Q&A: A Solution to the Conversion Controversy?
A Solution to the Conversion Controversy?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
From the passage in tractate Yevamot it appears that a Canaanite slave is enslaved against his will and becomes obligated in the commandments like a woman.
Afterward, when he is freed, he becomes a Jew without accepting the yoke of the commandments, since he was already obligated beforehand.
Seemingly, one could adopt this mechanism to solve conversion today when it is evident that the convert will not accept the yoke of the commandments.
Answer
Such proposals have already been raised. I think my friend Nadav Shnerb suggested this. I’m not sure it works, for several reasons. A. According to Maimonides’ view, even in the case of a slave there is acceptance of the commandments. B. In a world where acceptance of the commandments is not an obvious assumption, it is likely they would not recognize a freed Canaanite slave as a convert. C. Especially since there is a prohibition against freeing him (the positive commandment: “you shall work them forever”).
I have now found an article in Tehumin about this: https://www.zomet.org.il/?CategoryID=397&ArticleID=970
Discussion on Answer
I don’t understand. Are you suggesting violating a prohibition in order to fix the world? That is even assuming the far-fetched premise that there really is some sort of fix here.
How is this different from the conclusion of the passage in Chagigah 2b, that for the better ordering of society we compel his master to free him? (If we set aside for a moment the question whether there really is a fix here or not.)
That is said there about someone who is half-slave. In the case of a half-slave, the half that is free is obligated in procreation and in Sabbath observance, and that overrides the positive commandment of “you shall work them forever” that applies to the first half. But a full Canaanite slave is freed only for the sake of a prayer quorum and the like (as with Rabbi Eliezer’s slave). And the medieval authorities (Rishonim) wrote that this is not a prohibition overridden because of the need for a quorum (for after all, we do not find permission to violate a prohibition in order to complete a quorum), but rather that when the freeing is done for our own needs, that itself constitutes work performed through the slave, and therefore there is no prohibition here at all. Nachmanides and Rashba compared this to “do not show them favor” in the case of a gratuitous gift, and this is old, well-known material.
28/4/2022
The solution that I should be declared a “Canaanite slave” in order to permit me to enter the congregation of the Lord seems to me humiliating and shocking. After my family suffered oppression and humiliation as Jews under Tsarist and Soviet rule, and after our forefathers fought bravely against the Nazis in the Red Army, and after we merited to come up to the Land and served in elite IDF units — do we still have to be considered “Canaanite slaves” in order to marry Jews? Haven’t you gone a bit overboard? :).
What seems more fitting to me as an expression of our being proud free Jews is to undertake to observe the Sabbath and the festivals, which are “a remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt” that brought to all humanity the message of freedom; to lay tefillin, which are a sign of honor for our being free people; to be careful to eat kosher food, for which Jews gave their lives over many generations; to thank God at every meal for a desirable, good, and spacious land that He bestowed upon our people; and to pray every single day for the completion of our people’s redemption.
Why should we be accepted as “poor slaves” when in our free land we can live as proud Jews according to “the eternal Book of Books,” which we bequeathed to humanity (as written in the Declaration of Independence), and draw strength and power, faith and values, from the “Jewish bookshelf” that generations of spiritual giants and thinkers cultivated?
There is no doubt that bearing the Torah’s faith, values, and commandments will bring about our acceptance into the congregation of the Lord, without any controversy or hesitation, as an integral part of the “elite” of “the righteous and the pious, the elders and the scribes,” and finally, the beloved “righteous converts”!
With the blessing of proud freedom, Semyon Grisha Levingorsky
Seemingly, the third problem could be solved by arguing that this is a case of “for the better ordering of society,” no?