Q&A: Beating him until he says “I want to.” And a secular person?
Beating him until he says “I want to.” And a secular person?
Question
They compel him until he says that they are revealing the will within him
valid for one who chooses to listen 👂 to the word of God.
To the extent that he truly does not choose to listen 👂 to the word of God,
the space for inner revelation becomes narrower,
and coercion works—there is a bill of divorce—but it is still a coerced one.
But perhaps since he truly does not believe in the word of God,
then maybe his halakhic marriage too took effect less fully.
And the more religious he is, the greater the percentage to which the religious marriage takes effect, and the less so, the less it takes effect.
So then we care less that he truly does not want to listen 👂 to the word of God, and we are revealing the inner will less,
because to that extent the religious validity of the marriage too is weaker.
Possible?
Answer
I prefer questions to be phrased prosaically and not sung. And all the icons don’t contribute much to the discussion either.
As for your question itself, I have written more than once that this kind of coercion is ineffective on someone who truly does not believe and is not bound by the commandments. See, for example, Column 199.
Regarding marriage, I was asked this following my remarks about the commandments and transgressions of a secular person (in the article “Causing a Secular Person to Sin”), and I said that marriage is a contract, not a commandment. And if someone signed the contract, he is bound by it. Perhaps he did not fulfill a commandment.
Discussion on Answer
Someone who signed a contract is bound by it. Unspoken intentions do not count.
What about someone who is secular and doesn’t believe in morality or in the validity of contracts,
and signed the contract?