Q. See question above. Is there a mitzva to help people that want to convert and they are doing it with all the required prerequisites and right intentions?
A. Poskim disagree if one complies with a mitzva when converting properly someone to Judaism.
Raibad (Baalei Nefesh – end of Shaar Hatevila maintains it is a mitzva and has the source in Avraham Avinu and Sarah, converting multitudes. Therefore we recite a brocho “Asher Kideshanu Vetzivanu” at the conversion.
There is also proof from Talmud Yebamos 47b saying that when the conversion is correct and proper, it should be done immediately and not be postponed. The term used is; “Shihuei Mitzva Lo Meshahinon” or since we do not delay the compliance of a mitzva. Rashbatz echos this opinion (Zohar Horakia 28)
.
However, Mishne Halachos 16: 92) disagrees and quotes opinions that question and assert that there is no such a mitzva mentioned in the Torah at all. He explains the above quotation from Yebamos, as a mitzva limited to the
convert only, since after all he will begin then complying with his new mitzvos.
Horav Kalman Ochs maintains that even according to the opinion there is a mitzva, it would only exist at the moment of conversion.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit’a
Important Numbers
