Mamzer
Encyclopedia
The Hebrew noun mamzer in the Hebrew Bible
and Jewish religious law
, is a person born from certain forbidden relationships, or the descendant of such a person. A mamzer is someone who is either born of adultery
by a married woman, or born of incest (as defined by the Bible), or someone who has a mamzer as a parent. The mamzer status is not synonymous with illegitimacy, since it does not include children whose mother was unmarried.
Mamzer is also a colloquial pejorative term in Hebrew and Yiddish for an unpleasant person, or in friendly way, a clever person.
: ek pornes), and the Latin Vulgate
translates it as de scorto natus ("born of a prostitute").
The other occasion is in : "And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod".
(a member of the priestly lineage of Aaron) there is a related category called chalal. According to the Mishnah
a mamzer is the offspring of a Biblically forbidden union (M.Yebamoth 4, Mishnah 13: "כל שחיבין עליו כרת בידי שמים". According to the Shulhan Arukh a mamzer can only be produced by two Jews (Shulhan Arukh Even haEzer 4:19).
There are two categories of mamzerim.
Children born of incest:
A child born of incest (as defined by the bible) is a mamzer. Note, however, that an incestuous relationship between one or two non-Jews cannot produce a mamzer, and if the product of such a union were to convert he or she would be the equal of any Jew (Shulhan Arukh Even haEzer 4:21).
Children born of a married woman's adultery:
A child born of a married woman's adultery
is a mamzer. The child of a single woman and a man she could lawfully have married is NOT a mamzer (Shulchan Aruch E. H. 4) It is irrelevant if the man is married or not. If one of the parents is not Jewish the child is not a mamzer.
Any child born to a married woman, even if she is known to have been unfaithful, is presumed to be her husband's, unless she is so promiscuous that such a presumption becomes unsupportable,(Shulhan Arukh Even haEzer 4:15) or if she enters a public relationship with another man (4:16). A child born within 12 months of a woman's most recent meeting with her husband is presumed to be legitimate, since Jewish law believes that in rare cases a pregnancy can last that long (4:14). However if more than 9 months have elapsed and she is known to have been unfaithful then the presumption does not apply (Even haEzer Rama 4:14). Modern fertility treatment has complicated the issue. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
ruled that if a married woman is inseminated by sperm from another man the child is not a mamzer, since it did not result from an act of adultery; Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (2005) disagreed, and ruled that since the child is known to be that of a man other than her husband it is a mamzer.
The status of a abandoned child
(Hebrew: asufi) was determined by the state in which it was found. If there were indications that the foundling had been abandoned due to the parents being unable to support it, then Halakhically the child would not be a mamzer. However, if the unknown parents could have supported the child, it was regarded as potentially being a mamzer. A child whose mother is known, but not the father, was known as a silent one (Hebrew: shetukhi), and fell into the same category as a foundling; this status, however, could be changed if the mother knew and revealed the identity of the father.
Like many other types of social category, in Judaism the mamzer status is hereditary - a child of a mamzer (whether mother or father) is also a mamzer. However, since these rules are regarded as applying only to Jews, and since traditional Jewish religious law regards being a Jew as something which is only maternally inheritable, the child of a male mamzer and a non-Jewish woman cannot be a mamzer.
meaning forever. Thus, in traditional Jewish religious law, a mamzer and his or her descendants are not allowed to marry an ordinary (non-mamzer) Jewish spouse.
The restriction does not prevent a mamzer from marrying another mamzer, nor from marrying a convert to Judaism, or a non-Jewish slave. However, foundlings suspected of being mamzerim were not so free; they were neither permitted to marry a mamzer, nor even to marry another foundling.
teaches that a learned mamzer should take precedence over an ignorant Jewish High Priest
; the meaning of take precedence is not explicitly explained by the Mishnah, nor by the Talmud in general, although the preceding part of the Mishnah uses it to refer to the priority in which people should be rescued from danger, while other bits of the Mishnah use the phrase to refer to the priority in which people should receive aliyot.
Rabbis in the Talmud, and those in the Middle Ages, saw fit to spell out that, aside from in questions of marriage, a mamzer should be treated as an ordinary Jew. The Talmud insists that a mamzer should be considered as an ordinary relative for the purpose of inheritance, including levirate marriage
. Maimonides
and Joseph Karo see fit to repeat this, and confirm that a mamzer can serve as a judge. Similarly a Tosafot
insists that it is permissible for a mamzer to become a king. Some prominent historic rabbis expound the view that the death of a mamzer should impact a Jewish priest
as much as that of a non-mamzer.
