[Avodah] R' Angel & Geirus Redux

[Meir Shinnar]

I would suggest that anyone replying to my post about gerim read the
sources supplied to understand the issues. The issue is not, as RSB
suggested, that the authors believe that
> The work that R Meir Shinnar posted about is interesting in  its
> methodology but is premised on a view that Hilcos Gerus was essentially Lkulah
> untill social changes dictated that Poskim employ a more Machmir POV

It is closer to the position of RDE, who wrote
>This issue has been bouncing around for many years. The question is how
>to understand the lack of emphasis or concern with the full  acceptance
>of mitzvos prior to the mid 19th century.

for him, the issue is satisfied by the fact that rov major poskim (I think
he would argue all) view the lack of emphasis as essentially reflecting
social conditions of their time ( a temiha in its own right...)- but
not as a binding precedent. That doesn't settle the issue for those
who think that they can view the rishonim and gmara directly, not as
mediated by current poskim, nor does it settle for those poskim who
viewed otherwise.

The gmara and ritva mentioned by RSB are of course major sources -
but it is somewhat condesdcending to assume that those with a different
viewpoint are ignorant of such sources.

The issue is that there is a fundamental difference between a potential
convert who states up front that he rejects a mitzva - and a potential
convert who makes no such declaration. The question is the extent
to which a bet din is supposed to research a potential ger - and
tfurthermore, what happens if a bet din did not research a ger - who
ends up being non observant.

The gmara in yevamot is not dispositive here - although the examples
of gere mordechai and gere arayot would suggest that the psak of the
gmara is that they are gerim. The rambam is actuallly quite explicit
- while he requires a priori investigation of gerim, once converted,
even by a bet din that did not tell them about mitzvot, they are gerim -
and if they sin, they are a yisrael rasha rather than not being a ger..

Meir Shinnar