[Avodah] One African-American Family's Journey to Judaism

[Prof. Levine]

At 06:26 AM 8/24/2010, you wrote:
>The question of whether to have guests at your seder is separate 
>from the one about inviting non-Jews for yom tov meals.  That's a 
>policy question with no halachic implications.  "Vehigadta levincha" 
>in no way implies that when you speak to your children, guests may 
>not be present.

I never meant to imply that there are halachic implications about 
having Jewish guests on one's Sedarim.   I was simply pointing out 
that if one has too many guests, then there is a tendency for the 
children to be left out.  We usually limit the number of non-family 
guests to 3 or 4.

>
>As for inviting non-Jews (who are preparing for gerus) for Shabbos 
>but not for yom tov, well, sometimes they need to learn about yom 
>tov, too, and book learning is not always sufficient.  I guess on a 
>case by case basis, ask your own rav what to do.  If you are not 
>comfortable with goyim (or indeed, with any guests) at your seder, that's

Non-Jews who are preparing for geirus should certainly study and be 
made familiar with the laws of Yom Tov. However, I see no reason why 
they have to experience Yom Tov before the convert,  given that there 
can be halachic problems with inviting them before their 
conversion.  Once they are Jews, then, of course, they should be 
invited, if one feels they will benefit from being on one's home for Yom Tov.

Yitzchok Levine  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20100824/2cdf6d82/attachment-0002.htm>