Profile Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Showing posts with label GET Coerced. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GET Coerced. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

QUESTIONS - BETH DIN OR SECULAR COURT FORCES GET

A GET COECED BY A BETH DIN OR SECULAR COURT


1) Is a ‘Get’ considered valid if it was given under the coercion/influence/pressure of a secular family court Judge?

Answer - No. However, without knowing all of the particulars, we cannot issue a ruling about any particular situation. In general, however, a coerced GET is invalid unless in extremely rare circumstances. The common battles between husband and wife that cause somebody to pressure the husband to give a GET are almost universally wrong and may make mamzerim if the wife receives such a GET and remarries and has children. See EH  77 paragraphs 2 and 3.

2) Can a Bais Din (Rabbinical Court)  force a ‘Get’ (Jewish Divorce)?

Answer - Only rarely. The Chazon Ish says that any Beth Din that orders a husband to give his wife a GET when the Torah does not require a GET to be forced on the husband, which is true in nearly all instances of marital dispute, that such a GET is invalid and worthless. Children born from it are mamzerim. See Chazon Ish EH Gittin 99.

3) If a Beth Din bends halacha such as by forcing a GET when a GET should not be forced, is it still recognized as a Beth Din?
Answer: If the complaining Beth Din is known to force Gittin and do other illegal things, it is not recognized as a Beth Din. If it makes a GET we don't recognize it and the wife needs another GET from a kosher Beth Din. But the defendant still must cooperate with the claimant to organize a kosher Beth Din. Heard from Posek HaDor Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt"l and taught by present day Gedolei HaDor in Israel in Sefer Mishpotei Yisroel.

5) What can a person who is being pressured to give a GET do?
Answer - contact me at dddeid@verizon.net.