Responsum: On Repentant Heretics

Question: There is among us a certain place consisting of heretics, who laugh [in derision] at [the people] Israel. They have separated themselves from the ways of Israel and observe neither the positive precepts nor the commandment of the Sabbath; nor do they practise ritual slaughter in the manner that we do. They eat prohibited animal fat and blood and the flesh of animals with any of the eighteen internal bodily defects [that render an animal unfit for consumption]. They are steeped in immorality and write out neither marriage contracts nor bills of divorce and do not practice either the release from levirate marriage or levirate marriage itself. There are among them several who wish to revert to being Jews and to conduct themselves in accordance with the laws of Israel. Is there a remedy for them, for their return, and, when they do return, do they require ritual immersion or not? And in addition, once they have returned, are they fit to “enter the assembly” or not; and do we need to draw a drop of blood of the covenant from them or not?

Answer: This is how we view the matter. These heretics are different from all other heretics in the world, since all heretics repudiate the words of the sages, such as, for instance, the various kinds of internal bodily defects that can render an animal unfit for consumption, the nineteen-year [calendrical] cycle introduced by the rabbis, and the secondary degrees of prohibited relationships. But they adhere strictly to the words of the Torah and the scripture and observe them. These that you have described have repudiated the essence of the Torah, and have married within the prohibited degrees of relationship, and have fathered bastard children, and have profaned Sabbaths—and were they not of Israelite origin, we would regard them as non-Jews in the same category as non-Jews who convert [to Judaism] and ritually immerse themselves and become like the rest of Israel, as it is written: Like the native among you shall be the stranger who dwells with you (Leviticus 19:34). But as for these, since they are of Israelite origin and the name of Israel still attaches to them, and the observance of the precepts devolves upon them, and they were duty-bound to observe the six hundred and thirteen commandments, but because they became steeped in immorality and did not write out bills of divorce, their children are bastards, and it is impossible to accept them and to receive them into the assembly in case they intermingle with Israel and take wives from among them, and give their daughters in marriage to men of Israel, and multiply bastards within Israel. Hence it is impossible to accept them in any way.

And you ought to be aware that before these inquiries arose, other inquiries came up before us emanating from the same locality, whence an inquiry of a similar nature to the present one was addressed [to us], in which it was stated:

There are in our locality certain individuals who have gone forth in an evil direction, veering towards heresy, and who have repudiated the words of the sages, and who do not write out marriage contracts and bills of divorce in the Jewish manner, and there are now several among them who desire to repent and to become like [the rest of] Israel, and to abandon the ways to which they were accustomed. What shall we do? Shall we accept them or not?

And we issued an order to write to them to welcome them and to bring them under the wings of the divine presence, this being a far better approach than to drive them away. But if they had fathered children through transgression, by having married women who had been divorced from their husbands without bills of divorce, then those children are bastards, and there is no remedial mechanism for bringing them to Israel. However, if the fathers come and repent and accept upon themselves the yoke of the commandments, like the rest of Israel, who were conceived and born in a state of purity, and [if] they have made investigation into their children and been particularly stringent concerning them; that is to say, they have made a declaration about anyone who possesses [even] a minute element of disqualifying features, and separated him [from the community] so that he would remain severed from Israel, illegitimate and without any remedy for his status, we hereby notify you that for these erring individuals themselves, who veered off towards heresy, there is a remedy, namely, to administer corporal punishment to them, and to readmit them, as we have explained in the initial inquiries. However, if [those coming forward to repent] are their children, there can never be any remedy for them.