Mamzer (Hebrew: ממזר) in Halakha (Jewish religious law) is a person born of certain illegitimate relationships between two Jews. That is, one who is born from a married woman as a product of adultery or someone born as a product of incest between certain close relatives. The mamzer status is inherited by children; a child of a mamzer (whether mother or father) is also a mamzer. While the word mamzer is often translated as "bastard", unlike the colloquial usage of bastard a mamzer is not a child born out of wedlock or between people of two different faiths. Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halakhot and Halachah with pronunciation emphasis on the third syllable, kha), is the collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law as well as customs and traditions. ... Posek (Hebrew פוסק, IPA: , pl. ... Mitzvah (Hebrew: מצווה, IPA: , commandment; plural, mitzvot; from צוה, tzavah, command) is a word used in Judaism to refer to (a) the commandments, of which there are 613, given in the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) or (b) any Jewish law at all. ... Rabbinic literature, in the broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of Judaisms rabbinic writing/s throughout history. ... Minhag (Hebrew: מנהג Custom, pl. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Tanakh (Hebrew: ‎) (also Tanach, IPA: or , or Tenak, is an acronym that identifies the Hebrew Bible. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... The Jerusalem Talmud (In Hebrew Talmud Yerushalmi, in short known as the Yerushalmi), also known as the Palestinian Talmud, like its Babylonian counterpart (see Babylonian Talmud), is a collection of Rabbinic discussions elaborating on the Mishnah. ... The Mishneh Torah or Yad ha-Chazaka is a code of Jewish law by one of the most important Jewish authorities, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or by the Hebrew abbreviation RaMBaM (usually written Rambam in English). ... The Shulkhan Arukh (Hebrew: Prepared Table), by Rabbi Yosef Karo is considered the most authoritative compilation of Jewish law since the Talmud. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halakhot and Halachah with pronunciation emphasis on the third syllable, kha), is the collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law as well as customs and traditions. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Illegitimacy was a term in common usage for the condition of being born of parents who are not validly married to one another; the legal term is bastardy. ... Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a partner other than the lawful spouse. ... Incest is sexual activity between close family members who are forbidden by law or custom from marrying. ... // Illegitimacy is a term that was once in common use for the status of being born to parents who were not validly married to one another. ...

Laws of Mamzerim

Other than with respect to the laws of marriage and other minor differences a mamzer is a full-fledged Jew. A mamzer is not a second class citizen and is treated with as much respect as other Jews. It is written in the Talmud that "A learned mamzer takes precedence over an ignorant high priest (Kohen Gadol)". The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... Even in death, many Kohanim choose to have this symbol, the special positioning of their fingers and hands during the Priestly Blessing, placed as a crest or symbol on their gravestones to indicate their status. ...

A mamzer and his or her descendants are not allowed to marry a regular (non-mamzer) Jewish spouse. He or she is permitted to marry only another mamzer, a convert to Judaism, or (in the case of a man) a non-Jewish female slave.

Since all marriages involving Jews in the State of Israel are in accordance with Halacha, a mamzer is only allowed to marry another mamzer or a convert. Often in these situations, the mamzer marries abroad and the marriage is recognized in Israel. In order to enforce this statute the Rabbinate of Israel keeps a list of mamzerim. This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ...

According to the Shulkhan Arukh, if there are rumors that a married woman is having an affair we do not suspect the children of being mamzerim since the majority of her relations are still with her husband, unless she is exceptionally adulterous. The woman herself is not believed to turn her children into mamzerim. The Shulkhan Arukh (Hebrew: Prepared Table), by Rabbi Yosef Karo is considered the most authoritative compilation of Jewish law since the Talmud. ...

According to the opinion of Rabbi Moses Feinstein a product of artificial insemination from a mamzer is not a mamzer; there are, however, those that disagree with him. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986) was an Orthodox Rabbi who was world renowned for his expertise in halacha (Jewish Law) and was the de facto supreme Rabbinic authority for the Orthodox Jewry of North America. ...

In a related ruling, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum declared that children born to a married woman artificially inseminated with the sperm of a man that is not her husband are mamzerim. There are poskim who dispute this ruling. ^[1] Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum of Satmar Grand Rabbi Joel (Yoel) Teitelbaum, (1887-1979), known variously as Reb Yoelish and the Satmar Rav (or Rebbe) (יואל טייטלבוים), was a prominent Hungarian Hasidic rebbe and Talmudic scholar. ... Posek (Hebrew פוסק, IPA: , pl. ...

