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The Gemara here discusses a case in which a widow entered into levirate marriage with her deceased husband’s brother and birthes a child within 7 to 9 months, so that it is uncertain whether the child is from the deceased husband or the yavam. The Sages establish that irrespective of who the father is, the child’s lineage is not affected. This makes sense halakhically as well as sociologically, as any decision otherwise would put the institution of levirate marriage as such at risk. The same, however, does not apply if she has a second child with the yavam. Since the first child’s paternity isn’t clear, if he was the deceased husband’s child, the levirate marriage between the widow and the yavam loses its basis and therefore any (further) child born of them has uncertain mamzer status.
This case is interesting insofar as it shines a light on cases of uncertainty that, essencially, take the affected person out of society. The uncertain mamzer may not marry anyone due to the uncertainty, similar to the case of a high priest who was replaced temporarily: he cannot be lowered in sanctity to a regular priest, he also cannot serve as high priest, leaving him in a position where he can’t really do anything. How to deal with these cases where the halakhah creates classes of people that fall outside rabbinic modes of classification?
The Gemara, here, does not come to a definite solution, Abaye argues that an uncertain mamzer should be able to marry a mamzeret, Rava argues that he should not. The Rambam codifies according to Rava, as the halakhah is mostly in accordance with Rava. He, however, makes sure to point out that this matter is rabbinic in nature.
The Shulchan Arukh, on the other hand, goes into greater detail explaining the circumstances of uncertain status without explicitly qualifying the resulting legislation as rabbinic in nature.
This is relevant insofar as halakhah de-rabbanan is generally more open to reevaluation that halakhah de-oraita, as the Rambam himself notes that, while here the majority view was followed,
[…] when some court establishes a precedent in accordance with the minority view, no other court may disagree and determine the law according to the majority opinion, save if it be greater in number than the court that has already established the precedent according to the minority opinion, and greater than it in wisdom.
Maimonides, Commentary on the Mishnah Eduyyot 1:5, in: R. Joel Roth, The Halakhic Process: A Systemic Analysis
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Three reminders that we live in the same world as the sages of ages past
“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” (Luke 11:24-26 KJV)
Who doesn’t know someone struggling with addiction who, everytime they try to get clean, falls into worse habits than before, who are always trying to fill some emptiness? They are, of course, not possessed by demons, but the experience that the will that fills our emptiness is not our own is at least 2000 years old.
“Say to a person who is believed to belong to the wise men of Israel that the Almighty sends His angel to enter the womb of a woman and to form there the foetus, he will be satisfied with the account; he will believe it, and even find in it a description of the greatness of God’s might and wisdom […], but tell him that God gave the seed a formative power which produces and shapes the limbs, and that this power is called angel […], and he will turn away; because he cannot comprehend the true greatness and power of creating forces that act in a body without being perceived by our senses.” (Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed)
Imagine if DNA was somehow discovered in medieval times? Jewish scribes would see it as evidence for angels! It is the perfect middle way between rationalists who see incorporal angels in each natural process and traditionalists who demand their angels have a body…
“The opportunities opened up by the placebo are unique, for it cannot possibly enter into any process by virtue of its chemical composition. It has, so to speak, neither the reactivity nor the physical dimension required of an effective drug. It does not matter in the least what the placebo is made of or how much is used so long as it is not detected as a placebo by the subject or the observer.” (Henry K. Beecher, The powerful placebo)
One of the most famous definitions of magic is that it’s using mental means for physical ends. Isn’t the placebo effect evidence enough for at least some efficacy of magic?
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Open letter from Maimonides seeking the release of Jewish captives written in 1170.
Nothing in the world is new.
From the collection of the Jewish Theological Seminary, NYC. On view November 2025 at the Grolier Club in New York City.
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Firstly, it is of note that the first translator is named as a convert, given how the translator already tends to occupy a liminal space in the public imaginary.
Secondly, we find a reversal of common translational anxieties. While much translational discourse, shaped by the conduit metaphor, focuses on transferring content unaltered from one language to another, here the fear is not the loss or falsification of information but its being made explicit, what’s at stake is ambiguity. One might argue this to be due to the wish to keep the text open to interpretation, as indicated by verse 5, yet verse 6 indicates that, rather, it is the new accessibility of the translational that is the problem. We find a similar line of thought, that unhindered access to the uninitiated masses is dangerous, in the minimum age requirement for studying kabbalah, we find it as well in Maimonides:
Some general principles bearing upon this point have been fully discussed in our works on the Talmud, and we have there called the attention of the reader to many themes of this kind. We also stated (Mishneh torah, I. ii. 12, and iv. 10) that the expression Ma'ase Bereshit (Account of the Creation) signified “Natural Science,” and Ma'aseh Mercabah (Description of the Chariot) Metaphysics, and we explained the force of the Rabbinical dictum, The Ma'aseh Mercabah must not be fully expounded even in the presence of a single student, unless he be wise and able to reason for himself, and even then you should merely acquaint him with the heads of the different sections of the subject. You must therefore not expect from me more than such heads. And even these have not been methodically and systematically arranged in this work, but have been, on the contrary, scattered, and are interspersed with other topics which we shall have occasion to explain. My object in adopting this arrangement is that the truths should be at one time apparent, and at another time concealed. Thus we shall not be in opposition to the Divine Will (from which it is wrong to deviate) which has withheld from the multitudes the truths required for the knowledge of God, according to the words, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him” (Ps. xxv. 14). […] For this reason the prophets treat these subjects in figures, and our Sages, imitating the method of Scripture, speak of them in metaphors and allegories[.]
