Converts Awe Of Jews’ God Had Fallen On Them – OpEd

In the Biblical Book of Esther 8:17 we are told that “… Many of the people of the land Jewified (or Judieized) themselves, for the awe of the God of the Jews had fallen upon them.” The verb מִתְיַהֲדִים, which means they made themselves Jews, or in modern terms converted, and rendered literally as “Jewified” is strange. The traditional understanding, following both of the Aramaic translation Targums, is מִתְגַיְירִין, “converted”; the Greek translation goes so far as to translate the verb as “became circumcised”. 

Thus they start behaving like Jews, and this behavior would show the Jews and their supporters that they were “one of them.” This is one of the reasons that many men who have Jewish wives and children decide to formally become Jews during a time of danger. 

Dearer to God are the converts to Judaism who have come of their own accord than all the crowds of Israel who stood at Mt Sinai. The Israelites witnessed special effects; thunder, lightning, quaking mountains and the sound of trumpets. But the converts to Judaism, who saw not one of these things, come to God and take on the yoke of heaven. Can anyone be dearer to God than these people? (Midrash Tankhuma Lekh Lekha 6)

This is a very powerful attack on those Jews who are generally suspicious of the motives of most converts to Judaism; and who never encourage non-Jews who seem to be interested to join the Jewish People. These Jews have the same negative attitude as Rabbi Helbo, who said, “Converts are as painful to the Jewish people as sappahat[ [a leprous scab].” (Yevamot 47a-b)

Tosafot gives three interpretations of this statement: 

1.Converts are not so knowledgeable regarding [details of] Jewish law, and other Jews may learn [wrongly] from them. 2. All Jews are responsible for one another and converts may err more easily [so their sins will be on us] 3.We are commanded to be especially sensitive to the needs of the convert, and it is difficult to fulfill that mitzva properly [do we say this about any other mitzva].

The Rambam also suggests that we are afraid a convert will revert to his original set of beliefs, and then influence others to join him.

In spite of Tosafot’s later attempts to soften Rabbi Helbo’s harsh judgement, the rabbinic statement ‘Proselytes are as hard on Israel as a scab’ played a significant role in the development of a very negative approach towards converts starting with the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud systematically used that harsh phrase to support negative legislation and statements extending its scope to genealogical contexts and discouragement of marriage with converts.

Rabbi Helbo’s pessimistic negativity reflects the attitude of Shammai. Midrash Tankhuma’s optimistic positivity reflects the attitude of Hillel. In the generation prior to the birth of Jesus, Hillel the great sage from Babylonia, overcame the ‘unenthusiastic for converts’ attitude of Shammai and his supporters. 

The Talmud informs us about three converts to Judaism who met one day and exchange accounts of their conversion experience. Each of them it turns out had first approached Shammai with their own special conditions. Shammai scolded, repulsed, and pushed away all of them (two of them physically). 

Then they went to Hillel who accepted them with their special conditions; and converted them. The three converts concluded that “Shammai’s irascibility sought to drive us away from the (Jewish) world, but Hillel’s gentle warmth brought us under the wings of the Shechinah”. (Shabbat 31a)

Hillel and Shammai exemplify two very different psychological approaches to problematic potential converts. Should rabbis reject people who wish to convert quickly on their own terms, or to convert to a different type of Judaism than that rabbi practices or for reasons that are clearly not idealistic? The details of the three individuals cases referred to above are related in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a) as follows.

A man once came to Shammai and asked him, “How many Torahs do you have?” Shammai replied, ‘Two; one written and one oral.” “I will believe you about the written Torah but not about the oral Torah. Convert me on condition that you teach me only the written Torah.” Shammai rebuked the man and ordered him to get out.

When the man went to Hillel, Hillel converted him. One day Hillel taught him the alefbet in order; the next day he reversed the order of the letters. “But yesterday you taught me the letters in a different order” he protested. Hillel replied, “See, you have to rely on a teacher to teach you the order of the written letters, in the same way you have to rely on a teacher to teach you the interpretations of the oral Torah.”

Shammai strongly rejects the first potential convert because he sets preconditions about what he will believe. This man has already learned something about the oral Torah and how it differs from the written Torah. Shammai’s reaction is not that different from what an Orthodox Rabbi would do today to a potential convert who is honest and says that he or she will observe Shabbat, and Pesach food laws, according to Conservative or Sephardic law; not Orthodox Ashkenazy law. 

Hillel takes a very different path. He respects the man’s honesty, accepts him as a student, and teaches him for conversion. Then, as he teaches him, Hillel shows the man why an oral interpretation from a living teacher is necessary. Acceptance and conversion come first, orthodoxy comes later. Since the Talmud requires that a modest and eager potential convert should be received at once and need only be taught a few of the major principles and a few of the minor ones (Yevamot 47a-b); it is not necessary for a rabbi (or a convert) to have an all or nothing rule (as the Orthodox imposed in later centuries).

The Talmud relates that on another occasion a man came to Shammai and said, “Convert me, but on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Shammai drove him away with the yardstick that he happened to have in his hand. When the man came to Hillel, Hillel said to him, “What you hate do not do to your fellow human. This is the entire Torah, all the rest is commentary. Go and study.” 

Once again we see the great difference between Shammai and Hillel. Shammai believes that Torah and Judaism must be taught slowly, over a long time. Hillel is a romantic. In today’s terms Hillel knows that while most couples take months, or even years, to make a commitment to marry; some couples fall in love right away, and have no doubts. In Talmudic terms; most people only earn a place in paradise with decades of righteous living, but some people earn it in one day, with one major act. 

Thus, some people need years of Jewish living to become fully merged into the Jewish community; others fit in right away, because they are not converting, their souls are simply returning home. Hillel sees that this man has his heart and soul in the right place and only needs to feel a warm welcome to call him home. Hillel accepted this potential convert and sent him forth to learn all the details that flow from his desire to be Jewish.

Three decades ago I met a recent Russian immigrant who had started an introduction to Judaism class in Boston. She had to leave the class to move to L.A. with her husband for his new job. She was six months pregnant and wanted to be Jewish before the baby was born, because she was the child of a mixed marriage in the Soviet Union, and she did not want her child to have a similar experience. 

She told me that at age18 everyone in the USSR had to get an identity card. Since her father was Jewish, and her mother was Russian, the government official told her she could pick either one for her identity card, but she could not change it once it was issued. She said she wanted her identity card to read: Jewish. 

The official, and then his boss, spent over a half an hour arguing with her that this was a very bad decision. She insisted and it was done. When I heard that story, I told her that in my eyes she had already become Jewish by that act alone. I was ready to convert her next month. I did. And I was at the circumcision of her son two months later. The family joined my congregation, and were members for several years, until they moved to another part of town.