From this passage, one could conclude that there is no such thing as “half” conversion – there must be commitment to the whole package, namely, the commandments. One should note that this statement is not codified in the Shulchan Aruch but it does establish a legal “atmosphere” which has become relatively significance in the last couple hundred years.

How exactly would this concern play itself out? Is the concern theological, namely, that the convert accept God as the commander of all of the commandments? Is it normative – that the convert be an observant Jew? Is the expectation that the convert accept the package but if they fall short on some observance or another, it is not problematic?

There are a number of different voices on this issue. One was an important Lithuanian sage who perished in the Shoah, Rabbi Hayim Ozer Grodzinsky (Ahiezer 3:26)