Interested
in Judaism? Choose the Hillel Rabbi. Rabbi
Allen S. Maller
My wife
and I lived for almost two months in Warsaw in the fall of 2010,
helping out in the Reform Progressive synagogue: Beit Warshawa. Very
few of those who come there were born or raised as Jews. Almost all
have amazing stories of recent discoveries that they had Jewish (or
maybe Jewish) ancestors.
The Orthodox Beit Din in Poland does not
accept oral testimonies: it demands written evidence of maternal
Jewish decent. They also do not encourage conversion. For every
person they do convert, there are several more that they push away.
I heard testimonies to this effect from many sources. Most of those
they push away come to Beit Warshawa, but many are discouraged and
disappear.
Even the Reform Progressive Beit Din in Europe sometimes
acts more like a gatekeeper than a welcomer. As a result of that
experience I studied again the sources of Jewish thinking about
converts, especially problematic converts. I was amazed to find that
the famous narrative about Hillel, Shammai and some potential
converts was much more powerful than I had remembered.
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 and told him of their own
special conditions for conversion. Shammai scolded, repulsed, and
pushed away all of them (two of them physically).
Then they went to
Hillel who accepted them, with their own special conditions; and
converted them. Some time later when the three converts met and
exchanged accounts of their experience they concluded that “Shammai's
irascibility sought to drive us away from the (Jewish) world, but
Hillel's gentleness brought us under the wings of the Shechinah”.
(Shabbat 31a)
Hillel and
Shammai exemplify two very different approaches to problematic
potential converts. Should we as rabbis reject people who wish to
convert quickly on their own terms, or to convert to a type of
Judaism different from what the rabbi who is asked to process the
conversion 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, and prefers a Sadducee form of Judaism.
Shammai's
reaction is not that different from how an Orthodox Ashkenazy rabbi
would react 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.
I think
many Reform Rabbis would expect and understand why he would do this,
although we might say that if a rabbi is the only one in a wide area
he or she should be extra flexible.
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.
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.
Two 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.
The case of
the third potential convert is the most startling, A non-Jew
overhears a school teacher describing to his class the High Priest’s
fancy vestments. He decides to convert, so he too, can become a
Jewish High Priest. He went to Shammai and said, “Convert me on
condition that you appoint me as a High Priest.” Shammai drove him
away. (I think most Reform Rabbis would do the same.) He went to
Hillel, and Hillel did not reject him.
Hillel started the man on the
path to conversion in spite of his absurd demand, by telling him to
study the Torah’s laws relating to the priesthood so he could
prepare himself. The new convert did study, and when he realized that
even King David could not become a Priest, he returned to Shammai and
said that he now knew there was no way that he could become a High
Priest. Then he went and blessed Hillel for converting him, even when
he had made such an absurd demand. (Shabbat 31a)
This is the
most amazing of the three accounts. The first man wanted to convert
to a Sadducee view of Judaism i.e. a non Pharisee denomination. This
is like asking an Orthodox Rabbi to convert someone to Conservative
or Reform Judaism. Shammai refuses to do it, but Hillel does convert
him and later influences him to accept the Pharisee view. In the
second case, Shammai rejects a rapid conversion process, apparently
without knowing much about the man and his circumstances.
Hillel is
more flexible and the outcome justifies his trust in the man. But in
the third case the man has a totally childish and inappropriate
motivation for becoming Jewish. How does Hillel justify his decision?
We do not know, but he turns out to be right. Maybe this case serves
to warn rabbis not to be too quick, or too denominationally narrow
minded, in judging the standards of other rabbis. Maybe we should be
guided by the Bible’s statement, “Do not be too righteous; or too
smart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:17)
The Talmud
introduced this whole section with the following statement: “A man
should always be as flexible as Hillel, and not as inflexible as
Shammai.” This lesson should still be applied by rabbis today
whenever they encounter a potential convert, especially a problematic
one. An example of a Talmudic sage, who like Hillel, was very
accepting of a problematic potential convert is Rabbi Hiya, a
disciple of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi; who decided to convert a well known
harlot who wanted to marry one of his students.
