22 years ago, a woman got married. The young couple lived in a small apartment, and her younger sister lived with them and helped with the housework.
Eventually, the husband and the sister got involved romantically, and she got pregnant. Obviously she did not want to tell everyone that she was sleeping with her brother-in-law, so she made up a story saying that she had hooked up with an Arab man she had met.
Eventually the child grew up, and she wanted to marry. She goes to the Rabbanut, in Beer Sheva, to register her upcoming marriage. To her shock she finds out that she is listed in the official records as a mamzeres - the bastard child of a prohibited relationship, and therefore would not be allowed to marry a regular Jew - she would only be able to marry a mamzer or a slave.
I have heard of such situations, rare as they might be, being resolved by taking a slave in a country where slavery is still allowed, such as in parts of Africa or India, and marrying her/him. In this instance, The rabbis of the Rabbanut found a different solution.
The article in NRG-Maariv does not explain what the rabbonim relied on in order to come to the conclusion they did, but based on precedent they were able to cancel her status as mamzeres and allow her to marry. Perhaps they decided that there was not enough proof in the first place to decide she was a mamzeres, as perhaps the father really was an Arab lover as originally claimed.
I dont have anything really to say about this case, but I felt it was a shocking enough, and rare nowadays, case to point out.
While looking the falashs jewishness i saw at least 40 respones from RO Yosef where he permiited mamzerem by being posul the wittness to the kiddushin...
ReplyDeletesimple, a woman has no nemahnas to assur her child
ReplyDeleteIf her mother wasn't married when she had the child with her brother in law, the child is not a mamzeres. She'd only be a mamzeres if her mother was married to another man at the time, which in the article seems she wasn't, as she was living with her sister.
ReplyDeletemaybe the problem is marrying 2 sisters, and relations makes them married? no idea just guessing....
ReplyDeleteThe child of a married man with his sister-in-law is a mamzer, just like the child of any incest or, more precisely, erva.
ReplyDeleteThis is all clearly codified in the Rambam Hil. Issurey Biah Ch. 15
ReplyDelete- The son of a Jewess and a non-Jew is not a Mamzer.
- The child of one's wife's sister is a Mamzer, even if the sister is not yet married.
- A woman is not believed to say her child is the result of a relationship that makes a Mamzer
- A woman is believed when she says that the father of her child is a non-Jew or is a Jew who is not related to her; hence her child is not a Mamzer
- A Mamzer can marry a convert
A Mamzer can marry a convert
ReplyDeletebut then the children acquire mamzerut status, so why would a convert want to do that?
The son of a Jewess and a non-Jew is not a Mamzer
ReplyDeleteI believe Satmar holds otherwise.
but then the children acquire mamzerut status, so why would a convert want to do that?
ReplyDeleteWanting to is a seperate issue. It is halachicly permissible for a mamzer and ger to marry. (The children are mamzeirim, just like if two mamzeirim marry, which is also permissible.)