Se alguém disser: "Este meu filho é um mamzer", ele não acredita. [Pois ele é parente dele e, portanto, não se acredita que testemunhe.] E mesmo se os dois [marido e mulher] disserem sobre um feto no seu ventre que é um mamzer, eles não são acreditados. [Não somente quando o pai testemunha que ele é um mamzer, ele não é acreditado, não está certo, mas mesmo quando sua mãe, que está certa, testemunha, ela não é acreditada, nem mesmo em relação a um feto em seu ventre, que estava nunca em um status de kashruth.] R. Yehudah diz: Eles são acreditados. [A lógica de R. Yehudah: Está escrito (Deuteronômio 21:17): "Mas o primogênito ... ele (o pai) reconhecerá"—ele deve fazer com que ele seja reconhecido por outros, de onde se deduz que se acredita que o pai torne seu filho pasul (inapto), e não se acredita que a mãe o faça. E é somente a respeito de seu filho que ele é crido, mas não a respeito do filho de seu filho. Se seu filho teve filhos, ele não está autorizado a torná-los pasul. A halachá está de acordo com R. Yehudah.]
Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
האומר בני זה ממזר הוא אינו נאמן – for he is a relative in relation to him, and a relative is not fit to testify.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
Introduction
In this mishnah we learn that parents are not believed if they say that their child is a mamzer.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
ואפילו שמיהם – the husband and his wife, and it is not necessary that the father alone testifies that he is an illegitimate child, for he is not believed, who is not certain [of the child’s paternity], but even the mother who is certain [of the child’s paternity], she is [also] not believed (see Kiddushin 78b).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
If a man declares, “this son of mine is a mamzer,” he is not believed. There are two explanations given for why a father is not believed to say that his child is a mamzer. The first is that the father is related to the child and relatives may not testify. The second is that by saying that the child is a mamzer, the father is testifying against himself and halakhah does not allow self-incrimination.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
אפילו על עובר שבמעיה – who does not enjoy the presumption of fitness.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
And even if both [the husband and wife] say about the fetus inside her, “it’s a mamzer” they are not believed. Even if both parents say that their child is a mamzer, which means that they are saying that the child is not from the husband but from an adulterous affair, they are not believed.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kiddushin
ר' יהודה אומר נאמנים – The reason of Rabbi Yehuda is that it is written (Deuteronomy 21:17): “[Instead, he must accept [the first-born, the son of the unloved one, and allot to him a double portion of all that he possesses….” – he will be accepted/recognized to others. From here [we learn that] the father is believed to disqualify his son, but the mother is not believed to disqualify her son. And especially regarding his son he believed, but not on the son of his son, for if this son had children, he would not not believed to disqualify them. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehuda.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kiddushin
Rabbi Judah says: they are believed. Rabbi Judah disagrees with both of the previous clauses. In the Talmud Rabbi Judah’s ruling is based on a midrash. That is to say his halakhah is not necessarily logical; rather it is based on his interpretation of Scripture.
