COMMENTARY – The Chief Rabbinate of Israel would never say that men refusing to grant their wives a divorce, or "get," is a good thing. God forbid. Who if not the rabbinical courts work tirelessly every day to persuade husbands to redeem their wives from a dead marriage? To make their efforts known, bimonthly they publish stories of their heroic efforts to get the evil man to agree to a divorce of his own accord.
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One cannot help but wonder what the meaning of such efforts is. Why are rabbis trying to convince a violent person to let go of his wife voluntarily? Would they ever try to persuade a murderer not to murder? And yet, such absurd behavior characterizes the actions of the rabbinical courts daily.
Divorce refusal is a complex issue in Halachah (Jewish law). According to the most stringent opinion, a divorce is valid only if the husband granted it voluntarily. In adhering to such stringency, the rabbinate keeps hundreds of women stuck without a get (Jewish religious divorce), unable to move on and remarry.
If only the rabbis wanted to help these women, they would see that a variety of tools are right at their disposal. Quick and effective sanctions, prenuptial agreements, or annulling the marriage, to name a few. And yet, it seems they do not want to help.
Moreover, every time someone else steps in to find a solution to this problem – by creating an halachically acceptable solution that would take the power away from the refusers and solve the problem at its root – the rabbinical courts veto it.
"The mechanism is not halachic enough," they say, or "It only encourages more divorce" or worst of all, "The problem of get refusers is vastly exaggerated and does not warrant this much public discourse."
Suddenly, they claim the problem did not exist in the first place. Did they forget the very stories they published?
According to the rabbinate itself, there are more than 800 women in Israel whose husbands refuse to grant them divorce papers. And these are women the courts have already declared a divorcee. A woman has to put in tremendous effort, as well as tears, to get the rabbinate to name her a halachic divorcee. Without it, her husband is not obligated to divorce her.
How many more women are stuck in dead marriages, but are not thought of as divorcees by the rabbinical courts? Without such a declaration, they remain in limbo indefinitely, unable to remarry.
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Rabbis are much more likely to allow the husband to blackmail his wife, or for the sake of getting him to grant a get voluntarily, they allow him to stick to his ridiculous demands.
The Rabbinate controls the marriage of every Jewish person in Israel. It's time they took responsibility for the divorce as well.
Maor Albeck is a project manager at Mavoi Satum, an NGO advocating for women's freedom from divorce proceedings abuse.
