Ketubot 14: Will their child be fit? The pros and cons of societal delineations

The Gemara turns to face a question regarding a betrothed couple.  If the woman becomes pregnant, and both she and her fiance claim that he is the father, what should be done?  The question suggests that this couple might be lying and that a child who should be classified as a mamzer is going to be integrated into the larger Jewish community.  

To begin answering this question, the Gemara turns to what could be a parallel case.  In this situation, a widow has married and had children with a priest who then dies.  That priest was of uncertain lineage, known as a chalal.  What is the status of the child in that case?  How might that help the rabbis better understand their reasoning regarding the betrothed couple expecting a child?

The conversations that ensue cover many considerations:

• whether or not the woman might investigate the lineage of her husband/husband-to-be
• how many uncertainties are involved in each situation
• the notion of a widow of a chalal as an 'issa', where their child would be like dough: of many ingredients
• how fitness might be determined regarding the child of a Gibeonite or a mamzer
• how silence might help or hinder one accused of being a mamzer
• how silence might help or hinder one accused of being a chalal

The daf ends with a new Mishna.  It is short, but certainly powerful: A young girl descends to collect water where she is raped by an unknown person. According to Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri, she is permitted to marry a priest as long as the majority of young women in her town marry into the priesthood.  The Gemara begins with Rabban Gamliel, who adds to the leniency: even if the majority of people in her town are from flawed lineage, she is still allowed to marry a priest.  Of course, Rabbi Yahoshua disagrees.  Certainly we will learn more about the reasoning of these rabbis in tomorrow's daf.

As I have often noted, our Sages were reformulating a society that relied on clear boundaries.  The lines between right and wrong, fit and flawed, tahor and tamei, permitted and forbidden - were analyzed down to the millimetre.  In today's daf, we are presented with a betrothed couple who tell the Sages that they had intercourse and that she is pregnant.  In our times, what harm could come from simply believing them without debate?  But in the times of the Talmud, our Sages were attempting to maintain lines of purity.  If they could avoid uncertainty, questionable status, the possible integration of a chalal or a mamzer, they would do so.

Of course, even ultra-Orhodox families do not maintain pure lines of descent any longer.  Anyone could call oneself a Kohen, a priest.  But in the liberal Jewish world, we see an extreme version of 'diluted' lineage.  Are we worse for those leniencies?  Certainly we are further away from the interpretations and opinions of our Sages.  But are we truly further away from G-d's description of the Jewish people?  Without a Temple (and according to me, thank heaven for that - we would be arguing about animal sacrifice right now), do we truly require these strict, stringent rules to understand our identities?