Righteous Converts

The first of the converts was Avraham our father, who was born into a family of idol worshipers, and out of his good character traits and deep contemplation came to know his Creator and rejected the idols of his father’s house. When he was about fifty-two years old he began to spread faith in the One God, and together with Sara our mother he converted men and women to the service of God (Avoda Zara 9a; above 1:9). At the age of seventy-five he merited a Divine revelation and was commanded to go up to the Land and establish there a nation from which blessing would spread to all the families of the earth (Bereshit 12:1-3).

The life of Avraham our father is an example and model for all converts. Like Avraham, they too leave their native land and their family, their faith and their culture, join the Jewish people and go up to the Land in order to take part in realizing the great vision of Israel – to bring blessing to the whole world. This is what is stated (Tehilim 47:10): “The nobles of the peoples are gathered, the people of the God of Avraham.” The converts are the “nobles of the peoples” who gather by their own choice to the destiny of the children of Avraham, “who was the first of the converts” (Sukka 49b).

When Pharaoh king of Egypt decreed that the children of Israel be thrown into the Nile, Yokheved hid her three-month-old infant son in a basket among the reeds by the Nile, in order to save him from the Egyptians who sought to kill all the sons born to Israel. “And Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the Nile, and her maidens walked along the Nile’s edge; and she saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her maidservant, and she took it. And she opened it and saw the child, and behold, a boy crying; and she had compassion on him and said: This is one of the Hebrews’ children… And he became her son, and she named him Moshe, and said: Because I drew him out of the water” (Shemot 2:1-10). At the very time that Bitya, Pharaoh’s daughter, decided to violate her father’s decree and save the Hebrew child, Bitya rejected the idols of her father’s house and joined the Jewish people, and her bathing in the Nile served her as a conversion immersion (Megilla 13a; Rashi ibid.).

When Israel left Egypt, Bitya joined them, and married Kalev son of Yefuneh, who was called “Mered” (rebel) because he rebelled against and rejected the counsel of the spies, and followed the path of his wife Bitya, who rebelled against her father’s command to murder the children of Israel. Bitya was called “the Judean woman” (ha-Yehudiya) “because she rejected idolatry,” “for whoever rejects idolatry is called a Jew (Yehudi)” (Megilla ibid.). Regarding Bitya, Pharaoh’s daughter, the verse states (I Divrei Ha-yamim 4:18): “And his wife the Judean woman bore Yered the father of Gedor, and Ḥever the father of Sokho, and Yekutiel the father of Zanoaḥ; and these are the sons of Bitya the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took.” The Sages said (Megilla ibid.) that all the names mentioned as sons borne by Bitya are none other than epithets of Moshe our teacher, whom she merited to save and raise, “to tell you that whoever raises an orphan boy or girl in his home, Scripture regards him as though he had given birth to him… And why was he called Yered? Because the manna came down (yarad) for Israel in his days. Gedor – because he fenced in (gadar) the breaches of Israel. Ḥever – because he joined (ḥibber) Israel to their Father in Heaven. Sokho – because he became like a shelter (sukka) for Israel. Yekutiel – because Israel hoped (kivu) to God (El) in his days. Zanoaḥ – because he caused the sins of Israel to be disregarded (hizniaḥ) (he caused God to forgive Israel for their sins). ‘Father of,’ ‘father of,’ ‘father of’ – a father in Torah, a father in wisdom, a father in prophecy.”