014 - הִלְכוֹת אִסּוּרֵי בִּיאָה פֵּרֶק יד

Laws of Issurei Bi'ah, Chapter 14

1. How are righteous converts accepted? When one comes to convert, and they investigate him and find no ulterior motive, they say to him: "What have you seen that you have come to convert? Do you not know that Israel in these times are afflicted, oppressed, downtrodden and harried, and sufferings come upon them?" If he says, "I know, and I am worthy," they accept him immediately.

2. They inform him of the fundamentals of the faith, which are the unity of G‑d and the prohibition of idolatry, and they speak at length on this. They inform him of some of the lighter mitzvos and some of the more stringent mitzvos, and they do not speak at length on this. They inform him of the sin of leket, shichechah and pe'ah (the gleanings, forgotten sheaves and corner of the field left for the poor) and of maaser ani (the tithe for the poor). They inform him of the punishment for the mitzvos. How? They say to him: "Know that until you came to this faith, if you ate chelev (forbidden fat), you were not punishable by kares; if you desecrated Shabbos, you were not punishable by stoning. But now, after you convert, if you eat chelev, you are punishable by kares; if you desecrate Shabbos, you are punishable by stoning." They do not burden him with too much, nor are they exacting with him, lest they cause him to be driven away and turn him from a good path to a bad path. For at first a person is drawn only with pleasing, gentle words, as it says, "בְּחַבְלֵי אָדָם אֶמְשְׁכֵם" ("I drew them with cords of a man," Hoshea 11:4), and afterwards "בַּעֲבֹתוֹת אַהֲבָה" ("with bands of love," ibid.).

3. Just as they inform him of the punishment for the mitzvos, so they inform him of the reward for the mitzvos. They inform him that through the fulfillment of these mitzvos he will merit the life of the World to Come, and that there is no completely righteous person except one possessed of wisdom who fulfills these mitzvos and knows them.

4. They say to him: "Know that the World to Come is stored away only for the righteous, and they are Israel. That you see Israel in distress in this world—it is good stored away for them, for they cannot receive an abundance of good in this world like the nations, lest their hearts become haughty and they go astray and lose the reward of the World to Come, as it says, 'וַיִּשְׁמַן יְשֻׁרוּן וַיִּבְעָט' ('Yeshurun grew fat and kicked,' Devarim 32:15).

5. "The Holy One, blessed be He, does not bring an abundance of retribution upon them, so that they will not perish; rather, all the nations will be destroyed, and they will endure." They speak at length on this, in order to endear him. If he changes his mind and does not wish to accept, he goes his way. If he accepts, they do not delay him, but circumcise him immediately; and if he was already circumcised, they draw from him the blood of the covenant (hatafas dam bris). They wait until he is completely healed, and afterwards they immerse him.

6. Three stand over him, and they inform him a second time of some of the lighter mitzvos and some of the more stringent mitzvos while he stands in the water. If it is a woman, women seat her in the water up to her neck, and the judges are outside. They inform her of some of the lighter mitzvos and some of the more stringent mitzvos while she sits in the water; afterwards she immerses in their presence, and they turn their faces away and leave, so that they do not see her when she comes up out of the water.

7. Who is a ger toshav (resident alien)? A non-Jew who has accepted upon himself not to worship idols, together with the other mitzvos that the descendants of Noach were commanded, and was neither circumcised nor immersed. He is accepted, and he is one of the pious of the nations of the world. Why is he called toshav (resident)? Because we are permitted to let him reside among us in Eretz Yisrael, as we explained in the Laws of Avodah Zarah.

8. A ger toshav is accepted only at a time when the Yovel (Jubilee) is in effect. But in our times, even if he accepted the entire Torah except for one detail, he is not accepted.

9. A slave acquired from non-Jews is not asked, "What have you seen that you have come?" Rather, they say to him, "Do you wish to enter the category of the slaves of Israel and to be among the fit, or not?" If he wishes, they inform him of the fundamentals of the faith and some of the lighter and more stringent mitzvos, their punishment and their reward, just as they inform the convert; they immerse him like a convert, and inform him while he is in the water. If he does not wish to accept, the master bears with him for up to twelve months and then sells him to non-Jews; it is forbidden to keep him longer than that. If he stipulated with him at the outset that he would not be circumcised or immersed, but would be like a ger toshav, he may keep him in his servitude as a ger toshav; but such a slave is kept only at a time when the Yovel is in effect.

10. For non-Jews, the only women forbidden as ervah are his mother, his father's wife, his sister from his mother, a married woman, a male, and an animal, as will be explained in the Laws of Kings and Their Wars; but the other arayos are permitted to them.

11. A convert who has converted and a slave who has been freed is like a newborn child. All the blood relatives he had while he was a non-Jew or a slave are not considered blood relatives; and if he and they converted, he is not liable on account of any of them for ervah at all.

12. By Torah law, a convert is permitted to marry his mother or his sister from his mother who converted. But the Sages forbade this, so that people will not say, "They have come from a stringent holiness to a lighter holiness," for yesterday this woman was forbidden to him and today she is permitted. Likewise, a convert who had relations with his mother or sister while she was still a non-Jew is like one who had relations with a non-Jewish woman.

13. What is the law of converts regarding the arayos of blood relatives? If while a non-Jew he was married to his mother or his sister, and they converted, they are separated, as we have explained. If he was married to one of the other arayos, and he and his wife converted, they are not separated. A convert is forbidden, after he converts, to his relatives through his mother by the words of the Sofrim. He is permitted to his relatives through his father, even though he knows for certain that this is his relative through his father—for example, twins, where it is clear that the father of one is the father of the other; nevertheless, they did not decree regarding his relatives through his father. Therefore a convert may marry the wife of his brother from his father, the wife of his father's brother, his father's wife, and his son's wife, even if she was married to his brother, his father, his father's brother or his son after they converted. Likewise, his mother's sister from her father, his sister from his father, and his daughter who converted are permitted to him. But he may not marry his sister from his mother, nor his mother's sister from her mother, nor the wife of his brother from his mother whom his brother from his mother married after he converted; but if his brother married her while still a non-Jew, she is permitted to him.

14. Two twin brothers who were conceived not in holiness but born in holiness are liable on account of a brother's wife.

15. One who married a convert and her daughter who is a convert, or two sisters from the same mother, keeps one of them and divorces the second. If he married a convert and she died, he is permitted to marry her mother or her daughter, for they decreed only during their lifetime. A man is permitted to marry two convert sisters from the same father, for they did not decree regarding relatives through the father, as we have explained.

16. Regarding all the sheniyos (secondary forbidden relatives), they did not decree concerning converts. Therefore a convert is permitted to marry his mother's mother; and a man may marry a convert and her mother's mother's mother, or her daughter's daughter's daughter; and likewise the other sheniyos.

17. A slave is permitted to marry his mother while he is a slave, and all the more so his daughter, his sister and the like. For he has already left the category of non-Jews, so the arayos forbidden to non-Jews are not forbidden to him; and he has not entered the category of Israel, so that the arayos forbidden to converts should be forbidden to him.

18. It appears to me that if a slave has relations with a male or with an animal, they are executed, for the prohibition of these two arayos applies equally to all mankind.

19. Freed slaves are like converts: whatever is forbidden to converts is forbidden to them, and whatever is permitted to converts is permitted to them. A man may give his shifchah to his slave or to his fellow's slave, and may hand over one shifchah to two slaves even at the outset; they require nothing, but are like animals. A shifchah designated for this slave and one not designated are the same, for there is no marriage (ishus) except for Israel, or for non-Jews among non-Jews; but not for slaves among slaves, nor for slaves with Israel.