[Avodah] Definition of a Mamzer

[Yaakov Ellis]

The Jerusalem Post just posted this story: Mother insists on proving her son
is a 'mamzer' (http://tinyurl.com/y49end). After separating from her husband
but before receiving a get, a woman had a child with another man. Misrad
haPnim automatically put the name of her former husband (to whom she was
married at the time) as the father. She is suing to get the name of the
father changed to the name of the man she claims is the real father.

>From the article:

"From a Jewish standpoint, Moshe's mother should leave his kosher status the
way it is, said Rabbi Moshe Rauchverger, a senior member of the Chief
Rabbinate's Governing Council and a marriage registrar in the Haifa area.

"What does the mother gain from her stubbornness?" he asked. "Does she want
her son to be a *mamzer*?"

[snip]

In Moshe's case, Halacha assumes that Moshe is not a *mamzer* unless
contrary evidence proves otherwise. A woman's legal husband is assumed to be
the father of all of her children until she is divorced. Even when there is
suspicion of infidelity, according to Halacha: "The majority of sexual acts
take place with the legal husband."

Moshe's mother did not receive her *get* from her first husband until she
was eight months pregnant, although they had separated long before. When
Moshe was born she had not yet married Moshe's biological father. The
Interior Ministry clerk who registered Moshe's birth automatically assumed,
in accordance with Halacha, that Moshe's mother's first husband was the
father.

Now Moshe's mother plans to go to court to prove the truth.

Is this for real? The mother is claiming that she had no actual contact with
the man who was her halachic husband at the time of conception. There might
be a chazaka that "the majority of sexual acts take place with the legal
husband", but in this case, we have the direct testimony of the woman that
this is not so. Does the name printed on the birth certificate actually have
significance in this case in determining whether or not the child is a
mamzer?

Yaakov Ellis
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