The Tel Aviv Rabbinate Beis Din on Wednesday 26 Nissan announced a ruling to permit a mamzeres to marry. The ruling was approved by Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita.
Since the case in which former Chief Rabbi Goren involving the Langer siblings, in the 1970s, batei din would avoid such cases when possible, referring them to Gedolei Hador such as HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L or HaGaon HaRav Shalom Mashash ZT”L.
Presiding on the Tel Aviv Beis Din were Av Beis Din Tel Aviv Dayan Yitzchak Elmaliach Shlita, Dayan Aviran Yitzchak Halevy and Dayan Ariel Edri. They probed the facts and the situation at hand and found a heter to permit the mamzeres who is 27 today to get married after removing her mamzeres status.
When she was seven her father wanted to get divorced. He told the beis din that for the 13 years preceding the opening of the divorce file, he and his wife lived apart from one another. The father insisted that they were never together so the seven-year-old girl could not be his daughter. He told the beis din the name of the man who he knew to be the girl’s father. He added that the girl was not listed as his daughter in the official state registry.
When the divorce was granted the Rabbanut also entered the girl into the database of those persons ‘unfit for marriage’ since she was a mamzeres. The young lady recently opened a file to register for marriage, only to learn of her plight. She turned to the beis din in the hope of finding a solution.
As part of the beis din’s probe the mother was summoned as well as her former husband. The mother insisted her ex-husband was the child’s father. The ex-husband changed his testimony, explaining when he said otherwise during the divorce he was lying to pressure the beis din to order a get. He stated he also lied back then when he claimed the child was not registered with the Interior Ministry as his daughter. The report does not mention if any DNA testing was done today.
It is reported however that the psak from the beis din spans dozens of pages and includes ruling from many poskim, Rishonim and Achronim, based heavily on rulings from HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L.
Rav Elmaliach also had the ruling approved by the Rishon L’Tzion for additional validity, adding the beis din delayed issuing its final ruling until Rav Yosef gave his approval. In fact, Rav Yosef reviewed the ruling in depth with Rav Elmaliach and the other dayanim before the beis din rendered its verdict.
YWN-ISRAEL adds that while this is presented as a news story, needless to say there are many halachic intricacies and details in the case that outsiders are unaware of nor are outsiders privy to the deliberation between the Rishon L’Tzion and the dayanim and should refrain from responding inappropriately amid the awareness the decision was made by talmidei chachamim expert in the field.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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14 Responses
That’s a pretty misleading title, it sounds like a article accusing the Bes Din of “allowing a mamzeres to marry”
Obviously they did not allow a Mazeres to marry – rather, they gave a Psak that a girl thought to be a mamzeres is actually NOT a mamzeres – and therefore- they were mattir her to get married.
So the psak was that she is not a mamzeres. There was never a psak that a mazeres can marry a non mamzer.
Why wasn’t a DNA test taken?
MY MYSTERY: WHY NOT DO A DNA TEST OF THE FATHER AND DAUGHTER AND END ANY DOUBTS??
She should see much Yiddish nachas
I think YWN needs to change its headline, as apparently this woman was never a mamzeres in the first place.
The headline casts aspersions upon the Rabbanim involved.
Don’t you think it’s inappropriate to refer to her (both in the headline and the article) as a mamzeres after the Bais Din and the Rishon Letzion ruled she is not a mamzeres?
No DNA testing was done, but did gedolim in earlier generations do under similar circumstances?
With due respect to the sensitivity of the situation the Headline should read that “Tel Aviv Rabbinate frees Lady from Mamzeres status”. The way it is sounds like they are allowing a confirmed Mamzeres to marry.
The headline of this article is not accurate. She was not a mamzeres. She was an alleged mazeres.
“YWN-ISRAEL adds that while this is presented as a news story……and should refrain from responding inappropriately……”
Sad state of affairs if this is a “news story”.
So it was a get btaos?
this story is sensitive and should never have been posted on ywn. Whats the point???!!!!
What is the point of publicizing this?
As far as I recall from my yeshiva days a mamzer has marriage restrictions. A safek mamzer is not restricted in who they can marry. In addition a father is believed to say that person X is his child.
By doing a DNA test, the only “benefit” would be to possibly ruin her life, because if she was in fact changed from a safek mamzer to a confirmed one then she would have marriage problems and if she nonetheless went to Cyprus to marry another Jew she would be doing an issur.
In her current state (even as a safek mamzer), she is no doing any issur.
Makes sense that a DNA test was not done.