converted shall take refuge with you. When he says to you: I shall take shelter with you, the(members of the Bet Din) will accept him and inform him of some of the light and stringent commandments. Lest he change his mind and say"What have I done? I cannot go with these, for I am not used to them.”(I Samuel 17:39)
R. Shimon bar Zemah Duran,(the Rashbatz, Spain, 13611444) exclaimed:"I am surprised that gqabbalat gerim(the acceptance of converts) is not included in the list of commandments. It is indeed a mitzvah directed to the Bet Din to accept converts and not to reject them just as we learn in the Talmud : Once a proselyte has converted immediately, because‘the performance of a mitzvah must not in any way be delayed.””® This shows that the Talmud views conversion as a mitzvah." According to the Rashbatz, the acceptance of converts is a mitzvah incumbent upon a Bet Din and should be included in the list of taryag hamitzvot(the 613 commandments of the Torah ). Since this precept cannot be derived from any other mitzvah, it should be listed as a
separate commandment.
These are but a few examples of Talmudic and medieval sources that reveal rabbinic ambivalence regarding conversion. We have noted that their views range from predicting peril to rabbis who accept converts to proclaiming that conversion is commanded by the Torah . To what extent are these ancient halakhic views of acceptance and rejection of gerim reflected in the approach to conversion in our modern era? We shall explore a few cases in modern responsa literature, which illustrate ambivalence in applying ancient halakhah to modern situations.
An Eternal Ban on Conversion A radically negative approach to proselytes found its
expression in a rabbinic ban against conversion promulgated almost seven decades ago in Argentina. This takanah, enacted in 1927 by
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