The "Status Quo" is a state of woe
According to the Jpost, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Sunday on religious and secular cabinet ministers to reach a compromise on legislation that would expand Rabbinic Court jurisdiction in divorce cases. “Feminists,” which apparently means any women with a grain of sense, are protesting this bill as discriminatory against women.
It seems to me that this is somewhat of an understatement. The Rabbinic Courts have long been er, discriminatory against women; that is to say, they tend to arbitrate in favor of the husband, and extort money (that is, money that would normally be part of her financial rights in the divorce, such as child support) from a woman before granting her release from her husband. That is, in cases where he will grant her a divorce at all, since by and large the religious courts don’t much force the issue (there have been a few exceptional cases where the husband has been jailed for failing to give a get, but by and large, this problem – which could be halachically solved, and has been by the Masorti movement, and will not be, by the Orthodox, because the options that they once considered acceptable were adopted by the Masorti movement, making them treif by association- remains an enormous one for Orthodox women, in which the courts demand that she submit to all sorts of craziness in order for them to pressure the husband to give her a divorce).
According to the JPost article
Rabbinic Courts Administration spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said the proposed legislation would simply maintain the status quo.
“The Supreme Court recently overturned decades of precedent during which the Rabbinic Courts litigated in monetary matters connected with the divorce process, even after the husband gave his ex the divorce writ,” Orbach said.
“This bill simply anchors in law what has been common practice for a long time now.”
Because Israeli law needs to have more religious control. the hegemony not being yet complete. This is a terrible idea. The status quo is not such a beautiful thing that it needs to be “anchored in law.” To the contrary, the status quo is quite broken and needs to be fixed.
Just a gentle reminder to everyone that men are feminists, too.
But Rav Ovadia Yosef says you ladies should spend more time sewing and making cholent! http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/07/rabbi-ovadia-yo.html
I resent that statement, because I can make a better chulent than any of you women.
“The Rabbinic Courts have long been er, discriminatory against women; that is to say, they tend to arbitrate in favor of the husband, and extort money (that is, money that would normally be part of her financial rights in the divorce, such as child support) from a woman before granting her release from her husband.”
The Rabbinic Courts extort money from a woman before granting her release from her husband?? I was at the demonstration against this expansion of the power of the Rabbinic Courts (organized by ICAR and Mavoi Satum) – you can read all about it here and while I heard a lot of very valid criticism against the administration of Justice in Rabbinic Courts, not a single person told me that the courts extort money from women. You have a link for that maybe? Some credible source that states that women are systematically victimized by court extortion?
Sorry, perhaps the statement was unclear: the rabbinic courts require the women to give up money that they would otherwise get – for example from non-rabbinic courts- *to their husbands* in divorce settlements before release from the marriage. IMO, it’s still extortion, but perhaps it’s not since it’s only standard anti-woman behavior, and not for the personal (or even communoal) benefit of the rabbis on these courts.
I’m willing to give over on the language, but not the sentiment.
“The Rabbinic Courts extort money from a woman before granting her release from her husband?”
that’s what happened to my mom.
KRG,
What you are saying is that the Rabbinic court facilitate extortion by husbands – which is still a pretty damning indictment of any court.
I had the pleasure of taking Jewish law from renowned scholar and Israeli Supreme Court justic Menachem Elon. It was his strong view that the halakhic problems of agunot could be easily fixed if the Orthodox rabbis of today had “courage.” This comment resulted in an apoplectic fury by one of the yeshiva bochers in the class. “You’re saying that all the great poskim…Rav Moshe Feinstein didn’t have courage?”
I am willing to say what Elon, out of respect, only implied. That yes, the “great” Orthodox rabbis of this generation and the last are more afraid of acknowledging, even indirectly, the need to adapt halakha to changing circumstance, then they are with rank injustice.
Thanks mhpine. I think what you wrote is a more accurate description of what goes on in these courts. As Inbal Freund, head of Mavoi Satum told me – Men walk into these courts and get a sense that they can get away with a lot. Those hell bent on being unreasonable make onerous demands in the course of negotiations. These demands are passed on to the woman by the court and the woman often agrees to them in order to have her husband agree to the granting of a divorce. Does that mean that the courts facilitate extortion though? That may be a tad harsh. Is a court facilitating extortion when a woman demands more alimony from her divorced husband in exchange for more favorable visitaion rights with the children that she has custody of? I wouldn’t call it that. Inbal had explained to me the many systematic problems with the religious courts – but the natural give and take and negotiation that takes place in any divorce proceeding does not mean that the court is the party perpetuating extortion.
What’s unfair though is that the husband has an unfair upper hand in the negotiations in that he can withhold the divorce indefinitely. This is patently unfair. But you’re right – it boils down to the courage that is lacking in our current crop of Gedolim. They ought not allow themselves to be cowed by the effects of enlightenment. Not all change is a capitulation to alien modern values. Some things are just wrong and need to be changed. Whatever rationale exists for giving a husband this unfair advantage in divorces does not justify the prevention of a fertile Jewish woman from being able to remarry and have more children. I mean hello! Pru U’rvu!! Go forth and multiply – you can’t do that if asshole husbands refuse to grant divorces to their wives.
I figured that out all by myself and I’m not even a Torah scholar. Go figure…
Does that mean that the courts facilitate extortion though? That may be a tad harsh. Is a court facilitating extortion when a woman demands more alimony from her divorced husband in exchange for more favorable visitaion rights with the children that she has custody of? I wouldn’t call it that.
I wouldn’t call it that either, but that’s because the courts aren’t facilitating it. In Israel, the -rabbinical- courts will let the husbands get away with murder (let’s even say literally, if we speak in the language of halbanat panim) and the women have no recourse.
mhpine: what you said.
Just for those who do not know, Halbanat Panim, literally, causing a person’s face to go white, refers to public humiliation and in Judaism is considered analogous to murder. That sort of thing is taken pretty seriously in Judaism – hence the little Rabbi under this comment box – lashon harah, speaking ill of others, is considered really, really bad. But I digress.
I don’t know if calling members of Rabbinical courts murderers is going to help the situation any. I know you care about the plight of Agunot, but it seems to me using incendiary language is not going to create any kind of productive result. That’s just my humble opinion.
dave — halbanat panim never stopped you from letting TM and phoebe write the most sinister and vile things about me ever said on the front page of your website. do you only reserve that level of kavod for people with long beards? am i not your fellow jew?