Tamar Epstein Leaves Her Husband for a Strange Man; a Child from Him will be a Mamzer

Halacha of Marriage, Divorce, and Family - blog address torahhalacha.blogspot.com

The great failure of marriage even in the highest echelons of the Torah community is because people don't know the halacha, the Torah laws, of marriage, divorce, Family and raising children. Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn publishes books, publications, and material on blog and Google with approbations from the greatest rabbis such as the Gaonim Reb Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev and other major gedolim.

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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Attack on Shalom Kaminetsky Encouraging Tamar to Remarry without a GET

Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn/Monsey NY 10952/845-578-1917/eidensohnd@gmail.com

Remarrying in Philadelphia Without a GET, Chas ViShalom

Question: Mrs. Friedman, maiden name Tamar Epstein, has left her husband and declared that she can remarry without a GET. Shalom Kaminetsky, the Rosh Yeshiva of Philadelphia, no doubt encouraged by his father R Shmuel Kaminetsky, has long encouraged Tamar to go her own way, to leave her husband, and now to remarry without a GET. When it became known that Tamar was actively dating and thinking of remarrying without a GET, there was some activity by some of the many rabbis who completely deny Tamar the right to remarry without a GET. But Shalom claims that he has rabbis who permit her to remarry without a GET. Because the vast majority of rabbis, including many senior rabbis, have completely forbidden Tamar’s remarriage without a GET, and Shalom claims that some rabbis permit it, what is the law we must follow in this matter? Are Tamar’s children from a new husband with no GET mamzerim?

Answer: Yes, her children from a new husband without a GET are mamzerim. It is completely forbidden for anyone to marry her until she gets a kosher GET. The reasons for this ruling are below.

1.       A married woman can only escape her marriage with a GET or the death of her husband.

See Laws of Kesubos Even Hoezer 77:3 Ramo and Gro that quote from the Rosh in teshuva 35:2: A woman was tricked by a wicked person into marrying him. He told her lies and she believed him. But once married, she realized they were lies. The Rosh says that although he does not allow coercion of a husband to force a GET in most circumstances, in such a case he permits it. However, he clearly states, that even in such a case where it is clear to all that the husband is a liar and lowly person and the woman would never have married him had she known about him, the Kiddushin remains and there must be a GET.

If so, how can we assume that Mrs. Friedman, who never said her husband was a liar or horrible, just that she had some small complaints, how can she unravel kiddushin?

2.       There is a way for a woman to make a condition in her Kiddushin, in her marriage, in case she fears that the husband has some blemish. If she makes a condition, something that requires knowledge of the laws of conditions, and the condition is valid, then if the husband has the feared blemish the Kiddushin is invalid, and the marriage never occurred. See EH chapter 38.

3.       That is, a married woman can only leave her husband with a GET or with the death of her husband. But if a woman fears a certain blemish or whatever and makes a valid condition that her kiddushin is only valid if the husband is free of that blemish, in that case, if the husband had the blemish the kiddushin is invalid.

4.        Note that in marriage there are two phases: Kiddushin and Nisuin. Kiddushin is when the wife is in her father’s house and the husband may not have intimacy with her. Nisuin is when she comes to the husband’s house and they are fully married. Conditions only help with Kiddushin, but Nisuin is different, as we will explain.

5.       See EH 38:34 “If one makes Kiddushin to a woman and he or she immediately change their mind, even if the change was immediate faster than one can utter a few words, she is married with Kiddushin.”

6.       The husband or wife who made a condition can negate the condition without witnesses, until there is Nisuin, intimacy or Chupah. EH 38:35

7.       Once there is Nisuin or Chupah we assume that the condition made at the time of Kiddushin is now negated. Otherwise, if the condition remains, the couple is together without marriage which is bias Zenuse, a disgrace. See Even Hoezer 38:35

8.       This is because to have relations without a kosher marriage is a disgrace, Bias Zenuse. See Chelkas Mechokake EH 38:48

9.       Now, in the event that a couple said clearly that they have a condition and will maintain it even after Biah, the condition holds. But this is considered a disgrace and unless we hear a clear demand for the condition after the wife goes to the husband, we assume that the previous condition was limited to Kiddushin and is no longer valid.

