Haredi Rabbis Move To Invalidate Gets Of Women Who Divorced In Secular Court

Women who divorced in secular court and who abide by the custody arrangements and financial arrangements made by secular judges would have their religious divorces ruled invalid if several haredi rabbis have their way. The same would be true of women who rely on public pressure from groups like ORA to receive their gets or who have received gets from Israel's state rabbinic courts – because the rabbinic judges in those courts have the power to imprison get refusers.  The wording of the ruling by these three rabbis could even be understood to prohibit women from calling police when they are battered by their husbands. And who are among the supporters of this haredi nonsense?

 

Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn and his brother Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn.

Daniel Eidensohn writes the Da'at Torah blog where this notice was published. He fancies himself to be an anti-child sexual abuse advocate, but he mostly serves as a mouthpiece for Eidah Charedis' Rabbi Moshe Shternbach.

His brother Dovid is, shall we say, only marginally brighter than a tree stump. Responding to a claim that this ridiculous ruling would invalidate "95%" of gets issued worldwide and create tens of thousands of mamzerim overnight, the Dovid Eidensohn wrote the following:

I spoke to a prominent posek and he told me that the pressure to give a GET through public humiliation practiced by ORA makes the GET invalid from the Torah and the children are mamzerim gemurim.

On the other hand, we have the above comment that such is "utterly disgusting?" What is "utterly disgusting"? The Rashbo who says it? The many poskim who quote the Rashbo? HaShem who commanded a Torah? Let us be clear who we are criticizing here.

Dovid Eidensohn isn't smart enough or honest enough to grasp that very many rabbis who were contemporaries of the Rashba disagreed with him, and that halakha has never followed the strict interpretation of the Rashba's view – until recently when haredim produced leaders like the bunch that head Eidah Charedis and the recently deceased Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv,who was a cruel, cold, and inhuman man.

The Rashba ruled many things with regard to kashrut and other issues but we do not follow those rulings today – just as Orthodox Jews did not follow them in 1600 Tzefat or in 1400 Spain.

One example that pops into my mind at this obscenely late hour is hagalah b'ochlim, koshering a pot by cooking pareve food in it, rather than through the common (and more strict) ritual used today. You took your empty pot of lamb stew, cleaned it normally, and then boiled vegetables in it. After that, you could use it for making cheese soup or even boiled milk.

We don't do this today.

But what passes for the mind of David Eidensohn, that doesn't matter because this was a lenient opinion of the Rashba, and any good kanoi knows that he makes his 'spiritual' living by cherry picking the stringent rulings (or rulings which can be twisted to appear to support a stringency) of dead rabbis while strenuously ignoring the bulk of the rulings which are moderate or lenient.

So Eidensohn willingly, joyfully, supports a ruling that, if accepted on its face, would cause tens of thousands of Jews to become unmarriageable (except to each other). And that stigma, that scarlet letter mem, would halakhicly remain on them their whole lives, and on their children and their children for generations to come – hundreds of years to come.

Translation by the reader here known as "someone." [Content in square brackets is mine]:

Since there are more and more Gittin that are invalid mi de oraita [from the Torah], which contribute to the remarriage of married women and more and more mamzerim [bastards], we publish this letter of a Beith Din to clarify the halacha concerning the coerced get.

The halacha states that a get that was given under pressure that was not exerted according to the din torah is invalid min ha torah.

Therefore, a woman who makes demands upon her husband that do not conform to Torah law, like demands of money, alimony, sharing of the possessions, and the husband gives a get in exchange for annulling the demands, this could be a coerced get, as explained in the sources (sources cited). In the same way, a get obtained by physical constraint or threat of imprisonment is invalid. (sources cited). A woman who obtains a get through coercion or threats as explained above cannot be married and needs a new get.

Signed:
Sariel Rosenberg,
Nachum Menashe Gutentag,
Yechezkiel False

Comments

[hp]

who cares about bet din 'court' ,. they are not valid .

[PeninaD]

But it is fine by them for a man to extort from the woman and her family?

[Jeff]

until this generation of truly diseased haredim produced equally diseased leaders like the bunch that head Eidah Charedis and the recently deceased Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (who was a cruel, cold, inhuman man).

They are diseased; they're psychotic. It's an entire subculture founded upon mental illness.

The Rashba ruled many things with regard to kashrut and other issues but we do not follow those rulings today – just as Orthodox Jews did not follow them in 1600 Tzefat or in 1400 Spain.

Of course not. Just as with kapparot, it's as I keep saying - they only regard these men as authority figures as long as they tell them what they want to hear.

Psychopaths. Take away their children and don't allow them to produce any more. Put a stop to it once and for all.

[someone]

They even say the get is invalid if she renounces alimony, child support, etc...