The children of a mamzer, whether male or female, are mamzerim; likewise their children are mamzerim forever.

There are, however, a few exceptions. The product of a male mamzer and a female gentile slave is a gentile slave. This relationship is sanctioned by Halakha, even though it is forbidden for any other Jew to marry a gentile slave. In historical practice, this was the only method acceptable to Halakha to stop the mamzer status from continuing to the next generation. A convert who wished to marry a mamzer could convert to be a gentile slave and have many of the laws of a regular Jew. The children of the relationship are slaves, and can be freed. After they are freed they are regular Jews and are permitted to marry other Jews. This law is not currently practiced. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halakhot and Halachah with pronunciation emphasis on the third syllable, kha), is the collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law as well as customs and traditions. ...

The child of a mamzer and a gentile woman is a gentile, who can in theory convert and be a regular Jew. However the relationship between the mamzer and the gentile is not permitted, as no Jew (and a mamzer is considered a Jew) is permitted to marry a non-Jew. (The case of the gentile slave is different, because non-Jews who became the slaves of Jews were expected to undergo a partial conversion to Judaism.)

An incestuous relationship between two gentiles does not produce a mamzer.

The child of a married woman and a gentile man is not a mamzer. However, the child of a woman who is mamzer is a mamzer regardless of who is the father.

Modern approaches to issue

The modern world, in which civil divorce and remarriage without a Get (Jewish Bill of Divorce) has become commonplace, has created a crisis threatening to create a large subclass of mamzer individuals ineligible to marry other Jews, threatening to divide the Jewish people. Decision-makers have approached the problem in two ways. Get has several meanings: In Judaism, a get (גט) is a religious divorce. ...

Orthodox Judaism

The principal approach in Orthodox Judaism has been to follow strict rules of evidence that typically render it impossible to prove either that a prior marriage ever existed or that a child was born of relations outside that marriage. An example is a contemporary responsum by the well-known Israeli Posek Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef to Rabbi Grubner of Detroit, Michigan, establishing an impossibility to prove mamzer status in a situation where the evidence might appear to be clear-cut. The case involved the daughter of a woman who had been married by a Haredi rabbi to a husband who subsequently converted to Christianity and refused to participate in a Jewish divorce. The mother eventually divorced and remarried civilly and had the daughter years later. The daughter, who had been raised as an Orthodox Jew and attended a Haredi day school, brought up the question of her status herself prior to an impending marriage. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Note: This is based on an entry from the 1906 public domain Jewish Encyclopedia Responsa is the Latin plural of responsum, meaning, literally, answers. The responsa literature, known in Hebrew as Sheelot U-teshuvot (questions and answers), is the body of written decisions and rulings given by rabbis to questions... Posek (Hebrew פוסק, IPA: , pl. ... Haredi Judaism, also called ultra-Orthodox Judaism, is the most theologically conservative form of Judaism. ...

Rabbi Yosef proceeded systematically to disqualify evidence that a prior marriage had ever taken place. The mother's evidence was immediately disqualified as an interested party. The ketubah (Jewish marriage contract/certificate) was mysteriously never found. The rabbi who performed the marriage was contacted, but Rabbi Yoseph wrote that his testimony could not be accepted without the ketubah, and in any event required corroboration by a second witness. Attempts to contact the husband were abandoned after an adversarial conversation with his new, non-Jewish wife. Thus, Rabbi Yosef concluded there was insufficient evidence that a valid prior marriage had ever taken place. A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract. ...

Rabbi Yosef then proceeded to establish the possibility that the former husband might be the daughter's father. The mother testified that her former husband occasionally brought alimony payments and came for visitation in person and hence the two were sometimes at least momentarily alone together. Applying an ancient rule that when a husband and wife are known to be alone together behind a closed door the law presumes sexual intercourse may well have taken place, Rabbi Yosef concluded that it was possible the former husband was the daughter's father and hence Jewish law, which very strongly construes all evidence in favor of birth within marriage, had to presume that he was. Thus, Rabbi Yosef concluded that there was insufficient evidence of either a former marriage or that the new husband was the father, and hence he concluded that no evidence of mamzerut had occurred.

