Q&A: The Chief Rabbinate's enactment regarding child support until age 18
The Chief Rabbinate's enactment regarding child support until age 18
Question
You’ve written several times that the Chief Rabbinate is not a body that is halakhically binding, but rather a mechanism of the state, and has no significance in terms of Jewish law. According to strict Jewish law, a father is obligated to support his son until age 6. The Chief Rabbinate established an enactment (the practical difference is mainly regarding divorcees) that a father must pay support for his children until age 18. We’re talking about thousands of shekels per month for each child, and that is how the religious courts rule in practice. In your view, does this enactment have no validity? Is a father not halakhically obligated to support his son after age 6?
Answer
First, this has validity by virtue of the law of the land and by force of accepted custom. Beyond that, a religious court is not the Chief Rabbinate. If a religious court adjudicates your case, you are obligated to obey.
Discussion on Answer
This is with the law of the land and custom.
A religious court may flog and punish even not according to the formal law, and plainly that applies to monetary matters as well. But that is only for the supreme religious court of the generation.
Can a religious court impose a monetary obligation without an existing law or an existing enactment? Meaning, is it allowed not only to “apply” an obligation, but to create it out of nothing? (Aside from the law of the land and custom.)