Rabbi says deaf 'ineligible for conversion'

Anyone inflicted with a severe hearing and speech impediment cannot undergo Jewish conversion. This harsh statement was recently made by Rabbi Avraham Sherman of the Chief Rabbinical Court, in a ruling now made public.

And so the story goes: Many years ago a deaf woman appeared before the Conversions Court and declared her desire to become a Jew so she could marry her Jewish love. The court ruled in the majority that there was no point in converting her, since the Halacha exempts the deaf from performing mitzvahs; and since the conversion would be rendered insignificant, there was no way to perform it.

The court's reasoning was that since the Halacha says that "one who is deaf, one who is young and one who is a simpleton shall be exempt form ordinance," the woman in deemed incapable of observing mitzvahs, thus incapable of accepting the burden of ordinance, which is the cornerstone of conversion.

Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky, in the minority opinion, looked at the core issue of "accepting the burden of faith," and whether it should be considered a prerequisite for conversion or its essence. Dichovsky believes that the deaf can be converted. The woman's entitlement, he said, will not rest on the spiritual-practical plane of observing mitzvahs alone, but on the overall plane of being a part of the Jewish people.
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I'm deaf RL and I'm upset about the ruling - it may affect many of my Jewish friends (and I'm a full-blooded Jew)

"the overall plane of being a part of the Jewish people" is much more important than observing mitzvahs. And tho 'exempt' from observing mitzvahs, doesn't seem to me that the deaf are INCAPABLE thereof.

Too bad Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky was the minority opinion.

Even if a deaf person is exempt from performing mitzvot that does not mean he/she cannot perform mitzvot and be part of the Jewish people.

Halakha requires the following for a conversion:

- the candidate be warned of the problems he/she might face with being Jewish (i.e., face antisemitism from strangers, family not accepting decision)
- full acceptance of the yoke of mitzvos
- Brit milah or hatafat dam brit for men
- tevilah (immersion in a mikveh) for men and women
- a beit din (Jewish court) composed of three Jews