The study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history.
2
votes
1answer
90 views
Can the descendants of a mamzer ever become full Jews?
Is there any way for the descendants of a mamzer to ever become Jews with full rights, or are they stuck with mamzerus forever? For example, if a man who is a mamzer marries a non-Jew, and then their ...
4
votes
2answers
86 views
What was so good about Naamah the Ammonite?
In Bava Kamma 38b we are told that one reason God spared Lot was because of the two good birds who would issue from his daughters. Rus from Moav and Naamah from Ammon. Rus is well known, the only ...
2
votes
0answers
70 views
What tribe are the Bene Israel in India descended from?
What tribe(s) are the Bene Israel of India descended from?
4
votes
1answer
75 views
How does Rashi knows that Shimshai safra is Hamman's son?
In Ezra, 4:8, a person called Shimshai is mentioned:
רְחוּם בְּעֵל-טְעֵם, וְשִׁמְשַׁי סָפְרָא, כְּתַבוּ אִגְּרָה חֲדָה,
עַל-יְרוּשְׁלֶם--לְאַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתְּא מַלְכָּא, כְּנֵמָא.
translation:
...
4
votes
1answer
74 views
What became of Moshe's sons and their descendants?
After Yisro brings Tzipora and Moshe's sons back to him at Exodus 18:2-5, they are not mentioned by name again in the Torah. Divrei Hayamim (Chronicles I 23:14 et seq.) lists their male descendants ...
3
votes
2answers
106 views
Can any kohanim trace all the way back to Aaron?
Can any kohanim alive today trace their lineage all the way back to the High Priest Aaron? If not, who can go the farthest?
0
votes
0answers
51 views
Where can I find family history of Rabbi Schneor Zalman Altshuler? [closed]
To rephrase my question correctly and not to make it too broad: where can I find information about the direct ancestors of Rabbi Schneor Zalman Altshuler?
Your help will be greatly appreciated.
3
votes
0answers
131 views
Children of Converts and Specific halachos
The Pri Megadim in OC Siman 156 Ashel Avraham Sif-Katan 2 writes that a child that was conceived in kedusha (sanctity) and born in kedusha to a mother and father that had both converted (i.e. these 2 ...
2
votes
2answers
210 views
Why are children from a gentile wife not considered Jewish with a Jewish father?
Why are children who have a Jewish Father and gentile mother not considered Jewish?
11
votes
1answer
248 views
What is a “Sephardic Jew”?
My name is Paul Avila (yea, I know, doesn't sound Jewish at all) I was born in the Azores Portugal and moved to the United States when I was 2. People always ask me if I am Persian. Never ...
9
votes
1answer
130 views
Extent of matrilineal descent
Am I a Jew if my mother's mother's mother's mother's mother was a Jew? Even if along the line one of my foremothers converted to another faith? I'd just like a better understanding of matrilineal ...
1
vote
2answers
98 views
Kohanim and paternal lines
Do you know the explanation why in modern Kohanim there is a paternal line encompassing about 50% of the Kohanim and then many lines encompassing the other 50% 1. Is it possible for a Kohen to be ...
8
votes
1answer
117 views
Accepting parents' minhagim
Since the Conservative movement tends to take most of its minhagim from the German tradition due to its German roots, most Conservative Jews in America tend to practice the German customs (such as ...
7
votes
2answers
157 views
What historical figures have been identified as 'Amalek?
Adolf Hitler is often said to have been 'Amalek. I've heard it said not only figuratively but literally (how one could know that is a mystery to me).
What other historical figures are associated with ...
4
votes
2answers
359 views
Can you explain the concept of “Yichus”?
Where does the concept of yichus (meaning that the person descends from something akin to "good stock") come from? How is it judged?
Note: I am not asking about the halachic concept that a man must ...
12
votes
3answers
284 views
When/where did the practice of “recycling” names begin?
Perhaps this had never bothered anyone in the past, but for someone like myself who delves into genealogy, the fact that there are family naming patterns is a great boon. Of course, we can go only so ...
5
votes
2answers
157 views
Why 1,000 generations of ungiven Torah, not X years?
The Mainz Anonymous reads, in part (in my own translation):
He created the Torah 974 generations before the world was created, then twenty-six generations [passed] from the creation of the world ...
5
votes
1answer
121 views
Was the Tzemach Tzedek related to the Metzudos Tziyon/Dovid? [closed]
The Tzemach Tzedek (of Lubavitch)'s father's name was Shalom Shachna Altshuler. Is he related to the Metzodos Tziyon?
6
votes
3answers
228 views
Illegitimacy in 18th-19th century Europe
I have been capturing genealogical information (Birth, Marriage, Death, Tombstones) in the Spis Region of Slovakia, which includes Jews who migrated from Galicia, parts of Hungary, or were living in ...
7
votes
1answer
155 views
Amon and Moav today
The Halacha is that a Jewish woman may not marry a convert of Amon and Moav. Is there any way to know who is a descendant of Amon and Moav today?
12
votes
4answers
625 views
Are there any Jewish people alive today who can identify themselves as coming from a particular tribe?
The Christian "New Testament" claims Paul (Saul) was of the tribe of Benjamin.
Since Roman times have there been any people who can validly claim they were from a particular tribe?
At least at that ...
