A rabbinical court in Tel Aviv has ordered a man undergoing divorce proceedings to pay his wife the full amount of her marriage contract, or ketubah, totaling about 1 million shekels ($320,000), after determining he was responsible for the breakdown of the marriage.
In a unanimous ruling, judges Zvi Ben Yaakov, Moshe Batzri and Ben Zion Hacohen Rabin said the husband’s conduct led to the couple’s separation after nearly four decades of marriage.
The wife left the marital home in 2023 and later filed for divorce with the rabbinical court, combining her petition with claims over property division and payment of the ketubah — a traditional Jewish marriage contract that outlines the husband’s financial obligations in the event of divorce.
She testified that the immediate trigger for the split was an argument over fruit she had purchased for the Sabbath. According to her account, her husband became angry that she had not bought summer fruit for him and forced her to return to the store. The following day, she said, he removed all the groceries from the refrigerator — including food she had cooked — and threw them into a municipal garbage bin.
She further alleged that he later placed a gas hose from the stove in his mouth in what she described as an apparent suicide attempt. Arguing that she had reached the end of her endurance, she asked the court to compel the divorce and require payment of the ketubah.
The husband petitioned instead for reconciliation. Regarding the gas hose incident, he told the court it was a performance, “perhaps too good.” As for emptying the refrigerator, he said he “likes apricots, not apples and oranges that are available all year. She buys only that every time. Maybe I was wrong, that I did it in an unpleasant way.”
He added that he had not had marital relations with his wife for about a decade but maintained that he loves her and does not want a divorce.
Attorney Moran Brik Miller The judges found that the relationship had reached a dead end, particularly in light of the refrigerator incident and the gas hose episode, and ruled that the couple must divorce, with the husband obligated to pay the ketubah.
“There is no doubt that a woman should not have to live within an atmosphere of anger and tension,” the judges wrote. “She is entitled to a peaceful life. And when the man behaves as she claimed — and her words bear the marks of truth — she has the full right to demand separation by a bill of divorce, and this constitutes justified grounds to obligate payment of the ketubah.”
They emphasized that the husband emptied the refrigerator and discarded its contents simply because his wife had not bought him apricots. “Can one live under such a threat? Fear of what the reaction will be?” they wrote. Regarding the alleged suicide attempt, they added: “If this was a performance, must a woman live under performances of suicide? Life was given to be lived, not for sorrow.”
The ruling said the court was left with the impression that the wife’s life had not been good, to put it mildly. She was described as quiet and not prone to shouting, while her husband was said to respond in ways difficult to live with — particularly in light of the food disposal and gas hose incidents, “which may indicate what occurred in the home over the years.”
The judges concluded that “the one who ultimately brought about the dissolution of the home is the man, and he has no one to blame but himself.”
Under the decision, the couple will divorce, and the husband must pay 1.03 million shekels ($330,000) from his share of the proceeds of the marital home under the property division. The court also ruled that the wife must transfer certain sums to the husband as part of the overall balancing of assets.