Kiddushin, Daf Ayin Daled, Part 2

 

Introduction

Today s section is about who is believed to testify that someone is a bachor, a first-born.

 

אמר רב נחמן שלשה נאמנין על הבכור אלו הן חיה אביו ואמו חיה לאלתר אמו כל שבעה אביו לעולם כדתניא (דברים כא, יז) יכיר יכירנו לאחרים מכאן א"ר יהודה נאמן אדם לומר זה בני בכור וכשם שנאמן לומר זה בני בכור כך נאמן לומר זה בן גרושה וזה בן חלוצה וחכמים אומרים אינו נאמן

 

R. Nahman said: Three are believed with respect to a first-born.

These are they: The midwife, the father and the mother.

The midwife, [only] immediately.

The mother, the first seven days;

The father, forever. As it was taught: He shall acknowledge [the firstborn] (Deuteronomy 21:17): [i.e.,] he shall acknowledge him to others. From here R. Yehudah said: A man is believed when he says: This son is my firstborn. And just as he is believed when he says: This son is my firstborn, so is he believed when he says: This is the son of a divorced woman , this is the son of a halutzah.

But the Sages say: He is not believed.

 

The midwife, as we saw earlier, is believed to say which child came out first but only immediately.

The mother is believed but only for seven days. The assumption seems to be that the child is completely with the mother for the first seven days of his life. The father would not even recognize him, or at least that s what Rashi says.

The father is believed for the entirety of the child s life. This is derived from the words he shall recognize him from Deuteronomy. A father has the right to testify as to which of his children is the first-born. R. Yehudah goes on and says that the father is also believed to disqualify his son from being a valid priest. In other words, the father is a priest but he says that the child s mother was a divorcee or a halutzah, a woman he is not supposed to marry. However, the other rabbis disagree and say that a father is not believed to testify that his son is disqualified. This is because he has a presumption of being valid and without proper testimony that presumption cannot be disturbed.