I come from a traditional Sephardic background, where my mother kept a strictly Kosher kitchen and where we observed Shabbat. My wife comes from Eastern Europe, and is used to eating pig , shell fish and mixing milk and meat. She does not keep a Kosher kitchen and prepares me non-Kosher food. She does not Observe Shabbat either. All this is totally against my upbringing and beliefs. I have asked her time and time again to change her ways but she refuses. I feel I have no choice but to divorce her just because of these and other ways she breaks Jewish law. Is a wife’s non-observance of Shabbat and keeping of a non-Kosher kitchen grounds for divorce under Jewish law ?
By: דיאנה שאלתיאל•Published on: 13 June, 2022Transgressing Jewish Law is one of the behavioural – based grounds of divorce available to a Jewish husband. By not keeping Jewish law the wife is regarded as failing her husband and leading her husband astray from the correct path. An example would be where she falsely claims to keep a Kosher home but actually feeds her husband ‘Treife ‘ like pig meat or non-Kosher food . The same applies if she openly desecrates the Sabbath and he observes it. If, however, the husband does not observe the Sabbath he cannot divorce his wife because she does not observe it. Also, if the wife can prove she mistakenly acted in a forbidden manner she will have a defence against her husband’s claim that she knowingly broke Jewish law.