Away, Apart. the parting of the ways between Christianity and Judaism - Episode 3 - the finale
Description
Welcome to part 3 of our history of halacha in Bayit Sheni series entitled Away Apart, the Parting of the Ways Between Judaism and Christianity. So far we have set the background by outlining the various groups that were around in the first few centuries of the common era and what their beliefs were. We explained what sources we had for our knowledge at the time and then honed in on Jesus’s teaching, his perhaps revolutionary attitude towards Rome, as well as Paul and the spread of Christianity after Jesus’s death
All of this drove us towards our fundamental question when and why did a Jewish sect of Nazarenes, meaning people who followed Jesus of Nazareth, when amd how did those people, who were all Jews stop being Jewish. To put it better, how halachically could a Jewish group at that time become a goy for the purposes of things like minyan or yayin nesech amd and the like.
What we found was the basic answer to our question is you can't. There doesn't seem to be a historical halachic precedent for a Jewish group doing something that transformed them into a non-jewish group. To the extent that even the Samaritans who were not really a Jewish group to begin with were considered for some halachic purposes as if they were jews. Yiddishkeit is like hotel California, you can check out any time you like but you can't ever leave
Which takes us to this week. Now we start to explore various historical events which individually could not be seen as creating that schism between Jews and Christians, but adding them all up cam perhaps collectively point us in the right direction. We touch on things like the various wars between the Jews amd Rome, the malediction of the heretics, the Jewish tax, the Christians changing their calendar to move sabbath to Sunday and much more.
Some of these events had a more direct impact on whether the average stam Jew in the first few decades of the 2nd century viewed a Jewish Christian as Jewish or Christian.
Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy
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Link to Birkat HaMinim in Cairo Geniza
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⸺ The Beginning of Jewishness
Schiffman, Lawrence H.: Who was a Jew? (Ktav, 2019)
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Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm has a series of classes on this topic
Faur, José: The Gospel According to the Jews (Moreshet Sepharad Publishing, 2012)
Part 1 Adele Reinhartz, Especially Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAOizrgSIc0&ab_channel=JewishStudies-Fordham - h/t Malka Simkovich
Toleration within Judaism and the Parting of the Ways between Judaism and
Several works by E.P. Sanders
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Neusner, Jacob First Century Judaism in Crisis
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Solomon Zeitlin's Studies in the early history of Judaism
Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, Herford, R. Travers
Aharon Shemesh, “King Manasseh and the Halakhah of the Sadducees,” Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 52, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 27-39
GOODMAN, MARTIN, et al. “TOLERATION WITHIN JUDAISM FROM THE SECOND TEMPLE TO THE PRESENT.” Liverpool University Press, 2013
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