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From: R. Kovacs
Subject: Self-attestation
Date: 19 Kislev 5781
Nachmani says the inputs would be clear. There was a case in Munkács (my grandfather heard it from the rabbi himself) where a woman wanted to marry but her Jewish status was questioned. The rabbi collected evidence: her mother's ketubah, testimony from neighbors who remembered the grandmother, a letter from a rabbi in Pressburg who had known the family.
Then someone produced counter-evidence: a civil record showing the great-grandmother's maiden name was not Jewish.
The rabbi looked at everything. He said: "The civil record says one thing. The Jewish records say another. Which records do I trust?"
He trusted the Jewish records. But another rabbi might have decided differently. The evidence did not resolve the question. The rabbi's judgment resolved the question.
Organizing evidence does not eliminate judgment. It only moves the judgment to a different place.
—Shlomo Dov Kovacs
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