[Avodah] geirut for marriage

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

I wrote:
> for reasons which I still don't understand, when Machlon and
> Kilyon died, Naami ENCOURAGED Rus and Orpah to go back to their
> old ways. Even if the conversion was "al tenai" or some other
> sort of quasi-conversion, why would Naami try to get it nullified?

R' Zev Sero asked:
> Who says they had undergone any sort of giyur?  As I understand
> it, M and K intermarried.

That certainly answers my question, but it opens others, centering on the relationship between Rus and Boaz. If she had not converted in some manner, then her marriage to Machlon had no standing in halacha, and it makes no sense to consider Boaz as a "family goel" or to consider their relations even a distant sort of "yibum".

For a more detailed exposition, see pages 48-52 in the Overview to ArtScroll's "Ruth". There are big problems if one says that they did not convert at all, and there are also big problems if one considers their conversion fully valid.

I am open to other ideas, but so far, the only answer to this conundrum that I've seen is the suggestion of Rabbi Scherman (pg 50-51) that "This could well have constituted a coerced conversion... When Machlon and Kilion died, Naomi put Ruth and Orpah to the test. Was their original conversion sincere? ... Orpah turned her back... proving that her conversion had never been sincere. Ruth withstood the test... proving that her membership in the Jewish nation was entirely unfeigned."

I do have problems with this "solution", the biggest one being: How much leeway does this sort of convert have, to show his true colors? If Orpah can retroactively nullify the conversion after *ten years* of marriage, I have to wonder how such a convert might achieve the status of a "Jewish sinner" -- Given that humans are not perfect and will eventually lapse into a certain amount of sinning, where is the line between "This one was obviously sincere" and "That one never really meant it"?

Akiva Miller

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