With God’s help, 13 Av 5781

There is absolutely nothing new in this suggestion. After all, regarding someone who refuses a court ruling obligating him to divorce his wife, “we coerce him by beatings until he gives a get or until his soul departs.” The problem is that in our enlightened country, the authorities do not permit this “barbaric coercion,” and allow coercion of the refuser only by imprisonment, which is really hospitality in a government hotel under “five-star hotel” conditions 🙂

Regards, the Refuser from the Sorbonne

According to the Torah, he deserves the death penalty:

“If a man is found kidnapping one of his brothers, of the children of Israel, and he enslaves him and sells him, then that thief shall die, and you shall remove the evil from your midst.”

Only if he knew that he deserved the death penalty, he probably wouldn’t refuse.

The existence of this phenomenon is made possible by denial of the Torah.

And there’s some Hasidic story about someone who didn’t want to divorce his wife, and the Rebbe told him that a woman leaves in two ways, and if she doesn’t agree to the first way, she’ll leave by the second way…

To Cucumber — greetings,

As I recall, the story was about Rabbi Akiva Eiger, where there was an apostate who refused to give a get to his wife, who had remained Jewish. Rabbi Akiva Eiger warned him that there was also a second way. The apostate continued in his refusal, and that very day he died.

Regards, Yafa”or

Why not also crucify him in the town square so everyone who passes by will see him suffering and won’t think of refusing to give a get.
The problem is a religious problem, not a state problem. In most countries, a court can annul a marriage. If someone thinks that according to his religion that’s forbidden, that’s his problem.
According to Christianity (at least Catholicism and fundamentalist Christianity), there is a very severe prohibition against divorcing and remarrying. And nevertheless, in all Christian countries there is an option to divorce.

And in general, if devout Christians can live their whole lives without remarrying, then the woman can too.
Being religious involves sacrifice.

With God’s help, 14 Av 5781

Get-refusal is the other side of the abuse of the man in divorce proceedings. When a person sees that they are about to destroy his life financially with payment demands beyond his economic ability, while at the same time cutting him off from contact with his children through false complaints, encouraged and backed by all kinds of organizations — the man does not have many options left. Either to live a life of endless persecution and humiliation, or to commit suicide, or to “fight back.”

The solution is to understand that it is possible to separate differently, to reach a reasonable arrangement that preserves the dignity and livelihood of both parents, and their continuing relationship with their children, who are the main victims of ugly divorces. Next to the religious courts and civil courts there are social workers who try, through mediation, to bring about an arrangement that will benefit everyone, and allow both parents to live with dignity, open a “second chapter” in their lives, while maintaining a good relationship with their children.

To the extent that a reasonable arrangement is reached through mediation, both for the two parents and for their children, the process becomes shorter and more efficient.

Regards, Feivish Lipa Sosnovitsky-Dhahari

Welcome to the ISIS state. Dawlat al-Yahud qamat. There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Allahu akbar. Regards, Rabbi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, alhamdulillah

Why not really adopt the Christian approach that forbids divorce? As it is, most divorce cases happen because of lust and a desire for a better life that usually doesn’t materialize. They impose payments on the husband that he cannot meet and push him to suicide; the woman remains alone and suffers from exploiters who use her for sexual purposes and increase sin and injustice in the world.

What is the problem with establishing that marriage is forever and can never be dissolved? That also fits with the verse in Genesis, “and cling to his wife and they shall become one flesh,” and with the words of the prophets and the Sages, who viewed divorce very negatively.

If the gentiles, whose “flesh is the flesh of donkeys,” whom Jewish literature throughout the generations sees as flooded with promiscuity, can withstand this, then Jews can too.
Although there is a problem with enacting such an ordinance, perhaps a solution can be found similar to the ban of Rabbenu Gershom.

Great idea. It also fits with the verses. Just not with life.

Actually it doesn’t fit with the verses either. “And he sends her from his house”…

The truth is that it says, “and he finds in her ervat davar.” From the plain meaning one can understand that this refers only to actual adultery, or at least sexual impropriety. And there are Christians who interpret the verses that way, and if I’m not mistaken, some Karaites interpret them that way too. So from the standpoint of the plain meaning itself, it works, but not so much with the Mishnah.

As for life, Christians (especially Catholics) live with this not badly. In extreme situations they determine that the marriage was invalid from the outset (they didn’t understand the implications, they married under social pressure at a young age, and so on).
Of course, just as in taking a second wife there is a solution in the form of a permit from 100 rabbis, here too divorce could be implemented in extreme cases (such as an abusive husband, an infertile wife — though today surrogacy solves that problem — infidelity by one of the parties; in the case of the wife, Jewish law even requires divorce, and in the case of the husband too in certain situations, etc.). Only in ordinary cases would divorce not be allowed.