ABSTRACT
Jewish conversion to Christianity during the medieval period, whether done willingly or under duress, placed a heavy burden on the converts themselves, but also on arbiters of Jewish law. Ashkenazic Jewry encountered this phenomenon even before the First Crusade and Rashi (1040-1105), in response, propounded the principle that “even when a Jew has sinned grievously, he remains a Jew.” As explained by Jacob Katz, adoption of this rule by subsequent Ashkenazic halakhists meant that every Jew had the possibility of returning to the community, even if his or her conversion had been willful. Moreover, the full return of a former apostate required little more than rejoining the community and recommitting to the observance of Jewish law and practice. 1
If, however, a married Jewish woman had sexual relations with a Christian during her apostasy, things became more complicated. Normative Jewish law stipulates that a married woman who willingly had relations with another man henceforth is sexually prohibited to both her husband and the other man (as per Sotah 28a, ke-shem she-asurah la-ba’al kakh asurah la-bo’el ). Ostensibly, of course, the Talmudic axiom assumes that the other man was also a Jew.
