[Avodah] Geirut for marriage

[Micha Berger]

If people recall our conversation as-of March, I dimissed the RnCL's
take on Bach's understanding of the Rambam's position on the role of
qabbalas ol mitzvos (QOM / KOM) or lack thereof. Primarily because I
(1) didn't see how it fits Issurei bi'Ah 12, and (2) the Bach rejects
the Rambam's position, as he understands it, anyway.

If reading this post isn't enough to jog your memory, the thread is at
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=G#GEIRUT%20FOR%20MARRIAGE>
(or <http://bit.ly/a0onZi>) but it may help to see the adjacent ones that
also refer to "geirut" or "geirus".

The current issue of Kol Hamevaser ("The Jewish Thought Magazine of
the Yeshiva University Student Body") is about Jewish identity, and as
par of that Jonathan Ziring interviews R' Herschel Schachter on geirus
<http://www.kolhamevaser.com/2010/09/an-interview-with-rabbi-hershel-schachter-2/>:
    What is the RCA's policy on necessitating kabbalat ha-mitsvot
    (the acceptance of the commandments) on the part of the potential
    convert? How specific must the beit din be in their clarification of
    these matters? How do you understand the opinion of Rambam (Issurei
    Bi'ah, chapter 14) on this issue?

    The Rambam quotes the Gemara that modi'in lo miktsas mitsvos
    kallos u-miktsas mitsvos chamuros (we inform him of some light
    and some more severe mitsvos).[ii] R. Marc Angel printed an essay
    about 30 years ago in Tradition where he writes that the Rambam's
    opinion is that kabbalas ol mitsvos (accepting the yoke of mitsvos)
    isn't me'akkev.[iii] One of the rebbes in yeshivah showed it to
    R. Soloveitchik and he got furious. He said, "It's ridiculous. Of
    course kabbalas ol mitsvos is me'akkev." R. Moshe Feinstein quoted in
    the name of his father and R. Chayyim Ozer quoted in the name of all
    the classical posekim that when the Rambam says that the kabbalas ol
    mitsvos is not me'akkev, that's talking about the dramatic kabbalas
    ol mitsvos -- when the ger is in the water up to his neck moments
    before he is about to convert. The drama is not me'akkev,but if
    a person is not mekabbel ol mitsvos, of course it's me'akkev. The
    person isn't Jewish.

    [ii] Yevamot 47b.

    [iii] Marc D. Angel, "Another Halakhic Approach to Conversions,"
    Tradition 12:3-4 (Winter 1972): 107-113.

If you translate "dramatic QOM" to meaning QOM as part of the ritual of
the geirus, then my understanding could well underly RCO's shitah. It's
me'aqev as a missing precondition, as I read pereq 12.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The fittingness of your matzos [for the seder]
micha at aishdas.org        isn't complete with being careful in the laws
http://www.aishdas.org   of Passover. One must also be very careful in
Fax: (270) 514-1507      the laws of business.    - Rav Yisrael Salanter