Away, Apart: The parting of the ways between Christianity and Judaism - Episode 1

As a preface to this series I highly recommend watching Monty Python's The Life of Brian or this clip (warning: potty language!)

In this mini-series we will seek to answer 1 question which drives our whole discussion; since Christianity sprouted from Judaism, how exactly did that work from a halachic perspective? To put it in extreme terms, was Sruly a good halachic Jew one day and then after he decides to believe in Christianity is he suddenly a goy the next day? If not, what happened and when?

This week we explore a bunch of background information before we can even attempt to answer that question. Things like who are the stakeholders during this time period? Can we halachically mention the name of the person around whom Christianity revolves? We talk about the texts that will be our sources for information from that time, like the Roman historian Tacitus, the Jewish historian Yosef ben Matisyahu - better known as Flavius Josephus and much more.

Lastly, a word of caution - my goal here is to explore the history of halacha and how it intersects with Christianity. I am 100% in no way advocating for any adoption of Christianity by Jews. In fact just the opposite, I want to state unequivocally that Christianity is not for Jews in any way, shape, or form.

If there are any Christians listening to this podcasts I encourage you to support Jews and Jewish causes whenever possible, and to adhere to the 7 Noahide laws.

Thanks for listening and I hope you will share this recording with others.