Making Jews: Conversion and Mitzvot YEHIEL E
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bringing to the Jewish people by accepting con- a conversation with each other — about what verts like these? For it is obviously not good for Jewishness is at its very essence and about either God or the Jewish people that converts how the changing face of world Jewry should like these should be mixed into the Jewish peo- and should not be reflected in conversion pol- SHMA.COM ple.” (Iggerot Moshe, Yoreh De’ah 157) icy. We may not necessarily agree, but we will, Feinstein’s certainty about what is good for one hopes, protect the unity, and therefore the God and the Jewish people evades most of us. survival, of the very people to which commit- Ours is an era of unprecedented complexity in ted prospective converts still seek to dedicate the formation of identity. What we need now is their lives. Making Jews: Conversion and Mitzvot YEHIEL E. POUPKO write to pick up where Daniel Gordis leaves already accepted the belief in the One God and off. His description of the dilemma we face the yoke of Torah. Having accepted the yoke of Iand of the various halakhic sources is accu- Torah, the non-Jew must perform certain rate. He calls for “a conversation with each covenant-making acts in order to become a other — about what Jewishness is at its very member of the Jewish nation. In the middle essence and about how the changing face of ages, especially among Ashkenazim, differ- world Jewry should and should not be reflected ences emerged about the extent of knowledge in conversion policy.” So let’s begin to talk. In and what commitments of practice would be the modern world, identity is self-constructed. required of the convert. However, it is indis- Conversion is surely an expression of identity putable that conversion means that the candi- construction. According to a recent Pew Center date has already arrived at a belief in One God report, Americans switch and adopt new forms and accepted the yoke of the Torah, the mitzvot of religion with a fair degree of frequency. that God commanded the people Yisrael. My grandfather had no Jewish identity; he Judaism is constituted of the acceptance was just Jewish. In traditional society, one is as and practice of the mitzvot. Thus, it is incon- one is born. In the matter of conversion, how ceivable that a non-Jew could enter the nation can the contemporary reality of identity con- of Israel and acquire kedushat Yisrael without struction interact with the classic concept of ke- acceptance of the yoke of mitzvot. There is no dushat Yisrael? This is our dilemma. Kedushat Judaism without mitzvot. However, there have Yisrael, the metaphysical distinctiveness of the been different halakhic positions over the cen- children of the patriarchs and matriarchs, is a turies as to whether or not the acceptance of consequence of ancient Israel standing at Sinai, mitzvot requires the complete and perfect and after hearing the word of God and experi- knowledge and practice of the mitzvot at the encing revelation, agreeing to accept the re- time of conversion, like circumcision and im- sponsibilities of being God’s chosen people. mersion in the mikvah. This kedusha is given concrete expression in a The conversation that Daniel Gordis calls for lifestyle characterized by observing the mitzvot. has begun and, in the past, reached a good and Kedusha is ever and always defined in proxim- useful resolution. I am sad to say that the reli- ity to the Holy One. Kedushat Yisrael is trans- gious-political temper and activity of our time mitted by mother to child because each mother have muted the conversation. Long ago, the is a child of someone who is of the sacred fam- Talmud Bavli took an essentially negative pos- ily of Abraham and Sarah, and thus possesses ture toward conversion, whereas the Talmud kedusha. Yisrael is a family that became a faith Yerushalmi’s attitude was essentially positive. while remaining a family. Responses from the 1950s and 1960s, by Israel’s What, then, is gerut, or conversion? late chief rabbis, Yitzhak Halevi Herzog, Isser Rabbi Yehiel E. Poupko is the Maimonides’ careful and precise formulation Yehuda Unterman, and Shlomo Goren, provide Judaic scholar at the Jewish reads as follows: “When a non-Jew seeks to insight: If a non-Jew made aliyah and thus United Fund/Jewish Federation enter the covenant and to gain shelter ‘neath plighted his or her fate with the fate of the of Metropolitan Chicago. (Institutional affiliation is the wings of the Shekhina and accept upon Jewish people, then circumcision and immersion merely for the purpose of themselves the yoke of Torah, they require cir- in the mikvah, along with a general acceptance identification. The ideas cumcision, immersion, and animal