11    What does this mean for Tamir Epstein Friedman? She never made a condition, she never claimed to make a condition, and if she did make a condition, it would be negated when the couple had a full marriage and lived together. They had a child together. Thus, the condition, even if it did exist, is negated at Nisuin.

12    To invent a finding that Tamar can remarry without a GET the only way is to prove that she entered marriage with a clear condition and maintained it all of the way through the marriage. But this never happened.

  13   We have in recent years rabbis coming forward with inventions to free women from their husbands, such as Rackman, but these all died out and nobody respects them. But there is always somebody else claiming these things. Rabbi Gedaliah Schwartz told me that he sent away a couple who were married and lived together for thirty days and came to him for a GET. He told them they had no need of a GET because they had no Biah. They had marriage with a ring, but no Biah. If so, they are married. That is what is says in Shulchan Aruch EH 26:4: “A woman attains Kiddushin in three ways: by receiving something of monetary value [such as a ring]; by receiving a document [that spells out the marriage], or Biah.” We see clearly that Biah is only one of three ways to achieve Kiddushin. But this inventor sent a couple away with no GET after they asked for a GET because he invented a law in defiance of the Shulchan Aruch that a ring does not make marriage. Such people as him are busy inventing ways for women to leave their husbands without a GET. But all they produce are mamzerim.

14     If Tamir Epstein Friedman remarries without a GET from her husband Aharon, the child will be a mamzer diorayso. This is the opinion of all of the prominent rabbis, some who are very heavily involved with this case and know all of the facts. Nobody knows the name of a single rabbi who has permitted her to remarry. I was told two names, and called them, and they both denied it. It is common in these cases for names to be offered up of rabbis who permit these things, but usually, the rabbis when contacted strongly deny it.

15      A prominent rabbi involved in this case went to Israel to check out the halacha and everyone told him it was forbidden for her to remarry without a GET. They were shocked that in America such a ridiculous thing can be done, to allow a woman to remarry without a GET. One of the rabbis he spoke to was a Gadol HaDor  in Bnei Braq who said there is nothing to be done except a GET.

16       I spoke to senior rabbis who are shocked that Shalom Kaminentsky could help Tamir remarry without a GET. Shalom will not say what rabbis permit this. So let us assume that ten prominent rabbis permit it, which is absolutely ridiculous. But I want to make a point here. Again, ten very prominent rabbis permit something, and ten very prominent rabbis forbid it. What is the halacha?

17     This is a sofek diorayso, and the woman has hezkas aishes ish. If so, she is forbidden to remarry.

18     The Mahari Reb Yosef ben Leib, said by some to be the rebbe of the Beis Yosef, writes that in his time if the majority of the rabbis permitted a woman to remarry and a minority forbade it, that the rabbis would not permit the remarriage. See Mahari ben Leib IV:19:3.

 19     In Philadelphia, we have the opposite: the vast majority are against it, and a tiny number may be for it. Surely, we do not follow the minority.

20      Also, when great rabbis argue with lesser rabbis, we follow the greater rabbis. See  the Ramo in Choshen Mishpot 25:2, that in a machlokess about halacha if it is a question of a Torah ruling we must be stringent. This means, that if ten rabbis forbid her to remarry and ten rabbis permit it, she may not remarry. So how can Shalom Kaminetsky permit her to remarry?

21      The Ramo says there that we follow the greatest scholar over the lesser scholar, and we follow the majority against the minority. The great rabbis oppose her remarriage without  a GET, and so do the vast majority of Torah authorities. If she remarries and has a child, it is surely a mamzer. See also Rashbo 1:263.