(Jewish Bill of Divorce) has become commonplace, while Jewish marriage is popular even among the less-religious. This situation has created a crisis threatening to create a large subclass of mamzer individuals ineligible to marry other Jews, threatening to thus divide the Jewish people. Decision-makers have approached the problem in two ways.
is to require strict evidentiary standards for mamzer status, sufficiently strict that proof of the existence of mamzer status is hard to develop and generally does not arise. Typically it is impossible to prove either that a prior marriage ever existed, or that a child was born of relations outside that marriage. Rabbis always allow the suspect child the benefit of the doubt in this matter. This usually leads to the conclusion that at the time of a person's birth, their parents were married or that the person is the son of a man who was married to his mother.
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. 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 never found. The rabbi who performed the marriage was contacted, but Rabbi Yosef 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. 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 favour 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 used to discredit evidence of mamzer status may be sufficiently robust as to cover virtually all cases of inquiry in the types of situations a congregation rabbi would be likely to experience. 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.
(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.
or Reconstructionist Judaism
, as these more liberal branches regard it as an archaism inconsistent with contemporary ethical behaviour.
9:6, the Hebrew word "Mamzer" is referenced similar to that of the nations of Ammon
, Mo'av, Edom
, Egypt
, Tyre, Zidon, Ashkelon
, Gaza
, Philistia, and etc. From such, Karaites have come to consider the most logical understanding of the Hebrew word "Mamzer" to actually speak of a nation people. Karaites think that such an understanding fits perfectly into the context of both Deuteronomy 23 and Zechariah 9, and several Medieval Rabbinical Jewish sages felt it necessary to debate this topic with Medieval Karaite Jewish sages.
The existence of mamzer status as a category in Israeli family law has been criticized. An extensive review and opinion advocating the adoption of civil marriage in Israel, written by Prof. Pinhas Shifman and published in July 2001 by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, mentions Mamzer among the categories of Israelis which Professor Shifman believes should have a right to marry a spouse of their choice and argues current Israeli law interferes with and denies that right. Professor Shifman and ACRI advocate ending the religious monopoly over marriage in Israel and cite the existence and difficulties of mamzer status as an argument against the use of religious law in marriage cases.
Israeli religious courts resolve mamzer status by generally ruling that the child was born within the marriage despite the existence of evidence to the contrary. This convenient formula sometimes causes difficulties for lovers or subsequent spouses who wish to assert paternity over a child which may be biologically theirs. A 2006 case, in which a child born eight months and two weeks after a divorce, was declared the former husband's child rather than the child of the wife's subsequent husband, and this was reported as causing a dilemma for the subsequent couple.
Israeli law resolution of the mamzer status by declining to consider claims that someone other than the husband might be the child's father is not inconsistent with the way a number of other countries. For example, in 1989 the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a California
law similar to the restriction Israel imposes on its courts, requiring children born within a marriage to be regarded as being children of the married couple and requiring courts to refuse to entertain paternity claims and evidence brought by a third party. The US Supreme Court held that such a law does not violate peoples' civil rights as the United States Constitution understands the term, holding that society's interest in the regularity of marriage outweighs individual rights in such cases. American law in this matter has also been criticized. The US Supreme Court decision was 5-4, with the court's members nearly evenly divided in their opinions on whether the practice of California and many other U.S. states violates civil rights (as understood in the United States) or not.
Nonetheless, the existence of the category of Mamzer, and the marital impediments inherent to it, is one of the arguments frequently used by Israeli secularists in calling for separation of religion and state and for the institution of civil marriage
.
is connected to Hebrew mamzer. Supposedly Ebalus of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou
and Duke of Aquitaine
(c. 870 – 935) had the nickname "Manzer" or "Manser". As he is known to have been a bastard and reputed to have had a Jewish mother, this nickname is considered to be derived from "mamzer". A similar explanation is offered also for the same nickname as used by another Prince from Occitania
, Arnaud Manzer, Count of Angoulême
(born 952-died 988/92) who also was a bastard. William the Conqueror may have been referred to as Bastardus and Mamzer.
