#agunot

I see you, LGBTQ Orthodox Jews who work to combat homophobia and transphobia.

I see you Orthodox Jewish women and allies who work to combat the Agunah crisis.

I see you Black Orthodox Jews who work to combat antiblackness.

I see you Orthodox Jewish Yoetzot Halacha and Rabbaniyot combatting sexism.

I see you Orthodox Jews-by-choice who work to combat conversion stigma.

You are all so incredible and courageous and loved and you are truly doing great Mitzvot. Hashem should bless you all.

Pros: this law is supposed to help agunot (women who live in a painful loophole in Jewish divorce law that prevents them from remarrying)

How does a person reconcile certain Old Testament laws with the grace of God? How do we interpret Leviticus’s seeming acceptance of slavery? What did slavery mean in ancient Israel? What about ancient warfare, and the view about women? What is an agunot, and how can we minister to them? We will cover these issues and more on a special edition of the Bellator Christi Podcast, as we are joined by…

Some rabbis oppose the prenup agreement because it causes monetary pressure on the husband to divorce, and the husband is supposed to give the get out of his own free will. One of my rabbis proposed a positive pressure agreement that the husband will get money from the bank (that he deposits earlier) if he divorces.

wenevergotusedtoegypt​ wrote:

Interesting thought about the positive pressure. I feel like it would be difficult for that to be nearly as effective, though - after all, how much can a soon-to-be-married/newlywed man afford to put away indefinitely, ideally never to have access to again (because he wouldn’t be getting divorced)? And also, once he put it away he’d probably basically consider it gone, and it seems to me like even though it’s technically his money, standing to gain money he “doesn’t have” is less of an incentive for a person that desirous of control over their spouse than losing money he does have. Compared to $55,000 a year he’d lose with the current prenup. Also, what I don’t understand is why a negative incentive like this is any different halachically from other negative incentives (like being excluded from a minyan, not patronizing the person’s business, etc) - is it because it’s directly monetary? Or? 

I would love to answer all of those questions but unfortunately the class about it was 3 years ago and I didn’t take notes so... I don’t exactly remember all of what he said. I am trying to find out what he said, but no promises.

I think the amount of money was to be built up over the years. And yes, the difference is most likely that it’s directly monetary. Although, to be honest, incentives like “not including someone in a minyan” are not nearly as threatening these days as they used to be, and the batei dinim in Israel clearly don’t use them anymore.

The bottom line (that he didn’t make up) is that the prenup agreement encourages getting divorced as opposed to discouraging it. The whole idea of the ketuba is not only to provide for the woman if she gets divorced, but to discourage divorce in the first place.

The agunah crisis can end with us! To learn more about how we can prevent the problem of agunot going forward and the halachic prenup, visit: http://www.getora.org/the-prenup

Domestic abuse and violence warnings at the Youtube link

If any of you or anyone you know are about to or planning to get married, please please use this! There's also a postnuptial option for those already married. G-d bless you that you should all have occasion to sign this and none of you should need it <3