Rabbis Jail Bi-Sexual Husband After Ten Years Of Get Refusal

The woman discovered that her husband was secretly having an affair – with a man. In fact, she didn’t just discover her husband was having an affair – she caught him red-handed in the act. And then she immediately filed for divorce. But the husband refused to give it to her.

Updated at 6:24 pm CDT

Rabbis Jail Bi-Sexual Husband After Ten Years Of Get Refusal
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

An haredi couple in Israel were uneventfully married for more than five years. They conceived two children. And they were, at least as far as outsiders and the wife knew, a normal happy couple.

Then, the Jewish Press reports based on a report in Ynet, the woman discovered that her husband was secretly having an affair – with a man. In fact, she didn’t just discover her husband was having an affair – she caught him red-handed in the act. And then she immediately filed for divorce. But the husband refused to give it to her.

The state rabbinic court ruled that the husband should grant his wife the divorce, but he refused, instead using the withheld get to extort her. He demanded that she forgo the damages awarded her by the rabbi-judges, and she did. He demanded better visitation with the children than the rabbis had awarded him, and she agreed.

But he still refused to divorce her.

For ten years, the woman languished as the rabbis refused to use any of the tools at their disposal to punish the recalcitrant man.

The woman so despaired of getting her divorce that she and her attorney had talked about going to a private rabbinical court to ask for an annulment of the marriage on the grounds that she had been deceived by her husband at the time the marriage took place when he hid his true sexual orientation from her.

If the private rabbinic court agreed and annulled the marriage, she still would be considered married under Israeli law. But under halakha, she would no longer be an agunah and she would be permitted to marry another man. But this still would have left her with legal and halakhic entanglements that could – and probably would – have dogged her for the rest of her life.

Then on Tuesday, during a discussion of a different issue related to the case, the long-suffering wife’s attorney, Batya Kahana-Dror, asked the state court's rabbis to arrest the man and jail him until he gives his wife her divorce.

Unexpectedly, the rabbi-judges agreed.

They called police and had the husband arrested – the first sanction issued against the man in ten years.

This may be the only time a rabbinical court has ordered an arrest of a recalcitrant husband in a divorce case before first trying the lighter sanctions at its disposal.

The woman’s attorney Kahana-Dror told Ynet that she regrets “the fact that the court does not use the arrest sanction often enough. It's illogical [not to use it], unreasonable and it contradicts Halacha.”

She also pointed out that prison is the most effective way of convincing recalcitrant husbands to give their wives a divorce.

“Ninety-five percent of [the men who refuse to give their wives a get] are ready to give a get after [spending] a few nights in the Russian Compound [Jerusalem’s city jail] or in Abu-Kabir [jail in Tel Aviv]. It works remarkably well.”

Comments

[Jeff]

The rabbis are willing to act not because he's gay, not because he was involved in same-gender affairs, but because he broke their cardinal rule - he got caught.

[ruthie]

i would have spoken directly to g-d and told him "g-d, here are the facts...i'm sure you understand that i'm giving myself a divorce..."
and i'm sure...if at times...g-d is the ultimate in understanding....g-d will understand...finished.
and if g-d is not understanding then pretty stupid waiting 10 years.

[Yochanan Lavie]

My wife is bisexual. Buy her something and she becomes sexual (rim shot).

[bostonborn]

Kyle
There is no need for that language or to call any one by the most vulgar of terms. It reflects on you and offends. Please ban Kyle for his language and being vile.

[Shmuel]

If he's gay he"ll love it in the Russian compound. That will never convince him to give a get.

[Jack]

The part that bothers me even more than the guy refusing to give his wife a get is the fact that rabbis have the power to throw people in prison.

As if we need THAT going on too...

[Charlie Runkel]

I dont understand, you once posted an article criticizing a father-in-law who beat his son-in-law for not giving a Get. This is the only way that they can get someone do divorce his wife if they refuse to.
Shmarya the religious people just cannot win with you.
(Watch now as he says I am an imbecile, ignorant and a Chabad lover).

[Shmarya]

Posted by: Charlie Runkel | October 18, 2012 at 10:52 AM

Well, Charlie, you clearly are all of those things.

[Rebitzman]

@Charlie

I personally see no issue with the position that while we feel that a man holding his wife hostage over a divorce is a bad thing, we also feel that beating the living crap out of him to comply is also less than kosher.

The Rambam (who wrote you flog the husband until he voluntarily agrees to the get) was not always right.

