Apostacy

When a friend seemingly embodies the paradigmatic Jew, but the Halakha doesn't regard their Jewish status as such, what do we do? Often times, the Halakhic status of a person's Judaism outweighs their devotion for, their stringency towards and their love for the religion. In this talk, Shmuel Kadosh explore the Halakhic definitions of a Jew and how we deal in situations where spirit and letter of the law come into conflict. He looka at the values that emerge from the texts concerning modes of Jewish identity in terms of becoming a Jew and leaving the community.