offering” (in of the yoke of mitzvot, were sufficient to effect a expressed in this essay are Temple times). We see that the individual has halakhically valid conversion. Goren writes: solely those of the author.) MARCH 2011 | ADAR 2 5771 [13] There is, in principle, no halakhic dis- the conversion will be trustworthy and pute or difference between the Talmud secure… (Mishnat Hamdina; Jerusalem Bavli and the Talmud Yerushalmi…If 5759; translated by Y. Poupko.) SHMA.COM one is speaking about Bavel or any other place outside the Land of Israel in The general practice of the Orthodox (dur- which a majority of the population are ing the past 100 or so years) requires complete non-Jews and in which the convert re- knowledge of and perfect commitment to prac- mains in the bosom of his non-Jewish tice all the mitzvot. This is surely a response family, there exists a real concern that to one of the most monumental changes in the convert will not be able to utterly Jewish life: By the time World War I arrived, a separate himself/herself from them. majority of Jewish people were no longer Rather, he/she will continue to live as shomrei mitzvot, or commandment observant, an intimate member of his/her fam- as understood for centuries. In addition, 80 ily… But, in Eretz Yisrael, the majority percent of the Jewish citizens of Israel do not of whose residents are Jewish, even practice the mitzvot. From an Orthodox per- after the destruction of the Beit Ha spective, this halakhic response to the change Mikdash… those who convert in Eretz in Jewish social reality is the correct one for Yisrael will become assimilated in the the Diaspora communities. However, great ha- midst of the Jewish population and will lakhic masters, such as those mentioned separate themselves completely from above, have held otherwise when it comes to their non-Jewish family. There (Eretz non-Jews who want to convert and live in the Yisrael), it is much more reliable that present-day State of Israel. Conversion and Conversation MARK WASHOFSKY “We cannot remain silent. We must protest against those who, by facilitating conversions not con- ducted in accordance with halakhah, allow goyim to enter the vineyard of the house of Israel.” (Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner, quoted in “Rabbi Elyashiv Opposes Army Conversions,” Yediot Ahronot, January 11, 2011) aniel Gordis calls for a “conversation” to Judaism has always been understood as a on conversion policy in Israel. Yehiel E. religious phenomenon. One who becomes a DPoupko endorses that call, tells us that Jew does more than simply join the Jewish peo- such a conversation once took place, and be- ple; he or she “takes refuge under the wings of moans the intracommunal political realities that the Shekhinah” and accepts the responsibilities have “muted” the conversation today. “Muted” of a member of the covenant community of would be putting it mildly. The recent news re- Israel. Traditionally, as Rabbi Poupko reminds port cited above indicates the total opposition us, these responsibilities correspond to the of two of the gedolei hador, the preeminent mitzvot; therefore, “it is inconceivable” that a Orthodox halakhic authorities, to the latest ef- non-Jew could become a Jew without accepting fort to resolve the conversion crisis and the the “yoke of mitzvot.” And that, in the view of plight of soldiers like Lev Paschov, z”l. While a Rabbis Elyashiv and Wosner and their allies, conversion initiative supervised by the rab- means that the convert to Judaism must be- Mark Washofsky is the binate of the Israel Defense Forces has received come an Orthodox Jew. One who converts but Solomon B. Freehof Professor of Jewish Law and Practice at approval from leading authorities, including does not live a life of mitzvot — as that life is the Hebrew Union College– Chief Sefardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar and his defined by Orthodox Judaism — did not truly Jewish Institue of Religion in mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, other rabbis — in- “accept” the mitzvot, and his or her conversion Cincinnati. He is the chair of cluding Rabbis Elyashiv and Wosner, along is thus regarded as invalid. the Responsa Committee of with other leading Ashkenazic halakhists — re- Does the stance of these Haredi (ultra- the Central Conference of ject such conversions as a sham. Their opposi- Orthodox) rabbis doom any hope for a “con- American Rabbis and the author of Jewish Living: A tion threatens the future of the conversion versation”? Not at all. As Rabbis Gordis and Guide to Contemporary initiative. Poupko note, debates over the precise stan- Reform Practice. The problem, at its core, is that conversion dards for conversion stretch back to talmudic [14] MARCH 2011 | ADAR 2 5771.