Do We Make Gerim

The Mitzvah to Make Gerim Question: Is it allowed to go beyond our obligation to make Acum into Noahides (Rambam Hilchos Melachim 8:10-11) and bring advanced Bnei Noach into a halachic reality of having a ‘Din Shel Ger Toshav’ [while refraining from entering into a status of Ger Toshav Gamor which is exclusively reserved for a time of Jubilee]? In other words, can we ‘Make Gerim’ when and where appropriate, going beyond our duty of forcefully spreading the 7 Laws of Noach to the Nations? Tosfos of Mesechta Avodah Zara 20a says the following in regards to the need to give the Neveilah to the Ger Toshav specifically before selling to a Nochri: ‘…(in regards to one’s ability to misconceive in thinking that we are to convert the Ger Toshav) in order that he should take heart and completely convert.’ The Achronim argue this point, and at the end of this sugia, we will arrive to the conclusion that there is a clear mitzvah to ‘Make Gerim’.

…That because it is a Mitzvah to make efforts to Make Gerim, and behold there is a contrary position in the name of Rabbi Chelbo (Yevamos 47b): ‘Gerim are harsh like overgrowth/skin disease’. And behold in Pesachim 87b it says: ‘Rabbi Elazar says that God only sent Israel into exile among the nations in order to accumulate Gerim upon them. It is implied from this that there is a hint of a Mitzvah to make efforts to receive Gerim [non-Jewish and convert Gerim].

And thus Abraham our Father made efforts in this as did King Shlomo as told in Yalkut Shimoni. King Shlomo loved women from the goyim in order to make them into Gerim and to bring them under the wings of the Shechinah.

 And the Chasam Sofer wrote that Rabbi Yehuda held that there is a Mitzvah to Make Gerim. And behold there is a way to explain the distinction of Ger Toshav in two different ways:

a) A Complete Ben Noach, only concerning known Dinim is his Din equal to Israel, because he is from the Chasidei Umot HaOlam as it is written by the Rambam.
b) He is categorically removed from being classified as a Ben Noach, and even though that he has not entered into K’lal Yisrael.

 And this is similar to the slave, and were it not for the revelation of the pussuk that obligates them into the Mitzvot like a woman, he would be exempt from everything, because he still hasn’t entered into K’lal Yisrael, and even though he already went out from the distinction of Ben Noach. And thus we see from the Language of Rabbeinu Gershom (Krisos 9a) that wrote that Ger Toshav is a matter of ‘Ktzat Geirus’.

And thus we see from the Language of the Rashba that wrote concerning the Ger Toshav and these were his words: ‘That a Ger who becomes Ger is like a newborn child’. Behold, that this principle of a ‘Ger who becomes Ger is like a newborn child’ also refers to [becoming] a Ger Toshav. And this can only be understood if we say that he is removed from being a Ben Noach. And thus we see from the Language of the Taz who wrote that a Ger Toshav – is one who is categorically removed from being considered belonging to the nations. And if we say that he is already removed from the category of Ben Noach then there is no difficulty, that only concerning a Ben Noach is there no Mitzvah to ‘Make him into a Ger’ for ‘Gerim are harsh on Israel like overgrowth/skin disease’, but one who has already left the category of Ben Noach and only hasn’t entered into K’lal Yisrael it is appropriate the Mitzvah to ‘make them into Gerim’.

 Conclusion: We see that there is a unanimous agreement from the Poskim that Ger Toshav is a Mitzvah that one can engage in today. The Wisdom of how to do so is clear as well. We are to spread the 7 Laws of Noach (Rambam ibid.) and should any Bnei Noach find themselves in a new territory beyond the category of Ben Noach [from having fully left idolatry, rejecting Shittuf, and fully keeping the 7 Laws, all under personal acceptance with the proper intention of having been commanded by the Torah of Moses directed at the God of Israel] then it is a Mitzvah to Make Gerim and the fear of ‘Gerim are harsh onto Israel…’ no longer applies. Such a person would have effectively become a self-made Ger Toshav and a Jew would then be able to do a Mitzvah of Making Gerim. This is called a partial conversion, and the Rashba states that all language of ‘A Ger who becomes Ger’ (a ger sh’mis’gayeir) applies to both the full conversion [Ger Tzedek] and to a partial conversion [Ger Toshav].

 In short, we are commanded to emulate Abraham our Father where appropriate in mainstream halacha, as evidenced by a unanimous view among all Torah Sages.

The only dispute that takes place is when a source speaks of either a Ben Noach or a Ger Toshav. The consensus view is that a Ben Noach should not be encouraged directly into a status of Ger Toshav, while a self-made Ger Toshav may be subject to a halachic action of Making Gerim according to the halacha. For this the Torah has warned us 46 times to not taunt the Ger and to make sure to Love the Ger.