Mamzer

(3) A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of the LORD.

(13) Who is a Mamzer? [Relations with] any close relative subject to "He shall not enter" (Devarim 23:3) [produces a Mamzer], these are the words of Rabbi Akiva. Shimon HaTimni says: [Relations with] anyone with whom one is liable to Karet [excision] at the hands of Heaven [produces a Mamzer], and the law follows his approach. Rabbi Yehoshua says: [Relations with] anyone with whom one is liable to capital punishment [produces a Mamzer]...

(1) Bastards and subjects are forbidden for eternity to the end of days, whether males or females:

(5) A [male] Israelite who comes to one of these, the child shall follow her tribe. And if one of these - except for a bastard - comes to a daughter of Israel, the child will be ok for the congregation [to marry], except for kohanim.

(10) Today all nations are confused. Therefore, if an Ammonite, Moabite or Edomite convert, they may marry into the congregation immediately. Individuals are always seen as emerging from the majority, and we depend on the rationale that this person's origins are from the majority of nations who are permissible immediately. The Rambam extends this rule to an Egyptian, but according to the Rosh, the Egyptian retains his original prohibition.

(13) What is a mamzer? He is the product of a union that is called arayot, whether it is a capital offense or one punishable by spiritual death, with the exception of a menstruant woman, where the offspring is considered damaged but not a mamzer, even on rabbinic level.

(14) If a woman's husband traveled abroad and remained there for more than twelve months, and she had a child after twelve months, that child his a mamzer, because gestation is never longer than twelve months. Some say he is not definitively a mamzer. Since it is subject to debate, he is considered a doubtful mamzer. Rem"a: During the twelve months, however, there is no concern, because we can say that this was a very long gestation.

(16) [In the case of ] a woman whose husband [is presumed dead] at sea, and becomes married [to another man], but then [later learns] her [initial] husband is alive: any child from the second [marriage] is a complete bastard and is permitted to marry a female bastard. If the first husband returns to her before the second [husband] divorces her, and bears a child - the child is a rabinnic bastard, who is forbidden to marry a complete bastard, but is permitted to marry another rabinnic bastard. (But, if she becomes promiscuous, and her husband returns to her, the child does not become a bastard) (Mordekhai)

(18) An female or male Israelite who marries a bastard child, they always produce bastard [children].

(19) If a non-Jew or a slave cohabit with a female mamzer, the offspring is a mamzer. If they cohabit with a Jewish woman, whether she is single or married, the offspring is permitted [to marry into the congregation], but is considered damaged with regard to marrying a kohen.

(20) If a mamzer cohabits with a non-Jewish woman, the offspring is considered a non-Jew. If he converts, he is a full Jew. If a mamzer cohabits with a maid-servant the offspring is a slave. If he is freed, he is a free Jew. Therefore a mamzer may wed, as a matter of first resort, a maidservant who has accepted Jewish observance and has immersed in the mikva for the sake of slavery, so that his offspring may be permitted after they are freed and they may marry a Jewish woman.

(21) A woman performs idolatry and has a child. She is allowed to convert her son in public.

(22) A proselyte and a freed slave are permitted [to marry] a female mamzer. Similarly, a mamzer is permitted [to marry] a female proselyte or freed slave, since the community of proselytes is not properly called a community, and therefore a child born from them is a mamzer. This applies even if ones parentage and birth were within a [seemingly valid] marriage, for example, if ones father were a proselyte and he married a proselyte; even in such a situation, this person is permitted to marry a mamzer, even to the 10th generation; however after [the 10th generation], it would be forbidden, for by then the awareness of the proselyte origins would be gone and he then falls into the category of an Israelite man who marries a mamzer. The Rambam permits their child to marry a mamzer, as well as his son and grandson until the time when the awareness of the proselyte origins are gone and no one knows he is a proselyte; from then on, his descendants may not marry a mamzer women. The law is the same for proselytes and freed slaves; the same law applies to all of them.

(8) A priest supersedes a Levite, a Levite supersedes an Israelite, an Israelite supersedes a product of a forbidden relation, a productof a forbidden relation supersedes a Natin [member of a caste of Temple servants, historically descended from the Gibeonites], a Natin supersedes a convert, and a convert supersedes a freed slave. When? When they are all equal. But if the product of a forbidden relation is a Sage and the high priest is an Am Ha'Aretz [one who is lax in observing tithes and purity laws], the product of a forbidden relation who is a sage supersedes the high priest who is am Am Ha'Aretz.

