In the first Mishnah, we discussed people who went from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael with Ezra. We described different groups of people. There were people we’ll call part of Kahal Hashem, ordinary Jews: Kohen, Levi, Yisrael (priests, Levites, and Israelites), and even Chalalim (disqualified priests), who in some way, shape, or form could marry each other. Not everybody can marry everybody, but generally they could marry into the congregation of Hashem. You had the Gerim and the Meshuchrarim, converts and freed slaves. Seemingly, from the first Mishnah, they also could marry into Kahal Hashem. We’ll have a different opinion over here. And then, lastly, you had the Mamzerim and the Netinim, people who have problematic lineage, and we say they cannot marry into Kahal Hashem; they’re not allowed to marry into the regular Jewish people. You also had Shetuki and Asufi, who, because of a lack of information, take on the status of Safek Mamzer (possible mamzer), and therefore they also can’t marry into the general Kahal Hashem, the normal Jewish people. This Mishnah will continue to elaborate on that topic.
The Mishnah says that those who are not allowed to enter the Kahal and marry regular, ordinary Jewish people—that is, Mamzerim and Netinim, problematic people—are allowed to marry one another. When we say Kahal Hashem, we’re not only talking about Mamzerim, Netinim, Shetuki, and Asufi; we’re even talking about converts and other people who seemingly are not part of the Jewish people but then came into the Jewish people. They’re also technically allowed to marry Mamzerim and Netinim, like we saw in Mishnah Aleph (first Mishnah). But Rabbi Yehuda oser. Rabbi Yehuda says they’re not allowed to marry into the regular Jewish people. What he’s talking about here is Ammon u'Moav, the machloket (dispute) happening here between the Tanna Kamma (first tanna) and Rabbi Yehuda. The Tanna Kamma would say that all converts, including Ammon u'Moav, are allowed to marry Mamzerim and Netinim. Rabbi Yehuda oser regular converts from marrying Mamzerim. He says they’re not allowed to because, technically, the converts become part of Kahal Hashem. They become part of the regular Jewish people. But he would admit that Ammon u'Moav are allowed to marry these types of disqualified people, because he would say that Ammon u'Moav are different. The Torah prohibits Ammon u'Moav from marrying regular Jewish people. So they’re like Mamzerim; therefore, they’re allowed to marry into Mamzerim. They’re allowed to intermarry with them. But a regular convert becomes part of the Jewish people, and he’s not allowed to marry anybody without kosher lineage.
Until now, we sort of made the assumption that a Mamzer or a Natin who are definite are allowed to marry a Safek Mamzer, for example, a Shetuki or an Asufi. We made that assumption that they’re allowed to. Here we’re going to have a disagreement, where Rabbi Eliezer is going to say that they can’t. Rabbi Eliezer omer (says): “Only a marriage between definites is allowed.” Somebody who’s definitely not allowed to marry regular Jews and another person who’s definitely not allowed to marry regular Jews—a Mamzer and a Mamzeret—are allowed to marry each other. There’s no question. There’s no question. But “Vadayim b'safekan u'safekan b'Vadayim u'safekan b'safekan asur” (Definite cases with doubtful cases, doubtful cases with definite cases, and doubtful cases with doubtful cases are forbidden).
But if you have a Vadai, a definite problem, and a possible problem, like a Mamzer who wanted to marry a female Shetuki, the problem here is that the Mamzer is definitely an issue. How are we allowing him to marry a Shetuki, which may be an issue, or maybe not? If it’s an issue, the Shetuki—which, again, we don’t know; we don’t know what’s really happening there because we don’t know who the father of that girl is—then if the father really was a Mamzer, they technically would be allowed to get married. But we don’t know. And therefore, since there’s a Safek, there’s a possibility that she’s a regular kosher Jew, which we don’t know; we don’t have clarity on it. We don’t allow her to marry the definite Mamzer, u'safekan b'Vadayim, or the other way.
Let’s say you have a male Shetuki, who’s a Safek: Safek Mamzer, Safek regular Jew. And we’re not allowed to have him marry a woman Mamzeret either, because it’s the same thing. How could we allow him? Maybe he’s a regular person of Kahal Hashem. So how could we have him marry a Mamzeret? Since we don’t know—we don’t know what his story is—that’s not allowed as well. “u'safekan b'safekan asur.” Likewise, a marriage between somebody who’s possibly an issue and another person who’s possibly an issue, like a male Shetuki marrying a female Shetuki. Maybe they’re not compatible. If you want to tell me they were both problems, they can marry. If you want to tell me they’re both not problems, they can marry. But if one of them is a problem and the other one is not an issue, and again, we have a lack of information, so we’ll never have clarity, then that marriage is a problem. So therefore we say it’s always asur. In all of these cases, they’re not allowed to marry. We’re talking about somebody who’s possibly disqualified and somebody who’s a regular person. So therefore, just like a regular person’s not allowed to marry a Mamzeret, over here too, since everyone here has a possibility of being a regular Kahal Hashem Jew, we don’t allow people to marry each other.
These are the possible people who are forbidden to marry ordinary Jews: a Shetuki, like we’ve said, somebody who doesn’t know his father; an Asufi, like we’ve said as well, somebody who doesn’t know his father and his mother; and lastly, a Kuti. A Kuti is a person from the group of Kutim from the first Beit HaMikdash. They were attacked by lions, and then they wanted to be saved by Hashem, so therefore they converted to Judaism. But afterwards, it was found out that they never had a real Kabbalat HaMitzvot (acceptance of the commandments). They didn’t accept Torah properly, and as a result, they didn’t keep the laws of divorce and marriage. They kept part of the Torah, but they didn’t keep all of the Torah. So therefore, their women were possibly married to somebody else when they got married. Maybe, and therefore they created possible Mamzerim. So therefore, we say that we have to look at all of the community of Kutim as possible, and therefore they have the same laws, and they’re Safek Mamzer.