LE: 34/X154647

Copyright 1997 by Jordan Lee Wagner.  All rights reserved.

  
SagesSimcha.com
Puzzle #1: 
The same rabbi that married my parents also officiated years later at the service where I was called to Torah as a Bar Mitzvah. That rabbi also attended my recent wedding to a non-Jewish woman. No violations of halacha have occurred. How did it happen?

Here are what some previous guest-sages have written:

My solution and/or comments: I in this case would have married a woman who converted to Judiasm in an Othodox conversion. I you would have to know could not be a Cohain.
About me: Irwin Fredman
My e-mail address: - mozowin@icon-stl.net
How I found your page: Jewish Global Information Network

My solution and/or comments: Perhaps the key is in 'attended'. Can a Rabbi attend the wedding of a Jew to a non-Jew? The indication here is that the Rabbi did not participate.
About me: Andrew Bowen
My e-mail address: - adb@sgi.com
How I found your page: tor-ch mailing list from JTSA

My solution and/or comments: The groom converted to his (non-Jewish) bride's religion after his Bar Mitzvah, but before his wedding. The rabbi was simply attending the wedding of two gentiles, therefore there was no halachic violation.
About me:
My e-mail address: -
How I found your page:

Yasher Koach (Attaboy!) to all those who wrestled with this conundrum, both here and in the chat room.  No one solved the puzzle this week, although ADB almost got it in the chat room, but we're out of time for hint-giving and we need to make room for the next brain-teaser, so here is our solution:  

A non-Jewish female baby is adopted by a Jewish couple and is converted by a bet din (Jewish Court). A Jewish Court can do such a conversion for the child's benefit, even though the child cannot give consent.  Such conversions are always subject to the child's right of renouncement upon attaining majority. Unfortunately, the child shows signs of emotional instability as she grows.  Because of legitimate concerns for her mental well-being, the child is not told that she is adopted, therefore the child can't be told that she is a convert. (Presumably this decision is taken under rabbinic guidance after the Rav has reviewed the best medical opinions.)  So at age twelve her right of renouncement does not expire as it normally would. (It will expire when she fails to renounce the conversion upon becoming aware of it.)  She marries and has a male child who celebrates a bar mitzvah at age thirteen. She subsequently learns of her involuntary conversion and decides to renounce it in order to explore her biological parents' tradition. She becomes non-Jewish retroactively -- and her child becomes non-Jewish retroactively! The child, now non-Jewish, marries a non-Jew and then poses the riddle.  

(c) Copyright 1997 by Jordan Lee Wagner.  All rights reserved.

The Sage's Simcha is a syndicated feature available to Jewish newspapers. For more information contact Jordan Lee Wagner.

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