You think you know what you're getting
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That's not my husband, that's my wife
Shortly after marrying her yeshiva-student husband, woman discovers he has female genitalia; 15 years later couple divorces
Married life is full of surprises. But the surprise awaiting a haredi woman was still beyond belief: At the first opportunity after her marriage, she discovered her husband had a female sex organ.
The couple married 15 years ago in western Europe. When she discovered that her husband has both male and female sexual organs because of a rare disease, it was already too late.
But the woman wasn't the only miserable one. The husband was also frustrated. Instead of having sexual relations with his wife, he tried to find a replacement in porno movies and sex with men. This is how the man painted in the community as a bright, diligent student of Talmud and Torah actual led a double life, very distanced from the ways of Torah and mitzvoth (commandments).
Birth didn't help mend torn family
The man also sought out a medical solution to his problem and even underwent 15 surgeries – but to no avail.
Five years ago, his wife got pregnant through in vitro fertilization, but the birth didn't help mend the torn family. The woman left home, made aliyah to Israel, and turned to the Rabbinical court in Jerusalem with a request to annul her marriage, explaining that they were based on a false pretense since her husband hid his disease from her.
The submission passed through a number of rabbis, and the greats of this generation ruled that there is indeed ground for annulling the marriage, but that it was preferable to sever the relationship with a get so as not to embarrass the husband. To this end, a representative of the court, Rav Yaakov Habib, was sent to the husband's country of residence in order to convince him to give a get to his wife.
Rav Habib presented the husband with the court decision on canceling the marriage, which rest on establishing the husband as an abnormal person. Because the husband fought his whole life to live as a normal person, he agreed to give a get.