[sr]

Shmarya, 3 points. Charlie, you asked for it buddy

[Jerry]

I really am astounded that in Israel the rabbis can call the police and have a man arrested for not obeying a rabbinical court. Is this Saudi Arabia or a democratic western state?

[mimi]

"The part that bothers me even more than the guy refusing to give his wife a get is the fact that rabbis have the power to throw people in prison."

Extortion is wrong and against the law.

He extorted her genetic future for money and visitation, which she gave, yet not good enough. She not only played by the rules, she gave him more and more. If the shoe was on the other foot he'd be remarried right now with 3 more children. Ten years is a long time to wait.

[haredi are spiteful . 50% of them are fags]

if the guy is a fag , why did he bother getting married ? he should have went on with his fag life and not hurt this woman he 'married'. what a shock she must have had catchting her own husband with a man .
the fag ruined 10 years her life .

[dh]

Mimi, on behalf of humanity, I'm very sorry for kyle.

[Jeff]

Lately this blog has been attracting the worst sort of people - and I don't mean the apikorsim.

[Jake]

Wonder how many years for my situation be taken care of without me going public ad causing a stir.

A doosey of a story.

[Charlie Runkel]

I knew it, Shmarya can't handle criticism.

[Shmarya]

Charlie,

You're just this side of illiterate and you have no actual information or logic to contribute.

All you've got left are lies and smears.

[Jeff]

I knew it, Shmarya can't handle criticism.

There's a reason he didn't answer you, and it's staring you right in the face.

Your powers of observation, as well as of critical thinking, aren't too keen, despite the purported advantage of a yeshiva education.

[David]

I know of several cases where the frumma Rabbis have knowingly married off homosexual men thinking they would be "cured" by marriage. Of course, the marriages ended in disaster. In all cases the Rabbis knew the men were homosexual and did not disclose this fact to the prospective wives.

[Jeff]

In all cases the Rabbis knew the men were homosexual and did not disclose this fact to the prospective wives.

Number one on the frum (and evangelical) catechism - if you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist.

[ah-pee-chorus]

whats next? the state sending someone to jail for refusing to marry his late brothers wife? or spitting in a shoe?
if the state feels so strongly about it, let the courts grant her a civil divorce without his consent, and let the rabbis deal with the religious angle.

[Jeff]

or spitting in a shoe?

I thought she spat on the ground then threw the shoe at him. It's important to get these things right, APC. If you do it wrong, you don't liberate as many of the holy sparks.

[Rachel2]

Chabad fed and clothed my children for almost a decade while a husband slept in and refused treatment for depression. He was physically abusive to me and oldest. Asking for divorce was answered w laughter, bolting the door meant watching it being pushed in as the children cried. He also withheld the GET, because 2n wife told him to demand child support. In NY I was one of the earliest women to come under this sanction. Ask Rabbis? Ask Rebbeim? Ask a man permission to live breathe protect your children and then be punished simply for being Female; Chabad is among the worst offenders in all categories because it presents itself as The Relgious Truth and Sanctuary for all Jews and is quite the opposite. It's not a joke guys, tho 25 yrs out, I too can join your sense of irony...its just the emotional damage done to my children that somehow never becomes funny/

[Coming Soon to A Third Temple Near You]

Why he had sex with another man. Th-th-th-that's an abomination. Why beat him up? Just take him to a point outside the camp and stone him. Then offer his carcass up as a korban absolving himself of not giving her a get. Let's give him karet for the sex with another man and add 20 years to the sentence. In the meantime, build the Third Temple. I would for one love to see an olympic size swimming pool and an aromatherapy factory as part of the Third Temple! Go Jews!

[Jeff]

Chabad fed and clothed my children for almost a decade while a husband slept in and refused treatment for depression.

You're saying they wouldn't force him to divorce you, but they took care of you in the meanwhile?

[Baruch Bikini]

Rachel2 how awful. I pray more women go public with this rabbi sanctioned abuse.

[someone]

Please publish (hat tip: Daniel Eidensohn, daas torah blog).
http://daattorah.blogspot.ch/2012/10/get-meusa-rav-rosenberg.html

Translation (by Someone):

Since there are more and more Gittin that are invalid mi de oraita, which contribute to the remarriage of married women and more and more mamzerim, 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 are not conform to torah law, like demands of money, alimony, sharing of the possessions, and the husband gives a get in exchange of 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

[someone]

above: scandalous declaration by some rabbis...

[someone]

I think his wife deserves a get and there is no reason for him to refuse it. He is not jailed because he is gay, but because he refuses to give a get.