22  The Gedolei HaDor are strongly opposing any changes to marriage law, such as this. We follow them, Reb Chaim Kanievsky, Reb Shmuel HaLevi Wosner, Rav Kupshitz and many other gedolim. Shalom Kaminetsky is not a posek, and if he gets involved in these things, with ridiculous inventions, he will produce mamzerim

Insights into Jewish History

Insights into Heaven and Earth

Dovid Eidensohn

Heaven and earth are different dimensions. HaShem is in Heaven with the angels. People in this world are not angels, have evil inclinations, and sin regularly. But HaShem created this world for people come into a world filled with sin and evil and to be strong and resist, and when they do sin, which is probable, they should repent, and HaShem will accept their penitence. A person who sins and repents merits to enter heaven and enter the heavenly throne perhaps cleansed of sin.

The world began without Jews. The first Jew was Abraham, whose father was the producer of idols in a major country. When Abraham grew older and rejected idols, he was flung into a furnace and the king and community watched the site. They were amazed to see that Abraham walked here and there in the raging fire and was accompanied by strange hosts. The king was no fool and realized that although he told everybody that he was god, this was an indication that he had competition. But he instructed Abraham and his father to leave the country, and they left. Avrohom went to Israel, but even there, the hand of HaShem struck, which happens in a world where evil is something given to people to resist and find HaShem and salvation.

A famine struck Israel and Avrohom and his wife Sara, a beautiful woman, who was also, like her husband, a holy prophet of HaShem, had to go to Egypt. Abraham had no choice because HaShem had driven him to Egypt, but he knew that if the Egyptianian would see his wife they would kill him. He therefore told her that when they came to Egypt they should declare that they are not married but brother and sister. In those days, before the Torah was given, even those who were the early Jews before the Torah was given, were lax in marrying certain relatives, so the statement was not necessarily a lie. Yaacov himself the greatest of the Avose married two sisters, which is surely forbidden by Mosaich law at Sinai. Early Jews did not have a Torah as it was finally delivered by Moshe and G‑d Himself at Sinai when the Jews left Egypt.

That is, Jews who did not suffer did not merit the Torah. The suffering in Egypt brought the Jews to the level to merit to accept the Torah with its strict rules. Moshe born in Egypt that killed male babies, became the leader of the Jews who spoke regularly to HaShem and visited heaven many times, not the previous generations of Avrohom Isaac and Yaacov. Not everybody can tolerate all of these rules. But they are the path to eternity in heaven.

Speaking of Avrohom and Sarah, another major  rule in the Torah, as taught by all of the biblical books and the Talmud in various places, is that men may be the leaders of the family and the world, but HaShem prefers women. Simply, the bible is filled with terrible sins done by men, but we don't find these stories about women. Our present story with Avrohom and Sarah going to Egypt will illustrate the beginning of this.

When Avrohom and Soro came to Egypt he concealed Sarah in a box, but it was opened and she was revealed. She was declared a woman fit for the king,  who was called Pharoah. Pharoah embraced both Abraham and Sarah, Sara as his wife, and Abraham as her brother. Abraham was seated at the seat of honor of Pharoah and lavished with great honor and gifts. Sarah to her doom. Pharoah came to her and after the basic greetings, got down to business.

Sarah cried out to HaShem and an angel came from heaven and struck Pharoah. Pharoah jumped away, not knowing what happened, but ashamed to tell Sarah. He gathered his energy and returned to her and this time he got such a smack that he knew that he was not dealing with a woman, and probably was dealing with something much more formidable. He didn't want any more beatings, so he thought things over, and realized, that Sarah was the wife, not the sister of Abraham.

He therefore turned away and went to Abraham, telling him that he now knows that Sarah is his wife, so why did Abraham lie to him and get him such a beating. Abraham answered honestly that he knew that the Egyptians would kill him if they knew he was married to Sarah.

Pharoah accepted this and told Avrohom. Come to me with your wife, and I will send you out of Egypt. A woman like this is not safe in Egypt. I will give you and your children a wonderful land, the place of Goshen, as well as great gifts. But you must leave Egypt immediately. I personally and my senior servants will escort and protect you until you leave.

