The Book of Ruth, which we have just read on Shavuot, is often considered to be the story of the first convert to Judaism. Although the book itself contains no description of a formal conversion such as we practice today, there is no doubt that Ruth takes the step of joining herself both to the people of Israel and to the religion of Israel when she says, "Your people will be my people, your God will be my God" (Ruth 1:16).
Throughout the book Ruth is praised for her acts of hessed - her loyalty and compassion as expressed in her help to Naomi and her desire to continue the family line (Ruth 3:10). As the ancestress of David and therefore of the entire line of Davidic kings that later tradition said would lead to the messiah, she is worthy of praise and plays a central role in Judaism, only slightly less than that of the matriarchs themselves. It is very likely that one of the reasons for the writing of the book was to trace the ancestry of David. The fact that it proudly presents this woman who came from a different people but joined ours - a convert - as David's great-grandmother demonstrates a positive attitude toward such an act.
Yet Ruth the Moabitess would have a difficult time acquiring the right to make aliya today and to attain Israeli citizenship. In fact her chances would be close to zero. We can imagine Ruth applying to the Interior Ministry where she would be met with a series of questions reflecting the ministry's current proposals for conversion requirements:
Please show us your conversion certificate. What rabbinical court issued it? What Jewish community does it represent? No beit din? So who converted you? Where did you study and what? Was the program a year long and did it consist of at least 360 hours? No course at all? You said something about "your people, my people, your God, my God" and that was it? What is this, a joke? Did you remain in the Moab Jewish community for a year afterward? No? You say you had a Jewish husband - OK - but he's dead so that does not give you any rights. No, mothers-in-law don't count. Look, it's pretty obvious that you're simply one of those foreign workers looking for a job in agriculture that pays better than what you could earn in Moab. That's exactly what we're afraid of. Back to Moab with you.
SO MUCH for David and the messiah! Obviously at the time of the writing of the Book of Ruth, conversion as we know it did not exist - although later interpretations sought to read it into the book. See, for example, Yevamot 47b. The Torah envisions non-Israelites living in the land and after a period of generations some of them could become part of "the community of the Lord" (see Deuteronomy 23:4). The Book of Ruth seems to posit this happening immediately when the person actively desires it. During and after the Second Temple period Jewish law gradually created conversion as we know it, with a formal ceremony before a court. But even the requirements of Jewish law in that regard are hardly those of the Interior Ministry or the Chief Rabbinate.
The basic requirements are that the candidate be taught some of the laws, declare acceptance of the mitzvot and of God's sovereignty, undergo immersion and, for males, circumcision (see Yevamot 47:a-b, Shulhan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 268; Maimonides, Issurei Biah 13). There is no provision for retroactively canceling the conversion if later they are found not to be observing each and every one of the mitzvot. Then they become like the rest of us - Jews who transgress but remain Jews (Maimonides ibid 13:17). Numerous studies have shown without any question whatsoever that the rules of conversion that traditional Jewish law has codified are in truth quite lenient.
WHY THEN do we find it so difficult to accept converts today - particularly in Israel? Why are we so stringent? What is our problem? The most well known rabbinic stories of converts are those concerning people who came first to Shammai with unreasonable requests - such as not having to learn the Oral Torah, learning the whole Torah on one foot or becoming high priest. Shammai angrily rejected them. They then turned to Hillel who patiently taught them and accepted them. These converts then said, "Shammai's impatience sought to drive us from the world, but Hillel's gentleness brought us under the wings of the Divine Presence" (Shabbat 31a.).
Why is it that so many rabbinic authorities today seem intent on imitating Shammai when it is obvious that the tradition is lauding the actions of Hillel? Although conversion was quite common in the Second Temple period - Judaism was, after all, the only non-pagan, monotheistic religion - it virtually ceased when Christianity became dominant and would not permit Judaizing. In the modern period, when religion and state in the Western world were separated, conversion to Judaism became possible again but many religious authorities frowned on it. They felt that it was basically a way to bring gentile wives into Judaism and in many places, such as South America, they banned conversion altogether. They may have hoped to thus discourage intermarriage, but in reality the only result was that the children of these marriages were not brought up as Jews and whole generations were lost to Judaism.
ONE WOULD have thought that in Israel the attitude would be different. And indeed under such chief rabbis as Benzion Uziel, the Sefardi chief rabbi who died in 1953, such reasonable conversions had taken place. When Jews from Eastern Europe and the USSR first began to emerge and were brought to camps in Austria, rapid but proper conversions took place there quietly. The spirit of Hillel seemed to have risen again. Those days are long gone. Under the influence of an ever increasingly haredi rabbinate here and with pressure from haredi rabbinical groups in Europe, conversions have become more and more difficult in Israel. Furthermore the Chief Rabbinate has attempted with some success to control Orthodox conversions in America as well and to impose its stringent standards there.
