Why did Judah depart?

Question

Why did Judah and Israel split?

Answer 1

Judah didn't depart. Israel departed. You should study more and then you would understand.

Read 1 Kings 12 where King Jeroboam (of Israel, not of Judah) made two golden calves and instituted a feast to them in the 8th month (a month when Torah has proclaimed no feasts).

It was this sort of idolatry that caused the Northern Kingdom of Israel to be divorced and then scattered by Assyria.

The split had its start when King Solomon died and his son Rehoboam became king. He wanted to raise taxes even higher than those under his father. His famous statement was "My little finger is thicker than my father's thigh!" (1 Kings 12:10 and 2 Chron 10:10) So there was a tax revolt. Since the Southern Kingdom of Judah had control of Jerusalem and the Temple, people from the Northern Kingdom of Israel were less inclined to properly obey Torah and go to Jerusalem at the Feasts. So they made up their own replacement religion and turned to graven images. (Similar to what Christianity did.)

Answer 2

Judah maintained God
Israel worshipped idols

Answer 3

Following the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam becomes king, and, in response to the political situation, goes up north to Shechem to have himself crowned. At this time, the northern tribes send a delegation to tell the king their complaints.

Chief of these is the toll that King Solomon's building projects -- the Temple in Jerusalem, his palaces, etc. -- had taken on the people in terms of taxes and forced labor. The northern tribes, in effect, ask the new king for a tax cut.

Rehoboam consults his advisors. The elders who had served under Solomon tell him to ease up on the people: "Speak to them gently, and they will be your servants forever." (1 Kings 12:7) But the young upstarts advise him to show the people who is boss.

Answer 4

Do you really mean Judah -- or did you mean Judas as in Iscariot -- the one who betrayed Jesus?