From Avrohom and Sarah, after many years, came a son Yitschok.  Yitschok married Rivka. From this came Yaacov and Aisov. Yaacov was the primal member of the Avose, and Aisov was wicked, although his love for his father was greater than even a Jew displays. These three are the Avoth, the fathers of the Jewish nation. We have much more to discuss, but for now, we conclude.

Shalom,

Dovid Eidensohn

davideidensohn1@gmail.com

The Coming of Moshiach Soon - Dovid Eidensohn

The Coming of Moshiach

Dovid Eidensohn

Jews await daily for the arrival of Moshiach. In recent times, much ado has taken place over remarks made by the greatest of the Kabbalists. Rav Yitschok Kaduri zt”l. He departed the world a few years ago at the age of 108. Rav Kaduri had a photographic memory. He would glance at any book and memorize it immediately. He made miracles. He was also the rebbe of great rabbis and rebbes. One of these was my rebbe, the Jerusalem Kabbalist Rav Shmuel Toledano zt”l. Rav Kaduri wrote an approbation for my rebbe who wrote eighty Kabbala books, that he wrote them Biruach HaKodesh, with heavenly inspiration. Throughout the world his words have been quoted that he spoke to Moshiach and knows when Moshich will arrive.

Now Rambam tells us in Mishneh Torah that the prophets and sages did not know exactly what will happen when Moshiach arrives. It is true that the prophet Eliyohu HaNovi declared in his work Tono Divei Eliyohu at the end in his discussion of Moshiach that Moshiaich's name will be Ephraim. And we want to discuss how this meshes with the teaching of Rav Yitchok Kaduri that he wrote the name of Moshiach. That name as I saw  people quoting it was Hebrew, the first letters of six words. The words forming the name of Moshiach are YUD HAY VOV SAMCEH VOV SAMECH in Hebrew יודסוס. The Hebrew name written by Rav Kaduri I interpret to mean that Moshiach will come to the Jews with heavenly light.

The first three letters are the classical Name of HaShem, YUD HAY VOV. The second letters, SAMECH and VOV, have a numerical value of 65, which in Hebrew can become GAL GAL, meaning, “revelation, revelation.” This means, that Moshiach, boosted by divine lights from heaven, will reveal, deeper and deeper, to elevate the human race to become very close to heaven.

It is sad that some people took this to mean that the name YUD HAY VOV indicates the Christian deity. But the following letters SAMECH HAY VOV have nothing to do with that. If they stretch Yud Hay Vov to be the first letters of YEHOSHUA they ignore the last three letters SAMECH HAY VOV which have nothing to do with Yehoshua.

Rav Yitschok Kaduri also mentioned something else about Moshiach. He will come soon, at a time when the Israeli government will have no government. And also, will come after the death of Ariel Sharon, a senior general of Israel and a Premier.

We know that now, June 24, 2019, Israel has no government, which is a very rare thing. We also know that Arial Sharon lived a long life, then suffered for at least seven years with loss of his faculties in a hospital, and died recently. We can surely arouse ourselves to pray for a speedily arrival of Moshiach.

I wish to add something to this.

The sages believed that the arrival would go in three stages. The first two revelations of Torah and Messianic forces, seem to be around the Second World War and the destruction of the Jews in Europe. At that time, a very saintly rabbi in Europe warned the Yeshiva students to go to Vilna, a city which was surely right in the line of the Nazi advance on Poland and elsewhere. Nobody understand what the logic in going to Vilna had in saving Jews. Because the only hope was running somewhere in Poland or Russia which no Jew wanted to do and stay alive. But a rabbi and a young Jewish man, Shmuel Shain, saved many Jews.

