Page 132 - EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.EFI-RAV ZILBERSTIN_VOL 8.1A

Pg: 132 - 5-Front 21-10-31

conduct we do not say that the fetus tarried but we suspect the child
is of tainted lineage.”

The Beis Shmuel (ibid 16) writes that according to the Halachos
Gedolos we assume that the husband returned home [miraculous-
ly] through [invoking] a Name [of Hashem], as happened with the
father of Shmuel, and that she became pregnant from her husband,
even if she does not say that this is what happened. Even though in
the case of a man who marries a woman on condition that she should
ascend to Heaven, we assert that this is an impossible condition to
fulfill and we do not say it’s possible to ascend to Heaven by invoking
Hashem’s Name, in order to determine the child’s kosher status we
will assume that even a remote possibility actually happened.

The Chelkas Mechokek (ibid. 8), writes that even according to
Rambam if the woman says that her husband came one night during
the twelve months and that is how she became pregnant perhaps she
is believed, because we uphold her presumption of proper behavior.
On the other hand, perhaps she would not be believed about some-
thing [so] unlikely. See also the Rivash (#446), who writes that we
attribute the pregnancy to the husband even under the strangest of
circumstances in order to avoid tainting the child and in order to up-
hold the woman’s presumption of proper behavior. The presumption
of the woman’s and of the child’s kashrus is thus so compelling that
even if the child was born over twelve months after the husband’s
departure we confine our speculation to the highly unlikely scenario
of his having come home by invoking Hashem’s Name or accept the
woman’s story that her husband returned home for one night without
anyone else in the town knowing of his presence. It should be clear
that in those days this was highly unlikely, yet we nevertheless assume
that this is what happened, based on presumption of kashrus of the
woman and her child.

The reason for this is possibly that as long as we find nothing un-
seemly in the woman’s conduct there are several reasons not to say
that the child is a mamzer. Besides our presumption of the woman’s
proper conduct, any woman would be extremely embarrassed to be
seen pregnant with a mamzer. Rabbi Meir’s wife Bruriah suffocated

116 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein