Why does judaism discourage converts?
by 
Curiosity didnt kill the cat. I did.
ANSWERS: 4
-
Because Jews see being jewish as higher responsibility and essentially, burden.
-
so if someone chose to convert, hypothetically, would they have a harder time than someone who is a "natural" jew? would they be treated differently?
-
Judaism is seen as a responsibility and not one that should be taken lightly. You are entering a community, not something that should be done by whim. Converts are in fact treated slightly differently. Their mother becomes Ruth and their father becomes Abraham. They don't have the traditions that generally come from generation to generation (ma'aseh avot siman labanim, what your forefathers did is a sign to the sons). And they essentially don't have a tribe. Converts are reminded that in history Jews have been hated. Take the Holocaust and the Spanish Inquisition as examples and hat they are entering that same situation.
-
Simply because we believe that your religious path needs to match your natural spiritual make-up. Jews believe that there are 70 families of souls. Jews are one of those families. For a Jewish soul to live to its potential, it needs to follow the Jewish faith. If a person has a soul from a different soul family, but tries to find their spiritual potential through Judaism, they would be wasting their time. Jews don't believe that we have a monopoly on how to get close to G-d. We don't believe you have to be one of us to be OK in G-d's eyes. We do believe that you have to be true to your soul-identity, and if you convert to our religion for any reason other than it being your deepest truth, you're making a serious mistake. For us to encourage other people to follow our religious path would be a form of identity theft- telling someone to live a lifestyle that is ill-suited to their spiritual truth.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC