Recently, one of the top bochurim in a well-known Israeli yeshivah began the shidduchim parsha but was stopped in his tracks when he suddenly found out he wasn’t Jewish, Kikar H’Shabbat reported on Monday.
The bochur, whose parents made aliyah from Ukraine a number of years ago, had already begun shidduchim when his mother revealed to him that although his father is Jewish she is not. (It is unknown why she chose to wait so long to reveal this fact to her son.)
The bochur, whose entire world is Torah and the daled amos of halacha, was devastated. Brokenhearted, he confided in one of his Rabbanim from his yeshivah, who turned to HaGaon HaRav Yizchak Yosef.
HaRav Yosef used his influence with senior Dayanim to expedite the giyur process for the bochur so he can return to his shtender and resume shidduchim.
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25 Responses
Shall the venerated Sephardi Chief Rabbi Pasken that he has to repent for גוי ששבת חייב מיתה?
Wonder if the Torah had any of its usual impact on the ‘neshoma’ he didnt have…..
Once a question was posed to Rav Shimshon Dovid Pincus ZT’L-
Suppose you found out one night that your mother was not Jewish and the bais din does not open until the morning. How would you spend the last hours of your gentile life?
He said, “I would go out to my backyard, build a bama, and offer korbanos to Hashem.”
Wow.
I doubt this story isn’t missing a bunch of facts.
Carzy story. So sad.
If feels like the Rebbe is speaking directly about this story today
Thanks YWN for posting
וואו!
אילו היינו רק שומעים דעתו הקדושה אז היינו במצב יותר טוב. איי חבל!!! אולי מכאן ולהבא יהווה כמוסר השכל…
He may very well still be the best boy in the yeshiva, but sadly, he will be turned down by many foolish people because he’s a ger.
Context :
The Rebbe was discussing the painful topic of mihu yehudi – the battle to ensure giyur in Eretz Yisroel would only be according to Halacha, the Rebbe told over a startling anecdote.
“I asked a rosh yeshiva why he is quiet [about mihu yehudi]. He told me he is busy with spreading Torah. That is indeed a lofty matter, [but] do you know that there are goyim learning in your yeshiva?! And you say a shiur for them!”
“Among the students in the yeshiva are one, or more, bochurim, who don’t even know [that they are not Jewish]. When his mother and father immigrated to Eretz Yisroel, they marked them by the border as Yidden. [The bochur] was then a young boy who did not understand the entire concept. Then, after they arriving in Netanya or another city, he saw that we was registered as a Jew, so he became friends with all the other children. Later, having a “good head”, he went to the yeshiva, so that he now sits in a certain yeshiva and hears the shiur, and when he has a question he goes to the rosh yeshiva, who is happy with his chiddushei Torah, without knowing that he was teaching Torah to non-Jew! Then it comes to shidduchim..
To UJM
I don’t know what you’re so surprised about. I’m sure here in NY and perhaps all over the world there are those who grew up in Russia knowing they’re Jewish. The only problem is that in some cases only the father was jewish or the grandparents were Jewish. They don’t know better.
there’s a similar story where rav shach said, just go into the mikva and go back to seder, but just ask the stiepler just in case. the stiepler told the boy be a goy for a month and then see if you want to convert,
the kid ended up staying by his cousins in america and never came back and married a goy.
interesting here they’re not going like the stiepler, could be because his father is jewish.
Only a prelude to numerous more such cases than shall be coming up, with the new Giyur laws about to be implemented by wicked bennett & his wicked cohorts
Ah Yid, what you are saying is not true. In Russia nobody wanted to be a Jew, even some real Jews whose both parents were Jewish. Some of them would give bribes to have an ethnicity other than “Jewish” written in their official papers. Or they would hide from others that they are Jews. No Gentile woman, even if she was married to a Jew, would pretend to be Jewish.
To Mdd1
I grew up in the former USSR< so I can talk:
You people are stuck in tim:, now it is very profitable to be a Jew, the Kehilot in Russia and Ukraine get millions of funds. Social aid, community life, free meals-community provides everything
Unfortunately it became a common place to make a quick Giur to a Jewish Baal Tzedaqa whose wife/girlfriend hapenned to be non Jewish (I really want to say shiksa, but being told it is not P.C….)
Or to accept non Jewish children to Jewish schools to enlarge the number of talmidim so to get more funds
Another way to impress naïve American fund givers is to bring not Jewish people (not even 12,5%) to communal events so as to show: we have so much activity, so much potential, doing so much-give us your money.
Unfortunately even Chabad that use to have a very strict giyur policy are now doing it.
The culture of the USSR was corruption-and that Middah is not easy to erase-simple shmirat mitzvot is not enough
In the 1990s all the half and quarter Jews that were hiding their Jewish root for decades suddenly made Aliya to Israel-upon realising life is much better as a Jew
Those half/quarter/12.5% Jews are now converting to Judaism because it is so much easier to be a Jew-for some reason that didn't happen 30 Years ago
Each case should be judged separately, but I would not trust that bocher and have him leave the Yeshiva and come back after proper conversion if he decides to.
I havent seen a single Ger who converted in Russia/Ukraine before the fall of USSR, never met even a goy interested to discover Judaism, forget Giur: but there are 1000s converting within the last 20 years
Anybody wonders why?
What would have happend had he never found out?
I thought that we try to dissuade people from being Megayer?
Also, I wonder if he will we still be a “best boy” once he is Megayer. It is very easy to learn Bihasmada when you don’t have a yetzer hara. Once he is megayer, I doubt the yetzer hara will leave him alone.
(I was once speaking to a big Talmud Chacham. He asked me, “Who is a bigger masmid, the biggest professor in Brooklyn College or the biggest Rosh Yeshiva in Ponevezh?” I responded, “The Rosh Yeshiva, of course.” He responded, “I disagree. The professor doesn’t have a yetzer hara, so he can put in a hundred hours a week with full iyun without any strain, while the Rosh Yeshiva has the yetzer hara nagging him every second.” Vidivrei pi chacham chain.)
In thinking about this story we have a question. If the boy’s mother was shomeret Torah u’mitzvot (something that we would all agree is not the easiest thing to do) from before the boy was born why couldn’t she be considered a geyoret and thus the boy is Jewish by birth?
@147 “Shall the venerated Sephardi Chief Rabbi Pasken that he has to repent for גוי ששבת חייב מיתה?”
Do you work hard to sound so stupid or does it come naturally?
My father got involved in a similar issue…when a couple went to get married, it turned out the kallah’s mother’s geirus certificate wasn’t kosher. The couple threatened to commit suicide, but the girl -and her mother – had a quick, Kosher geirus and they were able to be married al pi halacha.
In this case, the parents genuinely believed mom had a kosher geirus. But this bochur’s mother….what kind of a rotten parent would do such a thing to her child, knowing his future was at stake?
I’m sure they are brainwashing him! Any Jew who got the amazing news that they are not really required to keep kosher and Shabbos and stay in school 24/7, and all the other halachos that make no sense, would probably stop keeping Jewish. To quote Simcha Leiner, “IS HE STUPID?????????”
I don’t get it. Is he still dating that girl if he can date a hot shiksa by the beach? This is the reason for the shidduch crisis.
@swings. Please explain your question. How does a Goyta doing Mitzvos make her a Giyores and her son a Jew?
@bored guy. Do you know the source for that story with more details? I would like to see it
inside with call details. thank you
Theres absolutely no chiyuv for him to be megayer.