Shavuot study: Conversion

(16) But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. (17) Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may the LORD do to me if anything but death parts me from you.” (18) When [Naomi] saw how determined she was to go with her, she ceased to argue with her;

"And Ruth said: entreat me not to leave you and to return from following you (Ruth 1:16)"-- what does "entreat" [lit. "hurt"] mean? Ruth said to Naomi, "Do not sin against me by telling me to leave and return from following you. I intend to convert anyway, and it is better that I do it with you than with someone else." When Naomi heard this, she immediately began to lay out before her the laws of conversion. Naomi said, "My daughter, Jewish women do not go to the non-Jews' theaters and circuses." Ruth said, "Where you go, I will go." Naomi said, "My daughter, Jewish women do not live in a house where there is no mezuzah." Ruth said, "Where you lodge, I will lodge." "Your people shall be my people," refers to warning and punishment, and "Your God shall be my God" refers to the rest of the commandments.

There are three ways in which someone enters the covenant: by circumcision, by immersion, and by a Temple offering. Circumcision as it was in Egypt, as it says, "Every uncircumcised person shall not eat of it (the Passover offering)." Moses our teacher circumcised them and everyone spurned the covenant in Egypt with the exception of the Tribe of Levi. On this it says, "Your covenant was withheld." Immersion was in the desert before receiving the Torah, as is said, "Sanctify yourselves today and tomorrow; wash your clothes." The offering, as is said, "Send the young ones of Israel to bring elevation offerings" - and everyone in Israel brought them. Throughout the generations, any non-Jew who wants to enter the covenant and come in under the 'wings of the Presence of God' accepts upon him or herself the yoke of Torah - he needs circumcision, immersion and a Temple offering. If female, she needs only immersion and an offering, as is said "As for you, so for the foreigner." That's to say, just as you (entered via) circumcision, immersion and an offering, so too the foreigner (shall enter via) circumcision, immersion and an offering.

§ The Sages taught in a baraita: With regard to a potential convert who comes to a court in order to convert, at the present time, when the Jews are in exile, the judges of the court say to him: What did you see that motivated you to come to convert? Don’t you know that the Jewish people at the present time are anguished, suppressed, despised, and harassed, and hardships are frequently visited upon them? If he says: I know, and although I am unworthy of joining the Jewish people and sharing in their sorrow, I nevertheless desire to do so, then the court accepts him immediately to begin the conversion process. And the judges of the court inform him of some of the lenient mitzvot and some of the stringent mitzvot, and they inform him of the sin of neglecting the mitzva to allow the poor to take gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and produce in the corner of one’s field, and about the poor man’s tithe. And they inform him of the punishment for transgressing the mitzvot, as follows: They say to him: Be aware that before you came to this status and converted, had you eaten forbidden fat, you would not be punished by karet, and had you profaned Shabbat, you would not be punished by stoning, since these prohibitions do not apply to gentiles. But now, once converted, if you have eaten forbidden fat you are punished by karet, and if you have profaned Shabbat, you are punished by stoning. And just as they inform him about the punishment for transgressing the mitzvot, so too, they inform him about the reward granted for fulfilling them. They say to him: Be aware that the World-to-Come is made only for the righteous, and if you observe the mitzvot you will merit it, and be aware that the Jewish people, at the present time, are unable to receive their full reward in this world;

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God.

The Gemara asks: What is different with regard to verbal mistreatment, that three prohibitions are written concerning it: “And you shall neither mistreat a convert” (Exodus 22:20); “And when a convert lives in your land, you shall not mistreat him” (Leviticus 19:33); “And you shall not mistreat, each man his colleague” (Leviticus 25:17), and a convert is included in the category of colleague? With regard to one who also oppresses a convert as well, three prohibitions are written: “And you shall neither mistreat a convert, nor oppress him” (Exodus 22:20); “And you shall not oppress a convert (Exodus 23:9); “And you shall not be to him like a creditor” (Exodus 22:24). This last prohibition is a general prohibition, in which converts are included. Consequently, it is not correct that one who oppresses a convert violates only two prohibitions. Rather, both this one, who verbally mistreats a convert, and that one, who oppresses him, violate three prohibitions.