Why Jews Don't Proselytize

Parshas Toldos (5779)

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi want to see who’s best at his job. So each one goes into the woods, finds a bear, and attempts to convert it. Later, they all get together. The priest begins: “When I found the bear, I read to him from the catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his first Communion.” “I found a bear by the stream,” says the minister, “and preached G-d’s holy Word. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him.” They both look down at the rabbi, who is lying on a gurney in a body cast. “Looking back,” he says, “maybe I shouldn’t have started with the circumcision.”

This might be a cute joke, but it doesn’t reflect reality. You see, while there are some Christian denominations – most notably Evangelical Christians – and even some Muslim groups who “proselytize” and try to persuade others to convert to their religion, you would be hard-pressed to find a Jewish person alive today attempting to proselytize anyone – not even a bear.

The question is why not? Why don’t Jews proselytize, just as many other religions do?

It’s not like we don’t have proselytizing and evangelizing in our blood. In fact, we have a long-standing, glorious tradition of (non-coercively) converting others to our faith, starting from the very first Jew to ever walk the planet, our forefather Abraham, who converted well over 10,000 (!) people to Judaism and to the belief in the One G-d. This tradition was carried on by his son, our forefather Isaac, as we read about in this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Toldos (see Genesis 26:25) – and it continued with our forefather Jacob and his children as well, until we became a Jewish nation.

As Maimonides writes about our ”Evangelizing Forefathers” in his Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry 1:3 (English translation courtesy of Chabad.org):

Abraham was forty years old when he became aware of his Creator. When he recognized and knew Him, he began to formulate replies to the inhabitants of Ur Kasdim and debate with them, telling them that they were not following a proper path. He broke their idols and began to teach the people that it is fitting to serve only the G-d of the world….When he overcame them through the strength of his arguments, the king desired to kill him. He was [saved through] a miracle and left for Charan. [There,] he began to call in a loud voice to all people and inform them that there is one G-d in the entire world and it is proper to serve Him. He would go out and call to the people, gathering them in city after city and country after country, until he came to the land of Canaan - proclaiming [G-d's existence the entire time] - as [Genesis 21:33] states: "And He called there in the name of the Lord, the eternal G-d." When the people would gather around him and ask him about his statements, he would explain [them] to each one of them according to their understanding, until they turned to the path of truth. Ultimately, thousands and myriads gathered around him. These are the men of the house of Abraham. He planted in their hearts this great fundamental principle, composed texts about it, and taught it to Isaac, his son. Isaac also taught others and turned [their hearts to G-d]. He also taught Jacob and appointed him as a teacher. [Jacob] taught others and turned [the hearts] of all those who gathered around him [to G-d]. He also taught all of his children. He selected Levi and appointed him as the leader. He established him [as the head of] the academy to teach them the way of G-d and observe the mitzvot of Abraham…This concept proceeded and gathered strength among the descendants of Jacob and those who collected around them, until there became a nation within the world which knew G-d.

So we see clearly that, at least in ancient times, we Jews were into proselytizing big time – so what happened from then until now that we no longer try to convert others to our faith?

Some will suggest that Christians and Muslims traditionally proselytize because they believe that in order to achieve salvation—that is, to make it to Heaven—you have to believe in the same things they believe in. Thus by converting us to their religion they are actually “saving” us from eternal damnation. However, Judaism doesn’t operate in the same way. According to the Talmud, righteous gentiles have a place in the World to Come. As a result, there’s less of an incentive for Jews to encourage conversion, and for non-Jews to join up. If someone who isn’t born a Jew is a good person and keeps the Seven Noachide Laws, he’ll get to hang out in the Garden of Eden whether or not he ever gets a Hebrew name.

There are two problems with this approach. First of all, there is the Talmudic passage in Pesachim 87b that quotes Rabbi Elazar who said: “The only reason that the Holy One, Blessed be He, sent the Jewish people into exile among the nations is so that converts would join them …” [See commentary of Maharsh”a (ibid.) who explains that if exile were only a punishment, then G-d could have found a different way of punishing Israel instead of exile.] This teaching clearly indicates that G-d wants us to convert some of His non-Jewish children to Judaism during the exile – even though they can remain “unconverted’ and still gain a portion in the World to Come.

The second problem with this approach is that while it is certainly true that non-Jews don’t need to be “saved” from damnation if they don’t convert to Judaism, there is still a compelling reason why we should be proselytizing non-Jews today anyway, namely for the same exact reason why our forefather Abraham was proselytizing non-Jews 3500 years ago – because he loved G-d and Judaism and wanted to share this love with everyone around him! So why don’t we proselytize non-Jews just as Abraham did?

I believe that there are two main reasons why Jews have not been actively proselytizing throughout the centuries and millennia in exile – even though we love our religion and should really be trying to share it with everybody. 
One reason is pragmatic. In many periods of our long history living in exile among non-Jews, if a Jew were ever caught trying to convert a Christian to Judaism, he would be burnt at the stake. And a Jew is not obligated to give up his life just to convert non-Jews.

The other reason why Jews generally don’t proselytize - even today when there is no longer any fear of being put to death - is based on a statement quoted in the Talmud in Yevamos 109b where Rabbi Yitzchak said: “Misfortune after misfortune shall come upon those who accept converts…”

This seemingly harsh Talmudic statement is difficult to understand. After all, many, many fine, wonderful converts were accepted by the Jewish people throughout the Torah and throughout our history. So accepting converts certainly can’t be a bad thing deserving of misfortune!

What’s more, the Talmud in Yevamos 47b seems to indicate that not only is a Jewish court allowed to accept converts, but it is actually a mitzvah obligation for them to do so. [Some have suggested that accepting converts falls under the general mitzvah category of Loving Converts (see, for example, Leviticus 19:34, one of numerous places in the Bible where G-d commands the Jewish people to love and cherish the converts among us), because what greater love can we display towards a sincere convert than to give him the gift of our wonderful religion!]

If so, how are we to understand this difficult Talmudic statement?

The Tosafos (ibid.) explain that the Talmud’s harsh words are specifically referring to proselytizers who actively attempt to convince non-Jews to convert to Judaism, and to those who accept potential converts without first trying to dissuade them from converting [as the law requires]. In these cases, we are very concerned about the sincerity of the potential convert’s commitment to our faith. [Unfortunately, the Jewish people has seen way too many cases throughout the years in which the community was burned by a convert who was not sincere and who ultimately left the religion, leaving much grief and hardship in his wake – see Tosafos to Kiddushin 70b]. It is mainly for this reason that we Jews generally haven’t been actively proselytizing non-Jews during all our years in the exile.

However, if the potential convert comes before the rabbinical court on his own, and demonstrates a firm and sincere desire to convert, it is a mitzvah to accept him. Indeed, one who refuses to accept such a convert is deserving of punishment.

So, no, you’re not likely to find “evangelical” Jews knocking on non-Jews’ doors offering to give them a free copy of the Hebrew Bible and telling them about the joys of eating gefilte fish in an attempt to convert them to Judaism – but not for lack of love and desire to share our faith with others. It is just that we don’t want to get “burned” as we have been in the past by insincere converts who may want to become Jewish for all the wrong reasons.

http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=538

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