Legitimacy of Children When Mother Remarried Without Beis Din Testimony

Description

A man named Alexander Sender ben R' Yitzchak HaLevi appeared before Rabbi Akiva Eiger in distress, as challengers sought to disqualify him, his sister, and their children as mamzerim on the grounds that their mother had remarried without prior beis din acceptance of testimony that her first husband had died. Rabbi Akiva Eiger raises multiple doubts: whether agunah leniencies apply after the wife's death when only the children's status is at stake, whether the presumption of daikah u'minseva applies to a woman who married without any testimony, and whether testimony never formally accepted by a beis din can be deemed complete. He declines to issue a definitive ruling, offering only to lend supplementary support if two prominent rabbis and the local Av Beis Din of Landen concur with the permissive position.