A BT yeshiva student who had been studying in a BT yeshiva for the past two years goes to a haredi home for Shabbos. He declines to eat the cholent. Something else about him seems strange to his haredi host – the BT does not shuckle when praying.
The host recalls a Rishon (medieval commentator) that says one who refuses to eat hot food on Shabbat is to be suspected of being a min (a heretic, a Christian, a Karaite, etc.). The haredi host looks into the yeshiva student's background but finds nothing conclusively pointing to the student being non-Jewish. With the student's permission, he goes to Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv with two questions: Is the wine the yeshiva student touched now yayin nesach, wine forbidden because of contact with non-Jews? Does the student need to convert?
Rabbi Elyashiv looks into the matter. He rules that the wine is not yayin nesach because the BT has behaved like a Jew for the past two years [so there is no fear that he worships idols, the basis for the rabbinic prohibition of yayin nesach]. He also rules the BT needs to have a geiur l'humra, a conversion for the sake of stringency, just to remove doubt, based on his refusal to eat cholent and his non-swaying during prayer.
The Rishon in question is speaking about a breakaway sect of Jews who refused to eat warm food on Shabbat. It means that one who refuses to eat warm food on Shabbat should be suspected of belonging to this sect. It does not mean that a person who dislikes cholent is a min.
What do haredim really think about BTs? If their leader is any guide, not much.
[Hat Tip: Nigratude Ultramarine, who posted the link to the above Mispacha Magazine article in the comments section to the post below this one.]
UPDATE: Original story posted by Marty Bluke. Full translation by the Life In Israel blog:
In a baal teshuva yeshiva there was a student who has been learning there for the past 2 years, who came from a country with a mass aliya. This student has "strengthened himself" [i.e. become religious] and has been keeping all of the mitzvos. Over a recent shabbos he was a guest at the home of one of the married kollel students.
The avreich realized the student despised the chulent and could not even taste a little bit of it. He remembered the words of the Rishonim, that someone who does not eat hot food on shabbos [day] needs to be investigated to see whether he might be a heretic (source: the Baal HaMaor).
In addition, he realized that the student did not shuckle/sway when he prayed, and this too is brought down (in the Zohar) as being a custom of Jews.
Since he realized that this student came from a neglected country {i.e. ostensibly Eastern European, but it does not specify] , he connected the dots and decided that according to halacha this student was likely not a Jew.
Attempts to investigate the background of the student revealed nothing conclusive, so the avreich, at the behest of the student, approached Rav Elyashiv with the situation and asked what to do.Rav Elyashiv answered that the student must go through a conversion as a stringency [because of the chance he might not be jewish]. However any wine he might have handled is not to be considered "yayin nesech" [wine handled by a non Jew which may not be imbibed by a Jew], as the student behaved like a Jew and considered himself a Jew the whole time, and it is only a "safek" that he might not be a Jew [so the issue of yayin nesech does not apply]. Please keep reading for his commentary.