[Avodah] Chiyuv l'kabel gerim

[Michael Makovi]

>Aruch HaShulchan Yoreh Deah 268:6: One should not try to
>actively encourage any non-Jew to convert. In fact we should discourage
>conversion as we see in Yevamos (47a): ...

But again, this Aruch haShulchan only shows us what Yevamot says, viz.
we discourage, and if he persists, we accept him.

But do we accept because we have a chiyuv to, or only because we feel
like it, and we could just as well make him run take a pointless 50-year-long
run through a bureaucracy if we felt like it?

I.e., the nafka mina is that while we do in fact accept a sincere
would-be convert, the question is whether or not we have a chiyuv to
accept a sincere would-be. We know that there is no chiyuv to look
from stam gentiles to convert, and there is a chiyuv to convert a
would-be ger after the beit din accepts him. But the question is,
after he shows himself to be sincere but before the beit din formally
accepts him, is there a chiyuv?

Rabbi Henkin just emailed me the following. Direct quote:
Tosafot Yevamot 109b and Zohar HaRakia (Rashbatz) write that it is a
mitzva (Tosafot--"yesh lanu lekablam") to accept geirim if their
sincerity is clear (and no danger or loss to Jews is involved, an
unstated but obvious condition), but the silence of other monei
hamitzvot on the matter, and the absence of a direct bracha on
acceptance of geirim, may indicate a machloket.

I'm going to get a photocopy of the page from Bnei Banim (apparently I
live a short walk away from Rabbi Henkin), and I'll try to scan it and
mail it to the list. But no timetable yet.

Mikha'el Makovi