[Avodah] Geirut

[Meir Shinnar]

>
> RTK
>
>
>>>>>>>
> As I wrote in another letter, trying to become a ger without  
> keeping the
> mitzvos would be like to trying to become an American so you can be  
> an American
> gangster.  To me KOM seems to be so intrinsic to being a Jew that  
> it just
> would not have occurred to any generation before the Reform  
> movement that there
> could even be such a concept as "a Jew who does not keep mitzvos."

a) Poskim do discuss the notion of non observant Jews - and Reform  
aren't the first to be not shomer mitzvot...


b) You misuunderstand the debate.  Everyone agrees that once the  
gerut occurs, the ger is responsible for keeping mitzvot.
However, there are two distinct models

a)  KOM is part of the gerut process - before he becomes a ger, he  
has to accept KOM

b) KOM is not part of the gerut process, but is a consequence - he  
wants to become a Jew, he becomes a Jew, once a Jew - he is  
responsible for the mitzvot.

In both models, the responsibility for keeping mitzvot is an  
intrinsic part of being a Jew - the question is the stage and process  
by which it occurs.
Meir Shinnar