"Avram
took Sarai his wife, and his nephew Lot, all their belongings, and all the
souls they had made in Haran; they left to go to the land Canaan, and they arrived
at Canaan.” (Genesis 12:5)
The souls they made in Haran?
Robots? Cyborgs? Clones? Midrash tells us that Rabbi Elazar b. Zimra explained:
These are the converts that they converted.” Then
why doesn’t Torah
say “converted” rather than “made”? Only to
teach you that all those who bring an idolator close [to God] and convert him,
it is as if [the one] created [the convert].” (Bereishit Rabbah 39:14)
The Rabbis regard Abraham as a model for
bring people into Judaism. How appropriate, given that Abraham and Sarah, who
from the cradle were raised as idolators, are the first converts to
Judaism. No surprise that the Rabbis
called Abraham techilah la’geirim, “the first
of the proselytes”.[1] (This
means, by the way, that we all descended from converts.)
Wishing to impress upon us the
importance of patience and kindness and the danger of impatience and arrogance,
Talmud tells us the story of a gentile who approached both Hillel and Shammai
asking to be converted:
Our
Rabbis taught: A gentile once came before Shammai. He said to him: How many
Torahs do you have?
[Shammai]
said to him: Two, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.
He
said to [Shammai]: I believe you about the Written Torah but I do not believe
you about the Oral Torah. Convert me on the condition that you teach me [only]
the Written Torah.
[Shammai]
became angry with him and removed him from the premises with a reprimand.
[This
same man] went before Hillel who converted him. On the first day [Hillel]
taught him, alef, bet, gimmel, daled
[the first four letters of the Hebrew alphabet]. The next day [Hillel] reversed
[the order of the letters] to him.
[The
gentile] said to [Hillel], But yesterday you did not say it to me this way?
[Hillel]
said to him: Didn't you depend on me for this [information about the Written
Torah]? So for this also [i.e., the Oral Torah] depend on me.
(BT
Shabbat 31a)
The story
further makes the point that the prospective convert is entirely dependent upon
Hillel as his teacher to convey Torah tradition to him. It also reinforces the
legitimacy and authority of the Oral Torah. And much more. But for now, it also
speaks to conversion.
The issue
of how rabbis handle conversion has arisen in the news lately in connection
with allegations that an Orthodox rabbi abused his power over converts,
refusing to give them a reasonable timetable or even estimate of how long it
would take for them to prepare for conversion, requiring them to perform
clerical tasks for him, and even worse. One woman reported: “When you’re
going through conversion, you don’t know the
timeline of when you’re going to finish — there’s
so much power being wielded over you, and in the interim you’re
in limbo. You can’t
move, you can’t switch jobs to another location,
because you have to live in the community where you’re
converting. I felt a great sense of desperation to get the process over as fast
as possible.”[2]
It is not
my intention to deal with the obvious voyeuristic immoralities of this case,
but rather the concerns expressed by the woman quoted above. Sadly, hers is not
an isolated experience. Note that Hillel converted the pagan immediately, and
then proceeded to teach him. While that model may not be appropriate in our
time, prospective converts have the right to be told what is entailed in preparing
for conversion, how long it will take, and what the timeline looks like if they
adhere to the agreed upon schedule of learning and preparation. Judaism
promotes openness and honesty; we owe people who would honor us by joining the
covenant with nothing less. I know that most of my colleagues do no less. I
also understand that sometimes prospective converts’ lives get busy and they take some
time out from their studies to attend to other facets of their lives, affecting
the timeline. Nonetheless, building trust is a crucial part of the process, and
transparency is essential for trust. 
While all
rabbis want to give prospect converts as much learning and preparation as we
can prior to the mikveh, it also helps to recognize that ideally the learning process
continues on after mikveh. Indeed, I hope we all do our best to instill the
value of lifelong learning in those we mentor, and provide opportunities for
joyous learning after the conversion. Hillel is an extraordinary model for
this: he converted the gentile with the understanding that conversion would
inaugurate his learning, and because he established a positive relationship
with him, it did.
This
brings me to another matter articulated recently by Bethany S. Mandel, who was
converted by the rabbi so much in the news of late. Bethany published a “Bill of
Rights for Jewish Converts”[3] two weeks
ago in the Times of Israel. Do read it—it’s excellent. In points 4 through 10,
Bethany discusses how the Jewish community receives Jews-by-choice and treats
them. Clearly, there is room for improvement. But I would not hesitate to
assure Bethany, who asks for help with matters of Jewish ritual, that this is
something most all Jews could benefit from: learning, reinvigorating rituals,
and innovative practices should be the continuous on-going agenda of the
community. My younger daughter recently started a graduate program and found
herself a wonderful new roommate. Her roommate converted to Judaism in the past
two years. When the two met to discuss
© Rabbi
Amy Scheinerman
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