Haredim Take Rabbinical Courts, Womens Groups Up In Arms. "Who needs the mythological halo of a religious marriage?"

Yesterday, the panel that selects rabbinic court judges met to choose 15 new judges. The panel, now controlled by haredim (i.e., anti-Zionists), voted 12 haredim in as judges for life. By contrast, only three National Religious (i.e., Zionist) judges were selected. The haredim selected are split between Shas and UTJ, and most all of the selections meet the standards set down by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. Rabbi Elyashiv is a strict constructionist, so to speak, when it comes to divorce law, and his judges rule so strictly that women are left without religious divorces, unable to remarry, often for many years. And the judges? Under qualified but well connected, as Ha'aretz notes:

Many of the judges are relatives of politicians, public figures or veteran rabbinic court judges, and only one has a background in law.

Women's rights organizations said Monday was a black day in the struggle for women's rights in the rabbinic courts. Many view the rabbinic courts as favoring men in divorce cases and as failing to do enough to minimize the problem of women whose husbands refuse to divorce them.

The irony here? As the Jerusalem Post notes:

Most of the haredi community don't use the state rabbinical courts. Their divorce rate is low and they take most of their disputes to rabbis within the community. The great majority of litigants in the state rabbinical courts are secular, but that doesn't mean the haredi rabbis are prepared to relinquish control.

That's correct. Haredim are forcing their strict version of Jewish law on Modern Orthodox and secular women.

Ha'aretz also reported on Sunday that haredi judges have been granting women conditional gets; as long as the women follow the judgment of the rabbinic court, they are divorced. If, however, years later a woman wants to change a child's education or switch synagogues from one Orthodox to another Orthodox, the get can be annulled leaving the woman still married to her first husband and her second marriage bigamous. Perhaps worse yet, any children from that second marriage would retroactively become mamzerim, bastards, unable to marry into the Jewish community.

The situation exists because a get if coerced may not be valid. The amount of coercion and the definition of coercion needed to render a get invalid has steadily changed over the years. The amount of coercion necessary to void a get has dropped to minute levels under Rabbi Elyashiv's watch, and the definition of coercion has been broadened – in other words, it has become much easier for vengeful or criminal husbands to withhold granting a religious divorce, and much harder for abused and extorted women to become free.

This situation is intolerable, and it flies in the face of what used to be (at least in the fairy tale that passes for Orthodox Jewish history) normative halakha (Jewish law), where everything possible was done to prevent women from becoming chained and freeing them if they somehow had become agunot.

Like so much else in Orthodoxy, the strictness does not bring enhanced kindness or concern for God's creations; the strictness tightens rabbinic law while it hurts human beings and does no good.

Does this mean I pine for the good old days? No, I don't. As I've noted many times before, Judaism – especially the Orthodox variants – is broken, I think beyond repair.

And I'm not alone in this thinking. Ha'aretz reports:

Last week, at a conference on agunot, Jewish women whose husbands have refused them a divorce, the audience was in for a surprise. The founder of the feminist-religious organization Kolech, Chana Kehat, dared to challenge the sanctity of halakhic marriage.

"Who needs the mythological halo of a religious marriage?" she asked, adding that the more distance women maintained from the rabbinate, "the better for the whole nation."…

The Jerusalem Post notes Kehat's remarks signal a shift in MO and NRP views toward the state's religious apparatus:

In some liberal Orthodox circles, there is a growing feeling that it isn't worth fighting any longer for the appointment of Zionist rabbinical judges. The system can't be changed in any real way. Last week, veteran religious feminist Dr. Hanna Kehat told a conference that young women, especially secular ones, should be discouraged from getting married under the auspices of the rabbinate, because it puts them at the mercy of dayanim if they have to divorce. Her statement, which caused a minor uproar, was an early signal that even many religious Israelis with a basic commitment to Halacha are becoming so disillusioned with the rabbinate that they are willing to divorce from it.

