Living Torah Archives

A discussion in English about a common standard for conversion, and Ben-Gurion’s vision of a united Jewish people living in the Land of Israel.

“As a Jewish convert, you are especially beloved by G-d — even more so than myself or the rabbi that converted you!” “May your conversion be a good start for a new life, and go from strength to strength.”

Passover is ‘The Festival of Our Freedom.’ The Festival itself calls out: “Listen, Jews – we must be free!” The verse states: “There shall be one law for the Passover sacrifice – for you, the convert and the native-born.” Allegorically speaking, ‘native-born’ refers to the ‘true citizen’ of a country – one who thinks that his country is the greatest. A Jew must recognize, however, that he is “Jerusalem-born” – no matter where in the world he is.

In Jewish law, when someone converts to Judaism, they are referred to as: “a convert who converts.” The obvious question: Before he converted, he was not yet a “convert,” he was a gentile? The commentaries explain that when a person converts it proves that he had a Jewish spark inside him all along, but he needed the conversion process in order to reveal it.

In the early 1970s, upon the Rebbe’s instruction, Rabbi Laibl Wolf worked as Hillel Rabbi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After encountering many non-Jewish students who were curious about Judaism and wished to convert, he approached the Rebbe for advice.