Q&A: Wondering Whether This Is Real
Wondering Whether This Is Real
Question
In Rivka Lubitch's book about women denied a get and agunot, From One End of the World to the Other, on page 145, a story is brought about a woman who claimed that her husband was violent, and who brought two neighbors who testified that the husband's shouting could indeed be heard all the way to their home. In response, the husband brought other neighbors against her witnesses, who claimed that they had never heard the husband shout at his wife. The religious court ruled that the testimony of the second neighbors, who did not hear shouting, contradicts the testimony of the neighbors who did hear it. According to Lubitch, this discussion was conducted by one of the veteran and highly regarded judges, who was even a candidate to serve as a judge on the Great Rabbinical Court.
And I'm wondering whether this is real.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Answer
Neither laugh nor cry, but clarify the facts. If this was indeed about a particular period of time, and the religious court checked with the witnesses and synchronized their accounts and found that there was a contradiction regarding those times, then this really is a case of two against two. What's so funny about that (or so tragic)? And in general, the question is what exactly counts as shouting, and to what extent it really was something indicative of violence; perhaps the witnesses, out of sympathy for the woman, decided to help her and testify about shouting, and so on and so on.
I assume you know my attitude toward the rabbinate system and also toward its religious courts. But even with all the sympathy for women denied a get and the lack of sympathy for the judges, one has to be careful about hasty judgment, especially if you're relying on a book published for the needs of some agenda, and is therefore suspect of bias and tendentiousness.