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
and Jewish religious law
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
, is a person born from certain forbidden relationships, or the descendant of such a person. A mamzer is someone who is either born of adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
by a married woman, or born of incest (as defined by the Bible), or someone who has a mamzer as a parent. The mamzer status is not synonymous with illegitimacy, since it does not include children whose mother was unmarried.
Mamzer is also a colloquial pejorative term in Hebrew and Yiddish for an unpleasant person, or in friendly way, a clever person.
Etymology
The word mamzer is a masculine noun form derived from the root m-z-r having a meaning of spoilt/corrupt. The Talmud explains the term homiletically as consisting of the words mum (defect) and zar (strange/alien) a euphemism for an illicit union in the person's lineage (Kiddushin 3:12, Yebamot 76b)Hebrew Bible usage
The term occurs twice in the Hebrew Bible, the first time in . The Septuagint translates the term as son "of a prostitute" (GreekKoine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
: ek pornes), and the Latin Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
translates it as de scorto natus ("born of a prostitute").
The other occasion is in : "And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod".
Halakhic definitions
The Talmud indicates that the term mamzer applied to the descendants of specific illicit unions. In some cases, where the male parent was a KohenKohen
A Kohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Jewish Kohens are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron....
(a member of the priestly lineage of Aaron) there is a related category called chalal. According to the Mishnah
Mishnah
The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
a mamzer is the offspring of a Biblically forbidden union (M.Yebamoth 4, Mishnah 13: "כל שחיבין עליו כרת בידי שמים". According to the Shulhan Arukh a mamzer can only be produced by two Jews (Shulhan Arukh Even haEzer 4:19).
There are two categories of mamzerim.
Children born of incest:
A child born of incest (as defined by the bible) is a mamzer. Note, however, that an incestuous relationship between one or two non-Jews cannot produce a mamzer, and if the product of such a union were to convert he or she would be the equal of any Jew (Shulhan Arukh Even haEzer 4:21).
Children born of a married woman's adultery:
A child born of a married woman's adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
is a mamzer. The child of a single woman and a man she could lawfully have married is NOT a mamzer (Shulchan Aruch E. H. 4) It is irrelevant if the man is married or not. If one of the parents is not Jewish the child is not a mamzer.
Any child born to a married woman, even if she is known to have been unfaithful, is presumed to be her husband's, unless she is so promiscuous that such a presumption becomes unsupportable,(Shulhan Arukh Even haEzer 4:15) or if she enters a public relationship with another man (4:16). A child born within 12 months of a woman's most recent meeting with her husband is presumed to be legitimate, since Jewish law believes that in rare cases a pregnancy can last that long (4:14). However if more than 9 months have elapsed and she is known to have been unfaithful then the presumption does not apply (Even haEzer Rama 4:14). Modern fertility treatment has complicated the issue. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek , who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America during his lifetime...
ruled that if a married woman is inseminated by sperm from another man the child is not a mamzer, since it did not result from an act of adultery; Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum (2005) disagreed, and ruled that since the child is known to be that of a man other than her husband it is a mamzer.
The status of a abandoned child
Child abandonment
Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling .-Causes:Poverty is often a...
(Hebrew: asufi) was determined by the state in which it was found. If there were indications that the foundling had been abandoned due to the parents being unable to support it, then Halakhically the child would not be a mamzer. However, if the unknown parents could have supported the child, it was regarded as potentially being a mamzer. A child whose mother is known, but not the father, was known as a silent one (Hebrew: shetukhi), and fell into the same category as a foundling; this status, however, could be changed if the mother knew and revealed the identity of the father.
Like many other types of social category, in Judaism the mamzer status is hereditary - a child of a mamzer (whether mother or father) is also a mamzer. However, since these rules are regarded as applying only to Jews, and since traditional Jewish religious law regards being a Jew as something which is only maternally inheritable, the child of a male mamzer and a non-Jewish woman cannot be a mamzer.
Marriage restrictions
The biblical rule against certain people becoming part of the congregation of the Lord was interpreted in the Talmudic as a prohibition against ordinary Jews marrying such people. Although the biblical passage includes in this up to the tenth generation of the descendants of a mamzer, classical rabbis interpreted this as an idiomIdiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
meaning forever. Thus, in traditional Jewish religious law, a mamzer and his or her descendants are not allowed to marry an ordinary (non-mamzer) Jewish spouse.
