CIRCUMCISION OF PROSELYTES Solomon B. Freehof

QUESTION: Is there any halakhic justification for the practice of some Reform groups of accepting adult proselytes without requiring circumcision?(W.V.d.Z., London .)*

ANSWER: The question of whether to admit male proselytes without circumcision was one of the questions which greatly troubled the Reform movement in the United States in its early days. At the second and third sessions of the Central Conference of American Rabbis(1891-1893), the subject was vehemently debated and finally decided by a vote of 25-5(CCAR Yearbook, Vol. 11, p. 36), adopting the resolution to accept proselytes without any initiatory rite(i.e., bathing or circumcision).

The debate, which is found chiefly in Vol. II, drew in almost all the leaders of the Reform movement in America . Many of the arguments repeat each other and use the same rabbinical quotations over and over again; but finally the whole question is summed up in the formal report of the Committee signed by Isaac M. Wise himself. This summary is systematic and in many ways original. It is worth epitomizing here because it is as good a statement of the case as has been found anywhere.

The essence of the argument is that there is no actual requirement of an initiatory rite for a proselyte to be found in the Torah ; nor is there any definite legal requirement for such a rite found in the Mishnah. Therefore the Talmud is still debating whether or which initiatory rites are required, and therefore, also, there are some medieval authorities who consider that the initiatory rites are not indispensable.

If this statement can be proved adequately, it Er considerable importance because the Torah has over fifty detaile

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