WHO IS A MAMZER?

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

In Yiddish or even in Ladino the Hebrew word MAMZER means a bad guy, a real SOB. Hitler was a mamzer. Mussolini was a mamzer. Videla was a mamzer. What does it mean in the Bible and Jewish law? 

One thing is clear: In Jewish law the word, often translated as bastard, does not refer to a child born out of wedlock. 

The term MAMZER occurs twice in the Hebrew Bible: 
The first comes from Deut. 23: 3: “No MAMZER shall be admitted into the congregation of the Lord .” That is, he will not be able to marry an Israelite even in the tenth generation. The second, in an enigmatic passage in  Zech 9:6: “A MAMZER shall settle in Ashdod”. It is not clear what this word means in either case. Von Rad, in his commentary to the book of Deuteronomy, clearly states, “We do not know what is meant precisely by bastard (mamzer)” (p. 146.)

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (cir. 250 BCE), says it means, the son of a prostitute. The Jewish Publication Society renders the word as “misbegotten.” The Jerusalem Bible has it as bastard, with a note saying that the word possibly refers to the offspring of a mixed marriage between the Hebrews and the Philistines. The Catholic Bible translates it as: “a child of an incestuous union.” 

In rabbinic times, the term began to assume a more concrete meaning. The Mishnah (cir. 200 CE), quoting Rabbi Akiva, maintains that the word MAMZER refers to the offspring of any marriage of near of kin (Yeb. 4:13). In other word, a person born out of an incestuous marriage. The Babylonian Talmud (cir. 600 CE) agrees with it and expands its meaning. (Yeb.76b and others). A good summary of the rabbinic position on this subject is found in The Spirit of Jewish Law, by G. Horowitz who writes that a MAMZER is “the offspring of a father and mother  between whom there could be , in law, no binding betrothal, the issue of either an adulterous connection between a married woman and a man not her husband , or of an incestuous  union within the forbidden  degrees defined in Lev. 18 and 20” (p. 264).  According to Jewish law a MAMZER has full civil rights but can only marry another MAMZER or a convert.

In my professional life I have had to deal with one or two people who caused me headaches,  but I managed to outlive them, for which I am  grateful.