Continuing from the Mishna introduced yesterday, the Gemara discusses the legal status of children born of different relationships. If the father is a kohen or a levi and the parents are permitted to marry, the child's status follows the father. If the parents are not permitted to marry, the child might be defined by that relationship. For example, a child is called a chalal if the father is a kohen and the mother is divorced. In other situations, that child might be defined by the mother's status. For example, a Gentile maidservant's child would be a slave. In yet other situations, such a child is called a mamzer. A mamzer is the result of a Jewish woman has intercourse with one of the people forbidden to her, like her father, brother, etc. A chalal is not a kohen and cannot marry a priest/ess. A mamzer must marry another mamzer, and even their children are separated from the rest of the Jewish community.
The bulk of our daf tries to deconstruct rabbis' statements regarding some of these relationships. How do we know that mamzerim are the result of incest? What else helps us to understand how mamzerim are distinct? Are all mamzerim the same? Are the 'crimes' that produce mamzerim punishable in the same ways? What does the halacha teach us about these intricacies?
Today's daf is absolutely irrelevant today if we simply look at the content of the Gemara. Although some communities continue to honour kohenim and leviim, we can acknowledge that no-one truly knows who is a kohen and who is a levi. And anyway, we have no Temple that might justify their special status.
In our modern societies, we discourage distinguishing people based solely on the status of their parents. So what if one's parents aren't married? Or if they aren't of the same religions? Their children should not be punished for having been born. Today's daf offers a pointed example of one of the major differences between the times of the Talmud and our current societies.
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