Pesachim 91

It often happens that, when a person converts to Judaism, they find that they are more committed to keeping the rituals and studying then their born Jewish partners. It can be confusing and isolating. But this phenomenon goes way back.

My Poppop (my grandpa who was an orthodox Jew, but not the rabbi) used to tell this joke (and I found it on line pretty much verbatim athttp://www.thedailyparker.com/post/1999/10/11/03FDA99F-BE0F-4B77-A237-438A4B70E419 ):

A Jewish boy is going off to college, and his father says to him: “Look, we’ve never been a religious family, so I’m not expecting you to become suddenly religious. But promise me one thing: You won’t marry a shiksa.”

The boy promises this and assures his father that he won’t.

Sure enough, his senior year at school he falls in love with a beautiful Irish girl. She loves him too, but he tells her he can’t marry her because she’s not Jewish.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “I’ll convert.”

After serious study, the girl converts. They marry and go off on their honeymoon in Monaco. Four weeks later, back at home, Saturday morning at 8:00, the phone rings at their house. It’s the boy’s father. He’s livid.

“You know the last Saturday of every month we go over the books at the office. Why aren’t you here?”

“I can’t come,” the boy says. “My wife says it’s forbidden. It’s Shabbat. We’re heading off to shul.”

“I told you not to marry a shiksa,” the father screams.

(This joke is actually the first time I heard the word “shiksa” and of course, asked my mom what that meant. Kind of kills a joke when you need to explain it. Kind of kills the joke when your listened is so offended when they learn what a term in the joke means that they can’t find any of it funny. But, it clearly left it’s mark because I STILL remember it to this day.)

Today’s daf reminded me of my Poppop’s somewhat offensive joke:

Rabbi Ya’akov said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: We do not make a group for the Paschal lamb that is composed entirely of converts, because perhaps they will be overly meticulous with it and cause it to become unnecessarily disqualified. Converts can be especially zealous in their observance, and out of ignorance may cause an offering to be unnecessarily disqualified by adding extra details to the requirements of the offering.

You can see why it made me think of my Poppop’s joke.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to do things right. . . but it does point a finger on those who take their Judaism for granted and don’t bother learning about the details or worry about being observant.