The demand of converts to perform all the commandments “cannot be real, and I do not believe in things that are not real. I could also not take upon myself to perform all of the commandments according to that interpretation. I am also still learning.”
Above: Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
The new unrecognized Zionist Orthodox/Modern Orthodox conversion courts that have caused a firestorm of opposition from haredim (who, after all control the only conversion courts recognized by the state) and from many right-wing Zionist Orthodox harda"l (haredi-Dati-Leumi; haredi lite) rabbis, as well are taking a more liberal approach to conversion to Judaism than the haredi-controlled state conversion courts follow.
In the haredi courts, a potential convert not only has to commit to observe all 613 commandments, s/he has to go through a years-long pre-conversion education process, agree to a whole list of restrictions on lifestyle that go beyond what basic halakha (Jewish law) requires. The have to move into haredi neighborhoods, send their children to haredi or other accepted Orthodox schools, they have to agree to have their lives laid open to the rabbis not just before the conversion but after it, as well, in perpetuity. So if a year or 10 after her conversion a convert want to move from north Jerusalem to Indianapolis to be close to her elderly dying mother, the rabbis must approve the move. And if they don't approve and the convert moves anyway, the rabbis can retroactively annul her conversion and make every child of hers born after the date of her conversion suddenly non-Jewish.
These are all things Jewish law never required and there is no evidence to show that these restrictions were ever in common use (or in in use at all) until the last few decades. But with haredim, all innovation they do is "ancient,"' while the most ancient customs others follow are "heretical," "modern" and "new."
At any rate, Ha'aretz has an article about the new Zionist Orthodox/Modern Orthodox conversion courts that explains how they will handle the issue of the potential convert who is not fully observant of Jewish law – by recognizing a "traditional" lifestyle (in the sense of Israeli traditional, meaning keeps many of the commandments but not all, identifies as religious and respects rabbis authority but isn't fully observant) and that desire to join the Jewish people as enough of a starting point to do the conversion:
…[One of the rabbinic judges on the new courts, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, is already doing conversions.] Riskin’s court required converts to make the following declaration: “I take upon myself to enter the covenant of the Holy One Blessed Be He, together with the assembly of historic Israel, and be added under the wings of the Shekhinah [the spirit of God] and take upon myself the Torah of Judaism that requires a system of commandments and continue to grow within this system that leads to the repair of the world.”
Rabbi Haim Amsalem, a former MK who is considered an expert on conversion, and Rabbi Yehuda Gilad of Kibbutz Ma’aleh Gilboa, have taken part in conversions already performed by Riskin’s court.
The declaration that converts make in Riskin’s court, he told Haaretz, is based on Maimonides and experts in Jewish law according to whom: “If when the convert accepts the commandments he knows in his heart that there are things he will not do because he is too weak, that does not hurt the acceptance of the commandments.”
According to Riskin, the demand of converts to perform all the commandments “cannot be real, and I do not believe in things that are not real. I could also not take upon myself to perform all of the commandments according to that interpretation. I am also still learning,” Riskin said.…
This supposedly liberal standard was commonly used in the US even by haredi rabbis until about 20 years ago. It was also used in much of the rest of the world and was even commonly used in Israel by the official state conversion courts until the late 1970s. And then it suddenly fell out of favor. Why?
Because by 1979, Israel was essentially the only place in the world in which large numbers of haredim could begin to live essentially in isolation. They could avoid working because of state benefits and therefore did not have to interact with secular Jews or even with Zionist Orthodox Jews. They could stay inside their own insular communities. And for the first time, they had real political power because of the rise of Menachem Begin, who needed their votes.
This combination allowed haredi rabbis to get ever more extreme regarding issues of religion and state and to throw their weight around with great success. And since these less-than-perfectly-ultra-Orthodox converts gave no direct benefit to these haredi rabbis and denying those less-than-perfect converts a conversion only made haredi rabbis stronger politically, the noose around the neck of conversion to Judaism was tightened. A generation later, when the haredi community was exponentially larger and their votes even more important, normal conversion to Judaism was killed off altogether and replaced with haredi extremism the likes of which Judaism had never before known.
What Shlomo Riskin and the other Modern Orthodox and Zionist Orthodox rabbis who are part of the new conversion initiative are doing is returning conversion to what it was 50 years ago. And for that, some of these rabbis now need police protection because of threats made against them.
This my friends, is today's Orthodox Judaism in a nutshell.