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[Disclaimer: Hakham Meir Y. Rekhavi is not associated with Torah Creation website and the site material does not reflect his believes and teachings." He is linked with www.karaite-korner.org.
Also, this article doesn’t reflect my views on the subject, although I agree with a good number of its points, but I believe it has a lot of good information that is helpful to anyone searching for truth.]
It can be ascertained through the Mikra that mankind falls under four spiritual categories;
If we read Yesha'yahu (Isaiah) chapter 24 we see that this section refers to the basic code of morality. In the Book of Genesis and elsewhere in the Mikra there seems to be indications that there is a "natural" moral code for mankind, which might have been impressed upon the subconscious of every individual by YHWH. For instance, mankind is wiped out in the great flood because of mankind's wickedness. What represents wickedness needs to be defined and seeing the flood occurred before the giving of the Tora, some sort of "natural" moral code must have defined it. In addition, if we look at Genesis chapter 26, we see that Avimelekh, king of the Pelishtim (Philistines), knew that adultery was wrong; again, this can be seen as a case for some form of a "natural" moral code. This "natural" moral code is probably stamped upon our spirits from conception, courtesy of Adham and Hawwa. When Adham and Hawwa ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they suddenly awoke to their nakedness and lost their spiritual innocence; and became aware of the differences between Good and Evil. Sometime during our formative years, we too learn the fundamental differences between Good and Evil as well.
This "natural" moral code can be found dispersed throughout the Tora. The early Karaite Hakhamim classified this "natural" moral code, as those ordinances in the Tora that are rooted in reason. In other words those miswoth that we would today refer to as being common sense. Such examples are:
"You shall not take up a false rumour." (Ex. 23:1)
"You shall not hate your brother in your heart, rebuke you shall rebuke your kinsman, that you not bear sin because of him." (Lev. 19:17)
"But be helpful to your neighbour as one like yourself, I am YHWH." (Lev. 19:18)
"You shall not steal." (Lev. 19:11)
"There shall not be to you in your purse weighing-stones and weighing-stones, large and small. There shall not be to you in your house epha and epha, large and small. A weighing-stone perfect and just there shall be to you, an epha perfect and just there shall be to you, in order that your days may be lengthened on the soil, which YHWH your God gives to you. For an abomination to YHWH your God is anyone doing this, anyone doing injustice." (Deut. 25:13-16)
"You shall not murder." (Ex 20:13)
"And you shall make a parapet for your roof, and you shall not put blood-(guilt) on your house, if someone falling will fall from it." (Deut. 22:8)
The laws of forbidden sexual unions found in Leviticus chapter 18 are also part of this "natural" moral code as for it is written, "You shall not defile yourselves in any of these, for in all these they make themselves defiled the nations that I am sending out from before you." (Lev. 18:24)
It is a requisite of the Righteous Gentile to keep all the moral laws of the Tora that concern our relationships with our fellow humans and the world around us.
"It is a night of keeping-watch for YHWH, to bring them out from the Land of Misrayim, this is, it is the night of YHWH, a keeping-watch for all the Children of Yisrael throughout their generations. And YHWH said to Moshe and Aharon, “This is the law of the Pesah [Passover], any son of a stranger shall not eat of it. And any servant of a man purchased for silver, and you shall circumcise him, then he shall eat of it. A resident-settler and a hired-hand shall not eat of it. In one house it shall be eaten, you shall not take out from the house, from the meat outside and you shall not break a bone of it. All the Community of Yisrael shall do it. And if a sojourner shall sojourn with you, and shall make the Pesah [Passover] to YHWH, circumcise him (and) all (his) males, and then he shall come near to make it and he shall be a citizen of the land, and all uncircumcised-males shall not eat of it. One Tora [Instruction] there shall be for the citizen, and for the sojourner that sojourns in your midst.” (Ex. 12:42-49)
From the above passage, we can see that only a Yisreeli can offer the Pesah Sacrifice and that if a Ger (sojourner) desires to offer the Pesah Sacrifice, they must first become a fully-fledged Yisreeli. Since it is stated, "And if a sojourner shall sojourn with you, and shall make the Pesah [Passover] to YHWH, circumcise him (and) all (his) males, and then he shall come near to make it and he shall be a citizen of the land, and all uncircumcised-males shall not eat of it," we can see that from this particularly verse the bringing of the Korban Pesah forms part of the initiation ceremony of a convert into the ranks of the Children of Yisrael. The Pesah Sacrifice is thus part of the conversion process, along with circumcision, to becoming a fully-fledged Yisreeli. This means that the convert does not become a fully-fledged Yisreeli until Pesah Night. In other words, even if an individual converts before Pesah Night their conversion does not become active until Pesah Night.
