When Yosef brought Menashe and Ephraim to Yaakov for a Bracha, Yaakov asked, (Vayechi 48:8-9) “Mi Eileh” who are they?” Yosef answered, “Banai Heim; They are my children.” Rashi says that Yosef showed Yaakov his Shtar Eirusin and his Kesuba. The Sifsei Chachomim explains that Yaakov was afraid they were Mamzeirim and not worthy of a Bracha.
Ya’akov had already been in Egypt for seventeen years. Had he not in all those years asked Yosef whom he married? Had he not met his grandsons in all those years?
Of course, there’s also the issue that the only way Yosef could possibly have fathered a mamzer is with a close relative. A marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew does not produce a mamzer — especially in cases where it is the wife who is not Jewish. Under what possible circumstances could Yosef’s children have been mamzerim?
The Wolf
The Wolf