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Home , Conversion to Judaism

Tough Are Gerim

Conversion to in Medieval Europe

In the turbulent days of 1096, as Europe’s clergy and nobility led the mobs in the First Crusade, a local drama unfolded in the German city of Mainz. In the words of the Jewish chronicler Shlomo ben Shimshon: There was a very kind man, named Mr. Ya’akov son of Sulam, and he was not descended from a high-ranking family, and his mother was not Jewish, and he shouted loud and clear, to all who were present, thus: “So far you have done nothing but disgrace me and now behold what I shall do.” And he took the knife in his hand and thrust it into his own throat before all who were present and slaughtered himself in the name of the Almighty.

{ By RAMI REINER

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HAVRUTA | 55 n those days, public suicide as an act mentions the names of all the other victims of kiddush hashem (sanctification of indicates that just like his counterpart from Rabbi Loring Frank, All People’s God’s name) was a last resort for Xanten, this ger had sunk into the abyss of I who were forced to become baptized at the anonymity. /// Miami Beach, point of a sword. But our chronicler provides The 12th century witnessed a further Florida, USA, 1994 details indicating that the drama at hand decline in the situation of the Jews in was likely triggered by somewhat different northern Europe. Anti-Semitic stereotyping circumstances. flourished in the popular mind, and Ya’akov’s lowly origins - he was born anti-Jewish polemic on the part of of a convert mother and a father not Christian authors reached unprecedented “descended from a high-ranking family” proportions. As the Israeli historian - had apparently caused him to suffer Jeremy Cohen has observed, “increased “disgrace” at the hands of Mainz Jews. The cultural contacts, including interreligious fact that he was “a very kind man” seems debate, intensified Christian sensitivity to have borne little if any weight against to contemporary Jews and Judaism, the hostile community. It seems, therefore, aggravating the perception of them as a that Ya’akov’s public suicide was an act of threat to the integrity of Christendom . . . defiance directed at his own community. [L]eper, heretic and became virtually Describing events in the shadow of interchangeable designations in twelfth- anti-Jewish persecutions that same year century Christian taxonomies of society, in another German city, Xanten, the exemplifying marginality and an impurity chronicler says: that threatened the essential fabric of Christian existence.” And there was also a slave of God who was a ger tzedek (convert to Judaism), and he asked our Rabbi Moshe Cohen Gadol, saying: “If I Did many converts of the should slaughter myself in His great name, period and the locality what shall become of me?” And [the rabbi] replied: “You shall dwell with us…" remain nameless and faceless in their death, and perhaps The convert is worried that his eternal reward, even if he sanctifies God’s name, also in their lives? may not be guaranteed. Moreover, this convert is not identified by name, but as “a It is reasonable to assume, under such slave of God who was a ger tzedek.” Is this circumstances, that few non-Jews would only coincidental? Or did many converts feel motivated to convert to Judaism. Any of the period and the locality remain economic benefits that might result from nameless and faceless in their death, and joining the Jewish community were eclipsed perhaps also in their lives? The Memorbuch by the hazards of membership in a despised, (“Book of Remembrance”) of the Jewish marginalized minority. Those who did community of Köln included two converts choose to cross religious lines were thus in its listing of the victims of 1096. One special individuals, surely worthy of greater of them is a woman named Hatziva, and respect among Jews than had been afforded the other is a man identified only as a converts a century earlier. “ger tzedek whose name was not made Halakhic discourse of the period reflects explicit.” Such a nondescript appearance these historical changes. In France, in a commemorative document that two authors of the Tosafot - Talmudic

