How Rabbi Tarfon Says a Tainted Line Can Be Purified

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 314:1

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

Rabbi Tarfon says: Those of forbidden birth can be purified. How? One of forbidden birth who married a maidservant - the child is a slave, as it is written, "the woman and her children shall belong to her master" (Exodus 21:4). If the master freed him, he turns out to be a free man. That a maidservant cannot be betrothed - from where do we learn it? For the verse says, "Stay here with the donkey" (Genesis 22:5) [a people likened to a donkey, who cannot contract betrothal]. That her child is like her - from where do we learn it? For the verse says, "the woman and her children," etc. That a gentile woman cannot be betrothed - from where do we learn it? The verse says, "You shall not intermarry with them" (Deuteronomy 7:3). That her child is like her - from where do we learn it? For the verse says, "for he will turn away," etc. (Deuteronomy 7:4).

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