BURDENS LAID ON PROSELYTES

WE are told in the Talmud that if a Gentile wished to become a proselyte he was asked his reasons for the wish, and informed that Israel ia now afflicted, persecuted, and cast down with all kinds of sufferings. If he replies that he knows it, and is not worthy to share in their sufferings, he is admitted, but is told enough of the “light” and the “heavy” precepts to warn him to desist in time if he is not sincere, since, as Rabh Chelbo said, “proselytes are as injurious to Israel as a scab.” He is told about the rules respecting gleaning, and tithes, and the penalties attached to any transgression of the Law, and is informed that henceforth if he desecrates the Sabbath he is liable to death by stoning. If he submits he is circumcised, and even circumcised a second time, if there were any neglect or carelessness in the first performance of the rite. After his recovery he is immersed without delay by way of baptism, and two “disciples of the wise” stand by him, repeating some of the “light” and “heavy” precepts.1 In fact, a Gentile could only become a proselyte by submitting himself to the whole yoke of Rabbinism, the tyranny of archaic, puerile, and wearisome halachôth which year by year was laid more heavily on Jewish shoulders by the pedantry of their theologic schools. It was the fault of the Jews that the Gentiles usually concentrated their attention on mere transient Jewish rites, and not on the eternal principles which God had revealed to them. Can we be surprised at this when we find R. Eleazar Ben Chasmah saying that the rules about birds’ nests (kinim), and the “uncleanliness” of women (niddah) are essentialsof the Law?2