Courtesy arutz 7
Prenuptial agreement will remove the need for public shaming
Head of Tzohar explains the correct way to avoid get refusal, explains how shaming can be used in certain cases as a last resort.
Founder and Director of the Tzohar Rabbinic movement Rabbi David Stav told Arutz Sheva about the new protocol published by Tzohar regarding the appropriateness of shaming get (Jewish bill of divorce) refusers online.
“It is something that we call the boycott of Rabbeinu Tam that was established 800 years, in cases where we don’t want to coerce a get on a husband, but we want to encourage him to give a get, we use different steps to push him to giving the get. We don’t put him in jail, but part of the sanctions we put on him, we don’t give him an aliyah, and we don’t talk to him and we don’t count him for a minyan.”
Rabbi Stav said that the ancient law is applicable today in terms of online shaming.
“The Beit Din is applying the same steps in shaming a person on websites as it used to do in the community.”
Rabbi Stav noted that there is a difference when it comes to magnitude of the shaming campaign as the internet is worldwide, but he says that the community has become worldwide as well. “Facebook is a much larger, and the community became much larger.”
According to Rabbi Stav one must be very careful when choosing to apply the ruling.
“I want us to pay attention to something that is very helpful. People may think that once A Beit Din has allowed this public use of shaming for a husband who has refused a get, people may apply it to other cases where there is not an approval from the Beit Din. That is certainly prohibited, for any case of public shaming [that is not permitted by a Beit Din] the punishment is very severe according to the Halakha.”
Rabbi Stav recommended that we prevent the issue altogether ahead of time. “I believe the issue of shaming a person in public who refuses to give a get [is something] we should prevent in advance. One of the solutions that we have been working on is the prenuptial agreement.”
Rabbi Stav believes that Tzohar’s prenuptial agreement will prevent 90-95% of get refusals that take place following a divorce, as it clearly sets out the financial arrangement that will be enforced should a get not be given, thereby removing it from being used as financial collateral in the case of a divorce.