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Re: “Getting permission” for some to go to Yavnah:

By the skin of their teeth a core of Jewish teachers/scholars were able to get permission from the Romans for a small group to go and establish an outpost at Yavneh.

I believe that Judaism should proselytize in our era. Traditional Judaism has a tremendous amount to offer both spiritually and intellectually. I have a good number of friends, acquaintances and others I’ve met on several continents who were devout Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, Baptists, Hispanic families, some of whom realized their families had been Conversos for 500 years (and some who came to Judaism through intellect and faith), a Seventh Day Adventist minister and his Seventh Day Adventist wife and family - all, who, through their seeking and God’s opening their eyes and through serious thinking and life’s experience led them to convert to Judaism, often first via the more liberal clergy and then, as they learned more and realized they were not being taught enough, through orthodox conversion. Judaism seriously discourages people who approach a rabbi, saying they want to convert to Judaism. These people have to be turned away over the course of years three or more times because they are reconsidered for the multiyear one on one learning and living according to Jewish practice and actual formal testing that must happen before an outside rabbinic panel before they are accepted as legitimate Jews.

To convert to many Christian sects, it takes faith that one’s pronouncement of faith will guarantee salvation. That seems for a heck a lot of people, then and now, a much, much easier, understandable and immediate “fix.” Most people have not been exposed to the richness of classic Judaism as an alternative.

Those of us who live in the West are fortunate to live in countries that allow us our choice of roads to the Almighty’s wisdom and grace. Thank God for our religious freedom. Thank God that Jehovah’s Witnesses have the right to badger the rest of us and that we have the right to explain to them our religious beliefs and our appreciation that we can say, “’Thanks, but no thanks.”

What is approaching on the horizon for Christians and Jews is ominous. Jews and Christians today have much, much more in common than they do different and should actively be supporting each other in the struggle to be able to practice our religions in safety.