Too often, we speak of the plight of the agunah as if it were an inevitable, albeit tragic, fact of life. Like cancer or a natural disaster, we are passive in the face of this devastating misfortune. It could happen to anyone, we say.
MK Aliza Lavie
Every year, the special “Misheberach [Prayer] for the Agunah”circulates on social media as we plead God to alleviate the agunah’s suffering. Some even cite the fixture of the agunah as a testament to a community’s piety, the noble victim whose “sacrifice is a public, ongoing reaffirmation of the legitimacy and inviolability of the religious laws surrounding marriage and divorce.” A prominent halachist famously remarked that the unsolved agunah problem was his own “personal akedah,” evoking Abraham’s morally conflicted sacrifice of his son. Just yesterday, in a special Knesset meeting, one woman proposed to enshrine the status of agunah as a special legal category as a way for agunot to obtain eligibility for single mother benefits from the state.
Former MK Dov Lipman
As a community, we have settled — uncomfortably — into the reality that the agunah problem is one to be managed, not solved.
By treating it as a divine decree, however — an act of God rather than an aggression of man — we exempt ourselves from liability or claims of negligence. Our personal agency does not even factor into the equation. Such thinking leads to the types of “solutions” mentioned above — ones that express sympathy or even outrage but are always looking back, reactively, to a problem.
Calling into question a divorce that has long been in effect has serious, and potentially devastating, ramifications for real people.
Beyond the fate of this one woman. Rabbi Yosef’s actions are dangerous in the extreme for halachic Judaism as a whole.
They undermine the authority of the Beit Din itself.
Every divorce is granted under the auspices of a rabbinic court. If another rabbinic court can come along and revoke the first court’s divorces (or declare them null and void), then no Beit Din may be considered reliable when it comes to divorce, and its status-changing implications…
Yes, the law is on the books that one court can undo the edicts of a previous court — but only under certain conditions of established greatness, and only when it comes to legislative acts, which can’t be enacted in this day and age with no Sandhedrin. YES, halachic disputes happen all the time. They are built into the system. But when a beit din’s decision on status takes effect, it’s considered sacrosanct.
They undermine the “forever” status of divorce.
Revoking a get sets a very dangerous precedent. If an unrelated court can come along and revoke (or declare null and void) one divorce, even given its unusual circumstances, what is to protect any divorce from the same? Every presumed divorcee should hesitate before marrying again, lest she risk subsequent accusations of adultery. Indeed, every post-divorce marriage risks being called into question.
From a human perspective, this is terribly difficult. How can any divorced person move on with his or her life if the divorce can be questioned? The potential ramifications of this are endless and chaotic.
The human dimension of this specific case.
This woman was married for seven years to a man she knew would not regain consciousness. She’s only 34-years-old. Chaining her to someone whose body functions only by virtue of machines for the rest of his life when there is a legitimate halachic mechanism to release her that was approved by the Tzfat Beit Din is cruel.
In truth, the fact that Rabbi Yosef and many others would convene with the question of revoking this get calls into question our ability to rely on our rabbis to protect our widows, our orphans, our converts, and even Halacha — which allows for this kind of divorce.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For International Agunah Day, Chochmat Nashim launched a visibility campaign, highlighting agunot and former agunot. We asked these women to take selfies holding signs that note the number of years they were denied a get (Jewish writ of divorce), their location and the hashtag#NoMoreChains. The aim of this campaign is to recognize their first-person narratives as valid, relevant and not shameful. The campaign literally puts faces to the stories and humanizes the statistics. The photos also showcase the diversity of agunot in age, location, religious observance and communal affiliation to underscore the fact that the agunah problem is pervasive in all segments of the Jewish world.
This Agunah Day, we’re shifting the conversation. Let’s recognize that agunot are people with their own experiences, rights and inherent value. Let’s acknowledge that every agunah story is as unique as the person who lives it. Let’s recognize that agunot are entitled to freedom and integrity irrespective of others’ validation of their suffering.
This Agunah Day, about a dozen women are making a very private experience public.
Enough with the noble, silent victim role. Here’s to open conversation, demanding justice as a right–not a favor–and the freedom to take ownership of our own stories.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Dozens of people on my Facebook feed are sharing this meme today from a page called Unchain My Heart. I’d like to relay a conversation I had with Rabbi Jeremy Stern of Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA) regarding Blu Greenberg’s famous criticism of the rabbinic failure to solve the agunah problem, saying that “If there’s a rabbinic will, there’s a halachic way” and how this relates to the halachic prenup.
Meme from the Facebook group “Unchain My Heart”
Rabbi Stern explained that in all these cases where we circumvent the consequences of a mitzvah de’oraita (such as mechirat chametz, pruzbol, various eruvin, etc), the “loophole” must be set in motion before the mitzvah begins to take effect. You can’t enact a pruzbol after shmitta has begun and you can’t sell your chametz once it’s already Pesach. Why?
Because in all these cases, we are not changing halacha; rather, we are changing reality so that a different set of halachot apply.
This is how the Halachic Prenup works. The prenup does not force the mitzvah of giving of a get; rather it amplifies the mitzvah of spousal support during a marriage. That is why the prenup must be signed before the wedding (or during the marriage as a post-nup). Once divorce proceedings have begun, absent a prenup, there is very little one can do on a halachic front in cases of get refusal. This is why ORA pushes so strongly for prenups. It’s much easier to prevent a disaster than to pick up the pieces. (Here ends the extent of the conversation with Rabbi Stern.)
There are, however, halachic mechanisms that do exist after the fact. These include annulments, invocation of mekach ta’ut, omdana d’mokhach and others (there is also the route of eschewing kinyan in kiddushin altogether, but that is a longer conversation). Obviously, these halachic mechanisms can only be used when the situation warrants it. The problem is when the situation warrants it but we worry more about slippery slopes, political criticism, loss of authority, conceding to feminists or the defeatist contention that “it’s just not done.”
But it has beendone, it is being done and it will be done. Yes, we need courageous rabbis and dayanim to step up to the plate. But what we can do as a community is to create the social awareness to cultivate an environment that is receptive and conducive to these decisions. Without the proper social atmosphere, even the best ideas and most constructive policies will have little impact on the ground.
Within the Jewish community, so much of social policy is shaped not by imposing legislation from the outside but by shifting communal norms from the inside. Especially in Israel, many people mistakenly conflate religious institutions and religious authority figures with religion itself, and are therefore hesitant to criticize injustices committed in their name. Out of reverence for Torah and tradition, people inadvertently stand by while that very Torah and tradition they hold so dear becomes a mockery and even a tool of oppression.
This is where we, as a community, step in and say, it doesn’t have to be this way.
