[Avodah] geirim

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

Someone wrote:
> Indeed - ALL gerim are not going to be able to keep
> all the mitzvot at first - like a bar mitzvah.

R"SBA asked
> What exactly is the mitzva of bar mitzva?

There is no "mitzva of bar mitzva". My understanding of the first comment was simply to say that a bar mitzvah is like a ger, in the sense that he is suddenly obligated to do all the mitzvos, and that is an unreasonable burden.

But I think the comparison is an unfair one, because the father of the bar mitzvah (or, if there is no father, then beis din, IIRC) is obligated to teach him *all* the mitzvos which he will have to do. Thus, the halachik system is set up in such a way as to insure that the boy is NOT suddenly thrust into a situation that he is not prepared for.

In sharp contrast, there is no similar halacha regarding a ger; nowhere do the seforim say that the ger must be taught ALL the mitzvos that he'll have to do. But this actually strengthens the argument that the first writer was trying to make: If we have sympathy for a bar mitzvah boy who has difficulty with mitzvos that he's been learning about for years, then we should certainly have sympathy for a ger who might have first heard about mitzvah XYZ only very recently.

Akiva Miller
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