Since the verse in question states, "And if a sojourner shall sojourn with you" the potential convert has to become a Ger before they can become a fully-fledged Yisreeli. Therefore, all the laws in the Tora that pertain to a Ger has to be observed by them before they can become a Yisreeli. There are then two separate stages for a non-Yisreeli to go through before they are allowed to enter into the Children of Yisrael. The fact that one has to become a Ger before they can become a Yisreeli is backed up by the following verse from the same passage, "any son of a stranger shall not eat of it" thus meaning that even if a stranger does circumcise himself he is still not a Yisreeli unless he goes through the process of being a Ger first because it does not mention "but if he circumcise himself".
The verse, "One Tora [Instruction] there shall be for the citizen, and for the sojourner that sojourns in your midst" refers to the Ger after he becomes circumcised and therefore becomes a fully-fledged Yisreeli. A Ger is uncircumcised; if he were circumcised, he would be a Yisreeli.
As pointed out above the Tora sees the Ger not as a convert but as a half way house between a God fearing Gentile and a Yisreeli. This can be proved by the fact that in the Tora there are miswoth that are incumbent upon a Yisreeli but not upon a Ger, for example:
"And when the hand of a sojourner or resident-settler with you attains means, and your brother with him is lowly, and has been sold to a sojourner or a resident-settler with you, or to an offshoot of the clan of a sojourner. After he has been sold redemption shall be to him; one of his brothers shall redeem him. Or his uncle, or a son of his uncle shall redeem him, or kin of his flesh from his clan shall redeem him, or his own hand attains means then he shall been redeemed. And he shall calculate with his purchaser from the year that he was sold to him, until the Year of the Yovel, and the silver from his sale shall be by the number of years, as the days of a hireling he shall be with him. If many years remain, according to them he shall return his redemption payment from the silver of his purchase. And if a few years remain until the Year of the Yovel, then he shall calculate to him, according to his years he shall return his redemption payment. As a hireling, year-by-year, he shall be with him, and he shall not oppress him with tyranny before your eyes. And if he has not been redeemed in any of these ways, then he goes out in the Year of the Yovel, he and his children with him. For to me are the Children of Yisrael servants, they are my servants, whom I brought out from the Land of Misrayim [Egypt], I am YHWH your God." (Lev. 25:47-55)
We can see from this passage that a Ger is not the same as a Yisreeli for the above passages states, "And when the hand of a sojourner or resident-settler with you attains means, and your brother with him is lowly, and has been sold to a sojourner or a resident-settler with you." This passage thus distinguishes between a Yisreeli, a Ger, and a Toshav (resident-settler) and if the Ger were a fully-fledged Yisreeli, the distinction between a brother Yisreeli and a Ger would not be necessary.
In the following verse, we see that there is a separate law for the Yisreeli and for the Ger; therefore, it is impossible that the sojourner is a fully-fledged convert. "You shall not eat any carcass, to the sojourner that is within your gates you may give it that he may eat it or sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to YHWH your God." (Deut. 14:21) When the Tora states in Deut 31:12 that the Ger is required to join the rest of the people to hear the commandments so that he will keep them, "Assemble the people, men and women and the little ones, and your sojourner that is within your gates, in order that they shall hear, and in order that they will learn, and they shall revere YHWH your God, and they observe to do all the words of this Tora." The Tora means that the Ger will learn and fulfil all the words of the Tora that relates to the Ger, and in time, once he fully converts will keep the entire Tora. When it says in Exodus 12:49, "One Tora [Instruction] there shall be for the citizen, and for the sojourner that sojourns in your midst.” It means he who was a former Ger, but is NOW, after circumcision, a fully fledge Yisreeli.
