MOSHE ZEMER

MAMZERUT(HALAKHIC ILLEGITIMACY )

Surprisingly, of all the impediments to marriage, one of the most serious does not appear in any of the known collections of Reform responsa. Only one known responsum has been written by a Reform rabbi on mamzerut, or halakhic illegitimacy, to allow a mamzer or mamzeret to marry his or her beloved.* The Conser­vative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has published no halakhic literature on this subject. On the other hand, there are scores of responsa on the subject in traditional and Ortho­ dox literature.

Why have the non-Orthodox decisors not dealt with the is­sue? It is apparent that in most Western countries, almost no young Jews are prevented from marrying because of this taint. Non­Orthodox rabbis, for the most part, no longer consider mamzerut as a forbidden category. Even Orthodox rabbis in the Diaspora show a lesser tendency to seek out and interrogate prospective marriage partners who had adulterous or incestuous ancestors. According to Louis Jacobs ’s claim, the norm in the United States is to avoid revealing the identity of mamzerim.*

The one exception is in the State of Israel . The Chief Orthodox Rabbinate, with its power over marriage and divorce, keeps computerized records of all suspected of being the offspring of an adulterous or incestuous relationship. Of course, then the mark is placed on the forehead of all their descendants.

When these persons come to the beit din of the Israel Coun­cil of Progressive Rabbis two tasks usually have to be accom­plished:(1) to purify them of the taint of mamzerut and(2) to per­

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