For the source text click/tap here: Yevamot 98
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This mishnah and the following two mishnayoth deal with a favorite rabbinic topic, especially in seder Nashim: people getting mixed up and not knowing who they are.
We will see similar discussions in tractates Gittin and Kiddushin. In the case in our mishnah, five boys from five women got mixed up, and nobody knows for sure who belongs to which mother.
The problem is that should they die without children and they have brothers (or at least each woman has one other son who she knows is her son), they don’t know who is whose brother.
We examine cases of switched babies at birth the incidence and intriguing stories of discovery including the use of DNA technology.
Finally we cannot but ignore the wonderful tale of switched babies in Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.