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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Allen Gerstl <acgerstl@hotmail.com><BR>>>:I have a
good friend who is a mohel. His practice in such circumstances when the
parents indicate that they wish to have the child later converted to Judaism and
raise the child in accordance with halacha (and I assume that usually in such
cases the mother expresses an interest in herself converting in accordance with
halacha) has been to perform the mila in front of two Jews who together with
himself are constituted as a beit din so that the mila is for the purpose of
future conversion. He then writes out a teudat mila (a certificate of
conversion) in which he refers to the fact that the child is not Jewish but that
the mila was done for the purpose of future conversion. He explains the facts to
the parents beforehand,and emphasizes that tevilah with conversion before a
proper beit din is required. All of the latter must be done pleasantly and
diplomatically with sensitivity to the parents' feelings.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>The first volume of the Yesodei Yeshurun by Rav Gedalia Felder, z"l
deals with questions of conversion of babies and children when they are not
bar/bat mitzvah age..... <<</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>KT<BR>Eliyahu</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>Based on the mesorah in which I was raised, I would strongly disagree with
your friend's approach. Converting a baby when the mother is not Jewish
and will not be raising the baby in a Jewish, Torah home is just plain
wrong. Helping the Jew who married out to avoid the consequences of his
action is also just plain wrong.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The halachos regarding the conversion of children do not apply in such a
case. They would apply in the following two cases: 1. Where a Jewish
couple are adopting a non-Jewish baby and 2. Where a non-Jewish woman is
converting (with the full intention of leading a frum life and keeping the
Torah!) and she wishes to convert her children with her. (Her husband
might be Jewish and becoming a BT or he may be a goy and the whole family is
converting.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It is totally, completely, absolutely wrong to do a bris for the child of a
Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, period. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Doing it "for gerus" only blurs the line, indeed obliterates the line,
between Jew and non-Jew, between in-marriage and out-marriage. We don't go
out of our way to hurt people's feelings but nor do we attempt to smooth over
Judaism's rejection of out-marriage. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If a frum mohel does the bris in front of a gathering of Jewish friends and
family, he may actually give the impression that out-marriage is
acceptable. Or worse, he may give the impression that the mother is Jewish
and the baby is Jewish, and fully part of the Jewish community. If people
think the woman is Jewish when she isn't, that's a major problem. And if
they think that we are now accepting the Reform position ("Anyone who thinks
he's Jewish, is") that's an even bigger problem. There is just no way to
spin a pretend-bris for a non-Jewish baby as a good thing.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We have to be nice to people but we do not have to clean up Reform and
Conservative messes. It is not our fault that Jews marry non-Jews and it
is not our job to pretend that that's OK. It's not our job to cover up for
them and make the boo boo all better. If we will not be true to the
Torah, for G-d's sake, who will? Who will? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby Katz<BR>================</FONT><FONT lang=0
color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"></B><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>_____________________
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