Behaalotkha
Numbers 8:1-12:16
Zechariah 2:1-24
Sometimes it takes years of wanting to convert to Judaism, even decades, before an interested person makes that first appointment with a rabbi. I know this from experience. As a rabbi whose congregation generously affords me the time to work with conversion candidates, I often conduct these deferred intake interviews. One factor that contributes to the long delay: Candidates for conversion often tell me that when they first felt an affinity for things Jewish, they did not believe that Judaism accepts converts.
Some born Jews also, in one way or another, give the impression that they do not trust the idea of conversion. They ask questions like, “Can anyone really convert to Judaism? Does it work? Or does a convert remains always an outsider?” This distrust has some logic. Jewishness does not consist entirely of a faith. Jews also constitute a family, a people, a nation, an ethnic group. It makes sense that someone can accept a religious belief or practice, but it seems odd that one can convert to become part of a family, people, nation or ethnicity.
In my experience, non-religious Jews have the most difficulty accepting the idea of conversion. Religious Jews of all sorts, Reform, Orthodox, whatever, in my experience, usually feel comfortable with the idea: Of course one can become a Jew by joining the faith. Conversion makes sense to Jews for whom the Jewish religion has personal merit.
But non-religious Jews especially suspect that strangers cannot fully obtain Jewish ethnicity. Anyone can learn to speak Yiddish, to sing happy songs in a minor key, to enjoy the flavor of cholent (the long-cooked stew of Shabbat lunch), to argue ethical dilemmas to death. But these learned strangers cannot become grandchildren of speakers of Yiddish, childhood eaters of cholent, born and bred Jews.
The Torah, in today’s reading, takes an unequivocal stance on this question, at the conclusion of the section on the law of the second Passover. The law states that those unable to bring the Passover sacrifice that day, either for ritual or practical reasons, must bring a replacement sacrifice exactly one month later. The description of this second Passover concludes with the rules for a stranger:
“And when a stranger shall sojourn among you, and make the Passover to the Lord, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule shall he do it, one statute shall you have for yourselves, for the stranger and for the citizen” (Numbers 9:14).
One law for the stranger and the citizen. The stranger fully becomes a citizen. Similarly, when we first heard of the Passover sacrifice brought in Egypt, we learned that a stranger may not take part at all (Exodus 12:43), unless he becomes circumcised and fully joins with the Jews (Exodus 12:48). Why does the Bible need to repeat this law in the section on the second Passover?
Nachmanides (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, 1195-1270), in his commentary on the Bible, explains that we might have thought that, after the first Passover in Egypt, no future convert could ever bring a Passover sacrifice. The original Passover marked off those who would leave Egypt from those who would stay. Whoever made the sacrifice to join the Exodus belonged with the family of Israel. Thereafter, we might have thought, even people who join the Jews in all other ways may never take part in a Passover sacrifice; because their ancestors never left Egypt, they cannot thank the One who “brought us out of there” (Deut. 6:23).
According to Nachmanides, the verse in our reading today tells us that everyone who joins the house of Israel, even in future generations, takes part in the Passover exactly as the born Jew.
People who convert to Judaism adopt, along with the Jewish faith, the Jewish story, even the Jewish ancestors. The Exodus belongs to Jews who have converted to Judaism as well as to born Jews. The prophet Isaiah reassures those of all nations who love to serve the Holy One, who keep the Shabbat, who uphold the covenant, that the Lord shall never separate them from his people, that they shall have a place on his holy mountain and in his house of prayer.