Rivkah Lubitch
An alternative rabbinical court?
The initiative to set up alternative rabbinical courts is gathering steam, but without including women in the planning stages and without rabbinical court judges with legal knowledge and daring on issues of Jewish law it will all mean nothing
Today’s rabbinical courts must undergo a fundamental change, not just an administrative change. At a conference held last week by Kolech, the religious women’s forum, there was a discussion on establishing alternative rabbinical courts (and yes, we need to find them another name!). The new court must be based on four things: the inclusion of women, educated and knowledgeable judges, judges with both vision and daring on issues of Jewish law, and on a constant search for justice. Anything less will not be a solution, just a recycling of what already exists.
It is inconceivable that the new initiative to establish alternative rabbinical courts would not include women; even if they are not judges, they should at least be part of the planning staff. The requirement that women take part in thinking about and planning the alternative rabbinical courts would appear to be self-evident, since women constitute at least half the visitors to the rabbinical courts, women are the ones who generally suffer from what goes on there, and women are the ones who have placed this issue on the public agenda.
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Yet I have the feeling that if we don’t insist on it, we’ll be ignored. Women active in helping women who have been denied a Jewish divorce have studied the system and understand the court as others do not, and there is no one who can afford to do without this knowledge. The establishment does not listen to us, but I expect the new courts to listen carefully.
Judges lack legal knowledge
Rabbinical court judges should have knowledge and education that extends beyond just a page of Gemara. Simple knowledge of the Torah is not enough when you are going to make decisions in Jewish law between two people who have a dispute connected to their marriage. Rabbinical court judges today lack legal knowledge. Would alternative courts have judges with legal knowledge? Are there such people? Very few. Perhaps because the judges are certain that “everything is written in the Torah,” and therefore there is no need to study anything else. But to make decisions concerning money you have to be familiar with civil law, and to follow the changes taking place in civil law.
To make decisions concerning children you have to be involved in this field, in what is new and in the changes taking place in the western world. We live in the global village, and therefore you have to know what your neighbors in the wider world have done, where they were successful and where they failed. And you have to have a minimal amount of respect for other judicial systems.
The judges must be daring in Jewish law. We demand solutions to the problem of women imprisoned in a relationship they wish to leave. A woman has a right to choose whether to remain in her marriage. Maimonides recognized that a woman who says of her husband, “he is repulsive to me” was entitled to a divorce, even if it had to be coerced. Why don’t those who decide on Jewish law today accept this?
Court must seek justice
Great and good men have recognized that you can declare that a marriage was made in error. Why is it that those who decide on Jewish law today do not recognize this? Also, it’s high time that rabbis took it upon themselves to find sweeping solutions to the problem of women whose husbands deny them a Jewish divorce. Judges in an alternative rabbinical court must be prepared to take responsibility to prevent problems, and not just to deal with them once they’ve arisen.Finally, the new court must be based on seeking justice. This demand is not self-evident, since there is a contradiction between justice and the fact that a get, a Jewish divorce, depends on the husband’s will. This is because if the get is subject to the husband’s will, then he will not give a get without the woman giving in to his demands. And if the woman surrenders, then this is not justice. So as long as the problem of the coerced get is not solved, it won’t be possible to get justice in the rabbinical court. The new court must make justice its guiding principle.
Suggestions for a name for the new rabbinical court are welcome.
Rivkah Lubitch is a rabbinical court pleader at the Center for Women’s Justice, tel.: 02-566-4390.
