[Avodah] geirut for marriage

[Zev Sero]

On 16/02/2011 7:17 AM, Eli Turkel wrote:
>> It also says that it is a responsibility of Beis Din to check and see
>> if the person is sincere about what they say, and if they believe he
>> is lying not to accept the candidate.

  
> Is there anything about the motives of the ger? I know of several cases
> in which a person (usually the woman) befcomes a ger for marriage but
> once converting keeps the mitzvot frequently more than the husband.
>
> So the person is sincere in what they say only that the original motivation
> was for exterior reasons.  A similar situation would occur in Israel were
> a person converts to be part of mainstream Israeli but once going through
> the process keeps the mitzvot


In principle such candidates should not be accepted for giyur, because
we're afraid that if the marriage breaks up ch"v they'll go back to their
old ways.  Kol ahava shehi teluya bedavar, batel davar betela ahava; and
the same applies to this person's kabalat ol mitzvot.   But if a BD did
convert the person the giyur is valid.

In practise, there is a contrary consideration. If the couple plans to
get married whether or not there's a giyur, then there's an important
reason to perform the conversion: in order to save the Jewish partner
from the sin of intermarriage.  In addition, if the convert partner is
going to keep mitzvot, then the Jewish partner will perforce also be at
least somewhat observant, e.g. the home will be kosher, the bedroom will
be kosher, there will be shabbat in the home, etc.  Therefore so long as
the BD feels it can trust the goy's commitment, no matter what motivated
it, there's a strong reason to convert him/her.

RMF writes in IM that balancing these contrary considerations is up to
each BD's discretion.   A BD may take a strict approach and refuse all
such giyurim, or it may treat each case on its merits and accept those
it feels are likely to be a net positive.



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Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher