[Avodah] Rav Sternbuch's psak regarding kiruv of non-Jews

[Rich, Joel]

R' Joel Rich wrote:
> Reb Moshe is acknowledging the danger of intermarriage from a non-Jew 
> who views himself as Jewish. However he allows the teaching of Torah 
> only because the person is a "questionable Jew". It follows that if 
> the person is definitely not Jewish he would not have given this
heter.
> Otherwise Reb Moshe would have simply said "any non-Jew who has a 
> Jewish identity should be educated in Torah and converted".
>
>
> Daniel Eidensohn
>
> ====================================
> Could be, but not compelling. Perhaps he was just responding to the 
> question at hand and not trying to show how far he would take the 
> argument.
>
>   
According to your reading of the Igros Moshe - there is absolutely no
justification for generalizing from what he says in any teshuva to a new
situation. Thus despite Reb Moshe's assertion in the introduction to the
Igros Moshe that he is primarily concerned with presenting servoras -
you want to view it as simply a historical record of psakim that he had
given. Consequently you are invalidating the universally accepted use of
the Igros Moshe - why? However if you are just trying to say that only
in the teshuva dealing with the Falashas he wrote in an imprecise manner
which precludes generalization - why should this teshuva be different
than the rest of the Igros Moshe?

Daniel Eidensohn
=========================================================
You could be correct but again, he may just be stating the rule for a
questionable Jew because this was the case at hand and he was perfectly
happy to have this extended to other cases of questionable Jews and may
not be opining on different case extension.  Even if one accepts that he
would not have extended this logic to the case of a non-Jewish mother,
it's still possible he would have allowed it for another reason. BTW in
these cases has the person expressed an interest and, if so, how do we
differentiate from treatment of other would be converts.

KT
Joel Rich




THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE 
ADDRESSEE.  IT MAY CONTAIN PRIVILEGED OR CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION THAT IS EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE.  Dissemination, 
distribution or copying of this message by anyone other than the addressee is 
strictly prohibited.  If you received this message in error, please notify us 
immediately by replying: "Received in error" and delete the message.  
Thank you.