[Avodah] Vayichad Yisro - Disparaging Non-Jews

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 02/04/2016 07:39 PM, Michael Orr wrote:
> Are you seriously saying that this proverb was concerned to address the case of a "ger"
> who has only ger ancestors back for 10 generations (which would be at least 1000 persons)?
> Aside from the absurdity of dealing with such an improbable case,

It's not at all improbable. In Chazal's day people were very concerned
with yichus, and unless a ger had some outstanding quality such as
being a talmid chacham, or rich, most yisre'elim would be reluctant
to give him their daughter, so he would be left marring a giyores.
(This didn't work in the other direction, as the gemara says "everyone
runs to [marry] a giyores", but in Chazal's day (and AIUI today as well)
there were a lot more giyoros than gerim, so it was just as well that
they didn't face the same barriers to shiduchim that gerim did.

> such a person in any case is not a ger since the child of a ger is
> not thereby a ger.

Yes, he is. The status of ger is passed down through the generations,
until a yisrael marries into the familiy. That is plain halacha.


> And if you are going to be loose enough to say a many-generation ger
> is still a "ger", then you can say the same about descendants of
> gerim, (that they are gerim).

If you mean even when they have a yisrael ancestor, then no, they are not.
Once a ger marries a bas yisrael, or a giyores marries a ben yisrael,
the children are benei yisrael, kehal Hashem. It only takes "one drop
of Jewish blood", to use a very inaccurate English expression.

-- 
Zev Sero
zev at sero.name