I find it interesting the way much of the discourse and practice around so-called anousssim echoes that of the Inquisition. It was the custom of the Inquisition before conducting individual enquiries to read out a list of Jewish beliefs and practices. This served two purposes 1) it alerted people of what to accuse their neighbours of and 2) it let the accused know what to confess for a light sentence, allowing the Inquisition to tick off the right boxes and move on with a job well done with little fuss. The Inquisition’s job being penitence not burning. Now messianic advocates of return give out crib lists for the application forms ...