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

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

Adapting an idea from RRW, R' Micha Berger suggested:

> What if Orpah and Rus are child brides, who were giyoros qetanos
> and therefore qabbalas ol mitzvos would be years later?

It would certainly resolve most of the problems. But some would still remain: Granted that such a ger does have the right to cancel the gerus, but we don't recommend it, do we?

When a non-Jew wants to convert, we test his resolve by turning him away. But "ad k'day kach" to do that to someone who already converted, behaved as a Jew for ten years, and has now reached adulthood?

Especially if the ger in question would be going back to real avodah zara, one could argue that that the sort of urging that Naami did would constitute lifnei iver!

And in the particulars of this case, it would change the story from being about a mother-in-law and her fully adult daughters-in-law, into a story about a mother-in-law who was more like an adoptive mother, and her teenaged (certainly no older than 22) daughters-in-law. Would an adoptive parent of a ger katan urge such a break so strongly?

I must admit that, intellectually, this solution seems almost perfect. But emotionally, I find it more difficult than any of the others.

Akiva Miller

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