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commentaries that are widely studied According to this passage, when praying, to this day - figured prominently in the a ger must not imply he is descended from debate over the acceptance of gerim as full the forefathers, because they are not his members of the community. Rabbi Ya’akov ancestors. Even when that ger prays at ben Meir (1100-1171), known as Rabbenu the synagogue publicly, as shaliach tzibur Tam, was a grandson of the illustrious (cantor), the requires that he (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1040-1105). Rabbi recite “The God ofyour forefathers.” Yitzhak ben Shmuel of Dampierre (Rabbi The social implication of this position is Yitzhak the Elder, ca. 1110-1189), a nephew that the ger is constantly reminded of of Rabbenu Tam, challenged the rulings his otherness, in both the private and of his renowned uncle and teacher - and public spheres. But the those of Rashi, his great-grandfather, as (also known as the Palestinian Talmud), well. Contemporaries and younger disciples quotes Rabbi Yehuda as saying that the ger in France and Germany adopted Rabbi may bring and recite the words Yitzhak’s views and applied them in their “our ancestors” like any other Jew. Why? own communities. As a result, religiously Because of God’s promise to Abraham in motivated converts became increasingly Genesis 17:5: “For the father of a multitude accepted by congregants and , tipping of nations have I made thee.” Rabbi Yehuda the scales of this halakhic impasse to the maintains, in other words, that “our side of greater acceptance and leniency. ancestors” are also the ancestors of the ger, since Abraham fathered many nations. In the Middle Ages, Rabbenu Tam and Ancestral Credentials Rabbi Yitzhak debated a similar point. The benediction confirming God’s promise A halakhic query of the period poses the of the Land of to His people places the following situation: convert in a delicate position. From a genetic point of view, a Jew not of Jewish lineage There was a ger who used to recite the would be untruthful if he or she were to benediction at meals, and others disputed recite the standard formula: “Which God this practice, saying, how can he say “We had sworn to our ancestors to give unto us." thank the Lord our God for having given a The Mishnah and Talmud diverge on lovely and spacious land to our Patriarchs this point. The Mishnah reads in Tractate and Matriarchs”? Bikkurim: Rabbenu Tam forbade gerim from reading These may bring bikkurim[ offerings to the this benediction at meals, basing his ruling Temple on Shavuot and throughout summer] on Tractate Bikkurim and other arguments but do not read [the portion read when appearing in the Mishnah. But Rabbi bringing bikkurim offerings]: the ger may Yitzhak disagreed, basing his argument bring but does not recite because he cannot on the above passage from the Jerusalem say: “Which God had sworn to our ancestors Talmud. Rabbenu Tam’s position, echoed in to give unto us.” But if his mother were an other - rabbinic correspondence Israelite, he may bring and recite. And when on halakhic questions - is that gerim are not he prays privately, he says, “O God of the entitled to express themselves as full Jews. ancestors of Israel;” and when he is in the Rabbi Yitzhak, on the other hand, is more synagogue, he says “O God of your ancestors;” concerned with sparing gerim from the sense and if his mother were an Israelite, he may of alienation engendered by formulations say, “O God of our ancestors.” such as “the God of your forefathers.”

HAVRUTA | 57 The ancestral rights of Jews who were not born Jewish involved more than just their sense of belonging. They also had serious pecuniary and legal repercussions. Rabennu Tam received a query from one Rabbi Moshe of Pontoise, whose brother taught a ger “Torah and Mishnah night and day.” The ger deposited a considerable sum of money with his teacher. Ailing as he was, the ger sought to transfer ownership over the deposited money to his nephew, also a convert to Judaism. The dying man had even managed to express his wish to bequeath the deposit to his nephew by declaring on his deathbed before witnesses that “all of my assets shall be registered in the name of X. who is my sister’s son.”

In 12th century northern Europe anti-Semitic stereotyping flourished and anti-Jewish polemic on the part of Christian authors reached unprecedented proportions.

The Talmud overrules a ger’s bequest to his descendants under the principle of “A ger converted is like a child newly born”- his or her family ties prior to conversion lose their legal significance. By extension, a ger can also not make a gift in contemplation of death. On the other hand, a well-known Talmudic principle holds that “it is a to uphold a dead person’s word." In light of these conflicting stipulations, is the teacher bound by the ger’s dying wish? Or is the ger’s deposit hefker (property without rightful owners) in the absence of any legal heirs, in which case the teacher is entitled to claim the money for himself? Rabbenu Tam sided with the traditional view by which the ger is divested of the

