[Avodah] Would Ruth's conversion be rejected today?

[Elazar M. Teitz]

    . To my citation of the Mishna in Yevamos 24b that "Hanitan . . . al hanochris
 v'nisgaira, harei zeh lo yichnos,"  RZev Sero responded:

<That's "hanit`an".  If he marries her then he will confirm the rumours.
But ma`asim bechol yom that someone who is not just nit`an but vadai
bo`el aramis marries her when she converts.  The chiluk seems to me that
where he was publicly married to her there's no cheshad to dispel; it's
confirmed public knowledge and there's no point in trying to evade it.
(I'd even suggest that a nit`an can marry her if he's willing to publicly
acknowledge and renounce his avera.)>

     However, the Beis Yosef in EH, end of siman 11, quotes the Nimukei Yosef  that the din of lo yichnos applies not only to rumors, but even if is a known fact that they cohabited; his source is an explicit Tosefta (Perek 4, Halacha 5), which reads "haba al hanochris," rather than "hanitan."  The Beis Shmuel cites it as well, in s.k. 17.  No differing opinion is cited.

EMT