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B"H

QUESTION:

How do we know that a child is Jewish when his mother is Jewish?

ANSWER:

A teaching in Devorim 7:3 is used by us to show how only a child born from a Jewish mother is to be considered a Jew, though he might have had a gentile father. There, we find the prohibition about taking the Canaanites in marriage, viz., "You shall not consummate marriages with them, nor shall you give your daughter to his son or take his son for your daughter, since he will turn away your son from following me." By looking very closely and diacritically at the wording of the text, it says "...since he (the Canaanite father) will turn away your son (i.e. the child born to your Jewish daughter) from following me." Here, we see that G-d still reckons the child to be Jewish by calling him, "your son" - id est, even though such unions were forbidden. G-d calls him "your son," implying that he is still an Israelite because he was born from a Jewish mother. However, the opposite is not true. The Torah does not say, "...for she (the Canaanite mother) will turn away your son." In this case, the child would no longer be considered your son, but rather a gentile. (Cf. Yevamoth 76a; Numbers Rabba 19:3).
 
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