In conclusion, a Ger, as can be seen from the above, is not a convert. If he were a convert there would not be a Halakhic distinction between the Ger and the Yisreeli as can be seen from Deut. 14:21. Therefore, before someone converts to being a Yisreeli they must become a Ger first, for a period, and observe those laws of the Tora that pertain to a Ger, only after this can they convert and partake of the Korban Pesah (when the Temple stood).
Examples of the laws of the Tora that pertain to a Ger are as follows:
"Remember the Shabbath day to make it holy. Six days you shall work, and do all your vocation. But the seventh day is a Shabbath for YHWH your God; you shall not do in it any kind of vocation, you and your son and your daughter, your servant and your maid and your beast and your sojourner that is within your gates. For in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day, therefore YHWH blessed the Shabbath day and he hallowed it." (Ex. 20:8-11)
"And this day shall be to you for a memorial and you shall celebrate the pilgrimage as a pilgrimage festival to YHWH throughout your generations, a law for all times you shall celebrate the pilgrimage. Seven days you shall eat massoth [unleavened bread], indeed by the first day you are to get rid of leaven from your houses, for anyone who eats what is fermented/soured, from the first day and until the seventh day that soul/life force shall be cut off from Yisrael. And on the first day a holy proclamation, and on the seventh day a holy proclamation shall there be to you, all vocation you shall not do on them, only that which every soul/life force must eat that alone may be done by you. And you shall keep this commandment for on this same day I have taken out your hosts from the Land of Misrayim [Egypt], and you shall keep this day through out your generations, a law for all times. In the first (month), on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat massoth [unleavened bread], until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. Seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what ferments/sours, that soul/life force will be cut off from the community of Yisrael, whether sojourner or citizen of the land. All that ferments/sours you shall not eat, in all your settlements you shall eat massoth [unleavened bread]." (Ex. 12:14-20)
"And it shall be to you for a law forever, in the seventh month on the tenth of the month you shall afflict your souls/life forces, and all vocation you shall not do, the citizen and the sojourner that sojourns among you. Because on this day atonement is to be made upon you to purify you from all your sins, before YHWH you will become pure. A Shabbath Shabbathon it will be to you, and you shall afflict your souls/life forces a law forever." (Lev. 16:29-31)
"And (any) man, (any) man from the House of Yisrael, or from the sojourners that sojourn among you, that eats any blood, I will set my face against the soul/life force that eats the blood, and will cut it off from among its people. For the soul/life force of the flesh it is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the slaughter-site [altar], to make atonement for your souls/life forces, for it is the blood (that) makes atonement for the soul/life force. Therefore I said to the Children of Yisrael: Every soul/life force among you, you shall not eat blood, and the sojourner that sojourns in your midst shall not eat blood. For the soul/life force of all flesh is its blood, it is its soul/life force, and I said to the Children of Yisrael: The blood of all flesh you shall not eat: for the soul/life force of all flesh it is its blood, everyone that eats it shall be cut off." (Lev. 17:10-12,14)
We notice that the Ger is obligated to celebrate Hagh Hammassoth (The Pilgrimage Festival of Unleavened Bread), but not to bring the Korban Pesah. This is because the Korban Pesah, as pointed out above, was distinctly Yisreeli, no non-Yisreeli being allowed to partake unless he first submitted to circumcision and thereby embraced the Biblical faith and identified himself with the people hood and destiny of Yisrael.
A Ger, like a Righteous Gentile must keep all the moral laws of the Tora that concern our relationships with our fellow humans and the world around us. In addition to this, the Ger must keep the Shabbath and the Festivals including Yom Hakkippurim, but not the Korban Pesah (Passover Sacrifice). The Ger must not consume blood, therefore all the meat that a Ger eats must be slaughtered correctly, but they are not obliged to eat only pure animals as the Yisreeli is.