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If the world at large was But in discussing the debtor’s prerogative to repay the debt voluntarily, the Talmud getting harder for Jews, Yaacov Lejman, former presents two contradicting opinions: one churchgoer, discovered should not Jews be easier states, “Should he repay, sages shall not be his Jewish roots at age content,” i.e, the debt should not be repaid sixteen, now a yeshiva on converts? student in Kraków /// voluntarily; the other asserts the contrary Kraków, Poland, 1994 “Sages shall be content.” The Talmud’s ruling halakic right to bequeath property. By on this clash of opinions is: disqualifying the gift in contemplation of death, Rabbenu Tam’s ruling invalidates There is no difficulty here, one refers to a the decree “It is a mitzvah to uphold a case in which his conception and birth were dead person’s word,” and endorses the not bekdushah (in holiness) and the other expropriation of ger assets from their to a case in which his conception was not rightful heirs into the hands of the members bekdushah but his birth was bekdushah. of the “original” Jewish community. Rabbi Yitzhak, here as elsewhere, moved The accepted interpretation of this ruling, away from halakhic conventions. We learn as articulated by Rashi, is that the heirs to a from his Tosafot commentary on Tractate ger conceived and born to non-Jews (not in Bava Batra that he considered the principle holiness) should not be repaid. As a person “it is a mitzvah to uphold a dead person’s born and raised in non-Jewish society, word” to be equally valid in relation to the convert is subject to the principle “A gerim. Accordingly, gerim are able to transfer ger converted is like a child newly born.” their assets easily to their natural heirs He is excluded in this context from the de facto, although he does not seek to legal arrangements that bind his fellow change their status in this respect de jure. community members. Only a ger with more By finding a legal loophole that allowed significant ties in the community, thanks converts to execute wills, Rabbi Yitzhak to having been born to a mother who challenged the notion that “A ger converted converted prior to his birth, would leave the is like a child newly born,” and encouraged sages content with the loan’s repayment. the recognition of a convert’s family as Once again, Rabbi Yitzhak sees the matter normative within the Jewish community. otherwise: But Rabbi Yitzhak interpreted: conceived not bekdushah and born bekdushah - sages shall not be content, for he is close A New Conception of Equality to being like Israel and therefore is not a complete Israelite. Rabbi Yitzhak’s opinion on another fine In Rabbi Yitzhak’s opinion, sages should point of inheritance law demonstrates his approve of debt repayment to a “standard” determination to reevaluate social norms ger whose conception and birth are not without compromising halakhah. There is a bekdushah! Since these gerim constituted ruling, in the Talmudic Tractate Kiddushin, the overwhelming majority of converts, that a Jewish debtor who borrowed money the discrimination against gerim born after from a ger is exempt from repaying his their parents’ conversion - bekdushah - debt if the lender dies before the money is impacted a very small group of individuals. returned. Because the conversion of the In the rare event that a non-Jewish mother dead man was interpreted by the Talmud as converted to Judaism during her pregnancy, the severance of family ties with his heirs, her descendant from that particular all ownership rights over the debt are lost. pregnancy would have encountered

HAVRUTA | 59 difficulties in certain instances pertaining verb sapakh, which means “to join” or to marital laws. Rabbi Yitzhak saw no “to cleave.” This bifurcation between Lewi Faez studying in his grandfather’s jewelry reason why this minor technicality should the inclusiveness of nispekhu, and the workshop infringe on the hereditary rights of most derogatory sapakhat, has allowed exegetes /// El Hajar, Haïdan, gerim, and sought to have the same rules to choose between endorsing Isaiah 14 and Yemen, 1983 apply to both types of Jews - by descent or embrace converts, or to consider them as a by choice. Thus, his ruling implies greater burdensome lot whose attachment to the equality for gerim under Jewish Law. Rabbi skin of the nation must be deplored. Yitzhak’s arcane distinction may strike Rabbi Yitzhak’s inclusive interpretation the contemporary reader as leaving non- seeks to blunt the edge of Rabbi ’s ethnic Jews in an inferior position to full aphorism. In the Tosafot commentary on Jews. But the practical implication of this Tractate the following saying is interpretation is revolutionary: according attributed to Rabbi Yitzhak: to the readings of Rashi and Rabbenu Tam,  a ger whose conception and birth were not Therefore those who integrate into Israel bekdushah was completely stripped of legal are tough, and [Rabbi Yitzhak] said: in [the rights within the halakhic system. They chapter] ten levels of pedigree [in Tractate based this ruling on the view that born Jews Kiddushin], Shekhinah [the personification and gerim are inherently different, and that of God] inheres only among the families of this should be reflected in halakhic law. high descent in Israel. Rashi and Rabbenu Tam therefore seem oblivious to the sensibilities, needs and even Rabbi Yitzhak’s working assumption is economic rights of the ger. On the other that gerim do integrate and are expected hand, Rabbi Yitzhak’s commentary and to marry within their new community. The rulings reveal an effort to shape a strictly integration process will inevitably dilute halakhic world in which the economic and the high social standing of the descendants, personal status of the gerim is stable, safe and therefore may hamper the infusion of and equal. Shekhinah. In this sense, gerim are tough as the scab, because their integration leads to this undesirable consequence. Nevertheless, Rabbi Yitzhak makes it equally clear that The Tough Life of the Ger there is neither an obstacle nor a wish Rabbi Yitzhak’s project of legitimizing gerim to prevent marriage between gerim and was not restricted to the practical sphere of other members of the community. In his halakhah. He invested a similarly intense commentary on another invidious remark effort, as did his disciples, in revising the by Rabbi Helbo, “Woe after woe shall befall meaning of popular Talmudic aphorisms. those who accept gerim,” he says: The Talmud’s paradigmatic maxim on the acceptance of gerim is Rabbi Helbo’s saying … [this saying pertains to cases] where [gerim] “gerim are as hard for Israel as a scab [kashim are either coaxed into becoming Jewish or gerim leYisrael ke sapakhat].” Appearing four assimilated immediately, but if they convert times in the Talmud, the maxim is itself a wholeheartedly we must accept them, for we linguistic play on Isaiah 14: “And the ger have learned that Abraham and Isaac and shall join himself with them and they shall Jacob did not take in Timna who sought to cleave [nispekhu] to the house of Jacob." convert, and she wandered astray to become Sapakhat is commonly identified today as a concubine to Eliphaz son of Esau, begetting psoriasis, and is derived from the Hebrew for him Amalek, Israel’s tormentor…

