[Avodah] R' Angel & Geirus Redux

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Daniel Eidensohn wrote:

> The Achiezer - who initially supported conversion for the
> sake of marriage - changed his view 22 years later and said
> that a kosher beis din should not be involved in this type
> of conversion. Igros Moshe similarly says that he personally
> has nothing to do with these type of conversion because so
> few are successful. The Syrian community banned converts for
> pragmatic reasons as did the Argentine community. Ezra
> rejected the foreign wives and their children - and made no
> attempt to convert them because of the danger they posed to
> the new Jewish community in Israel.

All these seem to be cases of where a prospective ger is simply flat-out turned away. But did any of them go so far as to deny the Jewishness of a ger who had already converted under someone else's auspices?

> Talmidei chachomim are not granted automatic permission
> to go against the majority in critical issues involving the
> nature of the entire Jewish people such as conversion (Rabbi
> Angel) or divorce (Rabbi Rackman). It is naive to assert that
> anyone with semicha can posken what he thinks best and the
> rest of the world has to accept it.

In the case of a tiny minority, or a really singular daas yachid, I agree with you. But if a substantial number --- oh, let's say, just as a for-instance, most of the members and leaders of the RCA --- would feel that a certain approach is valid, that is not quite the same thing.

> And yes the vast majority of poskim would declare posul -
> a convert who is not clearly committed to keep the entire Torah.

Even if at the time of conversion he *was* clearly committed to keep the entire Torah?

Akiva Miller
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