Is conversion for the purpose of marriage valid? TB Yevamot 24

Before commenting on today’s daf TB Yevamot 24, we need to know some background information. According to rabbinic understanding having a sexual relationship with your Canaanite maidservant is forbidden. She isn’t Jewish. When the man emancipate his Canaanite maidservant or slave, the Canaanite maidservant or slave has to convert to Judaism. The Mishnah provides the following case: “One suspected by others of engaging in sexual relations with a Canaanite maidservant and she was later set free, or one suspected of relations with a gentile woman and she subsequently converted, may not marry that woman, since this will strengthen the suspicions against him. But if he did marry her, they, the judges of the court, do not remove her from him, i.e., they do not require him to divorce her.” (Sefaria.org translation)

The Gemara understands that this conversion is a valid one even though she is converting only for the purpose of marriage. “The mishna teaches that one who is suspected of relations with a gentile woman who later converted may never marry her. This implies that she is, however, a convert, although it appears that she converted only in order that he might marry her.” (Sefaria.org translation) Tosefot ד"ה גִּיּוֹרֶת  agrees that she is Jewish because she is only prohibited to the one who suspected of relations, but permitted to all other Jewish males.

Rabbi Neḥemya disagrees and holds the position that the convert must have no ulterior motives. The person should join the Jewish people only because they want to join the Jewish people.

“The mishna teaches that one who is suspected of relations with a gentile woman who later converted may never marry her. This implies that she is, however, a convert, although it appears that she converted only in order that he might marry her. The Gemara raises a contradiction from a baraita: Both a man who converted for the sake of a woman and a woman who converted for the sake of a man, and similarly, one who converted for the sake of the king’s table, so that he could serve in a prestigious capacity, or for the sake of Solomon’s servants, who were also considered prestigious, in all of these cases they are not converts; this is the statement of Rabbi Neḥemya.

“As Rabbi Neḥemya would say: With regard to converts by lions, i.e., forced converts such as the Samaritans [Kutim] described in II Kings (17:24–25); and converts who convert based on their dreams; and converts of the time of Mordecai and Esther described in the verse, “And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen upon them” (Esther 8:17); all of these are not converts until they are converted at this present time.

“The Gemara clarifies the meaning of the words: Could it enter your mind to say only at this present time? Since he mentioned the converts of Mordecai and Esther, who were deceased before Rabbi Neḥemya made this statement, he therefore cannot possibly mean this phrase literally. Rather, say: Like at this present time, when the Jewish people are in exile and there is no material benefit to conversion.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Although we want the person to join the Jewish people for the sake of heaven, the person’s, who joins the Jewish people because a marriage, conversion is accepted as a valid conversion. Since he/she went through the entire process of conversion with circumcision and/or just immersion in the mikvah, we presume that certainly the convert accepted Judaism wholeheartedly. The Rambam rules that one does not invalidate their conversion unless they return to their idolatry ways.

Today the Israeli ultra-Orthodox rabbis in control of marriage take the most extreme right wing position concerning who is a righteous convert. Most of the time the real question is not who was a Jew when somebody converts, but who the Rabbi who oversaw the conversion was. If you want to read a humorous book which contains this very topic, I recommend Joel Chasnoff’s book The 188 Crybaby Brigade. By profession Joel is a comedian who grew up in Chicago and decides to join the Israeli Defense Force as a lone soldier.

Although most the book deals with his time in the Army fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, the chapter Hard-Core Jews, part II (pages 236-241) tells of his meeting with the Israeli rabbinate to get a marriage license. His mother was converted by the rabbinical Council of Central Texas and they were confirmed that Rabbi Tuckerman was Orthodox. Joel grew up Jewish and went to day school. He was serving in the IDF. Despite all this, the Israeli Rabbi declared that he was not Jewish. To see how this episode ends you have to read his chapter Son of David and the Epilogue (pages 251-261).