Firstborn Inheritance Claim via Two Separate Testimony Sets

Description

The Chasam Sofer examines whether a bechor can prove his status through two separate sets of witnesses — one attesting he is a peter rechem and one attesting his mother was the father's first wife — when the Shulchan Aruch rules such testimonies are each merely chatzi davar per the Rif. He innovates that if the bechor's status is already established through the public custom of fasting on Erev Pesach, the peter rechem fact becomes a chazakah rather than testimony, rendering the sole remaining testimony a davar shalem even under the Rif. However, expressing uncertainty about whether witnesses can reliably attest that the father never married elsewhere, he recommends pesharah.