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herself to death because of a mere suspicion, as Rashi brings. (Avodah
Zarah 18b) This woman, in whom nothing unseemly has been seen
and who would have felt embarrassment and also pity for the mamzer
whose life would be miserable – compounded by the unlikelihood of
her both having committed adultery and become pregnant – that it
is more logical to assume that her husband arrived home by invoking
Hashem’s Name.

All the more so in our case, we should assume that this child is
from the minority of children, whose blood type does not match that
of either parent. Similarly, in regard to any other test such as sperm
testing etc. we should rely on even the slimmest possibility – so long
as it isn’t less likely than the husband’s having come home“by invoking
Hashem’s Name” or his having come and gone in the space of a single
night – in order to uphold the child’s kashrus and our presumption
of the woman’s proper conduct, so long as we have not witnessed any
unseemly behavior on her part. It is therefore in place to query the
verdict of the aforementioned distinguished beis din – that a blood
test showing that the child’s blood type does not match that of either
parent, creates doubt about the identity of the child’s father, even
when the mother has a presumption of righteousness.

It should be added that in places where the possibility exists of
the woman’s having become pregnant though artificial [donor] in-
semination, there are certainly no grounds for disqualifying the child,
since some poskim are of the opinion that in such a case the child
is not a mamzer and the woman does not become forbidden to her
husband5. [The question can be raised as to why we do not consider
that a woman who gave birth twelve months after her husband’s de-
parture became pregnant in a bathtub, which is no less likely than her
husband’s having arrived home “by invoking Hashem’s Name.”]

In any event, it’s possible that since nowadays we can attribute
pregnancy to bathtub insemination – which is more commonplace
than the other possibilities – in regard to child support, as the mother

5. This is discussed earlier, siman 253,‘Response to Question 1.’

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