Moses Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed
Like a Jewish parallel to Prometheus of Greek mythology, the translator brings to the masses not the fire of the idolatry of material, but rather that by which monotheism worships: the Word. In subversion of the Greek myth, the Jewish translator ultimately heeds Divine prohibition and ceases his work.
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Here we see alluded to several ideas concerning the tension between leadership and humility, from the particularistic on to the realm of larger concepts. For one, the community leader being chosen first to have ashes placed on him is in line with the idea, which we already see in the story of Moses, that a leader bears responsibility for the people under his leadership and if the community’s transgression is to be rectified, the leader should be the first to seek forgiveness.
Secondly, we find that humility itself is a trait expected from someone who might take over a position of leadership, as R. Heschel writes in his biography of Maimonides:
In this period of his spiritual and intellectual development, Maimonides seems to affirm that the extreme humility he demands of all men goes to the extreme of self-abasement. He found the standard for this in a story he enjoyed telling: “A pious Gentile was asked: Tell us on what day you felt the greatest joy of your life. The pious man replied: I was once sailing on a ship. My place was in a shabby corner, where the bundles of clothing were stored. Merchants and well-to-do men were also on board. One of the voyagers, who felt the call of nature, entered this room, where I lay in my spot, with my face looking up. The well-to-do voyager found me so unworthy and despicable that he soiled me. I was amazed at this insolance, but – by God! – I felt neither insulted nor angry. This equanimity of my soul, which I experienced, brought me a feeling of bliss. This was the greatest joy of my life.
R. Abraham J. Heschel, Maimonides: A Biography
So it is perhaps a reversal of cause and effect: the leader is the first to have ashes placed upon him because he is the sort of person who would go first in abasing himself to seek Hashem’s forgiveness.
Thirdly, we can place this humility in the larger framework of halakhic observance, which requires us sometimes to forego our social status in gentile society to carry out the mitzvot, the mark of a yoke that is at the same time a source of pride, a dual dynamic inherent to how chosenness is often articulated within Jewish thought, though it need to necessarily be limited to that. As R. Soloveitchik puts it:
God does not always require a sacrifice commensurate to the akeidah. Yet, a Jew must still learn to bring a korban, a sacrifice, to give something up, to surrender something he very much desires, or to participate in something he would rather not do. For example, consider the wearing of a yarmulka. Yarmulka as a halakhic precept is relatively unimportant. The point, however, is that a Jew who does not publicly wear a yarmulka is simply lacking something. A yarmulka can ultimately distinguish between a believer and a non-believer. Why is it so difficult to wear a yarmulka on one’s head? The korban of shame. If a Jew doesn’t have the fortitude to don a yarmulka where it might cause him embarrassment, he does not know what sacrifice is. And indeed, if he does not know what sacrifice is, he does not know what Judaism is either.
R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Rav on Tefillah
İn this framework we can understand what it means for the placing of the ashes on oneself to be a sign of distinction.
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Describing vaccines to medieval rabbis be like…
Me: “So we have this needle, and when we poke you with it, it puts a magic potion inside your body that kills the demon that causes a particular disease.”
Maimonides: “Which diseases?”
Me: “Oh, you know… polio, mumps, measles, whooping cough, that kind of thing.”
Maimonides: 😮 “A miracle!”
Me: “Of science, yeah. I guess. Actually, they worked too well. People started thinking they didn’t need them anymore. They were wrong.”
Maimonides: “But those silly people weren’t Jews, right?”
Me: “…”
Maimonides: “They were gentiles, right?”
And that’s when the Rambam scrapped writing his “Guide for the Perplexed” and instead wrote “For God’s Sake, Vaccinate Your Kids.”
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Me?
I really admire Sephardic everything, though.
I once spent a few weeks in Spain, and chasing down Sephardic history was most of what I did while there.
Visiting Cordoba while reading about Maimonides was my idea of an excellent vacation. (I also read Ghosts of Spain while travelling by train, which was fascinating and a bit alarming.)
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Therapist: Transphobic Maimonides isn’t real, he can’t hurt you.
Transphobic Maimonides:
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Your purpose…should always be to know…the whole that was intended to be known.
Maimonides
The Guide for the Perplexed
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You know how Maimonides claimed that religious scripture is meant to be read in a figurative sense to help us develop our mental representations of God, and should not be read literally as he is unlike anything in the world? I think a good way of explaining it is that religious scripture is trying to explain God to us the same way a person with sight would explain seeing to someone who’s been blind from birth - they would use literal and detailed concepts the blind person can understand, but the blind person would never fully be able to come close to a complete understanding of what they’re describing.
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“May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain.
Grant me the strength, time, and opportunity always to correct what I have acquired, always to extend its domain; for knowledge is immense and the spirit of man can extend indefinitely to enrich itself daily with new requirements.
Today he can discover his errors of yesterday and tomorrow he can obtain a new light on what he thinks himself sure of today.”
- from The Oath of Maimonides, a traditional oath for pharmacists and physicians attributed to Maimonides.
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“Redeeming captives takes precedence over feeding and clothing the needy. In fact, there’s no mitzvah greater than redeeming captives because a captive is hungry, thirsty, unclothed and in mortal danger. One who ignores redeeming a captive violates the prohibitions against hardening our hearts and closing our hands […] No mitzvah is as great as redeeming captives.” - Hilchos Matnos Aniyim 8:10 x
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Me: so this guy was a rabbi and also a scientist and a doctor, right? Maimon- Mami- Mamid-
American friend: Maimonides
Me: yeah sorry we call him by an acronym nickname over here
AF: you’re on a first name basis with Maimonides?
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Source details and larger version.
Here’s my seasonal collection of vintage (mostly weird) fashion.
