tel conf EH #14 WHAT BETH DIN IS KOSHER FOR GITTIN?

Tel Conf EH #14 – What Beth Din is Kosher? Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

Wed night 9:30 Aug 5, ’15 – call 605-562-3130  code 411161#

Years ago I spoke at length with Posek haDor Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l about coerced Gittin.  This was about the time that New York State began coercing husbands to give a GET upon demand when the marriage was over. The Rov feared that such a law could create invalid Gittin and mamzerim, chas vishalom. I asked him the following question:

Let us assume that I go to Beth Din and protest that I do not want to give a GET to my wife. The Beth Din then coerces me, maybe even beats me, until I say, “I want the GET.” The Beth Din then writes a document that the GET has been properly performed and that the wife is free to remarry. I then go outside in the street and begin complaining that I was beaten and coerced and that the GET is invalid. And the Beth Din maintains that I gave the GET willingly. Who will believe me?

I am now disputing a BETH DIN, who are at least two witnesses that are believed over everything else. And furthermore, they are a BETH DIN that may be stronger than two witnesses. See Sefer Raviyo #919 about witnesses and Beth Din. (Raviyo was Rebbe Eliezar ben Rebbe Yoel HaLevi, from a famous family of gedolim who lived in the early period of the Tosfose, after Rabbeinu Tam.)

On the other hand, I am not even one witness, as I am talking about myself and not a witness. So what can I do if I am coerced to give a GET?

The Rov replied, “A Beth Din that does things in defiance of the Shulchan Aruch loses the status of Beth Din.” His exact words, as I remember them, were that he removed from the Beth Din “the Chezkas Beth Din.”

What does this mean? It means two things. One, the Gedolei HaDor have the power to define a proper Beth Din, surely regarding Gittin that can end in mamzeruth. Second of all, the gemora in Gittin 88b tells us that  the power to coerce a GET is reserved for those given the privilege by the early musmochim, those who had semicha from Moshe Rabbeinu’s musmochim. It goes without saying that these musmochim of early generations only gave the privilege of forcing a GET to the greatest rabbis in the world, not to people who violate the Shulchan Aruch. Thus, a Beth Din that violates the Shulchan Aruch is denied a status of a Beth Din by gedolim such as Rav Elyashev and others we will mention soon. Also, the status of a Beth Din to coerce Gittin is a very high level given only by the musmochim, those given Semicha  by Moshe and his disciples who passed on the Semicha to latter generations. When this ceased around the time of the Talmud, coercions by Beth Dins can only be done in a Beth Din whose standard is accepted  by the early musmochim, those who received semicha with the authority of Moshe Rabbeinu. Surely, those that defy the Shulchan Aruch are not included. Thus, a Beth Din that violates the Shulchan Aruch has no status as a Beth Din, not by the standards of great rabbis today who are decisive in this, but even more by the obvious instructions of the disciples of the Musmochim of Moshe Rabbeinu, that only the greatest rabbis can coerce a GET. Surely those who tamper with the Shulchan Aruch and invent things are invalid and not recognized as a Beth Din.

I saw a letter a while back signed by Rav Shmuel HaLevi Wosner and a few other greats that nobody can coerce a GET without permission of Gedolim. Of course, many Beth Dins do just the opposite. And if a woman received a GET from them there is a problem, as such a Beth Din is not a Beth Din and its Gittin are not recognized.

Recently a book was published about these laws called Mishpitei Yisroel that contains copies of letters from Gedolim in Israel and America about the sin of coercing a GET and the sin of going to secular court instead of Beth Din. Going to an invalid Beth Din is not going to a Beth Din.

A Beth Din that commands a husband to give his wife a GET may by its command create an invalid GET, as the Chazon Ish rules. (See EH Gittin 99:2 par 2 יש לעיין .)

Therefore, before going to a Beth Din a person must clarify if the Beth Din has chezkas Beth Din or not. And it must clarify if the Beth Din commands a husband to give a GET.

In the next generation, many children will be born from mothers who went to an unrecognized Beth Din. What will happen with these children?

New York State has passed a law that forces a husband to give a GET to his wife when the marriage is over. Such a GET is quite possibly or probably invalid. If the wife remarries and has a child the child could be a mamzer. The terrible thing about this is that the New York Law was passed by Orthodox people, one a Modern Orthodox rabbi with great political connections. These laws have been passed in Canada but there the law is much worse than the New York GET law. And the pressure to make more states and countries force a husband to give a GET is a terrifying problem. And of course, the sad thing is that the people pushing these laws are mostly Jews, many Orthodox.

Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, son of Reb Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik, has said, “We have to learn about haredim, because many of our children will be haredim.” But if Modern Orthodox and even some Orthodox rabbis make coerced Gittin, and children are born from them when the mother remarries, how can those children who become Haredi marry? Does anyone care?

What will these people who got the GET laws passed do when a child comes to them and asks how a mamzer can marry? In the next generations there will be many such children, and today, nobody talks about these things. Who cares? So, it is child abuse. But is this as bad as a woman who wants a GET?

If the Shulchan Aruch forbids a forced GET, those who disagree will answer to heaven. What will they answer?

To purchase a copy of the book Mishpitei Yisroel on the issue of Kosher Beth Dins call in Monsey, NY at 845-352-0532.

Dovid Eidensohn - 845-578-1917