Hinny is easier to obtain when the lower chromosome count, the donkey, is in the male. Therefore breeding for hinnies is more hit-and-miss than breeding for mules." The male hinny or mule can and will mate, but the emission is not fertile. Male hinnies and mules are usually castrated to help control their behavior by eliminating their interest in females. Female hinnies and mules are not customarily spayed, and may or may not go through estrus. Female mules have been known, on rare occasions, to produce offspring when mated to a horse or donkey, although this is extremely uncommon. Since 1527,
Who is a Jew? horse and a donkey, and in both unions the offspring are judged matrilineally. Second, the Tannaim may have been influenced by Roman law, which dictated that when a parent could not contract a legal marriage, offspring would follow the mother. However Leviticus 24:11, Ezra 9-10, and Nehemiah 13 seem to indicate that matrilineal descent was recognized and patrilineal descent was rejected in Biblical times as well. All Jewish religious movements agree that a person may be a Jew either by birth or through conversion. According to "halakha," a Jew by birth must be born to a Jewish mother. "Halakha" states