Kehat is correct. Rabbis are not problem-solvers; rabbis are problem-makers (and, all too often, abuse enablers). Knowing what I know now, I would not let my daughter (if I had one) or any of my female friends marry with a ketuba, any more than I would let a child enroll in a school where Rabbi Yehuda Kolko or other known abusers teach.

Do you want your daughter or sister to end up an agunah because of these men? If you do not, take action now. As I've said so many times, stop funding any and all haredi causes and make your displeasure known in any other ways possible. Fight the good fight and fight it now, while there's still time.

Comments

[Shlomo]

"Knowing what I know now, I would not let my daughter (if I had one) or any of my female friends marry with a ketuba..."

Shmarya -
Isn't it terrible that the Rabbis (and possibly the Torah - Ketubah may be de'oraita) have imposed this burden on women? How disgusting is it that divorced women are entitled to an automatic payment of $20,000 and up. Rabbis have really disadvantaged women by enshrining a husband's responsibilities to feed, house, clothe and satisfy his wife in a legally enforceable document.
The Ketubah is really a horribly oppressive institution. It should be abolished immediately.

Are these positive provisions actually enforced? I am not sure there would be so many complaints or concerns raised if in fact it were so.

[The Monsey Tzadik]

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann is a former Shinui member so why did permit the Ultra Orthodox have that deal ?

[Shmarya]

They have the majority. He could have delayed the meeting, but Olmert is selling out to haredim, or so it seems, and Friedman went along with that.

[Noah Smith - www.Pilegesh.org]

B"H
Dear Shlomo!
Read Rabbi Yaakov Emden's responsa on this issue:
One of the most rational pieces of halachik responsa ever writen on earth:
http://pilegesh.blogspot.com/2007/03/rabbiemdens-responsa-in-english.html
The Rambam says (that ketubah is a Torah commandment seemingly disregarding history, common sense, and what the Talmud is saying on this topic) what he says for a reason and it should be taken in context of other things he says and time and place this was said Suny Muslim Egypt where Mutah relationships which are similar to pilegesh were recently prohibited by Kaliph Omar (2nd Muslim Kaliph) with penalty being stoning.

[Yochanan Lavie]

"As I've noted many times before, Judaism – especially the Orthodox variants – is broken, I think beyond repair."

Maybe you're right, but I hope you're wrong.

[Itzhak Schier]

Scott, if you feel Judaism is beyond repair, then take a break. Go see what the wonderful secular world has to offer.

Torah was not given to the angels. This is not an ideal world. And a tzibbur is made up of tzadikim, benoinim and reshoim. If you swim in the sewer with the reshoim, of course you will come up with the incorrect opinion that the whole tzibur is full of dirt.

Do not kid yourself. Your blog is not helping anyone. It is not covering any new ground. You present much misinformation, and your skewed information is of interest only to your choir of fellow misfits.

And your embrace of Mr Pilegesh is a disingenuous way of trying to show that all of Torah Judaism is looking for something as nonsensical as pilegesh personals, and that all Lubavitchers are borenu lunatics. If you believe that Sokolovsky represents anything, then you are deluded. If you are using a mentally disturbed individual to prove your incorrect points, then you are a cruel, manipulative lowlife who is no better than the worst of the reshoim (like the KJ money launderer) about whom you regurgitate information.

[Shmarya]

Yup. Point out the schmutz and and pay the price. That's haredim to the T – punish the messengers and ignore the message.

[Itzhak Schier]

You are not pointing out any schmutz that the papers have not already pointed out. Vos iz Neias, which is super-haimish, carried the story of the money launderer before you ever did. And you were a day late and a dollar short on Solomon Dwek last year. (Those 2 are clear reshoim or at least examples of those who cannot conquer their yetzer horo.)

You are just giving your own opinion of what is schmutz and what isn't. And I am very sorry, but you do not have either the Torah or the secular knowledge to know the score, especially as you allow Sokolovsky, who is a rachmones case, to run rampant on your blog when he has been banned from most responsible sources.

You are either misguided or malicious. It is you who have failed, not any Messiah and certainly not the Rebbe who never claimed he was Messiah. As much as the system may have failed you, you failed the system, and you fail to use your potential to do anything positive.

