Non­fic­tion

Trans­form­ing Iden­ti­ty: The Rit­u­al Trans­for­ma­tion from Gen­tile to Jew-Struc­ture and Meaning

Avi Sagi and Zvi Zohar
  • Review
By – January 30, 2012

Based on their 1994 orig­i­nal work in Hebrew, Pro­fes­sors Sagi and Zohar have ren­dered an impor­tant ser­vice to those who would under­stand the process of con­ver­sion. It is not a hand­book of pro­ce­dures; nor is it, strict­ly speak­ing, a his­to­ry of con­ver­sion. More sig­nif­i­cant­ly, this vast array and com­pi­la­tion of orig­i­nal sources seeks to under­stand the very nature and essence of con­ver­sion. Which fac­tors are deter­mi­na­tive of one’s new­ly acquired Jew­ish­ness? Do the rab­bis sub­jec­tive­ly eval­u­ate con­ver­sion can­di­dates or is an objec­tive mea­sure­ment applied? What qual­i­ties must a can­di­date for con­ver­sion present? What lee­way do rab­bis have in accept­ing converts? 

In an ide­al world all con­verts to Judaism would embrace Jew­ish obser­vance in its total­i­ty. In fact, this is what is encour­aged by those who con­duct con­ver­sions. How­ev­er, since we do not always live in an ide­al Torah ori­ent­ed soci­ety, the Rab­bis from the time of the Mish­na until today have dealt with the issue of con­verts who are non-obser­vant, con­verts who change their mind after the fact, and those who con­vert for rea­sons oth­er than a pure desire to be Jewish. 

What is most fas­ci­nat­ing to the unini­ti­at­ed is the Tal­mu­dic for­mu­la for con­ver­sion, which is cod­i­fied in every Jew­ish legal canon. In brief, if some­one wants to become Jew­ish and share the slings and arrows of Jew­ish mis­for­tune as well as their ulti­mate des­tiny, he/​she is asked why. If they will­ing­ly accept their fate and kin­ship as part of the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty as well as the com­mand­ments, they are accept­ed imme­di­ate­ly, cir­cum­cised (males) and immersed (men and women) in a rit­u­al pool (mik­vah) and are con­sid­ered Jew­ish! They are informed of major and minor com­mand­ments, but are not to be harassed about them. If they revert or do not observe, they are still Jews, sin­ners, but still Jewish. 

There is no statu­to­ry wait­ing peri­od or learn­ing curve. There is no require­ment to read Hebrew, nor even a delin­eation of which com­mand­ments they are informed about, i.e. not man­dat­ed to observe as a pre­req­ui­site. The tri­bunal needs only to be con­vinced of a convert’s sin­cer­i­ty and earnest­ness. There is a recog­ni­tion that Jew­ish obser­vance is too vast to be mas­tered ab ini­tio. Grant­ed that there are the­o­ret­i­cal stan­dards to be imple­ment­ed, but the sources deal with the occa­sions when there is less than ide­al adher­ence to Jew­ish observance. 

The authors make a con­vinc­ing case that what is sought by the rab­bis is a person’s desire to share Jew­ish des­tiny. Fur­ther, they show that the rit­u­als of con­ver­sion, cir­cum­ci­sion, and immer­sion in a mik­vah, are deter­mi­na­tive of a convert’s Jew­ish status. 

It must be stat­ed that these lenien­cies are all ex post fac­to. But, what this study does show is that the Rab­bis were real­ists and quite prac­ti­cal. There are some sources which are decid­ed­ly strict and rigid­ly opposed to any lenien­cy. How­ev­er, the pre­pon­der­ance of mate­ri­als pre­sent­ed and the man­ner in which they are inter­pret­ed indi­cate that his­tor­i­cal­ly the Rab­bis leaned towards lenien­cy and com­pas­sion in these matters. 

The impor­tance of the vol­ume is its cur­ren­cy, since this very debate is being played out in Israel today. The hare­di rab­bis who con­trol the con­ver­sion courts are not only very demand­ing of poten­tial con­verts, but are attempt­ing to retroac­tive­ly annul cer­tain con­ver­sions done over the past fif­teen years. Both of these posi­tions seem con­trary to the Halakha. In addi­tion, Amer­i­can Ortho­dox con­ver­sions are being scru­ti­nized and are not auto­mat­i­cal­ly accept­ed any­more in Israel. 

Trans­form­ing Iden­ti­ty should be required read­ing for all rab­bini­cal stu­dents. Cer­tain rab­bis should read it as well.

Wal­lace Greene, Ph.D., has held sev­er­al uni­ver­si­ty appoint­ments, and cur­rent­ly writes and lec­tures on Jew­ish and his­tor­i­cal subjects.

Discussion Questions