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From: samet@sfmag.UUCP (A.I.Samet)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: What is a mamzer?
Message-ID: <530@sfmag.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Mar-85 21:37:58 EST
Article-I.D.: sfmag.530
Posted: Sat Mar 23 21:37:58 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Mar-85 02:02:42 EST
References: <1028@topaz.ARPA>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Summit, NJ
Lines: 65

> As I had a completely secular education and grew up in completely
> religiously non-active family - WHAT IS A MAMZER?  Please?  Most of what I
> read in this newsgroup I can understand, but this one is getting to me.

A mamzer is a Jew (mother was Jewish) who was born under  any  of
the following conditions:

1) Either the father or the mother was a mamzer.

2) The mother (Jewish) was married halachically  to  a  Jew,  and
conceived the child from a Jew who was not her husband.  (In this
case, if the father was a non-Jew the child is NOT a mamzer.)

3) The child was conceived via incest.

A child born out of wedlock, or one whose mother  did not observe
the  laws  of  taharas  hamishpacha  (which  require her to go to
mikveh) is NOT a mamzer. The term mamzer is also used perjoratively
to refer to people who are not actual mamzerim.

A mamzer is only permitted to marry another mamzer or a  convert.
In  either  case,  the progeny will be mamzerim. This is a severe
hardship for the mamzer and his descendants, and a serious concern
for the Jewish community.

No other sanctions apply to the mamzer.  Thus,  in  the  Talmud's
words,  "A  mamzer  who  is  a  Talmud Chacham (Torah scholar) is
accorded greater respect than a Cohen Godol (High Priest) who  is
an am ha'aretz (Torah ignoramus)."

Many  cases  concerning  mamzerim  are  found  in  the   halachic
responsa.   The problem arises most often  in cases where a woman
was halachically married  but   failed  to  obtain  a  valid  get
(halachic  divorce).   This  situation occurs frequently nowadays
when people obtain civil or non-orthodox divorces.

When the Jews  returned  from  exile  in  Babylonia  (during  the
construction of the Second Temple) the prophet Ezra, who was also
a leader in the Sanhedrin,  brought  all  of  the  mamzerim  from
Babylonia  to  assure  that they would be monitored and not marry
illegally.

Halachic authorities try to find loopholes  to clear  someone  of
mamzer  status.  A  major  strategy is to invalidate the mother's
marriage on technical halachic grounds. This  is  often  possible
where  the  mother had been married by a reform ceremony. Even in
such cases, however, there is a remote concern  that  a  halachic
common-law  marriage  status  might  exist  despite  the  invalid
ceremony.  For this reason, a proper get  is  often  insisted  on
even to dissolve a reform marriage.

There is currently a law on the books in NY State which allows  a
man  or  woman to hold back civil divorce proceedings until a get
is  obtained,  on  the  grounds  that   there   are   intervening
circumstances  which  prevent that partner from remarrying. There
is at least one precedent on the books where this helped  someone
receive  a  get.   The  constitutionality of the law has not been
tested, as yet.

In Israel, Jewish  marriage and divorce is under jurisdiction  of
the  orhthodox rabbinate. They insist on a valid halachic divorce
to forestall the tragic  consequences of mamzerus for  those  who
are not yet born.

                                Yitzchok Samet