Halakhah sobre Números 15:30

Rabbi Gestetner argues that, since the conversions in question are null and void, any person assisting in such a conversion ceremony transgresses the prohibition "and before a blind man you shall not place a stumbling-block" (Leviticus 19:14). It might well be assumed that the "stumbling-block" in the situation under discussion lies in the fact that the non-Jew will be inadvertently accepted by the community at large as a Jew for all halakhic purposes, including eligibility to marry a person of Jewish birth. According to such an analysis, it is the members of the community at large who are "blind" and who may stumble. Rabbi Gestetner, however, argues that the "stumbling" is of a nature which is both immediate and certain, viz., making the mikveh available for the act of immersion constitutes a stumbling-block placed before the officiants at the conversion. Rambam, Guide of the Perplexed, Book III, chapter 41, states that every transgression which assumes the form of a denial of the veracity of the Torah constitutes a transgression of a prohibition couched in the words "the Lord does he blaspheme" (Numbers 15:30). Acceptance of converts without proper commitment on their part to observance of the commandments, argues Rabbi Gestetner, constitutes denial of one of the principles of the Oral Law. Since immersion of such a candidate by the Bet Din is ipso facto a denial of a principle of the Oral Law involving a transgression of "the Lord does he blaspheme" any assistance rendered in performing such an act, rules Rabbi Gestetner, constitutes the placing of a stumbling-block before the blind.