Contemporary Issues In Halakha: Conversion In Jewish Law, Sources Part 1

1) The Tractate of Yevamot 47a-b

Our Rabbis taught: If at the present time a man desires to become a proselyte, he is to be addressed as follows: “What reason do you have for desiring to become a proselyte? Do you not know that Israel at the present time is persecuted and oppressed, despised, harassed and overcome by afflictions”? If he replies “I know and yet am unworthy” he is accepted forthwith, and is given instruction in some of the minor and some of the major commandments. He is informed of the sin [of the neglect of the commandments 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. Further, he is addressed thus: “Be it known to you that before you came to this condition, if you have eaten suet you would not have been punishable with karet [divine punishment through premature death], if you had profaned the Sabbath you would not have been punishable with stoning; but now were you to eat suet you would be punished with karet; were you to profane the Sabbath you would be punished with stoning”. And as he is informed of the punishment for the transgression of the commandments, so he is informed of the reward granted for their fulfillment. He is told, “Be it known to you that the World to Come was made only for the righteous . . . ” He is not, however, to be persuaded or dissuaded too much.

If he consented, he is circumcised forthwith… As soon as he is healed, arrangements are made for his immediate immersion [in a mikveh], when two learned men must stand by his side and instruct him in some of the minor commandments and in some of the major ones. When he comes up after his immersion, he is deemed to be an Israelite in all respects.

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

Shulhan Arukh, Yo-re De-ah 268:2

When (a potential convert) comes to convert, he is to be addressed as follows: “What reason have you for desiring to become a proselyte? Do you not know that Israel at the present time is persecuted and oppressed, despised, harassed and overcome by afflictions”?

If he replies “I know and yet am unworthy” he is accepted immediately, and is given instruction regarding the main principles of the religion such as the unity of God and the forbidden nature of idol worship, and one speaks with him at length about these matters, and one informs him of some of the minor and some of the major commandments. He is also told of the punishment for the transgression of the commandments: “Be it known to you that before you came to this condition, if you have eaten suet you would not have been punishable with karet [divine punishment through premature death], if you had profaned the Sabbath you would not have been punishable with stoning; but now were you to eat suet you would be punished with karet; were you to profane the Sabbath you would be punished with stoning”. One doesn’t overburden him nor is one punctilious of every detail. As one announces to him the punishment for violating commandments one also announces the reward for commandments. In addition, one announces to him that by doing these commandments he will merit the world to come . . .

If he consented, he is circumcised forthwith and one waits for him until he makes a complete recovery and afterwards one makes sure that he immerses properly [in a mikveh] without any barrier. Three men stand by him and instruct him in some of the minor commandments and in some of the major ones a second time, while he is in the water. In a case of a woman proselyte, women make her sit in the water up to her neck; afterwards she immerses and they [the three men] look away and leave in order not to see her when she emerges from the water. The convert should bless on the immersion after he emerges from the water. Since he immersed, he is now Jewish, and if he returns to his former ways he is like a Jewish person who has gone astray, if he betroths a woman she is betrothed.

3) Rabbi Yitzhak Schmelkes, Lvov, 1876, (Responsa Bet Yitzhak, Part 2, No. 100, parag. 9).

If a person converts outwardly (only for show) while he has no intent to fulfill the commandments, and we know that his intent is also afterwards to have intercourse with a woman who does not go to mikveh, to violate Shabbat and eat animals which are not kosher; this person is not a convert at all . . . The merciful one desires the heart, and the person is not a convert. According to this, our converts that we, in our multitudinous sins, convert in Ashkenazic countries, and we know that afterwards they will not behave as is the custom of upright Jews, but instead will have intercourse with women who have not gone to mikveh and they will eat unkosher animals – such as in our question at hand – according to what I wrote she is not a convert, even though she says (if they taught her to lie) that she will accept everything upon herself, but in her heart she is resolved not to do them.

4) The Tractate of Bekhorot 30b

Our Sages taught: …if an idol worshipper came to accept (le-kabel) the Torah except for one thing, we do not accept him. R. Yossi the son of R. Yehudah says: even if the exception be one of the minutiae of the Scribes (i.e. the Rabbis).