Q&A: Dispute Between the Mother Giving Birth and the Midwives: Who Is Believed?
Dispute Between the Mother Giving Birth and the Midwives: Who Is Believed?
Question
A woman giving birth claims that her son was born at a certain minute (as he emerged into the world she looked at the clock, because it was very close to sunset and it was important to her to know exactly when he was born).
The midwife claims that the boy was born a few minutes later (it is her work and role to be precise; as soon as he emerged into the air of the world she looked at the clock and wrote down with exact precision what the clock showed).
There are practical ramifications of just a few minutes between them. Quite a few ramifications were created.
For example: when to circumcise him (whether it is 2 minutes before sunset or 3 minutes after it).
From when is he considered 13 years old and obligated in the commandments?
When will he be drafted into the army?
When will he become eligible for an old-age allowance?
And likewise, if he betroths a woman based on the assumption that he was born on the day his mother says or on the day the midwife says?
The midwife claims that because of the pain, tension, and distress of childbirth (without an epidural), the mother made a slight mistake. The woman giving birth claims that for her this was very important, whereas for the midwife it is just an assembly line and precision is not important to her, etc.
When should he be circumcised?
According to the mother? Or according to the midwife?
And if we imagine the opposite case, where the midwife gives an earlier time and the mother a later one—what would the law be?
And if it is decided (as in case A) that the midwife is believed and not the mother, is that a ruling only for the father and for the religious court as to when to circumcise, while the mother herself may perhaps even be obligated to believe herself, take a flint knife, and circumcise her son's foreskin?
Answer
This is a case of doubt, and one should act according to the laws governing cases of doubt. (For example, draft him in the very next second.)
Discussion on Answer
She cannot ask me if for her there is no doubt. I have a doubt. She has to decide for herself.
If she is not in doubt, I am still inclined to think that she cannot circumcise him herself, because there is a father here, and in the absence of a father there is an obligation on the religious court to circumcise, and if they do not circumcise because there is a doubt, then nothing has happened, so there is no reason to panic.
Beyond all this, there is a dispute whether a woman can circumcise at all (Shulchan Arukh, Yoreh De'ah 264:1, and regarding the view of the Rema the opinions are divided).
Does the mother also have the laws of doubt, and therefore circumcise him the following day?
Or since for her it is certain, must she take a flint knife and circumcise him herself, like the act of Zipporah?