Here's the solution: Allow civil marriage and divorce, and remove power over legal family matters from the religious authorities so that Israel doesn't have to abuse the legal and penitentiary systems to torture individuals into submission.

You must be another arrogant bastard, don't you think? Tell me, arrogant bastard from centre, shall this so called "supreme" court (ahahhaahah LOL) stone to death this man for not giving the geth to his wife? Why not after all... What happened to Israel? The religious took over, or what? Send them to the army instead, and we'll see who are the arrogant bastards.

You're uninformed, that won't help a religious woman who won't personally recognize a secular divorce. SHE wants her release, the beis din is obligated to take all actions available to provide it. They are doing the right thing.

Even if a couple have a secular marriage, they still need to get a divorce. If one party won't give the other, there's a problem. This happened to a non-Jewish friend in England who's husband disappeared. I say kol hakavod to the Supreme Court.

to the rabbis - it's about time they took a strong stand against those who refuse to honor the court rulings and refuse to grant a divorce. As long as the woman is "locked" into a miserable situation - they should be locked up and suffering as well.

England is not the only country on earth!! Here in Canada, you don't need your spouse approval to divorce her / him. (she can sue you if you don't give the geth, though, and ask for money, as the Supreme Court of Canad ruled a couple of months ago - which is a very good thing by the way). But hey - here we're talking about sending a man (all right, he's a machist) in isolation, and put him so down he'll probably kill himself. Is that what the aguna wife want him to do? Is this how this supreme court of rabbi want him to end? Is that what the israeli society came to? What about the rule of law, what about habeas corpus? Gosh, the israeli need to send all those self proclaimed judges back in their yeshivas and to their gefilte fish world, honestly.

No man should be able to hold a woman his prisoner against her will! The court should now find a way to order him to free her from the hell he created for her!

Wish the Beis Dins would do the same in the U.S.

Now he'll get a taste of his own medicine. Good for this court!

the bastard should know no freedom, nothing much as his own wife went through hell so should he BASTARD

You can call it a secular divorce. But Jewish law still requires a get. So by giving the husband the out of a civil divorce he can still make his wife an aguna who cannot get remarried under Jewish law. America also has the problem of agunot with secular divorce. Except there the courts refuse to help the women at all. Thousands of American Jewish women suffer because their secular divorces aren't worth the paper they are written on according to Jewish law.

"The man demanded his immediate release as a pre-condition to him making and decision on the divorce." He doesn't have a choice. He has to do this thing. Refusing to do so makes him a criminal.

no divorce, but Moses for the hardness of people's hearts allowed divorce. The motive of the husband in this case may be the higher law of no divorce-ever. His error is in not providing for his separated wife and children. If any provide not for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. It is the non-support economically that makes him a religious unbeliever, not the refusal to grant a divorce. The Bible way is to SEPARATE if you cannot get along, not to divorce. But few people want to do what the Bible suggests. Why not offer him another choice, of providing for his wife and children in a legal separation but not an actual divorce. That way, they can reconcile some day if they choose to.

LOL, NOT WORTH A TINKERS DAMN.

is what this country needs so that moron's like this can't "decide" or "refuse" to grant a divorce or "elect" or "decline" to listen to the rabbis. Its cold comfort to the tortured wife that this guy is in isolation. She deserves a court ordered divorce. This power must be removed from the religious authorities and put into the civil court system.

Rivka, we are Jews not Christians. Divorce is allowed in Jewish law. Please mind your own business and don't give false information.

If one of the parents deliberately and with malice turns the children against the other parent who has joint custody, the parent who is maligned in given SOLE custody of the children and the offending parent is not allowed to even see the children. Has this mother turned the children against the father?

The bible way is to divorce and let her marry another man. The opinions of apikorosim that were never rabbis aren't Torah and shouldn't be quoted as such. "Rabbi" [sic] Yeshua has no oppinions that count according to the Torah. His name is an acronym for "Yemach Shemo v'Zichro". So may it be soon in our days.

