Yevamot II 78: Conversion and Inclusion Over the Long Term; Converting a Fetus

The rabbis want to know exactly who we include in our larger community of Jews.  Those who are not included but who want to be Jewish cannot fully join the community following conversion.  Today's daf shares the guidelines for inclusion of those in different communities.  The rabbis also discuss when and how to include the children and grandchildren of those from different mixed marriages.  

Two of the examples stand out for me.  The first regards the fetus of a woman who converts.  For Egyptians who convert, only the third generation is able to enter the Jewish congregation fully.  If the first generation woman who converts from her Egyptian heritage, and she is pregnant, does the baby require its own immersion?  Is the fetus like her thigh; a part of her body?  Or is the fetus a separate person?  Does the fetus count as the second generation convert?  Is the mother's body an imposition between the fetus and the water of immersion?  Ritual immersion (other than that to purify women who are niddah) allows a substance that is on most of one's body to remain there unless a person wishes to remove it.  Does this rule apply to the fetus?

The second example regards a mamzer.  If a mamzer marries his gentile maidservant and he frees their child, the child is Jewish, and fit -- no longer a mamzer.  Thus the child follows her/his mother's status.  However, in most cases where 'outsiders' marry Jews, their children follow the status of their fathers.

These complicated rules are still followed.  They have caused many families to study Jewish thought so that they can be considered fully Jewish.  They have also caused many family rifts as people are not able to meet the stringent conditions of inclusion in the Jewish community and families are forced to live separate lives.

A new Mishna teaches us that mamzerim and Gibeonites are forbidden to enter the congregation and to marry Jewish women.  This applies eternally, and to both men and women.

First, the Gemara focuses upon the mamzeret, the female mamzer.  Surely she becomes permitted to enter the congregation after ten generations!  The rabbis find proof texts for this assertion. But perhaps it is not a necessary halacha, for a mamzer's descendants will die at the hand of Heaven after three generations.  That is, those mamzerim who are unknown will die out after three generations.  If the mamzer/et is known, s/he is destined to live.

Next, the Gemara looks at the prohibitions facing the Gibeonites.  It is suggested that this originates in the times of King David, where there was a three-year long famine (II Samuel 21).  David blamed the people of Israel: in the first year, for worshipping idols, in the second year, for sexual impropriety, in the third year, for promising charity publicly then giving nothing.  When no transgressors were found, David blamed himself and turned to speak with G-d through the Umim V'Tummim.  These were the stones in the breastplate of the High Priest.  G-d told David that the famine was because Saul put the Gibeonites to death.  

Our daf ends with the rabbis debating whether or not Saul did in fact kill the Gibeonites.