the notion of 'making' people

berl, crown heights commenting to mentalblog.com: Yellow Firestorm by Tony Montana - episode 3:

I think the notion of 'making' people (be they baalei teshuvoh or just stam mushpoim) bears further discussion.

The words בראשית יב ה ) ואת הנפש אשר עשו ), are rendered by Onkolus as וית נפשתא דשעבידו לאוריתא - "...and the souls that they enslaved to The Teaching (Teiroh)". Onkolus goes out of his way to use extra words and does not say די גירו – "that they converted" (which is how Targum Yonason ben Uziel translates this piece). The simple reason behind Onkolus' choice of words seems obvious: it allows him to combine the drash ("the souls they converted”) with the peshat ("the slaves they acquired"). Rashi, on the other hand, sites these two interpretations separately. But, back to Onkelus. Granted, he uses the word 'enslaved' for the above-mentioned technical reason, but it still sheds some light on the role of the spiritual mentor in his eyes. No warm fuzzies here... (On the other hand, the converts that Avrom and Sorai made had no kiyum, so maybe his 'enslaved' is actually critical, maybe he is hinting, "lei zu haderech!")

The Midrosh (brought here by Rashi as the source of the drash) says that because Avrom and Sorai were converting these souls, "the posuk gives them credit as if (as if!) they actually made them." In other words in Rashi's view, it is supposed to be patently obvious, even to the five-year-olds among us, that one does not 'make' people [into anything]!

Now, the word עשה itself is very strange in that is bares two opposite translations (that is, besides the usual translations of 'made' and 'acquired' and besides the famous מעשין על הצדקה which connotes 'coercion' and is in a different binyan). For instance, there is a raging debate among pashtonei hamikroh regarding the meaning of עשתה in the phrase ועשתה את צפרניה (see דברים כא יב ). Some (Rashi, Iben Ezra) say it means she must let her nails grow wild, unkempt. Others (Ramban) say, au contraire, she has to clip her long nails so as to remove anything that is sensual about her!

So which is it?

Is it about a forceful mentoring, a cultish kind of 'enslavement' or is it about a humble realization that at the end of the day one does not do much, that it is really only "as if they made"?

Is it about very involved careful 'clipping' or is it about a completely non-meddling 'letting grow wild'?

Maybe 'all of the above'?