Preparation for Mikvah - Conversion

Our Rabbis taught: In our time, if a person wants to become a convert, he is to be addressed as follows: What did you see that brings you to convert? Don't you know that, at the present time, Israel is persecuted and oppressed, despised, harassed and overcome by afflictions'?

If he replies, 'I know and yet am unworthy', he is immediately accepted, and is given instruction in some of the minor and some of the major commandments.

She is told of the transgressions of neglecting the mitzvot of Gleanings, the Forgotten Sheaf, the Corner and the Poor Man's Tithe.

He is also told of the punishment for the transgression of the commandments.

And as he is informed of the punishment for the transgression of the commandments, so is he informed of the reward granted for their fulfilment.

She is told, 'Please know that the world to come was made only for the righteous, and that Israel at the present time are unable to bear either too much prosperity. or too much suffering'. He is not, however, to be persuaded or dissuaded too much.

If he accepted, he is circumcised forthwith.

As soon as he is healed, arrangements are made for his immediate immersion, when two learned men must stand by his side and acquaint him with some of the minor commandments and with some of the major ones.

When he comes up after his immersion he is deemed to be an Israelite in all respects.

In the case of a woman proselyte, women make her sit in the water up to her neck, while two learned men stand outside and give her instruction in some of the minor commandments and some of the major ones.

(1) In the beginning of G-d's creation of heaven and earth (2) the earth was unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God hovering over the water.

(2) [If you were to believe that the opening verse of the Torah means to teach that heaven and earth were created first by G-d] you should be astonished at yourself, because as a matter of fact the waters were created before heaven and earth. Behold, it is written, “The Spirit of God was hovering on the face of the waters,” and Scripture had not yet disclosed when the creation of the waters took place, consequently you must derive from this that the creation of the waters preceded that of the earth...

(2) And about the reason that water purifies everything impure, I would think on the side of the simple understanding that it is in order that a man see himself with the immersion as if he is created at that time, [just] like the whole world was water before man was upon it - as it is written (Genesis 1:2), "and the spirit of God floated upon the face of the waters." And through this comparison, he place upon his heart that [just] like he is renewed in his body, he also renew his actions for the good, fix his actions and be exacting in the way of God, blessed be He. And therefore the Sages said that the purification is not fit with water that is in a vessel, but rather only with living water - or collected [water], which is on the ground and, in any case, not in a vessel - in order to place in his heart the thought as if the world was entirely water, and [that] he is renewed with his emerging from them, as we said. But if the water was in a vessel - or even if it passed through a vessel - this matter that we said would not be set in the thought of the one immersing. As there is a limit to all that is in a vessel, which is the creation of the hands of man. And therefore when he immerses in a vessel, he will not think as if the whole world is water like at the beginning [of Creation], and that he is renewed at that time. 'And the one who accepts, will accept; and the one who refrains will refrain.'

It is obviously clear that the laws concerning defilements and purities are biblical decrees, and not things which the human mind can determine; they are classified as divine statutes. So too, immersion as a means of ridding oneself from defilement is included among the divine statutes. Defilement is not mud or filth to be removed with water, but is a matter of biblical decree; it depends on the heart's intent. Accordingly, the sages have declared: If a man immersed himself, but without a definite purpose in view, it is as though he had not immersed himself at all. Nevertheless, there is some ethical allusion to this: just as one who sets his mind on becoming clean becomes clean as soon as he has immersed himself, even though nothing new is produced in his physical being, so one who sets his mind on purifying himself from all the spiritual defilements, namely wrongful thoughts and evil traits, becomes clean as soon as he made up his mind to abstain from those notions, and brought his soul into the waters of reason. Indeed, Scripture declares: "I will pour clean water over you, and you shall be clean; from all your impurities and idolatries I will cleanse you" (Ezekiel 36:25).