Q&A: Marriage Outside the Rabbinate
Marriage Outside the Rabbinate
Question
Hello,
Rabbi, you support marriage outside the framework of the Rabbinate. What do you say about the following argument by Rabbi Ben Zion Mutzafi, that this is a severe prohibition because the woman is registered as unmarried while in practice she is a married woman?
https://www.doresh-tzion.co.il/QAShowAnswer.aspx?qaid=269309
Answer
I’ve written this here several times. I tell those who marry to go and register precisely because of this problem. This is a halakhic problem, but no less than that also a legal one. It is not for nothing that every legal system in the world regulates the matter of marriage.
Of course, the Rabbinate uses this to preserve its monopoly and refuses to register couples who did not marry through it. One must not give in to that. People should marry outside the Rabbinate and register in one way or another. A couple whose wedding I conducted tried to force the Rabbinate to register them and did not succeed (the rabbinical judges, as usual with them, lied to the court brazenly and without batting an eye). They will register in some other way (through marriage abroad or as common-law spouses, and the like).
Incidentally, the one creating this problem is, of course, the Chief Rabbinate, since it is the reason people do not want to marry through it, and at the same time it is unwilling to register those who did not marry through it, even if they did so in accordance with Jewish law. In other words, the cause of the problem Rabbi Mutzafi is talking about is of course the Chief Rabbinate and everyone who supports it. They are bringing about de facto bigamy in Israel (people live with other partners without getting divorced) and chaos in the area of marriage, with many who are married in accordance with Jewish law not being registered. Therefore, it seems ridiculous and malicious to me that they themselves cynically use the problem they create as an argument in their favor and against marriages performed not through them.
They have no protection except a knife. And their breaking is their purification.
Discussion on Answer
What a strange question. Quite aside from the fact that I don’t see which sentence in my remarks you were responding to (I couldn’t find where I connected the two), there is no issue at all with marrying through the Rabbinate. There is definitely an issue with marrying in accordance with Jewish law. Because the institution is corrupt and harmful, there is reason to marry in accordance with Jewish law but not through them.
Beyond that, the discussion is whether the state should enforce marriage in accordance with Jewish law, not whether it is proper to marry in accordance with Jewish law. Those are two completely different questions. Here too, even if there is a halakhic reason to do something, that does not mean I would want the state to coerce it.
I don’t understand the Rabbi’s argument. Since when is the fact that people don’t want to marry through the Rabbinate a reason not to marry through the Rabbinate? If there is a religious reason to marry through the Rabbinate, then the fact that it isn’t fun for us shouldn’t change anything. If I want not to eat matzah on Passover, does that permit me not to eat matzah on Passover? Or if I’m unhappy with the government’s behavior, am I allowed not to pay taxes? So what if they’re a monopoly?