In our last post, we urged Israel’s Chief Rabbinate to put some halakhic muscle behind its moral condemnation of domestic abuse. If the Chief Rabbi is incensed at the thought of Jewish husbands battering their wives, he should do everything he can to advocate that those husbands be required – and coerced by all acceptable legal means – to issue divorces.  Under the current consensus Orthodox halakhic opinion, when a wife sues for divorce on the grounds that her husband is abusive, the Israeli rabbinical courts, which adjudicate divorce law for Jewish citizens, are not empowered to coerce him to issue a get (divorce document). She therefore remains legally bound to him, unable to remarry and rebuild her shattered life until he agrees on his own accord to divorce her.

But does that consensus reflect what Jewish law actually says? Continue reading Domestic Abuse, Divorce, and Progressive Halakhah →