TORONTO — A newly formed rabbinic court aims to dramatically reduce “the scourge” of women who can’t receive a religious divorce decree, known as a get, by taking an “aggressive” and “transparent” halachic approach, a Toronto conference heard this past weekend.
Rabbi Simcha Krauss, head of the newly formed International Beit Din, which meets in New York, says the court will break new ground in solving the long-unresolved problem of agunot, literally chained women. Under Jewish law, only men can grant a divorce and in uncounted cases, women are left in limbo, unable to divorce and to remarry.
“I consider agunot a tragedy, not only for the Jewish People, it’s a tragedy for Halachah. It’s a stain on Halachah. It comes to say Halachah can not solve its problems,” Rabbi Krauss told the annual Renewing Our Spirit conference, hosted Dec. 14 by Torah in Motion at Shaarei Shomayim Congregation. “I believe Halachah can solve its problems.”
“Our job is to try to eradicate the scourge of agunot. We’re going to be aggressive and we’re going to be transparent,” Rabbi Krauss said in an interview with The CJN.
“We’ll use any halachically justifiable mode to free women.”
The beit din, which has so far heard a handful of cases, is innovative in many ways. For instance, it will, for the first time for a beit din, be publishing its decisions on the Internet, in English, outlining the rationale for granting a divorce. Only the couple’s names will be blocked.
A committee of female health professionals, chiefly psychologists and social workers, has also agreed to accompany a woman through the court proceedings. The beit din can be an intimidating process, with three men asking a woman about the most intimate details of her marriage in order to render a decision, Rabbi Krauss said. This way, at least the woman does not stand alone.
The court’s decisions will rely on existing Jewish law and legal concepts. Government documents, such as tax returns, will be examined and witnesses will be interviewed, by Skype, if necessary. A recalcitrant husband will be summoned by the court three times, but if he does not comply, a get can still be issued, Rabbi Krauss explained.
In many cases, the husband uses extortion, to force a woman to pay for her get. Rabbi Krauss believes the court will be able to remedy many of those situations within the existing framework of Jewish law. “I think there are good solutions. If everyone would work on the solutions we have now, we would have many fewer agunot.”
The court, which has heard just a handful of cases so far, has already had inquiries from women in Canada and Europe, as well as the United States.
The ultimate test for the court is whether its decisions will be accepted by the Israeli rabbinate and American rabbis.
Rabbi Krauss is optimistic the decisions will hold up. Before the first rulings are published, he will seek support from well-regarded rabbis in Israel.
“I don’t think the world of Halachah will say ‘no’ unanimously,” Rabbi Krauss said. If rabbis are rational and take the time to read the decisions, he believes they will support the court.
Rabbi Krauss, who served as a pulpit rabbi in New York for more than 20 years and as head of the Religious Zionists of America before making aliyah in 2005, was always aware of the problem agunot faced.
But in Israel, where agunah cases make the front page of the newspaper, he says it became evident to him that a solution needed to be found.
Agunot activists are also watching the new court closely in the hope it makes headway in resolving what has been an intractable problem, said Norma Joseph, a professor of religion at Concordia University and vice-president and consultant for the Canadian Coalition of Jewish Women for the Get.
Rabbi Krauss has credibility and is “not easily dismissed,” she said.
“A lot will happen depending on what kind of decisions are written up and how those decisions are received by the rabbinate in Israel and the Beit Din of America,” she said.
She worries, however, that Canadian women could face a stigma for travelling to the new beit din, instead of going to their local beit din, which may be less accommodating.
There is a school of thought that says Jewish law itself needs to change to “find a mechanism to make the law more open to women’s participation in the process,” rather than rely on the good intentions of a particular beit din, she said. However, the new beit din with its commitment to transparency and a willingness to help women is a promising start.
“It’s exciting to think about, after so much difficulty. There is attention to women in this dire circumstance and someone is stepping forward. How that will work out is still to be developed.”