This
student of Rabbi Hiya had heard about a harlot in a faraway city who
charged four hundred gold coins for her services. He sent her the
exorbitant fee and set an appointed time to meet her. When, after
many days of difficult travel, the lust filled student arrived at the
appointed time ...the prostitute unclothed herself and sat on a king
size bed. The student of Rabbi Hiya joined her on the bed.
As he was
undressing himself, his talit tzitzit slapped his face. He fell off
the bed on to the floor, where he was joined by the woman. "I
swear by the Roman Caesar," the harlot exclaimed, "I will
not let you go until you reveal to me what flaw you have found in
me!"
"I
swear," the student replied, "that I have never seen a
woman as beautiful as you. However, there is a mitzvah commanded by
our God, called tzitzit. Concerning this mitzvah it says, ‘Look at
them and remember all the Mitsvot’”. (When I saw the tzitzit I
knew I should not do this. Keep the money and let me go.)
"I will
not let you go," the prostitute said, "until you provide me
with your name, the names of your city, rabbi and the school in which
you study Torah." He wrote down all she asked for; handed it to
her, and left.
The woman
sold all her possessions. A third of the money she gave to the
government (to pay her taxes, or so they would allow her to convert
to Judaism), a third she handed out to the poor, and the remaining
third she took with her -- and she proceeded to the school the
rabbinical student had named; the Yeshivah of Rabbi Hiya.
"Rabbi,"
she said to Rabbi Hiya, "I would like to convert to Judaism."
"Perhaps,"
Rabbi Hiya responded, "you desire to convert because you want a
Jewish man?" The woman took out the piece of paper with the
information and told the rabbi what happened. "Go and claim that
which is rightfully yours.” Rabbi Hiya proclaimed. (Talmud Menahot
44a)
Some Rabbis
would push away a woman who wanted to convert because she was
interested in a Jewish man. But Rabbi Hiya did not push her away.
Many Rabbis would push away a woman who had gone astray as a
prostitute, but Rabbi Hiya did not push her away. Rabbi Hiya knew the
Biblical narrative relating that when the two spies that Joshua sent
to Jericho were in danger of arrest, a prostitute named Rahav hid
them from the police, and then helped them escape.
According to
rabbinic tradition (Pesikta Rabbati 40, Seder Eliyahu Zuta 22, 37),
Joshua later married Rahav, and among her descendants was the prophet
Jeremiah. So Rabbi Hiya welcomed a seemingly reformed harlot for
herself, and perhaps for her future righteous descendants.
The
examples of Hillel and Rabbi Hiya should guide us today in deciding
how to accept people with a blemished past and/or with mixed motives
for conversion. When Rabbi Hiya proclaims, "Go and claim that
which is rightfully yours.” he asserts that just as every Jew who
sins has the right to repent; every non-Jew, even a blemished
non-Jew, has the right to convert, and to marry any Jew he or she
loves.
The account in the Talmud thus concludes, “She ended up
marrying the man. The bed which she originally prepared for him
illicitly, she now prepared for him lawfully.” (Menahot 44a)
I think
Rabbis of today should not forget these four examples of Hillel/Hiya
practice. Let us welcome most people who are potential converts; even
if sometimes we have some doubts; even if a few of them fail to work
out; and even if a few of them turn out to be annoying irritants that
itch (Kiddushin 70b) like a scab; either because they become overly
pious Jews, or because they remain blemished, like some Jews born
into the Jewish community, still remain blemished after joining a
congregation. Their descendants still can be a blessing.
As the
Midrash teaches, “When a person wants to become part of the Jewish
people, we must receive him or her with open hands so as to bring
that person under the wings of the Divine Presence” (Leviticus
Rabbah 2:9).
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