The Midrash teaches that G-d gave the Torah to Israel in the uninhabited wilderness so as to say that no one has sole claim to the Torah; but that it is available to whoever will come to receive it. It is also no coincidence that the Torah was given and Israel established at the geographical convergence of the three major continents.
It was G-d’s will that the Torah be spread to the ends of the earth. However, G-d, in His mercy, has not enforced the Torah on the entire world in one blow. Rather, He created a system by which the Torah would influence the nations slowly, over time, so that eventually “…it shall come to pass that ten men of all the languages of the nations shall take hold of the hem of the garment of a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that G-d is with you;’” (Zech. 8,23).
It is evident that in the future the Creator will hold the nations to a standard higher than the Laws of Noah, as it states in Zechariah 14,19: “…this shall be the punishment of Egypt, and of all the nations that do not go up to observe the Feast of Tabernacles;” and as it says in Isaiah 66,23: “from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to prostrate before Me, says YHWH.”
It is only through upholding the Torah that G-d promises us blessing, goodness, and life. And so our Sages warned that we not overly frighten a potential convert, ‘lest we cause him distress and turn him from the good path (becoming Jewish) to the bad path (ie: not becoming Jewish);’ (Hil. Isurei Bi’ah 14,3) And similarly they stated concerning a potential convert: “For at the outset we draw a person forth with soft and appealing words, as the prophet states: ‘With cords of man, I drew them forth,’ (Hosea 11,4)and then continues: ‘with bonds of love.’ […] and we say to him, ‘ You should know that the World to Come is hidden away only for the righteous, and they are Israel.’” The Torah makes it clear that the convert is not inferior to the native-born Israelite: “An everlasting law for all your generations: as you are, so shall the convert be before YHWH;” (Num. 15,15).
