Parshas Bo - the geirus of the leviim at the time of יציאת מצרים

The gemara says in Yevamos (46a)

תנו רבנן גר שמל ולא טבל רבי אליעזר אומר הרי זה גר שכן מצינו באבותינו שמלו ולא טבלו, טבל ולא מל רבי יהושע אומר הרי זה גר שכן מצינו באמהות שטבלו ולא מלו, וחכמים אומרים טבל ולא מל מל ולא טבל אינו גר עד שימול ויטבול

“If a ger has a bris but does not immerse himself in a mikva, Rabbi Eliezer says that he is a ger, because we find that our forefathers in Mitzrayim had a bris but did not immerse themselves in a mikva.

If a ger immerses himself in a mikva but does not have a bris, Rabbi Yehoshua says that he is a ger, because the imahos immersed themselves in a mikva but did not have a bris.

However, the chachamim say that a ger does not become Jewish until he both has a bris and immerses himself in a mikva.”

Rashi explains the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer

באבותינו שמלו - בימי משה כשיצאו ממצרים ויצאו מכלל בני נח לקבל התורה ולקבל פני השכינה

“We find that our forefathers in Mitzrayim had a bris: [We know that] this occurred in the days of Moshe when they went out of Mitzrayim, [because by having a bris] they went out of the category of the benei noach, so that they could receive the Torah and greet the presence of the shechina. (I.e. since they received the presence of the shechinah, it must be that they first had a bris, because without a bris it is not possible to greet the presence of the shechinah.)”

The Ramban (חידושי הרמב"ן שם, ד"ה שכן מצינו) comments

שכן מצינו באבותינו שמלו ולא טבלו. כתב רש"י ז"ל כשמלו בימי משה כשיצאו ממצרים ויצאו מכלל בני נח לקבל תורה וליכנס תחת כנפי השכינה ותמיהא לן מנ"ל דאיכא מילה כשבאו ליכנס תחת כנפי השכינה ...

והרב רבי משה ז"ל כתב (הלכות איסורי ביאה, פרק י"ג, הלכה ב'), מילה היתה במצרים שנאמר כל ערל לא יאכל בו מל אותן משה רבינו ע"ה שכולם בטלו ברית מילה במצרים חוץ משבטו של לוי שנאמר ובריתך ינצורו ע"כ, ואם כן שבט לוי האיך נכנסו תחת כנפי השכינה אלא הטיפו מהם דם ברית.

ולי נראה דמדין מילה אינן חייבין להטיף דהא מלו, ולא דמו לערבי מהול וגבעוני מהול דהתם כיון דלא מפקדי כמאן דלא מהילי דמו והכי איתא במסכת עבודת כוכבים ומזלות פרק אין מעמידין (עבודה זרה דף כ"ז) ואם תשיבני בני קטורה לא נתחייבו אלא הם הא זרעם לא נתחייבו וכן פר"ש בפרק ד' מיתות הילכך בני לוי נדונו כנשים להכנס בטבילה תחת כנפי שכינה עם המילה שלהם.

“Rashi says that the benei yisrael must have had a bris because this was necessary for them to be able to receive the Torah and to greet the presence of the shechina. However we do not know how Rashi knows that having a bris is a pre-requisite to entering under the wings of the shechina…

The Rambam says that we know that the benei yisrael had a bris because the passuk says that someone who is uncircumcised may not eat from the korban pesach, and all of the benei yisrael in Mitzrayim had stopped doing bris milah besides shevet levi. (So in order to allow them to eat from the korban pesach they must have had a bris.)

But then, according to the Rambam, it is difficult to understand how the shevet levi became gerim, since they already had a bris.

You cannot say that they did הטפת דם ברית, because since they already had a bris this would have had no significance. This is not comparable to a ger who had a bris before they were misgayer (who does הטפת דם ברית), because in that case the ger, prior to conversion, is considered to be an arel, and therefore when they do הטפת דם ברית it reclassifies their bris as the bris of Avraham Avinu. 

However, since the reason that the leviim performed bris milah was always because of the bris of Avraham Avinu, their doing הטפת דם ברית would have had no significance at all (since they were already בני ברית), and so would not have been a way for them to be נתגייר.”

• According to the Rambam, how were the leviim מתגייר at the time of yetzias mitzrayim?

The Pachad Yitzchak explains as follows:

The gemara says in Sanhedrin (16b)

ואין עושין סנהדריות לשבטים אלא על פי בית דין של שבעים ואחד כו': מנא לן, כדאשכחן במשה דאוקי סנהדראות ומשה במקום שבעים וחד קאי

“[The mishna says that] only the sanhedrin of 71 in Yerushalayim can appoint a sanhedrin for the shevatim: How do we know this? As we find that Moshe appointed sanhedrin for the shevatim, and Moshe was in the place of the sanhedrin of 71.”

Rashi explains:

דאוקי סנהדראות - בעצת יתרו ומשה היה שופט ודיין על פי הדבור ושקול כסנהדרי גדולה שבירושלים.

“Moshe appointed sanhedrin according to the advice of Yisro. Moshe was a dayan appointed by Hashem and therefore he was equivalent to the sanhedrin gedolah in Yerushalayim.”

In explanation of Rashi, it would appear that Moshe was explicitly appointed to the status of the beis din of 71 when Hashem told him to do kiddush ha’chodesh, since kiddush ha’chodesh can only be done by a beis din.

The Rambam says at the beginning of hilchos bris milah (1:1-2):

ומצוה על האב למול את בנו ...עבר האב או האדון ולא מל אותן ביטל מצות עשה. ואינו חייב כרת, שאין הכרת תלוי אלא בערל עצמו. ובית דין מצווין למול אותו הבן או העבד בזמנו, ולא יניחו ערל לא בישראל ולא בעבדיהן.

“It is a mitzva for a man to give his son a bris, if the father did not give his son a bris, or the master did not give his slave a bris, he has annulled a positive mitzva. However, the father or the master is not chayav kares, because this punishment only falls on the ערל himself. The beis din is commanded to give a bris to that son or to that slave in the right time, and they should not leave an ערל amongst either the benei yisrael or amongst their slaves.”

Since the beis din is commanded not to leave an ערל amongst the benei yisrael, therefore it would appear that when the father gives his son a bris, he does so in the context of beis din’s responsibility not leave an ערל amongst the benei yisrael. So that, if the father fails in his obligation to give his son a bris, the responsibility to give the son a bris defaults to the beis din. In other words, that which the father gives his son a bris, is done both on behalf of the father himself, and also on behalf of beis din, to whom the obligation to give a bris defaults, if the father is negligent in his duty.

This arrangement, that beis din are generally responsible for bris milah among klal yisrael, could only have begun when Moshe was given the status of the beis din of 71, when he was commanded to do kiddush ha’chodesh. Prior to this there was no central beis din that was responsible for klal yisrael, and the bris milah that  was performed was done as a familial obligation to preserve the bris of Avraham Avinu.

Therefore, even although shevet levi kept bris milah as the bris of Avraham Avinu in Mitzrayim, since they did so as a private family concern, and not as that bris milah which is centric to klal yisrael’s composition and which is overseen by beis din, they were still able to do הטפת דם ברית, in order to be מתגייר.

By doing הטפת דם ברית על דעת בית דין they were משעבד themselves to that bris milah of Avraham Avinu which inaugurates and binds the נמול to adhere to the הלכות התורה as decided by beis din, which superseded the family level bris milah which had been performed by the benei yisrael until the formation of Moshe’s beis din.