[Avodah] Only Torah Judaism

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Mon May 30 15:12:06 PDT 2022


On Mon, May 30, 2022 at 05:11:02PM -0400, Professor Levine via Avodah wrote:
> At 04:37 PM 5/30/2022, Micha Berger wrote [replying to] an anonymous source:
>> If someone with a Jewish mother was raised Baptist, or ch"v joined
>> a church (maybe j4j) and wanted to return, we would expect geirus
>> lechumerah. A ritual "only" with the weight of minhag, of going to the
>> miqvah befor we consider the person a Jew in good standing, who (if male)
>> could be counted for a minyan, whose testimony is valid, etc...

> I do not understand this assertion about expecting "geirus lechumerah."   If
> his or her mother was Jewish, then my understanding is that he or she is
> Jewish without question.

First, Briskers would question. There is a point at which one would actually
have left the fold. This is how R Chaim treats the lost shevatim.

See R Aharon Lichtenstein's essay during the Brother Daniel affair. (Brother
Daniel was a monk who wanted citizenship under Israel's Law of Return.)
https://etzion.org.il/en/halakha/yoreh-deah/topics-yoreh-deah/brother-daniel-and-jewish-fraternity

But for the rest of us, the non-Brisk who take for granted that "Yisrael
shechatah has no limits, not even generational ones..."

I defined "geirus lechmerah" in that last sentence. Despite the name,
it's not a form of geirus. It is a minhag not to count someone as a
kosher Jew -- minyan, marriage, mesader qiddushin -- until they proved
they rejoined the reliion by going to the miqvah.

And getting back to the original topic, the fact is that no such custom
arose for BTs as for those who came back from shmad. Implying that we
really do think the other movements are indeed Jewish in a fundamental
way that j4j isn't.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 44th day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   6 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Gevurah sheb'Malchus: What type of justice
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                          does unity demand?
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> 
> Yitzchok Levine
> 
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> Avodah at lists.aishdas.org
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> 

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Today is the 44th day, which is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   6 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
Author: Widen Your Tent      Gevurah sheb'Malchus: What type of justice
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                          does unity demand?


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