Abstract: The fear of giving birth to a mamzer is one of the most powerful mechanisms enslaving Jewish women seeking a divorce from their recalcitrant husbands, and denying them the elementary right to have children. In the state of Israel in the year 2017, the power of this threat still holds sway, even over the non-religious population fearful of "staining" its future generation. In this article, I claim that a social approach is needed to remove the stain of mamzerut. As long as people cooperate with the injustice and fear of mamzerut, its power will intensify. Only when people cease cooperating with, and according significance to, the notion of mamzerut, will its strength diminish. The way to do this is for each and every one of us to refrain from using the term "mamzer" and to simply stop cooperating with this needless injustice. In other words, I seek to claim and to implement that there is no evil in being defined as a mamzer; it has no significance at all.

Abstract: Gay couples are on the one hand like all other couples and face similar questions and challenges, but on the other hand, there are some special aspects in preparing and officiating same-sex weddings. In this article I describe processes of preparation of Israeli-Jewish gay weddings at "Havaya Israeli life cycle ceremonies", and I give examples of ceremonies.