[Avodah] R' Angel & Geirus Redux

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Michael Makovi wrote:
> I would say you cannot possibly draw a line - NO ONE can
> possibly hold a distinction between one who promises to
> try to keep halacha, and one who says that he won't keep
> halacha because he simply cannot.

Yes, you are correct. No one is perfect, so it is silly for there to be a requirement that the ger must be perfect. So when the current discussion talks about "one who says that he won't keep halacha", it must be for some other reason than the fact that he is imperfect.

Specifically, I think we are referring to a person who says that he accepts that there is an obligation for all the mitzvos, but there is one specific mitzva (or several) which is so difficult (physically, financially, philosophically, whatever) the he is not even going to TRY to observe it. He accepts that it IS an obligation, but he refuses or declines to fulfill that obligation, and is willing to suffer the consequences of that decision.

I suspect that this is what R' Daniel Israel meant when he wrote:
> we are still conflating accepting that one is obligated to
> do the mitzvos, and promising that one will do the mitzvos. 

When he wrote "promising that one will do the mitzvos", I believe that what he meant was "promising that one will TRY TO do the mitzvos".

(I was just about to press the "send" button, but I reread the post first. And now I see that my quote from R' Michael Makovi's post does include the word "try". So when all is said and done, I think RMM would agree with me. He just didn't realize what his own words were saying. Or so I suspect.)

Akiva Miller
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