Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce - עמיהוד בורוכוב, משרד עורכי דין

Can a wife who wants to divorce be ordered to reconcile her marriage at her husband’s request – even if she brings proof that he is having an extra-marital affair ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

No ! Once a rabbinical court accepts evidence brought by the wife proving that her husband is having sex outside marriage , it will not order her to reconcile her marriage (‘Shlom Bayit’) , and will oblige him to divorce, for fear of him passing on sexually transmitted disease to his wife.

Is a list obtained from a phone company detailing the exact dates, times and lengths of hundreds of conversations between a phone line in a husband’s name and that in a certain woman’s name enough evidence for the rabbinical court to order him to grant his wife a “get” on the basis of adultery between the two ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

No ! Such evidence is not enough to tip the scales in a wife’s divorce plea based on adultery, although it would have considerable weight and , together with other evidence, help to create a picture of his activities . The rabbinical court will only order a husband to divorce his wife on grounds of adultery if there is overwhelmingly clear and irrefutable evidence of his unfaithfulness.

Certainly it would be useful for you to obtain this list ,particularly if the times

listed were not daytime working hours. You may be well advised to obtain investigative evidence of adultery.

Could evidence indicating a husband paid for membership to internet dating services help a woman obtain a “get” ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

Yes, such evidence could certainly help, as part of the wife’s evidence to prove that her husband had committed adultery, but is not sufficient on its own. the Ashkelon Rabbinical Court specifically cited documentation presented by a wife proving that her husband had paid for internet dating membership on his credit card as part of the evidence that persuaded it to accept her divorce plea. Other evidence presented by the wife proved the husband had committed adultery a number of times, with different women, the rabbinical court held. It rejected the husband’s plea for “Shalom Bayit” (marital reconciliation), saying that all the evidence indicated that it had been filed for tactical reasons only, and not in good faith.

Can a rabbinical court force a wife to accept a divorce if she and her husband have been separated for years and he has had live-in relationships with other women – but she demands ‘shlom bayit’ ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

Seemingly not –the Greater Rabbinical Court in a ruling several years ago rejected a husband’s claims that his wife be ordered to accept a ‘get’ because he would never live with her again – and she was only refusing divorce out of revenge. The couple had been living apart for many years and the husband was now in his second live-in relationship with another woman. Despite this the wife objected to his divorce pleas. She said she was willing to accept him back and wanted marital re-conciliation. It was held that even if the wife was acting out of revenge, she had done nothing during the time they lived together that gave her husband grounds for divorce – and a man who had committed adultery should not be rewarded for his negative behaviour and had no right to make his wife accept a ‘get’.

How can a wife persuade her husband to come back and agree to ‘shlom bayit’ if he refuses, and asks her to divorce ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

The wife should file a plea for ‘shlom bayit’ (marital reconciliation ) at the rabbinate. If her husband files for divorce there, she should defend herself and try and persuade the rabbinical court that no grounds exist for divorce. The wife’s plea for ‘shlom bayit’ is actually “toothless”; its purpose is to persuade the rabbinical court to exercise its moral authority to try and make the husband save the marriage, but it has no legal authority at all on the issue.

There are situations where a wife may file a plea for ‘shlom bayit’ for tactical reasons. She may not be ready emotionally to divorce, but may be interested in preventing her husband leaving the country, or transferring property, and within the framework of the plea she can apply for appropriate orders to stop these happening.

My marriage has broken down and my husband and I are in the middle of very unpleasant divorce negotiations. We are both Jewish and still live in the marital home. If I have intimate relations with someone else before I am divorced can it jeopardise my financial rights ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

Will a wife who is desperate to divorce her violent husband have a hope of succeeding – without giving in to his threat to condition his consent at the rabbinate upon her promise not to bring certain legal action against him ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

Yes – where the husband is proven to be violent then the court can oblige him to divorce – without allowing him to condition his consent on undertakings by his wife to refrain from taking certain legal action. In a case before Jerusalem rabbinical court the husband admitted to extreme violence against his wife, but after she filed for divorce, he said he would agree to end the marriage only if she undertook not to file for child maintenance at the family court – and supplied guarantors. The wife claimed that his demand for guarantors was unreasonable because as a new immigrant she did not know people well enough to ask them to be guarantors. The rabbinical court held that in the circumstances , given the extreme violence involved, the husband must divorce his wife – and said that the wife should make reasonable efforts to find guarantors to speed up the process.

My husband and I are Jewish. He refuses to give me a divorce. I know he is planning to leave the country to marry another woman with foreign nationality in a civil wedding abroad . I am terrified he will not return and I will be an “aguna” under Jewish law, and will not be able to get a divorce , and my freedom to remarry. Can I do anything to stop him ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

Yes ! A woman in this situation can apply for an emergency ‘stop order’ from the rabbinical court to prevent her husband from leaving Israel, on the grounds of the fear that she will become an ‘aguna’ ( or “abandoned wife”) if he does not return. If the woman has evidence to support the notion that her husband is planning to marry another woman abroad, these can help her persuade the rabbinical court to grant the order.

I only got married to my husband a few months ago. Am I entitled to file for divorce even if he does not agree to divorce ?

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

Yes ! A Jewish wife is entitled to initiate divorce proceedings without her husband’s permission, however short the marriage. However, she will only be entitled to divorce if she can prove grounds for divorce according to those recognized by Jewish law , at the rabbinical court , if the husband does not consent to end the marriage.

My husband wants to leave Israel. I don’t. Do I have grounds for divorce under Jewish law because he wants to leave Israel ? I have nothing else against him.

Marriage and Divorce •Wife's Means of Legal Action in Jewish Divorce

Jewish law regards Israel favourably as regards to the Diaspora as a place of residence.A spouse’s desire to leave Israel may be a sufficient ground for divorce if their refusal to live here is unjustifiable.

A rabbinical court decides on the matter given the circumstances of the particular case . During different periods of history it has been held that refusal to make “aliyah” (immigration to Israel) has been justifiable where the journey was particularly difficult or dangerous.