Q&A: Conversion After the Fact
Conversion After the Fact
Question
Hello and blessings to dear Rabbi Michi, happy holiday.
I wanted to ask, in your opinion, about the validity of a conversion after the fact.
I have a cousin who has a friend whose mother is not Jewish.
In short, he wanted to convert (and I do not know exactly what his considerations were), and he went through a process in the military religious court, etc.
At that time he had some connection to tradition (and even today, to some extent), but today he does not observe the commandments (aside from fast days and a few other bits of traditional nonsense that, by mistake, also get included under the label of "commandments").
My question is: if this person tomorrow starts observing the Sabbath and strives to keep the commandments on a basic level, would his conversion become valid retroactively?
Or would he have to (if he wants to, as stated) undergo another conversion in order to convert?
In short, can conversion (acceptance of the yoke of the commandments) take effect after the fact?
Thank you in advance, have a good holiday.
Answer
Everything depends on what his state was at the time of the conversion itself. Whatever happens afterward is irrelevant, both for invalidating the conversion and for reinstating it retroactively. Neither of those is possible. If he accepted the commandments at the time of the conversion, then he is fully Jewish regardless of what he does afterward. If not, then not. It is hard to determine such a thing, and the presumption is that there was an act of a religious court that converted him, and he is fully Jewish.
Discussion on Answer
A, did you read what I wrote?
How can one know whether he intended it or not? Doesn't there have to be some rule or presumption to go by? Going by the intentions of the heart in things like this can't work.