The restriction does not prevent a mamzer from marrying another mamzer, nor from marrying a convert to Judaism, or a non-Jewish slave. However, foundlings suspected of being mamzerim were not so free; they were neither permitted to marry a mamzer, nor even to marry another foundling.
Social status of Mamzerim
Although in many historical societies, illegitimacy of birth was a quality which could make a man somewhat of an outcast, this was not the official attitude of Judaism; apart from the marriage restrictions, a mamzer is not officially considered a second class citizen, and is supposed to be treated with as much respect as other Jews. For example, the MishnahMishnah
The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
teaches that a learned mamzer should take precedence over an ignorant Jewish High Priest
Kohen Gadol
The High Priest was the chief religious official of Israelite religion and of classical Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem...
; the meaning of take precedence is not explicitly explained by the Mishnah, nor by the Talmud in general, although the preceding part of the Mishnah uses it to refer to the priority in which people should be rescued from danger, while other bits of the Mishnah use the phrase to refer to the priority in which people should receive aliyot.
Rabbis in the Talmud, and those in the Middle Ages, saw fit to spell out that, aside from in questions of marriage, a mamzer should be treated as an ordinary Jew. The Talmud insists that a mamzer should be considered as an ordinary relative for the purpose of inheritance, including levirate marriage
Levirate marriage
Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother....
. Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
and Joseph Karo see fit to repeat this, and confirm that a mamzer can serve as a judge. Similarly a Tosafot
Tosafot
The Tosafot or Tosafos are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes...
insists that it is permissible for a mamzer to become a king. Some prominent historic rabbis expound the view that the death of a mamzer should impact a Jewish priest
Kohen
A Kohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Jewish Kohens are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron....
as much as that of a non-mamzer.
Modern investigations into mamzer status
Today, civil divorce and remarriage without a getGet (divorce document)
A is a divorce document, which according to Jewish Law, must be presented by a husband to his wife to effect their divorce. The essential text of the is quite short: "You are hereby permitted to all men," i.e., the wife is no longer a married woman, and the laws of adultery no longer apply...
(Jewish Bill of Divorce) has become commonplace, while Jewish marriage is popular even among the less-religious. This situation has created a crisis threatening to create a large subclass of mamzer individuals ineligible to marry other Jews, threatening to thus divide the Jewish people. Decision-makers have approached the problem in two ways.
Orthodox Judaism
The principal approach in Orthodox JudaismOrthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
is to require strict evidentiary standards for mamzer status, sufficiently strict that proof of the existence of mamzer status is hard to develop and generally does not arise. Typically it is impossible to prove either that a prior marriage ever existed, or that a child was born of relations outside that marriage. Rabbis always allow the suspect child the benefit of the doubt in this matter. This usually leads to the conclusion that at the time of a person's birth, their parents were married or that the person is the son of a man who was married to his mother.
An example is a contemporary responsum by the well-known Israeli Posek
Posek
Posek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive or in those situations where no halakhic precedent exists....
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. 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
Ketubah
A ketubah is a special type of Jewish prenuptial agreement. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride.-History:...
(Jewish marriage contract/certificate) was never found. The rabbi who performed the marriage was contacted, but Rabbi Yosef 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. 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 favour 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 used to discredit evidence of mamzer status may be sufficiently robust as to cover virtually all cases of inquiry in the types of situations a congregation rabbi would be likely to experience. 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.
Conservative Judaism
The Committee on Jewish Law and StandardsCommittee on Jewish Law and Standards
The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is the central authority on halakha within Conservative Judaism; it is one of the most active and widely known committees on the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. Within the movement it is known as the CJLS...
(CJLS) of the Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbinical Assembly
The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and...
of Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism 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.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical 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
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
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.
Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism
The category of mamzer has no role in Reform JudaismReform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
or Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
, as these more liberal branches regard it as an archaism inconsistent with contemporary ethical behaviour.
Karaite Judaism
In ZechariahBook of Zechariah
The Book of Zechariah is the penultimate book of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew and Christian Bible, attributed to the prophet Zechariah.-Historical context:...
