Abracadabrah

I create as I speak

Kosher Bigamy - Rabbinic Style - Blessed on High

How is this for a headline: Son of Jerusalem Rabbinic Court head remarries - without a get

It turns out, with the right rabbinic family connections in Israel, you can marry a second wife in Los Angeles before the divorce with the second one is concluded.

By their deeds shall you know them (Matthew 7:16) Or, in other words, perhaps a llttle Temple cleaning might be a good thing right now, unless trading on familial relations is supposed to earn you special halachic privileges in the rabbinic courts.

"This is a genuine case of bigamy," says Rabbi Yigal Krispin, the bureau chief of Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, speaking for the chief rabbi. "According to Jewish law, in the event of a permit to marry a second wife, the wife must be given an unconditional get. Krispin said such permits are mostly given in cases where the woman has been unable to receive a get, due to her medical or emotional condition. "Rabbi Amar is opposed to any permit to marry a second wife, except in rare cases. According to the laws of the State of Israel, a permit to marry a second wife in a case like this would not have been accepted," says Krispin.

The case in question may have occurred far from here, in Los Angeles, but the involvement of rabbinical figures and judges from here makes it relevant to Israel. The groom's father, Ezra Batzri, is the av beit din (president) of the Jerusalem Rabbinic Court, on whose rulings numerous women depend. Hagay's brother, Rabbi Moshe Batzri, who has submitted his candidacy to the selection committee for dayanim (religious court judges) and who expects to be appointed a dayan in the near future, performed the ceremony...

The support of figures in the Israeli rabbinic establishment, some quietly and some openly, for the second-wife marriage permit without the granting of a get to the first wife - against Jewish law - hints at the forgiving nature with which rabbis and dayanim in Israel relate to refusal to grant a get and the blackmailing of husbands.

In fact, as dayanim go, Rabbi Batzri is considered sensitive when it comes to redressing the suffering of women. Halperin-Kaddari asks, how can he be a party to such a terrible injustice, when the matter concerns his own family?

This is just treating the law as a vehicle to do what you will. In this case, Hagay Batzri wanted to remarry without arranging for an equitable property settlement and his father, and his father's powerful connections accomodated him.

posted by Alcibiades @ 2:55 AM