A rabbinical court in Ashdod was recently asked to rule whether a 15-year-old who had proposed to a girl and handed her a ring should be considered married despite not having followed through on the marriage.
The proposal took place several years ago, in a mall in Paris. When the girl said "yes" and the boy declared her to be his wife, it was clear that both were just joking, but recently the girl, now 17, became worried that perhaps she was in fact married to the boy under Jewish and Israeli law, despite neither of them actually intending to reach such a situation.
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The woman decided it would be best to resolve this matter with the rabbinical authorities lest things get complicated when she decides to marry in the future.
She therefore submitted the following query: "Am I considered married and if so, should I get a technical divorce [from the boy] in order to make sure I can marry later on?"
A three-judge panel deliberated on the matter and interviewed the teen, who recounted the fake proposal and fake marriage. It also turned out that there was only one witness, which may not be enough to make a marriage ceremony official according to Jewish law.
Eventually, following extensive research, the judges ruled that neither party was of deliberate intent to get married, and that even if there was a hypothetical marriage, it would have not met the threshold for a Jewish wedding, as there was no chuppah, or traditional wedding canopy.
On top of that, one of the cardinal requisites for a wedding was not followed because the boy said the customary blessing – "With this ring, you are betrothed to me according to the law of Moses and Israel," – only after he put the ring on the girl's hand, which is not the correct order.
