One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הלכות איסורי ביאה
Issurei Biah 13 · Forbidden Intercourse, chapter 13
Sefer Kedushah · Entry into the covenant: the three acts performed at Sinai, the court and immersion required of a convert, and the examination of motive.
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Acts by which Israel entered the covenant
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Of them required in the present age
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Men needed at the immersion, as a court
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Converts accepted under David and Solomon
Part 1The three acts of entry
- Israel entered the covenant with three acts. Circumcision, immersion, and the bringing of an offering (13:1)
- Each act has a place in the narrative. The circumcision was in Egypt before the Paschal offering, performed by Moses, since every tribe but Levi had neglected the covenant there; the immersion was in the desert before the Giving of the Torah; the burnt offerings were brought by the young men of Israel as agents for the whole people (13:2, 13:3)
- A convert repeats what Israel did. One who comes to enter the covenant, shelter under the wings of the Divine presence and accept the yoke of the Torah undergoes circumcision, immersion and an offering. A woman converting undergoes immersion and brings an offering (13:4)
- The offering is a burnt offering. An animal, or two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and in the case of the birds both are brought as burnt offerings rather than one as a sin offering (13:5)
- In the present age the offering waits. Circumcision and immersion alone are performed, and the offering is brought when the Temple is rebuilt. Even before he brings it, the convert is a full member of the Jewish people (13:5)
RememberOne of the three founding acts is unavailable, and the Rambam still rules the convert wholly in, with a debt to discharge when there is an altar.
Part 2Procedure, court and proof
- Both acts are required, in either order of omission. Circumcised without immersion, or immersed without circumcision, he is not a convert until both are done. The immersion takes place before three men (13:6)
- Because a court is needed, the time is restricted. The immersion may not be held on Shabbat or a festival, nor at night, since a court does not sit then (13:6)
- Immersing alone, or before two, is nothing. Two men are not a court, so a self-conversion or one witnessed by two is invalid. A minor is immersed on the guidance of the court (13:7)
- A righteous convert may still have to prove it. One seen keeping the ways of Israel in every particular is a righteous convert even with no witnesses, yet he may not marry among the Jewish people until he brings witnesses or immerses in our presence, since his status was originally established as gentile (13:9)
- His own word is accepted where nothing was known of him. The mouth that forbade him is the mouth that permitted him. The Rambam limits this to the Land of Israel in the Talmudic era and requires proof in the diaspora, and calls the investigation now customary an added stringency to protect lineage (13:10)
- The mikveh must be fit for a niddah. Converts, servants and freed servants immerse in such a mikveh, and anything that would intervene between the water and her flesh invalidates theirs as well. A servant acquired from gentiles is also circumcised and immersed, before three and by day, since it is a partial conversion, and immerses again when freed (13:11, 13:12, 13:13)
RememberA court of three, by day, in a mikveh fit for a niddah. The chapter is strict about the room and the hour.
Part 3Motive, and what cannot be undone
- Motive is examined before acceptance. We check for money, for a position of authority, for fear; for a man, whether he has set his attention on a Jewish woman, and for a woman, on a Jewish man (13:14)
- Discouragement is part of the mitzvah. Finding no ulterior motive, we tell them how heavy the yoke of the Torah is and how hard ordinary people find it to carry, so that they will abandon the idea. If they stay and are moved by love, we receive them, as Naomi did with Ruth (13:14)
- No converts were accepted under David or Solomon. In David's reign the courts suspected fear, in Solomon's the attraction of Israel's prosperity and eminence. One who converts for the vanities of this world is not a righteous convert (13:15)
- Those who converted anyway were watched, not rejected. Many converted before ordinary people in those reigns; since they had immersed, the Supreme Sanhedrin would not reject them, but would not draw them close until it saw the outcome. Samson's and Solomon's own wives converted outside the court's guidance, and Scripture treats them as gentiles (13:15, 13:16)
- A defective acceptance still makes a convert. Where the court did not check his background and did not inform him of the mitzvot, and he was circumcised and immersed before three ordinary men, he is a convert. Even if an ulterior motive emerges, he has left the category of gentile and is watched until his righteousness shows (13:17)
- A convert who sins is a Jew who sins. Even one who goes on to worship false deities is an apostate Jew: his betrothal of a Jewish woman is valid and it is a mitzvah to return his lost property, since by immersing he became a Jew (13:17)
RememberThe gate is guarded with real severity, and the door, once a person is through it, does not swing back.