Local court of three which one of them was a convert, it is invalid. Until his mother is from Israel. If one of them is a bastard even if all three of them are bastards, these are eligible to judge. And so if all of them were blind in one eye they are eligible, which is not the case for the Supreme Court. But a blind-man in two eyes is ineligible for all.

(8) Another matter: And went out the son of an Israelite woman, as it is written (Ecclesiastes 4:1): And I returned and considered all the oppressions (that were done under the sun; and beheld the tears of those that were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressor there was power, but they had no comforter):' Daniel (Hanina) the Tailor interpreted this verse as mamzerim: "And behold the tears of the oppressed, their fathers committed a sin and these humiliated ones are removed'?! This one's father had illicit sexual relations - What did he [the child] do? Why should it make a difference for him? They had no comforter, but from the hand of their persecutors there is strength," this is the Great Assembly of Israel which comes against them with the power of the Torah and removes them based on "no mamzer shall enter the congregation of the Lord" (Deut. 23:3). And they have no comforter, Thus, God says, "I have to comfort them," because in this world they are refuse, but in the Messianic Age ... they are pure gold.

(5) A family that might have in their lineage a suspected chalal any kosher woman may marry one of these. And if she is widowed she is forbidden to a Cohen A Priori. But [after the fact] if she is married [to a priest], she doesn't need to be divorced because of these two doubts: Maybe she became a widow of this chalal and maybe she is not a widow. Even if you say that she is a widow maybe he is not chalal. [Isserless: And some hold this is Davka for a the widow herself, since she has a chazaka of Kashrus (having been married to a Kohen) but this does not apply to her daughter and if she is already married, he must divorce her. But, others are Maikel and make no distinction between the widow and her daughter)] But if someone who was certainly a chalal marries into a family, then every women in that family is forbidden (to a priest) until he the priest does an investigation. If she was married (without an investigation), she is then divorced. And this is also the rule if a doubtful or certain mamzer marries into a family. [Isserless: Yet all this is particularly for someone about whom it is known, but a family that is blended with (at least one known) passul that is not known to the public, for example this one or that one was tamei and the knowledge of this passul is not appropriate for public exposure, rather we assume a Hazakah of Kashrut that all the families that become tamei in Israel are Kosher in the days of the Messiah and in every place, this is kosher to reveal and demonstrates their modesty. This is davka for a family that is blended with tameiim, but any time that this tuma is not blended (and the passulim are known) then the tameiim should be revealed and publicly announced about them so that kosher people will keep away from them.]

(20) Anybody who marries a woman by way of sexual immorality, even if it was only a rabbinicaly mandated prohibition, such as intermarriage, we force him to dismiss her.

Mishnah. Mamzerim and Netinim are ineligible, and their ineligibility is for all time, this applies for males and for females. Gemarah. Resh Lakish said: A woman Mamzeret is eligible after ten generations... R. Eliezer was asked: What is a female bastard after ten generations? Were anyone to present to me a third generation I would declare it pure. He is obviously of the opinion that the offspring of a Mamzer does not survive. So said R. Huna: A Mamzer's stock does not survive. Did we not learn, however, Mamzerim are ineligible, and their ineligibility is for all time. R. Zera replied: It was explained to me by Rab Judah that those who are known survive; those who are not known do not survive; and those who are partly known and partly unknown survive for three generations but no longer.

(29) A married woman that says about her fetus that he is not from her husband, she is not believed to invalidate him. HG"H - There are those that say, specifically with a woman married through nissuin, that the son has a assumption (chazakah) of being valid. But a women only married through arusin that she says her son is a mamzer, even though the engaged husband says that it is his, and that his hand did not move from her's. There are those that say, that the son is a doubt of a mamzer, and there are those that say he is believed. But a father that says on a fetus that it is not from him, or on one of his sons that it is not his son, he is believed to invalidate him and he is a absolute mamzer. And if there are sons to the son, he is not believed even on the son. And if she says: "from a idol worshiper or from a slave I became pregnant," the baby is valid because the husband is not able to contradict her on this. HG"H- This that the father is believed on the son this is specifically that he didn't have a assumption of validity from the father's mouth, but if he had a assumption of validity, furthermore the father is not believed unless with witnesses (Ri in the name of Ramah), The father that says on his son that he is a mamzer, and retracts and says an excuse for why he said it, he is believed. That which the father is believed about the son, that is where he is in the father's control, for example, with his wife in nisuin, but a unmarried woman who says "this is Plony's son," and he says "she was impregnated from a mamzer," he is not believed to invalidate him, but he is believed to make him valid.