Pulling The Thread Podcast: Tracing Jesus Before Christianity Emerged, Jesus the Jew within Judaism! · Jeramiah Giehl

An Entire Messianic Congregation Converts to Judaism - A Conversation with Richard Cortes - Part 1: Transitional Faith: Episode 13

·1 hr 7 min·4 clips

Cortes says one Hebrew reading made him realize Isaiah 7 did not say 'virgin' the way he expected.

The conversation opens with an introduction to Richard Cortez, the founder and leader of Foundation of the Word, a former messianic congregation or group that converted to Judaism. The host says he likes to begin with background and personal history. Richard starts in New York City. He mentions time in Manhattan and Brooklyn, then the Bronx. The Bronx matters most because that is where his first real exposure to religion took shape. He grew up in a Jewish community. His apartment building was owned by a Hasidic Jew and most of the neighbors were Jewish. That meant he stood out, though not in a hostile way. He says they liked his family. His best friend was Jewish, so he spent a lot of time around that world. At that point his family was not religious. Later, his parents divorced and the family moved to Puerto Rico. The story then turns to what he felt inside synagogue life. He says the separation between natural born Jews and gentiles was heavy. Gentiles could come in and learn, but there were things they simply were not allowed to do. The place operated like an authentic Orthodox shul, and that structure left a mark on him. He says it offended him a little, because he wanted Torah, not just proximity to it. He compares that experience with a messianic congregation in Dallas that also ran a full Torah service. The gentiles had a place there too, but certain boundaries still held. That tension helped push him toward deeper study. He started going back to second Temple Judaism and studying the church fathers, looking for the roots rather than only the later Christian frame. From there he presses into the historical questions around Jesus. He does not present the answer as simple. He suggests that if there was a historical Jesus, he would have been a Jew, and that his followers converted people to Judaism with circumcision and mikvah. He says documents state as much. He then widens the claim further, saying the movement would have remained Jewish if Paul and everything that followed had not changed its direction. The conversation keeps moving between his own life and the larger question of what Christianity became. That back-and-forth gives the episode its shape. It is personal first, then historical, then personal again. The host closes by calling it a powerful, insightful conversation that ran well over two hours and will continue in part two.

As heard by us

A personal journey from a messianic congregation into Judaism, with history and theology kept in the same room.

Richard Cortez's path from a Bronx Jewish neighborhood to a messianic congregation in Dallas and then into Judaism gives the conversation its shape.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a conversion story that turns into a search through Jewish history, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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