The issue
of conversion to Judaism really depends on two different places in the Talmud, one in Tractate
Sanhedrin and the other in Tractate Avoda Zara. It is not complicated at
all. However, when it comes down to what
to do in practice you need three judges. However since there is no such thing as a “judge”
as defined by the Torah anymore; [A judge has to have ordination/semicha from Moses
at Mount Sinai and that has stopped existing since the time of the early
Amoraim [in the middle of the times of
the Talmud]] what you end up today is that you need simply three kosher witnesses
which according to Tosphot can do the shelichut ["messenger service"] of the real
judges that once existed a long time ago. The truth is this opinion deserves
respect because it is coming from Tosphot. [Tosphot is always right. You just have to think into what he says long enough.] However it is clear that this would
not work at all to the Rambam. The witnesses do have to be male. So in fact as sad as the state of affairs is
for women converts there is simply not much you can do. The dipping needs to be witnessed by three
adult males and it does need to be seen that she is completely immersed.
Believe me if there was a way to get out of this I would know about it and
announce it from the rooftops.
While on the subject I might as well mention that conversion to Judaism today is largely considered as joining a community. This is however not the Torah approach. In Torah it is considered the act of a person that accepts the Torah-- i.e. the world view of the Torah and to do a certain minimum amount of mitzvot.
The idea as stated in the Shulchan Aruch and the Rambam is that when one comes to convert one does not tell them all the difficult details of the mitzvot. One simply tells them "chapter headings" [literally roshie perakim]. [That there is a general idea of shabat etc]
The reason the actual dipping needs to be seen is that it is a kind of act of witnessing something. A woman that goes to a mikvah in general needs no witness.the mikvah woman is there just for things like checking nails etc. Conversion is a whole different ball game. It needs to be effected and created by some act. This act is the dipping into a natural body of water in teh presence of three kosher judges with intention to keep the mitzvahs and believe world view of the Torah
I see the effect of cults on people in general--Jewish and gentile as being very destructive. If I was a law maker in any country I would be very careful about which religious groups I would allow to operate in my territory. Once a group is known as a cult I think I would make it illegal without too much more thought.
Freedom of religion is not such an important value as to put the public into danger of lunatic cults.
While on the subject I might as well mention that conversion to Judaism today is largely considered as joining a community. This is however not the Torah approach. In Torah it is considered the act of a person that accepts the Torah-- i.e. the world view of the Torah and to do a certain minimum amount of mitzvot.
The idea as stated in the Shulchan Aruch and the Rambam is that when one comes to convert one does not tell them all the difficult details of the mitzvot. One simply tells them "chapter headings" [literally roshie perakim]. [That there is a general idea of shabat etc]
The reason the actual dipping needs to be seen is that it is a kind of act of witnessing something. A woman that goes to a mikvah in general needs no witness.the mikvah woman is there just for things like checking nails etc. Conversion is a whole different ball game. It needs to be effected and created by some act. This act is the dipping into a natural body of water in teh presence of three kosher judges with intention to keep the mitzvahs and believe world view of the Torah
I see the effect of cults on people in general--Jewish and gentile as being very destructive. If I was a law maker in any country I would be very careful about which religious groups I would allow to operate in my territory. Once a group is known as a cult I think I would make it illegal without too much more thought.
Freedom of religion is not such an important value as to put the public into danger of lunatic cults.
