[Avodah] Chiyuv l'kabel gerim

[Michael Makovi]

> >R' Mikha'el Makovi:
> > Everyone agrees that we try to dissuade would-be gerim. No question.
>
> Not anymore. There are those who hold that today one should encourage
> spouses of Jews to be M'gayeir, even when they have not expressed interest
> themselves.

Oy vey, of course there are always exotic cases! Rabbi Henkin in
Equality Lost, in his chapter "Converting Children", in which he
concludes it is not adviseable to convert the child of a nonobservant
Jewish father and a gentile mother (despite the halachic permission to
do so), says in footnote 17, "[I]t may be to the benefit of the
Israeli community to convert children adopted in non-oberservant
families." I am not sure, but I suspect that Rabbi Henkin would
approve of Rabbi Berkovits's proposal to accept non-Orthodox
conversions (or conversion candidates) in Israel.

> > Everyone agrees that once a would-be ger is accepted by the beit din,
> > there IS a chiyuv to be m'kabel. No question.

> > See my earlier post regarding Rabbi Henkin, where he is ambiguous
> > whether the chiyuv is only to receive them once they are accepted by
> > the beit din, or whether also there is a chiyuv for the beit din to
> > accept them when they show themselves to be sincere but haven't yet
> > been accepted.

> I don't know what this means - what Halachic status does "acceptance by BD"
> have? He is still a non-Jew, and we have not yet seen any clear sources that
> there is a Chiyuv to be Mekabel him. If you mean that he was already
> Megayeir, that's a different story, although I refer you to the Rambam that
> when Hedyotos were M'gayeir people in Dovid's and Shlomo's time, BD waited
> to see if their further actions proved them sincere.

(I will repeat my quotations of Rabbi Henkin, as no one has responded
to this, and I wonder if somehow it passed through the cracks.)

Neither do I know what this means, or what halachic status acceptance
has - Rabbi Henkin himself is ambiguous. He says (in Equality Lost,
page 89), "Except for the case of a Gentile who repeatedly
demonstrates his sincere desire to convert...beit din is under no
obligation to convert anyone." So it seems there is a chiyuv to accept
any gentile who has shown himself to be sincere in his desire.

But then footnote 12 says, "Beit din's obligation to convert commences
only after a decision is reached to accept the candidate". According
to this, the chiyuv only begins when the beit din decides to accept
him, NOT when he shows himself to be sincere but hasn't yet been
accepted by the beit din.

A possible reconciliation of this contradiction would be if there is a
chiyuv to accept a sincere (but not yet formally accepted) candidate.
Then, this would link with the chiyuv to convert an accepted
candidate, to produce a chiyuv to accept and convert a sincere
candidate.

What we need is more detail from Rabbi Henkin himself, or another
source. Indeed, the footnote continues, "see Bnei Banim [of Rabbi
Henkin's], ibid. [vol 2], p. 141". Anyone have this sefer?

> Is a scan available of this Teshuvah?

Not from me. Sorry. It's on my list of books to buy.

Mikha'el Makovi