The answer is yes and no. Let me explain. As pointed out above there are certain laws in the Tora that state that a foreigner, i.e. a non-Yisreeli or someone who is not a sojourner, is not obliged to follow the whole Tora. For another example;
"At the end of seven years you are to make a release, and this is the matter of the release. He shall release every possessor of a loan of his hand, which he has loaned to his friend; he shall not impel his friend and his brother, but has proclaimed a release to YHWH. The foreigner you may impel, and that which will be to you, with your brother your hand shall release. However, there will not be among you any needy person, because YHWH your God will bless you, bless, in the land which YHWH your God is giving to you to possess it as an inheritance. Only, if you will listen, listen to the voice of YHWH your God, to keep and to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today. For YHWH your God will bless you as he spoke to you, and many nations will give pledges to you, and you will not give pledges, and you will rule over many nations and over you they will not rule." (Deut. 15:1-6)
To quote more verses will be to labour the point. Now, as stated, a foreigner is not obliged to follow the Tora before the Messianic Era, but it is recommended. The Mikra in fact calls upon the Gentiles to abandon their false gods and to become apart of the Children of Yisrael; this can be seen from the following passage;
"Do not let the son of the foreigner, who has joined himself to YHWH, speak, saying, "YHWH has completely separated me from his people;" nor let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." For thus says YHWH to the eunuchs who keep my Shabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant. And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. And the children of the foreigner those that attach themselves to YHWH, to serve him and to love the name of YHWH to be to him for servants all who keep Shabbath, from profaning it and grasp hold of my covenant. Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their ascent-offerings and their slaughter-offerings shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord YHWH who gathers the outcasts of Yisrael says, "Yet will I gather others to him, beside those who are already gathered." (Is. 56:3-8)
Now, come the Messianic Era all foreigners WILL be obliged to follow the Tora as can be seen by the following;
"And it shall come to pass, that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Yerushalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, YHWH of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And it shall be, that whoever will not come up of all the families of the earth to Yerushalem to worship the King, YHWH of hosts, upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Misrayim [Egypt] does not go up, and does not come, they will have no rain. This shall be the plague, with which YHWH will strike the nations that do not come up to observe the Feast of Booths. This shall be the punishment of Misrayim [Egypt], and the punishment of all the nations that come not up to observe the Feast of Booths." (Zech. 14: 16-19)
So therefore, what is the difference between a foreigner who accepts the Tora before the Messianic and one who accepts the Tora come the Messianic Era? As can be seen from the Isaiah 56:3-8 the foreigner who accepts the Tora before the Messianic Era becomes an Yisreeli and shares in all the blessings of Yisrael come the Messianic Era. Now a foreigner who does NOT accept the Tora before the Messianic Era but only accepts the Tora come the Messianic Era remains an Egyptian, a Russian, a Korean etc who follows the Tora. They therefore do not become a Yisreeli, do not share in the blessings of Yisrael come the Messianic Era and remain 'other Nations' as can be seen by Zech. 14: 16-19.
Therefore, the convert who converts prior to the Messianic Era is absorbed into the Children of Yisrael physically and spiritually. The ancestors of Yisrael become their ancestors; the history of Yisrael becomes their history. In other words, when someone converts it is as if they were born a Yisreeli.
As has been pointed out above the Tora is for all mankind and not just for the privilege of the Children of Yisrael, what is left of mankind after the Day of Judgement will observe the Tora to the full. We, as a nation were given the Truth on Mt. Sinai by YHWH the creator and master of the universe. Truth is for all, to be shared amongst all who want to embrace it. YHWH's intention for Yisrael is, "And you shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." (Ex. 19:6) We cannot be priests unto ourselves, but we are priests unto the Nations. Seeing we are to be priests unto the Nations then logic dictates that the nations must practice the same religion as we do. YHWH gave the Tora to Yisrael so that they could become "a light to the nations," (Isaiah 42:6) this however is not to be achieved by the sword or through forced conversions for as I have written before, "Whatever is gained by force, Must be sustained by force. But whatever is gained by truth and justice, Will support itself." Therefore, Yisrael is to bring the Nations to the Tora of YHWH by setting the example. Yisrael is to teach the nations the Tora, a mission that most of Jewry has forgotten.