REMEDIES FOR IMPEDIMENTS TO MARRIAGE

mit them to marry their beloved and enter the Congregation of the Lord.

In the Diaspora, the second task of marrying the couple is usually sufficient. In Israel , it is no less important to remove the stain of halakhic illegitimacy, which, with the aid of computers, passes on to the next generations.

How does Progressive halakhah depurate the individual and his offspring of this blemish of illegitimacy? Progressive halakhah investigates the history of halakhic rulings related to mamzerut to find precedents for purifying halakhic illegitimacy.

In essence, in Israel our beit din must deal with two kinds of cases when purifying this blemish. The easier one is where the court can empirically show that the suspected individual is not the offspring of an adulterous or incestuous relationship. Two such cases came before our court in the last few years. In one instance the uncle of the bridegroom lied to the Chief Rabbinate of Beershe­ ba that his sister had had an adulterous affair before her son was born. Later, he admitted in an affidavit that he had lied to spite the groom’s mother because of their dispute over a family inheritance. The Chief Rabbinate believed his first accusation, but not his re­cantation. Our Court was convinced that he told the truth when he admitted that he had falsely charged his sister and cast a suspicion on his nephew.

A well-known and publicized case in which the official rab­binic court declared the seven children of a man to be mamzerim because he had married his brother’s divorced wife. The accused man claimed that the man that was previously married to his wife

132