17 — Yitro: Conversion, Commandments, & a Cool Dude

By popular request, we opened this week with a conversation about conversion and proselytizing and kiruv, in which we definitely had more than three opinions. Then we got to talk about actively choosing your parents-in-law, some bass-boosted Torah, and calvinballing the misogyny out of our religion. Full transcript for this episode available here. Here is the source the thing Jaz says at 2:25, about asking potential converts about why they would want to be Jewish given how much Jews suffer, (from Yevamot, in the Talmud) and directly after it, here's the source on explaining the downsides of needing to keep more mitzvot post-conversion. Here's the story of Hillel and Shammai telling the entire Torah to a gentile while he stands on one foot. Here are some of the many sources on treating converts well. Here's the EtymOnline entry for proselyte. Here's the thing about the Israelites dying at Sinai and coming back to life. Here's the source from the Talmud (Shevuot 39a) about future generations being at Sinai (and here's an interesting interpretation we didn't talk about on-air that might complicate that). Content notes: death mention from 26:25-26:54. Support us on Patreon! Send us questions or comments at [email protected], follow us on Twitter @kosherqueers, and like us on Facebook at Kosher Queers. Our music is by the band Brivele. This week, our audio was edited by Lulav Arnow. Our logo is by Lior Gross, and we are not endorsed by or affiliated with the Orthodox Union. Support the show