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<P>RCL:</P>
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<P>What people might be thinking of, is a) getting a friend to buy a female<BR>slave and have her convert l'shem avdus; b) the mamzer then selling<BR>himself as an eved ivri to that friend; and then have the friend marry<BR>him to the now shifcha c'nani. In which case, any child of his belongs<BR>to the master as an eved c'nani and not to the father - and so arguably<BR>never acquires mamzer status (and if later freed by the master would be<BR>a full fledged non mamzer Jew - although again the prohibition against<BR>freeing would presumably apply). BUT the problem with that is, that the<BR>sources are very explicit that the concept of an eved ivri does not<BR>exist b'zman hazeh, but only in the times of yovel. So, while it does<BR>seem like something that might work halachically once we have mashiach<BR>and yovel - I can't see how Rav Aharon Kotler could have been advising<BR>such a thing.</P>
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<P>RMYG:</P>
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<P>Without addressing R'n CL's points directly (which I think would have to be<BR>on Avodah), I think I misremembered the story. I think it goes that RAK told<BR>him to marry the slave and then free their kids, who would then not be<BR>mamzerim.<BR>>></P>
<P>RMYG apparently got it right the second time around; there is an open mishna on this topic, and an open seif in SA. </P>
<P>In the mishna in Kiddushin 3:13, R. Tarfon describes a procedure by which a mamzer may legally marry, and his children will be non-mamzerim. A mamzer may marry (l'chatchila) an shifcha c'naanit. The child of such a union is an eved or shifcha, and if freed is kasher b'Yisrael. This is the halacha, SA EH 4:20. Presumably, this is what RAK was referring to, as RMYG wrote.</P>
<P>In fact there is a siman in SA Orach Chaim about eved c'naani: OC 304, dinei shvitat avdo. The Rama comments on this siman, and in fact so does the Mishna Brurah. See MB there sk 25, 26, where it is clear that this din applies b'zman hazeh. The MB there also mentions the din mentioned above: the possibility of a mamzer marrying a shifcha c'naanit, and a mamzeret marrying an eved c'naani.</P>
<P>Saul Mashbaum</P>
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