[Shmarya]

My, my. You don't read very well, do you. Try reading any of the interviews (posted at left) from the Rubashkin scandal, just for a taste of some of the original reporting I've done.

Shmarya, is there any rabbi in the world to day who you feel is doing a good job? Any orthodox rabbi? You mention a lot of problems in the orthodoxy today. If there was a congregation or a group of jews who followed halacha, and who completely implemented the changes necessary to fix corruption, abuse, and everything else that needs fixing, would you be willing to say that an orthodox jewish life under these conditions is a good thing?

[Shmarya]

Most likely, yes.

[Neo-Conservaguy]

Remember, the modern Jewish institution of marriage was entirely man-made. The ketubah was invented by Rabbi Shimon ben Shetah. It radically changed the nature of marriage as described in the miqra, as did Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakai's ruling against Sota (overruling the miqra!), as did Rabbi Gershon's later ruling against polygamy. If the system is broken, it can most assuredly be changed again by men with the same wisdom. Unlike my Orthodox friends, I believe it's entirely possible to find such men in our generation, just not at YU, or Aish.

[Itzhak Schier]

Your Rubashkin work is very inaccurate, and it is the work of a little man with a very big chip on his shoulder. From what I understand, and I should check this with the family since I can get to them very easily, you bit the hand that fed you as far as Rubashkin is concerned, as they were very good to you when you had your meat market. And given the choice, I'd take Wise Organic over Rubashkin any day, regardless of the tzedoko and chessed of the Rubashkin family, because I am no fan of factory farming.

Also, your attempt to tie Moshe Rubashkin, the acknowledged black sheep of the family, to his father's enterprises is way out of line. He's not involved in any of the Agri or AA Rubashkin and Sons operations in any way.

Even though I am an eyewitness to Lazar's rishus and make no attempt to hide what I know (and others know even more than I do and they don't keep it a secret either), your conspiracy theory and your analysis of where he stands as far as Putin is concerned are worthy of a Barry Chamish. Then again, you regurgitated your Putin nonsense from Ha'aretz a/k/a Der Steurmer in this case as well.

Rubashkin is a businessman who finally succeeded in setting up a reliable, organized source of mass market glatt kosher meat. Lazar is a sad case, a basically good man, albeit with limited talents, who very quickly became corrupted because he took on a job that was far too big for him. (He was almost replaced and then Lavayov decided to use him.) You, on the other hand, suffer from severe delusions of grandeur, and you have built what is in essence the trailer park of the Jewish web.

Your phony concern for the Ethiopians, who, while they are the responsibility of the secular state of Israel, are not Jewish in any way unless they undergo at least giyur lechumra, is an example of how you use causes to make yourself look superior to those who do real chessed. If you were an honest man, you would review the history of how the Ethiopians were declared Jews for political reasons, as well as report on all of the crime, especially domestic crime, which they commit in Eretz Yisroel. But you would rather use them the way Putin and Lavayov use Lazar.

Even Berel Lazar's organization feeds thousands of elderly, disabled and poor Jews every day. What do you do for anyone except whine and attract fellow whiners to your trailer park?

[Shmarya]

Another Chabad racist bigot. No surprise.

You can learn a bit of the halakhic background of Ethiopian Jews here.

Funny how 28 years of activism for Ethiopian Jes translates into my "phony concern for the Ethiopians."

BTW, Rubashkin was not "very good to me" when I went into the kosher meat business. He promised things that got me to go in, and he did not keep those promises. Did he mean well? I don't know. Then I might have thought so, now not.

And Moshe Rubashkin was connected to the Postville business and to other Rubashkin family businesses. Here you can see Federal concern for the illegal activity of Moshe and Aaron Rubashkin at one of those businesses.

[Lawrence M. Reisman]

Shmarya: One thing I know about Yitzchak is that he's no "Chabad racist bigot." Far from it, in fact. But I'll let you two argue over what Rubashkin did or didn't do for you.

Yitzchak: Good to here from you again. Can you contact me directly off-blog? Just click me and there I am.