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How does chezkas haeim (presumptive status of the mother) work to determine if her child is kosher for kehuna or kahal? The shiur argues that disqualification from kehuna comes through the mother's status, not directly from the father. This reframes the entire sugya - even when we can't determine who the father is, if the mother retains her kosher status through chazakah, the child cannot be disqualified.
This shiur provides an in-depth analysis of the Gemara (גמרא) in Kesubos 13b regarding chezkas haeim mehani labas (the presumptive status of the mother helps the child). The central question is how a mother's chazakah can help determine her child's eligibility for kehuna or kahal when there is uncertainty about the father's identity. Rav Kil Vegar's approach distinguishes between cases of rov posul (majority unfit) versus rov kasher (majority fit). He suggests that when there's rov posul, the mother loses her chazakah and becomes posul, which then affects the child. However, when there's rov kasher, the mother remains kosher and this helps the child. Rabbi Zweig raises fundamental questions about this approach - if chazakah tells us something definitive about who she was with, then statistical majorities shouldn't matter at all.
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Kesubos 13b
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