This was the miracle of the train from Vilna through Russia to Japan, known to posterity as the Shanghai express. At that point, Japan and Germany were at war with America. The rabbi, Avrohom Kalminowitz, couldn't get any wealthy people to give money for the train that was ready to leave Vilna and go to Japan. They felt that  the Japanese were at war with America, the Russians hated Jews, and if the Jews did land in Japan, Hitler would demand them back so he could kill them. But a young man, Shmuel Shain, contributed his and his wife's marriage money from his father-in-law, which paid the Russians to run the Shanghai express.

The rabbi who announced that Jews should come to Vilna was Rav Chaim Ozer. He died soon after he did this, as did another great, Reb Baruch Ber Levovitz. The one who actually saved the Jews was a Japanese official who had the book with permission to come to Japan. When his superiors heard about it, they told him to immediately return to Japan. He did, but not before he flung his book of tickets to the crowd of desperate rabbis outside his office. They boarded the train and were saved.

On to Israel1 - Dovid Eidensohn

On to Israel1 – Dovid Eidensohn

On to Israel is the great effort of many Jews to go to Israel. One reason is that those of us who live in America are beginning to realize that America is crumbling spiritually, especially in New York State which has established a GET law that permits all women to force a GET from their husband, something which produces mamzerim when this woman with no kosher GET remarries and has a child. Another law passed in January of this year is that a husband or boyfriend who poisons the baby in a woman and kills it, has not committed a crime, and the police can do nothing. These laws and worse are spreading in other states in America, even in New Jersey where Lakewood Yeshiva is located. But in America, very few people protest about the GET laws and other problems.

Onto Israel got a major push in 1948 when the United Nations following a vote from the world community, gave a small section of Israel to the Jews and the rest to the Arabs. The Arabs then demanded that all Arabs leave that section of Israel given to the Jews, because the Arabs were determined to kill out the Jews. David Ben-Gurion, then the Premier of Israel, allowed the Yeshiva students not to join the army, because although he was not religious, and probably didn't keep Shabbos or maybe even kashruse, he did recognize that for Jews to survive among the huge armies of Arabs, supported by the British army, there was no hope for Jews in Israel, unless one believed clearly in HaShem. His idea was supported by General Moshe Dayan who replied to those who wanted to draft Yeshiva students, "They do their share." Thus two people who were not religious were forced to accept that their only hope was trusting HaShem. And the battles begun in 1948 showed the world that the Jews were a mighty force that won its battles.

When Arab countries eventually wanted to solve the Jewish problem by making Atomic weapons to be exploded in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel, the faith in HaShem by non-Orthodox Jews was aroused and Menachem Begin sent six jets heavily loaded with powerful bombs to destroy the places building Atom bombs to destroy Israel. The planes all returned with no problems their mission completed. Then a powerful general began assembling Atomic bombs and he was constantly surrounded by protection and weapons that could take down a jet. Now a new tactic was released by the Israel military. It was a secret command of people who knew how to kill people. They knew that in general this general was surrounded by his troops that protected him and that there were weapons to destroy jet planes, but the command of killers succeeded in discovering that this General once a year went near a sea and had company over on his balcony. They sailed a sailboat some distance from the house and dived into the water with their weapons. They took careful pictures at night of the balcony and the people with the general. At the proper time, they both fired. One bullet went into the general's heart, and the other into his neck. The two returned safely to Israel. Yes, this sounds like a miracle, but HaShem in Israel is busy with miracles.

Recently poverty in Israel has been relieved when Premier Netanyohu hired an American company to dig oil out of the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. When it created a gush of good oil near Tel Aviv Israelites realized that times were changing in their favor. This was followed by the Chinese purchasing the largest dairy company in Israel for a billion dollars. Now many companies around the world are pouring money into Israel, turning Israel into a modern place where people can live with thriving businesses and flows of money.

Moshiach everyone knows is on his way. Let us pray for his speedy arrival, and meanwhile pray that our faith in HaShem and trust in His kindness will sustain us despite any difficulty, that we all, gentiles included, will welcome Moshiach and pray to HaShem.

Shalom,

Dovid Eidensohn

On to Israel2 – Dovid Eidensohn