REMEDIES FOR IMPEDIMENTS TO MARRIAGE
Rabbi Joseph Zussmanovich of Lithuania and Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook wrote similar rulings concerning separate cases of women who had a civil marriage and a civil divorce and whether they could remarry without a get. Both ruled that a couple that has only a civil marriage does not consider their sexual intercourse as a means of kiddushin and halakhic marriage. The Lithuanian rabbi ruled:“It is clear and true that any woman who was married only by civil authorities,...even if she was divorced only by civil decree is permitted to marry another man[without a get].*
The various responsa and cases cited above provide us with four ways to clear Jews of the stain of mamzerut—two based on a determination of paternity and two on nullification of the mother’s first marriage:(1) ascribing paternity of the child to the mother’s (first) husband;(2) ascribing paternity of the child to a non-Jew;(3) retroactively annulling the mother’s first marriage; and 4) determining that the first marriage had never been halakhically contracted.
Underlying all these solutions advanced by eminent rabbis of the recent past and present is an understanding of the injustice done to children who cannot raise Jewish families through no fault of their own. These rabbis found solid halakhic methods and, just as important, the courage to clear mamzerim and permit them, not only to be“admitted to the congregation,” but also to be fully cleansed of the stain of mamzerut. Sometimes they employed a legal stratagem and ruled that the child was fathered by the woman's husband or by a non-Jew ; in other cases they found ways to retroactively annul the mother’s first marriage or determined that there had been no first marriage, halakhically speaking. In these seemingly insoluble cases bold and learned rabbis found ways to purify
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