What, Not Who, Is a Jew?

What, Not Who, Is a Jew? DANIEL GORDIS SHMA.COM ev Paschov, an Israeli soldier who immi- that a convert who rejects a single iota of grated to Israel under the Law of Return Jewish law may not be accepted. These sources Lfrom the Former Soviet Union, was killed can be made to agree, but doing so clouds the while on active duty in Southern Lebanon in question that their apparent contradiction 1993, and buried twice. He was first interred in raises. Is being a Jew fundamentally about the a regular Israeli military cemetery, but after it observance of every detail of Jewish law (as was discovered that his mother was not Jewish, Bekhorot implies), or does converting mean his body was exhumed, and Paschov was buried joining a covenantal community that sees itself a second time, in a cemetery for non-Jews. as marginal, a community in which command- For many Israelis, the macabre end of ments are central, but perhaps not the defining Paschov’s brief life journey was deeply disturb- characteristic (as in Yevamot)? ing. How was it possible that someone could Today’s liberal Jewish communities, in be welcomed to Israel under the Law of Return, which rigorous observance of the ritual com- serve the Jewish state’s army, and die defend- mandments is no longer part of the fabric of ing his adopted homeland, and still not be con- daily Jewish life, insist that a genuine desire to sidered Jewish enough to be buried alongside join the Jewish people and share in its fate his comrades? ought to be a sufficient standard for conversion. Is being a Jew fundamentally about the observance of Many Orthodox communities, alarmed by what they see as the dilution of Jewish content in lib- every detail of Jewish law or does converting mean joining eral Judaism, in general, and liberal conversa- a covenantal community that sees itself as marginal, tions, in particular, have responded by adhering a community in which commandments are central, ever more rigidly to classic conversion stan- but perhaps not the defining characteristic? dards. Valid conversions must be accompanied by a genuine commitment to observe the com- But Jewish law is clear, traditionalists re- mandments — “for the sake of heaven” (Geirim sponded. Jews are either those who are born of 1:3) — they insist, and conversions that lack a Jewish mother, or those who have converted to that are simply null and void. Judaism in a halakhically valid fashion. Yet oth- Although pronouncements of the Israeli ers wondered: Had Jewish national sovereignty Chief Rabbinate and some leading Orthodox au- rendered classic halakhic standards insufficient? thorities seek to convey the impression that What, in our increasingly conflicted and nu- Orthodox standards for conversion are mono- anced world of identity formation, should being lithic and always have been, the truth is much a Jew mean? What should joining the Jewish more complex. There has long been disagree- people require? Those questions, more than any- ment, even within Orthodox circles, about what thing, are at the heart of the now relentless de- constitutes “for the sake of heaven.” Rabbi David bate surrounding conversion, a debate that often Zevi Hoffmann (1843-1921), for example, ruled threatens to tear the Jewish people asunder. that a gentile man could be converted, even This vehement, often nasty, debate is not though he would not be observant, because his new. Even the talmudic sources are divided. A Jewish partner was already pregnant. (Melamed well known baraita (Yevamot 47a) says that con- L’ho’il, Yoreh De’ah 83) That the prospective con- Daniel Gordis is senior vice verts should at first be turned away: “Our rabbis vert wanted to be Jewish, though he could have president of the Shalem Center taught: If at the present time a man desires to stayed with her regardless, was sufficient for the in Jerusalem, and the author, become a proselyte, he is to be addressed as fol- conversion to be considered “for the sake of most recently, of Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can lows: ‘What reason have you for desiring to be- heaven.” Hoffmann introduced moral consider- Win a War That May Never End, come a proselyte? Do you not know that Israel at ations, as well. If the man abandoned this which won a 2009 National the present time is persecuted and oppressed, woman because the court declined to convert Jewish Book Award. He has despised, harassed and overcome by afflictions?’ him, she would still have a child, and without a just completed, with David If he replies, ‘I know and yet I am unworthy,’ he husband, she would become a social pariah. Ellenson, a volume on 19th is accepted immediately ….” After he is ac- But Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986), and 20th century Orthodox responses to conversion, which cepted, he is instructed in some of the com- America’s greatest halakhic authority, railed will be published by Stanford mandments, but his acceptance comes first. against such conversions and the Orthodox rab- University Press in early 2012. But another source (Bekhorot 30b) insists bis who performed them. “What value are they

[12] MARCH 2011 | ADAR 2 5771 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.)

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