst other things, circumcision and was concluded with immersion; following immersion the convert was “born again as a Jew.”
These are a few of the examples I came across (new truth!) that helped me put aside nagging vestiges of WCG doctrinal baggage.
(Note: rabbi, Judaism, etc, were words of convenience; in the first century these terms were anachronisms.)
When I first saw the first graphic on the PCG website,I felt it was just 
begging for this… And to borrow another line from the Simpsons, “If Flurry sues, we’ll claim Fair Use…”
*Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -John 14:6
This includes Gerald Flurry and the other “wannabee apostles”