Marriage and Divorce

Where there is doubt about a husband’s emotional state and his legal capacity, the wife must wait for the ‘all clear’ regarding his ability to attend a divorce hearing. The Rehovot District Rabbinical Court decided not to set a date for a divorce hearing until medical reports were received showing an improvement in the husband’s mental state. It said it should be expressly stated that he was able to “stand trial”, as earlier it had been said that he did not to understand the divorce process .

Yes. Under Jewish law someone about to marry has a duty to disclose his/her full mental/emotional history before marriage. This point was emphasized in a judgment by Zefat (Safed) Rabbinical Court several years ago, in which it ordered the husband to divorce the wife. He had been imprisoned twice for physical violence to her . She claimed that before their marriage he had admitted to having been under supervision for emotional problems but had concealed the gravity of the situation and the fact that he had been institutionalized on six separate occasions in three different mental hospitals. His failure to reveal this amounted to grave deception , it held, but not grounds for cancelling the marriage from the outset . However, it did support her claim of divorce based on the grounds of ‘being fed up’.

No! Under Jewish law a woman is in an inferior position to a man who is placed in a similar situation, with his spouse incarcerated in a mental hospital. A Jewish wife cannot divorce her mentally ill spouse, nor can she get permission to marry someone else. Under Jewish law, divorce is a legal act requiring understanding, freewill and agreement, which a spouse who is incurably ill with a mental illness is incapable of. Thus, divorce is out, and also for a man, whose wife is similarly afflicted. There is, however, a major difference; a man whose wife is afflicted, can apply to the rabbinical court for permission to marry another woman.

The only option for a woman in the predicament mentioned is to live with another man, as common-law husband and wife, and have a property relations’ agreement drawn up professionally, setting out their mutual rights and obligations.

Yes – the rabbinical court can pass a judgment obliging a drug addict to divorce his wife if he cannot rehabilitate himself, but it is likely to give him the opportunity to do so first.

Under Jewish law a man who cannot satisfy his wife sexually or support her financially is not fulfilling his duties as a husband according to their Ketuba (marriage contract). A Jewish woman whose Jewish husband is addicted to alcohol and ,as a result of his addiction, fails to perform these two duties has grounds for divorce.

If the results of a husband’s gambling habits adversely affect marital life so that he is not fulfilling his duties according to Jewish law – in particular supporting his wife and children financially – then the wife has grounds for divorce.

Furthermore, if a husband’s gambling addiction results in other forms of negative behaviour which are recognised under Jewish law as grounds for divorce- e.g.  physical and verbal violence – then the wife may have additional legal cause when she files to end their marriage at the rabbinical court.

Yes. Under Jewish law a wife is entitled to divorce her husband if he is a hard drug addict because he is in a high-risk group for catching Aids, and therefore, her potential murderer as he can transmit the deadly disease to her through sex, it has been decided in the rabbinical court.

Yes, a husband’s fertility is a ground for divorce under Jewish law. If you can meet certain pre-conditions set aside by Jewish law, and prove that your husband is totally infertile, then the Rabbinical Court could make him divorce you.

Under Jewish law, if you want to divorce your husband because he can’t give you children you must(1) have been married at least 10 years, (2) have had no children together and (3) you must clearly want children and show you are medically capable if bearing them and that the problem lies with your spouse. Your greatest legal challenge will lie in proving your husband’s infertility – obtaining the necessary medical evidence.