9:6, the Hebrew word "Mamzer" is referenced similar to that of the nations of Ammon
Ammon
Ammon , also referred to as the Ammonites and children of Ammon, was an ancient nation located east of the Jordan River, Gilead, and the Dead Sea, in present-day Jordan. The chief city of the country was Rabbah or Rabbath Ammon, site of the modern city of Amman, Jordan's capital...
, Mo'av, Edom
Edom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Tyre, Zidon, Ashkelon
Ashkelon
Ashkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...
, Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
, Philistia, and etc. From such, Karaites have come to consider the most logical understanding of the Hebrew word "Mamzer" to actually speak of a nation people. Karaites think that such an understanding fits perfectly into the context of both Deuteronomy 23 and Zechariah 9, and several Medieval Rabbinical Jewish sages felt it necessary to debate this topic with Medieval Karaite Jewish sages.
In Israeli Law
In the modern State of Israel, the law concerning matters of marriage, divorce, and personal status, is partially under the jurisdiction of religious courts. For example there is no civil marriage in Israel. The Jewish religious regulations concerning mamzerim are thus also the national laws imposed on Jews living in Israel, including secular Jews. Because of the severe impediments to marriage which mamzer status accords in Jewish religious law, Israeli civil law has taken the position that the paternity of a child born within a marriage cannot legally be challenged in civil courts, 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.The existence of mamzer status as a category in Israeli family law has been criticized. An extensive review and opinion advocating the adoption of civil marriage in Israel, written by Prof. Pinhas Shifman and published in July 2001 by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, mentions Mamzer among the categories of Israelis which Professor Shifman believes should have a right to marry a spouse of their choice and argues current Israeli law interferes with and denies that right. Professor Shifman and ACRI advocate ending the religious monopoly over marriage in Israel and cite the existence and difficulties of mamzer status as an argument against the use of religious law in marriage cases.
Israeli religious courts resolve mamzer status by generally ruling that the child was born within the marriage despite the existence of evidence to the contrary. This convenient formula sometimes causes difficulties for lovers or subsequent spouses who wish to assert paternity over a child which may be biologically theirs. A 2006 case, in which a child born eight months and two weeks after a divorce, was declared the former husband's child rather than the child of the wife's subsequent husband, and this was reported as causing a dilemma for the subsequent couple.
Israeli law resolution of the mamzer status by declining to consider claims that someone other than the husband might be the child's father is not inconsistent with the way a number of other countries. For example, in 1989 the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
law similar to the restriction Israel imposes on its courts, requiring children born within a marriage to be regarded as being children of the married couple and requiring courts to refuse to entertain paternity claims and evidence brought by a third party. The US Supreme Court held that such a law does not violate peoples' civil rights as the United States Constitution understands the term, holding that society's interest in the regularity of marriage outweighs individual rights in such cases. American law in this matter has also been criticized. The US Supreme Court decision was 5-4, with the court's members nearly evenly divided in their opinions on whether the practice of California and many other U.S. states violates civil rights (as understood in the United States) or not.
Nonetheless, the existence of the category of Mamzer, and the marital impediments inherent to it, is one of the arguments frequently used by Israeli secularists in calling for separation of religion and state and for the institution of civil marriage
Civil marriage
Civil marriage is marriage performed by a government official and not a religious organization.-History:Every country maintaining a population registry of its residents keeps track of marital status, and most countries believe that it is their responsibility to register married couples. Most...
.
Connection with French Medieval nicknames
A persistant etymology of the surname ManserManser
Manser is a Swiss surname that may refer to:* Bruno Manser , Swiss anthropologist & activist* Wendelin Manser , Swiss entrepreneur & politician...
is connected to Hebrew mamzer. Supposedly Ebalus of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou
Count of Poitiers
Among the people who have borne the title of Count of Poitiers are:*Guerin **Hatton **Renaud...
and Duke of Aquitaine
Duke of Aquitaine
The Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English and later French kings....
(c. 870 – 935) had the nickname "Manzer" or "Manser". As he is known to have been a bastard and reputed to have had a Jewish mother, this nickname is considered to be derived from "mamzer". A similar explanation is offered also for the same nickname as used by another Prince from Occitania
Occitania
Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...
, Arnaud Manzer, Count of Angoulême
Angoulême
-Main sights:In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often narrow. Apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the...
(born 952-died 988/92) who also was a bastard. William the Conqueror may have been referred to as Bastardus and Mamzer.