[Avodah] geirim

[Michael Makovi]

>  Someone wrote

= me ;)

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

>  But ain loimdim efsher m'shi efsher - the bar mitsve becomes a bar mitsveh
>  whether he's ready or not; the ger could wait
> AY & CB Walters

Good point. But the Lubavitcher Rebbe nevertheless thought that we
can learn from the ger that since he isn't knowledgeable enough to be
punctiliously observant like an FFB, but nevertheless he's converted by
the beit din, we can learn that G-d doesn't expect perfection from any
of us.

True the ger can wait, but not forever. A normal gerut is a year, perhaps
two. Even if you say three years, he's still behind an FFB bar mitzvah.

>> The problem is that some batei dinim in Israel do indeed demand more of
>> geirim than many orthodox Jews keep in practice

>  No-one objects to the fact that someone who wishes to become an American
>  citizen must do a lot more than most born Americans; he must speak English
>  (unlike native born Americans who don't have too), he must be free of
>  criminal record, he must swear to uphold the constitution etc. So why when
>  someone becomes a ger can we not expect more from him than a native?
> AY & CB Walters

You can expect more, b'vadai. But you can't be unreasonable. If we
expected better of a ger than of the average FFB, his conversion would
require at least a good 10 to 20 years to get enough text and practice
under his belt.

You teach him enough to get going, and you expect that he'll keep
learning as he goes. But you already know that he's going to slip up
many many times.

As one of the rabbis said to me when I was doing gerut, the beit din
(= Israeli Rabbinut, which I will testify, is stricter than the Meah
Shearim batei din) looks for commitment not pure knowledge. There have
been guys who failed every question the beit din asked, but they got
converted anyway because they saw he was sincere.

Mikha'el Makovi