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HAVRUTA | 61 Isaac Massias, Judeo-Spanish bobby /// Gibraltar, 1991

Here Rabbi Yitzhak rules unequivocally that it is a mitzvah to embrace any person wishing to convert, limiting Rabbi Helbo’s warnings to cases where are

Converts were worried that their eternal reward, even if they sanctified God’s name, may not be guaranteed.

encouraged to convert or cajoled into converting. But a ger who converts voluntarily, in Rabbi Yitzhak’s view, is not “tough” and certainly isn’t likened to a scab. The vast majority of gerim in the dangerous climate of 12th century France were surely voluntary converts; therefore, this interpretation in a sense released the converts living in the area under Rabbi Yitzhak’s influence from the unpleasant burden of Rabbi Helbo’s maxim. As we have seen, Rabbi Yitzhak not only defied the exclusionary approach of the Rashi-Rabbenu Tam school, but was the harbinger of a more inclusive approach in halakhic practice among his contemporaries. Subsequent commentaries in the Tosafot literature on Rabbi Helbo attest to the popularity of Rabbi Yitzhak’s approach. For example, an interpretation attributed to two contemporaries of Rabbi Yitzhak asserts the following:

Since the gerim are knowledgeable in mitzvot and are meticulous about them, they are tough for Israel as the scab, for the Lord uses their example to remind Israel of its iniquities when His will is not followed.

Evidently, Rabbi Yitzhak’s school harbored a genuine change in the relationship to gerim, both on the theoretical and the practical aspects of halakhic discourse. It seems this approach

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found resonance in German Jewish the world at large was getting harder for communities of the same period. Sefer Jews, should not Jews be easier on converts? Hasidim, attributed to the influential Rabbi Moreover, converts were an asset. Jewish- Yehuda Hachasid (ca. 1150-1217), contains Christian relations in the 12th century the following passage: were typified by the intensification of interreligious polemics and disputations. Any kindhearted man who takes a A significant number of Jews converted to kindhearted gioret (female convert) - Christianity and actively represented their who comes from stock that are modest, new community, serving Christian interests charitable and pleasant in commerce - it not only with argumentation grounded in Avraham (Rami) is better to marry with their seed than Jewish knowledge, but by becoming living Reiner , a Senior Fellow marrying who do not possess examples of the veracity of Church dogma. at the Shalom Hartman such virtues, for the seed of the ger shall be This phenomenon was matched on the Institute, is a lecturer upright and kind. Jewish side of the fence by the increasing in the department acceptance of gerim, who in later periods of Jewish Thought at While Ben Baruch of became an asset to Jewish propaganda. Ben Gurion University Rothenburg (known as the Maharam, Thus in a Jewish German chronicle from of the Negev. th ca. 1215-1293) quotes Rabbi Yehudah the second half of the 13 century, we read An expanded version Hachasid as follows: about a man who apparently left a monastic of this article will be order to become a Jew: published in Hebrew in The son of [Messiah] does not arrive a volume in memory of before all souls expire in the body. There Rabbi Avraham bar Avraham Avinu of Prof. Y.M. Ta-Shma. is a chamber in the heavens called guf France, leader of the barefooted, who came [body] housing all souls destined to enter to reject idols and came to dwell under humans, and an angel appointed to oversee the wing of the Eternal Soul, and died pregnancies takes [souls] from that chamber sanctifying the Name. and implants them in women’s bellies. Occasionally [the angel] errs and places a This elaborate, admiring and loving tribute soul worthy of a in a Jewish woman’s could not be more different from the intestines and her baby becomes meshumad description of Ya’akov ben Sulam, son of [apostate]. And occasionally he places a the convert and “not descended from a high soul worthy of a Jew in a gentile woman’s ranking family,” whom we encountered in intestines and her baby becomes a ger. the tragic Mainz chronicle of 1096.

It therefore emerges that the souls of those born bekdushah and those not born bekdushah come from the same source. In light of this insight, the chasm separating them from the interpretations of Rabbenu Tam and Rashi emerges as nothing short of astounding. Rabbi Yitzhak of Dampierre and his followers enabled a genuine shift in the treatment of gerim in both France and Germany. It seems reasonable to conclude that such halakhic creativity was motivated, at least in part, by historical conditions. If

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