[Avodah] Child Convert

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2022 at 08:03:05AM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> If/when such a mess arises, then deal with it. It's not the only sort of
> mess that results from mixing halacha with free-willed choices. Meanwhile,
> denying this option seems very cruel to me.

That's not why we deny the option of asking them. As I said, we don't
ask a geir qatan about qaballas ol mitzvos because it's impossible to.

If the question is asked too early, then it is meaningless, the answer
is from a qatan who can't decide or accept anything.

If it is asked too late, you are getting their current state, and not
how they were feeling at the time the geirus became final. And a geir
who changes their mind is still a geir.

Asking on time is impossible, because you wouldn't know when they grow
that second hair. You would have to ask the exact moment they have
shenei sa'aros, or maybe you have an "entire" tokh kedei dibbur before
and after that moment.

You would have to ask after the fact how they were feeling a day or
a week or even a month before. And hope they weren't in flux on the
subject since the last time they were definitely a qatan/qetanah.

Your idea of asking was because that is more coice than seeing if
they keep mitzvos, given that they could be simply conforming to
expectation. First, the same would be true of any verbal "yes". If they
say no to a beis din, wouldn't they be ready to not conform? But more
fundamentally, their "no" answer would only turn them from geirim to
safeiq geirim, which doesn't help anyone, including them. That's the
more cruel outcome -- they would be expected to observed, but deprived
of some of the privileges. Who does a safeiq geir marry?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Weeds are flowers too
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   once you get to know them.
Author: Widen Your Tent             - Eeyore ("Winnie-the-Pooh" by AA Milne)
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF