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<DIV>I'm sorry I don't have the learned sources to cite but I will just mention
that in conversation with my father -- he once said that if a person converts
and /never/ keeps the mitzvos, then his conversion is invalid and he is not
Jewish, and if it's a woman, her children are not Jewish. He also said
that if the person does become frum some time after his conversion,
then his conversion /is/ valid. He added that the status
of a non-observant convert actually remains a gray area for his
whole life -- unresolved, in limbo -- until the convert's death. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As long as he alive, there is always the possibility that at some
point in the future he will become frum and start keeping
mitzvos, which at that point will prove that he really is a Jew and
will retroactively validate his conversion. It's only after he
dies -- at which point you know for sure whether he ever did or did not start
keeping mitzvos -- that you know for sure whether his conversion was effective
or not. If he did keep mitzvos at some point but then stopped, he then
remains a Jew who is a sinner, like any non-observant Jew. If he
/never/ became frum while he was alive, then you know when he dies that he was
never a Jew.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(Obviously my father held that KOM is indeed a necessary part of
geirus.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============<BR><BR></B><BR></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">It's only a deal if it's where <I>you</I> want to go. Find your travel deal <A title="http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047" href="http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047" target="_blank"><B>here</B></A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>