Conservative Rabbi Daniel Nevins, commenting on this case, noted that the box of traditional tools Rabbi Yosef brought to bear for discrediting evidence of mamzer status may be sufficiently robust as to cover virtually all cases of inquiry in the types of situations a congregational rabbi would be likely to experience. ^[2] Nonetheless, Orthodox authorities hold that while contemporary rabbis have authority to refine procedural rules such as rules of evidence, they do not have the authority to abolish biblically mandated categories or procedures entirely. Image:Dnevins. ...

Conservative Judaism

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) of the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism has declared that Conservative Rabbis should not inquire into or accept evidence of mamzer status under any circumstances, rendering the category inoperative. In doing so, the CJLS distinguished the Conservative approach to Jewish Law from the Orthodox approach, noting that Conservative Judaism regards Biblical law as only the beginning of a relationship rather than a final word, and that the Conservative movement regards it as its role and responsibility to revise Biblical law from time to time when such law conflicts with evolving concepts of morality. ^[3] It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Conservative Halakha. ... Originally set up as the alumni association of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the official, international body of Conservative rabbis, with some 1400 members. ... Conservative Judaism, (also known as Masorti Judaism in Israel predominantly), is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s. ... Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halakhot and Halachah with pronunciation emphasis on the third syllable, kha), is the collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law as well as customs and traditions. ...

The CJLS cited cases in the Talmud in which Biblical laws became inoperative, such as when the Sanhedrin stopped meeting at its seat in the Temple in Jerusalem where it was required to meet in order to administer capital punishment, and the abolition of such practices as the rite of Sotah (the ordeal of a suspected adulteress) and the breaking of the heifer's neck in a case of suspected murder as precedents for refusing to administer Biblically mandated procedures on moral grounds. ^[3] (Other authorities have suggested other reasons, such as the Roman authorities removing the Sanhedrin's ability to administer capital punishment, and the association of certain priestly practices with the existence of a Temple in Jerusalem). For the tractate in the Mishnah, see Sanhedrin (tractate). ... A drawing of Ezekiels Visionary Temple from the Book of Ezekiel 40-47 The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Bet HaMikdash) was located on the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit) in the old city of Jerusalem. ... Nashim (Women) is the third order of the Mishnah (also of the Tosefta and Talmud), containing the laws related to women and family life. ... A drawing of Ezekiels Visionary Temple from the Book of Ezekiel 40-47 The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Bet HaMikdash) was located on the Temple Mount (Har HaBayit) in the old city of Jerusalem. ...

Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism

The category of mamzer has no role in Reform Judaism or Reconstructionist Judaism, as these more liberal branches regard it as an archaism inconsistent with modernity. Reform Judaism can refer to (1) the largest denomination of American Jews and its sibling movements in other countries, (2) a branch of Judaism in the United Kingdom, and (3) the historical predecessor of the American movement that originated in 19th-century Germany. ... Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern Jewish movement marked by views and practices including: Personal autonomy should generally override traditional Jewish law and custom, yet also take into account communal consensus Modern culture is accepted The view that Judaism is an evolving religious civilization Traditional rabbinic modes of study, as well...

In Israeli Law

In the State of Israel, religious courts handle matters of marriage, divorce, and personal status in accordance with religious law, so the law of Mamzerut is also Israeli law for Jews, including secular Jews. Because of the severe disabilities of mamzer status with respect to marriage, the Israeli civil authorities have taken the position that the paternity of a child born within a marriage should not be challenged in any court, in order to avoid creating a body of evidence that might be used to declare the child a mamzer or create difficulties for a future marriage.

A recent case, involving a child born eight months and two weeks after a divorce, indicates that the issue raises strong feelings within Israeli society. ^[4]

References

1. ^ Jakobovits, Yoel (2005). "Assisted Reproduction through the Prism of Jewish Law" (pdf). Jewish Action 65 (3): 26-29. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. “"However, many equally prominent rabbinic authorities maintain19 that only actual physical relations would confer this status on the woman."” 
2. ^ Rabbi Daniel S. Nevins, A Concurring Opinion Regading Mamzerut, Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, EH 4.2000b, pp. 587-592.
3. ^ ^{a b} Rabbi Ellie Kaplan Spitz, Mamzerut, Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, EH 4.2000a, pp. 5587-585.
4. ^ "Better to be a mamzer or to grow up without a father?", HaAretz September 7, 2006