By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com
Sadly, it was reported today that Ivana Trump, who is the mother of former President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, was found “unconscious and unresponsive” in her New York City home. She had unfortunately fallen down a flight of stairs. She was 73 years old.
Her daughter Ivanka had undergone a geirus a number of years ago. Some may be asking the question as to whether she may or should halachically sit Shiva, or arrange for kaddish.
The Tur, the Shulchan Aruch and the Ramah in Yore Deah Siman 374:5 rule that a ger does not sit shiva on a parent because the conversion renders the child as a child who was just born and the familial relationship in terms of the laws of mourning was severed.
However, this is interpreted by many commentaries to mean that they are not obligated to mourn. The Z’kein Aharon written by Rav Aharon Walkin zt”l writes in his responsum (Vol. II Siman 87) that it is permitted to either recite or arrange for Kaddish of a parent – even if the parent had not converted. Rav Ovadiah Yoseph in Yechave Daas (Volume VI #60) comes to the same conclusion, as does Rav Moshe Shternbuch shlita (Teshuvos v’Hanhagos Vol. II #43). If she wishes to do so, she may observe the laws of SHiiva and that of Shloshim. However, the prohibition of learning Torah does not apply.
There is a Rashba on the Gemorah in Brachos 16a that Rabban Gamliel received tanchumim on the passing of his servant Tevi. This is a proof to the aforementioned positions.
This author had heard it on good authority that the former Ivana Zelnikova may have been halachically Jewish and could be considered a safaik in this regard. If this is true, then she should definitely sit shiva out of a safaik
This author had posed a number of such questions in regard to geirim to HaGaon haRav Dovid Feinstein zt”l who had responded that a Ger should make considerable effort to ensure that his father or mother not be cremated but rather buried in the ground. He also ruled that arranging for the recitation of Kaddish or reciting it himself definitely benefits the soul of the deceased.
May Ivanka be comforted among the rest of the mourners of Zion and Yerushalayim.
The author can be reached at [email protected]
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12 Responses
She has a Rav that she can ask if she feels the need to.
May Ivanka be comforted among the rest of the mourners of Zion and Yerushalayim.
At least call her by her Hebrew name, Yael bas Avraham Avinu.
If this is true, then she should definitely sit shiva out of a safaik
באבלות הלכה כדברי המקל, וספק אבלות להקל.
so she may well not have to sit shiva. I could understand if a Rav would pasken that this sort of safek is different, and one should be stringent. Either way, Ivanka should suffer no more pain or suffering.
There are two aspects to the question:
1. Kibbud Av Va’em. Mid’rabanan, a ger is required to continue honoring his biological parents, just as he was required to before his conversion.
2. There is a separate obligation of avelus, which according to some rishonim is mid’oraisa, at least on the first day. That does not apply to gerim.
The exemption from the second mitzvah does not exempt the ger from the first mitzvah. Most of hilchos aveilus for a parent is based on Kibud Av Va’em rather than on the mitzvah of aveilus, and therefore would apply to gerim as well.
(It seems to me that this includes the obligation to say kaddish, but the poskim don’t seem to agree; maybe because this is not something the ger would have done before conversion, and therefore need not do it after. Certainly in the case of a woman, since it is not traditional for women to say kaddish at all, one can’t say she has an obligation to arrange for someone to say it, let alone for her to say it.)
The bottom line is that the specifics of how she fulfills her obligation of Kibud eim are up to her, but should she choose to fulfill some or all of the regular halachos of aveilus, including sitting shiva, she would have a strong halachic basis for doing so; she would be fulfilling a halachic obligation.
Compare it to a woman’s obligation to daven at least once a day; according to most poskim what she davens is up to her; she need not say the same tefillos that men do. But if she chooses to do so, she is fulfilling a mitzvah that she is commanded to do.
Well, the New York State AG is assuming its legit since she postponed the depositions that Ivanka and Donny Jr. were supposed to give today “out or respect”.
May Hashem comfort Ivanka and her amazing family among the mourners of Tzion.
Ivanka and Jared are very special individuals who has done incredibly amazing monumental accomplishments for Klal Yisrael.
May they be blessed with long healthy lives in safety and security with only good!
Her Lookstein-fake conversion is no better than any other Reform “conversion”.
If her mother were Jewish then Ivanka didn’t need to convert at all. Rav Hoffman says that this is a safeik.
The best thing would be if it were possible to clairify this without a sefeik and that would end the conversion question for her. But probably it is not so simple to find out.
UJM, how dare you? Rabbi Lookstein is a talmid chochom and a respected rov beyisro’el, of far greater stature than whoever your rov or rebbe is. And R Hershel Schachter was also on the beis din. How dare you call such a giyur fake?
Milhouse: R. Schachter was not part of it. And Lookstein, who attended church in honor of Obama’s inauguration, is far from respected. Even his own RCA condemned him for that attendence.
Milhouse: And who are we kidding? We both know that she was never religious. She was mechallel Shabbos before the mikva water dried off, tweeting on Shabbos long before her dad went into politics. At her wedding, which was the only purpose of the “conversion”, to make his parents feel a little better and less of a shanda, she was already wearing immodest clothing, shortly after her dunk.