Down the Rabbinate Hole I: Conversion in the State of Israel

Conversion and its regulation is a major political fight in Israel today. Who is right? What's the debate? In this episode, I begin to take a broader look at institutionalized religion in Israel and try to situate the conversion conundrum within that. We get into the nitty gritty of the Halakhah and address an important graphic feature of how the laws of conversion were codified. We take issue with an otherwise excellent book by Barry Wimpfheimer. We go on a tangent about Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai and some key differences between them. We discuss a bit about the founding of the Chief Rabbinate under the British. The key contention, though, is that attempts to fit Halakhah within a modern, bureaucratic, regulatory regime will inevitably result in the distortion of Halakhah.