[S M L]

A toxic cult is a toxic cult; there's no material difference in mindset between the Haredim and, say, the Warren Jeffs crew or the Branch Davidians in matters of this general kind.

The thing to do is to facilitate the departure of such women and their chilcren from the Haredi ghettos and absorb them into the world of somewhat more moderate Judaism. That should be possible in the US with its recognition of civil divorce and its diversity of Judaic practice. Whether that's reaonably possible in Israel with the black hats ruling the roost is open to question.

[Ger]

I dont know what all the fuss is about. If your husband wont divorce you introduce him to a flight of stairs / baseball bat or what not to get the job done. I'm sure these rabbis would pipe down with a couple of my suggested incidents.

[seymour]

of course what they do not say that it is all made up. even if one believes the torah was written by god it does not say anything about get how it should be given and so on.

therefore they just made it up.

[Sarek]

I presume the rabbis are angry because they didn't get their fees for the divorces?

The mamzerim we're talking about aren't the children.

[Alter Kocker]

It would serve Israel right to grow a set of testicles. If these rabbis start invalidating divorces, then open them up to civil liability. Allow those who have had their divorces invalidated sue these rabbis into the ground. Let the fuckers give over every last dime or shekel that they have and their followers have. Then move to cut off their welfare and the welfare of everyone remotely associated with them.

Lets see if they want to start when they will have to go begging for food and shelter. Keeping the status quo emboldens these ignorant little pricks. Starve them out like the cockroaches they are.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Apologies to the Beatles (I'll get you):

Oy vey, oy vey.
Imagine, I'm a holy Jew,
It's easy with Daas Torah,
I've imagined, I'm a holy Jew,
Learning many pages of Gemara.

It's not like me to pretend,
But the gets, the gets are gonna end,
Yes they will, the gets are gonna end, oy vey, oy vey.

I think about new rules to play
It's harder to be a Jew.
When I think about them, I can pray,
My tzitzis are very, very blue.

This behavior, we can't defend,
'Cause the gets, the gets are gonna end,
Yes they will, the gets are gonna end, ooy vey, oy vey

Well, now there is a time,
When the rabbis control minds.
So you might as well resign yourself to slave-ery.

Imagine, I'm a holy Jew,
It's easy with Daas Torah,
I've imagined, I'm a holy Jew,
Learning many pages of Gemara.

It's not like me to pretend,
But the gets, the gets are gonna end,
Yes they will, the gets are gonna end, oy vey, oy vey.

[someone]

(Please publish: take a link and max, 1/3 of the translation, otherwise "daas torah" blogowner might object)
hat tip: daas torah.

http://daattorah.blogspot.ch/2012/10/rav-sternbuchproblem-of-get-meusa-in.html

Rav sternbuch invalidates US-get because "the secular law always believes the wife - even when she makes false claims".

No evidence shows that he investigated criminal charges against the husband that were dropped in exchange for the get.

[Jeff]

Rav sternbuch invalidates US-get because "the secular law always believes the wife - even when she makes false claims".

I reapeat - anyone who listens to these self-important morons is a damn fool.

(Oy, nebech, nebech, he's speaking disrespectfully about our heilige gedoylim! He'll burn in gehinnom!)

[Jeff]

Very good, YL (even though I've completely forgotten the tune).

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks, Jeff. Google it.

[Jeff]

Vos? Use the forbidden Internet which our heilige gedoylim have declared assur? Oy, chalilah chos v'sholem! Are you calling me a kofer? Now my chidlren will never get a decent shiddach! Oy, nebech!

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Gutentag?
is that his name? to me it seems like a rather 'bad day'!

[Yosef ben Matitya]

I presume the rabbis are angry because they didn't get their fees for the divorces?

yeah! like in the old days of the cosa nostra!

[Yosef ben Matitya]

I dont know what all the fuss is about. If your husband wont divorce you introduce him to a flight of stairs / baseball bat or what not to get the job done. I'm sure these rabbis would pipe down with a couple of my suggested incidents.Posted by: Ger
seems like some rabbi took your advise, ger,
http://menachemmendel.net/blog/does-this-qualify-as-a-divorce-under-duress/

[Sarek]

YL - one of your best!

[Yochanan Lavie]

Thanks Sarek.

[someone]

RAv gestetener allows polygamy "bedi eved". Once they are married, they stay married.

http://daattorah.blogspot.ch/2012/10/rav-gestetner-no-need-for-heter-100.html

[simpsons fan]

Is his real name Yechezkiel False? The name is a joke!

[A Yid]

The name is probably Palace (at the very least the name Palace can be spelled this way in Hebrew and I see it in the http://Tzachlist.com ) the idiot who did the translation probably spelled the name "False" in English to mock the authors of the ruling and Shmarya chose to leave it that way to highlight his high journalistic standards.:-)