D23-14: In Ancient Times, A Gentile Became An Israelite Via Assimilation, NOT Conversion

Before we continue on with our discussion concerning who should be excluded from the KAHAL or the “assembly” of Israel, there’s some important historical background you should know concerning immigration into Israel as it existed in ancient times.

First, recall in an earlier post I mentioned we should NOT interpret KAHAL to mean every element of Hebrew society that loosely formed the nation of Israel.

Instead, it is more accurate to define KAHAL as referring to that group consisting of full-fledged and wholehearted citizens of Israel.

Having said that, a singular definition of just who was and wasn’t allowed…

…or who could and couldn’t become a part of Israel has always been the topic of much heated debate among the sages and Rabbis over the centuries.

By way of comparison, let’s take a look at the different social groups that exist in the United States today to gain some clarity on the matter.

From top to bottom, here are the three different social hierarchies existing in America today.

FULL-FLEDGED CITIZENS
This is referring to either 2nd or 3rd generation Americans and ALL the legal rights that come with their citizenship.

GREEN CARD HOLDERS
This term refers to new immigrants who possess green cards that accords them “legal residency”.  However, they are NOT citizens and do not have the same rights as citizens.  For instance, they are NOT allowed to participate in elections of public officials or join the military.

ILLEGAL ALIENS
These folks are at the bottom of the barrel.  A person residing in the USA minus proper documentation can’t vote, join the military, is not eligible for social security benefits and always lives in fear of being deported.  Although, many illegal aliens hold jobs in the USA, technically speaking, they are also not allowed to work.

Can you see how depending on which social class you belong to in the United States, the amount and type of rights and benefits you are entitled to differ?

Well, here’s the thing.

Ancient Israel had a very similar structure which the Torah outlines in great detail.

Ever since the time Israel took over the land of Canaan which…

…transitioned into the turbulent period of Judges which then…

…changed into a period of stability…

…under the rulership of King David and Solomon…

….which eventually resulted in Israel being divided into two kingdoms…

….that afterwards led to the exile…

….which then culminated in the Roman occupation of Israel…

…that we now know as the New Testament era…

….,the definition and criteria of who exactly should be admitted as a full-fledged member of the chosen nation of Israel changed and evolved.

In the very beginning, there just weren’t any formal procedures for a gentile to join Israel.

There were no conversion committees, paperwork or set rituals.

In ancient times, a gentile became an Israelite via assimilation over the passage of time.

How did this happen really?

Well, a man might move with his family to live among one of the 12 tribes in the land of Canaan and then slowly but surely begin to adopt one remnant of Hebrew culture after another.

Perhaps, after receiving an invitation from a friendly Hebrew neighbor, he might start participating in a Biblical feast here and there and of course every 7th day he and his family would practically be forced to keep Shabbat because the whole nation would shut down at that time.

I actually experienced this firsthand when I vacationed to Jerusalem a couple of years ago.

The whole nation literally comes to a standstill every seventh day (Friday evening to sunset Saturday evening) to the point where you can hear crickets chirping outside your apartment.

So, getting back to my example,  eventually, over time, the gentile immigrant and his family would discard their pagan roots and do away with the worship of their heathen gods and goddesses for the true worship of the God of Israel.

Later, when the gentile family had kids, those children would grow up knowing nothing but the Hebrew culture and speaking the Hebrew language.

They would grow up playing with Hebrew children and end up eventually intermarrying with the native-born Hebrew population when they got older.  

Once that happened and another generation passed, any remnants of gentile identity would pretty much be erased.

At that point in time, they and their children would be viewed as Hebrews.

Finally, by the 3rd and 4th generation, the descendants of the former gentile immigrants would have their baby boys circumcised as a matter of course because that’s just what everyone did.

Now here’s the thing.

Later on, the Rabbis came to the realization that it probably wasn’t a good idea to just let gentiles “naturally” assimilate into Israel minus any official supervision.

Therefore, strict guidelines began to be established.

For example, one of the strict guidelines was that a Hebrew girl should NOT marry a gentile.

Why?

Because such an act instantly destroyed her Hebrew identity.

If an Israelite girl married an uncircumcised man, she was put on a path that could result in her giving up her Israelite identity forever.

And if she had children with a foreigner, this gave birth (no pun intended) to a whole host of other problems.

How would the children be viewed in Israelite society?

Would they be considered Hebrews, gentiles or some type of mixed race abomination?

Incidentally, if the opposite occurred, whereby a gentile woman married a Hebrew man, there were no such problems.

The gentile woman through becoming one flesh with her Hebrew husband was considered fully grafted in to the commonwealth of Israel with full citizenship rights.

Can you see how thorny a topic all of this is?

We’re dealing with the not-so-easily-resolved problems of nationality, citizenship and ethnic identity, matters that go to the very core of how we human beings define themselves.

I want you to keep all of this mind as we move forward with our discussion in Deuteronomy 23 about who can and cannot join Israel and as we begin studying the regulations that concern the “bastard” or MAMZER as it’s called in Hebrew.

See you all next time.