Christians who are REAL Christians (and there are few) become Jews in their hearts. The Hebrews who went into Egypt were changed by four hundred years of captivity. They were corrupted by idolatry and the immorality of the Egyptian captors. They were not willing to go by the laws of God such as one wife for life and no divorce. This is not misinformation. It is fact. The Laws of Moses do allow divorce, but th husband in this case obviously felt he married for life. What he does not understand is that if the wife left him and did not have lawful biblical grounds to do so, he is free to remarry since that would make the wife an unbeliever. He, however, failed to provide for his family which made him worse than an unbeliever. It is you who fail to understand the laws and the consequences of losing rewards in heaven in unlawful divorces to God. A divorce may be lawful to civil or religious courts and still be unlawful to God. If the divorce is unlawful to the Lord, the children of subsequent marriages are not legitimate from God's perspective although they may be legitimate from the perspective of courts of Israel or Judaism. You are so shallow, you do not understand the importance of God's blessing and favor.

as the greatest JEWISH Rabbi and more. I ask the Lord to forgive you foolish opinion. When you meet Yeshua after you pass from this life, you will weep many bitter tears for eternity that you did not know him and cannot be near him for eternity. You will not be with Moses, either, or Abraham or David. They will be with Yeshua.

We don't know much about this case, but it doesn't seem fair for a man to not give a divorce to a wife - most probably he doesn't like the idea to give her money - but that's life. Not all men are like this.

Divorce, while not encouraged, is allowed in Judaism. What is NOT allowed is worship of false gods, including that one which Rivkah believes in. Belief that a person is a deity is one of the most serious transgression in Judaism, on par with adultery/incest and with murder---"yehareg v'al ya'avor". Somehow stupid Rivkah thinks that Jews who do not follow her misinterpretation of Jewish law are sinning. She has a hard time with the reality that Jews do not care what Yoshka Pandra had to say. That's why we are NOT christians!!!

So let me get this traight. God says a man can only divorce his wife voluntarily. If he doesn't want to volunteer then she doesn't get a divorce. OK, so be it. Most countries will just divorce them and call it quits. But you can't. I understand that. God says it must be free will. But now the part I don't understand. You are going to "help" him volunteer by throwing him in Jail indefinitely. "No pressure," you tell him. "Do what you want. The decision is yours." And you figure God believes this? Really? I can just see a Jewish criminal trial: JUDGE: So he voluntarily confessed? PROSECUTOR: Yes, your honor. JUDGE: So why is his eye gouged out and fingernails ripped off? PROS: To encourage him to see things differently and volunteer to sign the confession."

divorce, but divorce is allowed if there is fornication or desertion. The Prophet Malachi said God hates divorce because He wants righteous offspring. Children of divorce are much more vulnerable to demonic influences than those whose parents stay together. If the parents legally separate instead of divorcing, the children might be spared the awful stigma of divorce. When they want to marry later in life, they will be less likely to be rejected if they are from a stable family without the acrimony and complications of divorce. The Bible says, As is the Mother, so is the Daughter. It is a risk to marry the daughter or son of divorced parents if the object is to stay married for life. When the difficulties that caused the parental divorce arise in the children's marriages, the children will likely react the same way instead of working it out. That means the children of divorce are more likely to get divorced themselves.

Jill, it's a logical problem I was wondering about as well... The problem exists because very old rules are applied to the needs of our modern times.

Your arrogance knows no bounds! Your thinking is circular, and you should be aware your half cast Nazerine man-god-rabbi is recognized by millions of non-Jews. But that does not give validity to his rulings, which are often contrary to Torah. It is commendable if you follow his advise in Edom, but don't try to extend his Persian/Egyptian/Greek religious teachings to Holy Israel!

Did Hashem's "plan of Salvation" suddenly change sometime after King David? Are you telling us that the Jews of the "Old Testament" are going to "heaven" while the post "New Testament" Jews, who cling to the very same Torah, are going to "hell"? Where was the cut off? If your views were right, God forbid, the Master of the Universe would then be fickle because he never told anyone to believe in "J*sus---in fact he warned us against it!

I am not sure I understand your "logic". The gentleman is simply being punished for being in contempt of the rabbinical court. We in Canada similarly use incarceration as a tool for enforcing laws---or are we also to be classified as a anachronic, backwater society.