Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Mamzerim : Real People, Real Problems

The title of this blog , "Mamzer Hakodesh", literally means "The Holy Bastard", or even, "The Holy Abomination". I used it for several reasons, one is about being a Jewish-born Christian, one is about looking at the Torah and Bible with fresh perspectives, another about being from an inter-faith and interracial family. One is about the idea of Jesus himself as a bastard; also the idea that sacredness is found in profanity.




But there are real mamzerim in this world. People who spend their lives hiding their halachically (Jewish Law) ordained status as bastards who can not marry "legitimate" Jews until the memory of their status is erased; some say this 10 generations, others 40. There are real people with real lives whose great sin was being born from an "unauthorized" halachic union.

The name of this blog is provocative, sassy, confrontational, and sort of awesome in my opinion. The situation of real life people who are subject to a stigma and shame, through no fault of their own, isn't quite as cool. I recently found an article by Rivkah Lubitch that I found very interesting, somewhat depressing, and slightly hopeful about the subject.

Click here to read the article.

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