By Batsheva Sherman
Hatzofeh, 27 February 2005

The Yad La’Isha organization, a part of the Ohr Torah Stone network, which represents mesuravot get (women who have been denied a divorce) and agunot (women literally “chained” to dead or abusive marriages) in matters of divorce, opened its doors and permitted Mrs. Anat Zuria to create a documentary film about these women. The purpose behind this was to present the suffering of the agunot and those refused a divorce in order to raise public awareness of the problem.

The film, “Mekudeshet” (in English: “Sentenced to Marriage”), does indeed describe the suffering that a woman must endure in her quest towards the sought-after divorce denied to her by her husband, and successfully raises the topic for social discourse.

Rabbi Amar’s criticism of the women rabbinical court advocates that staff Yad La’Isha in regard to their participation in the creation of the film should be countered with the statement that the real hilul Hashem (desecration of G-d’s name) is caused by a husband’s reprehensible use of Jewish law for his own vile purposes in refusing to grant his wife a divorce and not by the film’s publicizing of those reprehensible actions. A husband who refuses his wife a divorce, and who uses Jewish law as a cloak and fig leaf for his base act, harms not only his chained wife but Jewish law and the honor of the Torah, as well.

The women advocates in the rabbinical courts do not attack Jewish law; they argue that the actions of a husband who refuses his wife a divorce are unworthy and that a wife is permitted by Jewish law to force her husband to grant her a divorce. Their arguments are all halachic - based on Jewish law - and it should be noted that there are those within the rabbinic court system who support their views.

Failure to adopt a harsh stand against those who refuse their wives a divorce - and worse, adopting a stance that provides fertile ground for those husbands to make extortionate demands as a condition for granting a divorce - severely damages Jewish law in the eyes of the public. “The land is given over to the wicked and the faces of the judges are covered:” rabbinical court judges have a responsibility to ensure that justice prevails, doubly so when the wicked use Jewish law to justify their wickedness and the courts have the power to prevent this.

Another severe and completely different problem from the issue of divorce refusal is the functioning of the rabbinical courts. The lack of quorums and protocols, the postponement of hearings and the failure to hand down decisions are but a few in a collection of obstacles which the mesuravot get and agunot must overcome, and this in itself is enough to cause a severe delay of justice. In this case, criticism of the courts is unfortunately justified.

Rabbi Ben-Dahan, Director General of the rabbinical courts, is working hard to improve the system and as such should be singled out for praise regarding this issue, as should Rabbi Amar, who recently issued new instructions for judges regarding judicial procedures.

In general, silencing criticism by attacking those who criticize does nothing to invalidate the criticism and is not a worthy response at all. This is especially severe as the rabbinical court advocates are all religiously observant women who are not attempting, G-d forbid, to go against the principles of the Torah and religion; on the contrary, they hold the Torah and Jewish law dear. Their struggle is not only for the benefit of the individual women who are suffering. It is also a struggle for the sake of the Torah’s honor. Their scream is not just a cry of pain, but a call for a fair trial and for the saving of the abused from those who would abuse them.

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