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affection, we can assume that she will not consent to divorce, because
divorce is difficult and who knows what kind of person she will en-
counter next? Thus, if after marrying him she does not ask him to
divorce her he is not considered a trickster for having concealed his
identity. Thus argues the Kehillas Yaakov.7

Accordingly, possibly in our case too, if parents do not reveal the
true identity of their child born through artificial insemination there
is no concern of trickery or of the transaction have been entered into
in error, particularly since a child born through artificial insemination
with the sperm of a non-Jew is preferable to one born to a gentile
father in the natural way. This is because the poskim discuss the pos-
sibility that a child resulting from artificial or from bathtub insemi-
nation may not be considered the child of his father at all. He may
be considered principally his mother’s child. It appears that a Jewish
daughter acts as a purifying mikvah, [exerting a refining effect] even
upon the foulness that accompanies non-Jewish semen. So it appears
too from the gemara in maseches Shabbos (146a): “Why are gentiles
foul, while Jews and converts are not foul?” This gemara implies that
even converts are not foul and certainly not those who have a non-Jew-
ish father and a Jewish mother. Chazal tell us that Rabbi Meir, Rabbi
Akiva, Shemaya and Avtalyon, who were among the greatest sages of
their generations, were the descendents of converts and that Haman’s
descendants studied Torah in Bnei Brak. (See Gittin 57b)

Therefore, even though a Jewish daughter would never consent to
marry the son of a non-Jew, this does not disqualify the actual mar-
riage transaction and the parents are allowed to conceal their son’s
true lineage, provided they do not deceive the other side explicitly by
saying that this is their son, as explained in the Kehillos Yaakov.

See the Divrei Malkiel (3,20), who discusses the case of a person

7. For further discussion of the Kehillas Yaakov, see earlier siman 48 (s.v. ve’nireh
de’yitachein), siman 72 (s.v. ve’lamros she’ilu) and siman 76 (s.v. ve’yeish le’tareitz),
where we discuss what he would refer to as a“major, obvious defect” in regard to
the permissibility of speaking lashon hara and revealing information relating to
shidduchim and people’s livelihoods.

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