Marriage in Judaism is the documentation of a contract between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman. Because marriage under Jewish law is essentially a private contractual agreement between a man and a woman, it does not require the presence of a rabbi or any other religious official. It is common, however, for rabbis to officiate and there are rules governing the process of betrothal and consecration.
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law with the modern world.
A beth din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system. Today, it is invested with legal powers in a number of religious matters both in Israel and in Jewish communities in the diaspora, where its judgments hold varying degrees of authority in matters specifically related to Jewish religious life.
A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride. In modern practice, the ketubah has no agreed monetary value, and is seldom enforced by civil courts, except in Israel.
An aguna or agunah is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her marriage as determined by traditional halakha. The classic case is a man who has left on a journey and has not returned or has gone into battle and is missing in action. It is used as a borrowed term to refer to a woman whose husband refuses or is unable to grant her a divorce.
Pilegesh is a Hebrew term for a concubine, a female, unmarried sexual slave of social and legal status inferior to that of a wife. Among the Israelites, some men acknowledged their concubines, and such women enjoyed the same rights in the house as legitimate wives.
Legal responses to agunah are civil legal remedies against a spouse who refuses to cooperate in the process of granting or receiving a Jewish legal divorce or "get".
A get, ghet, or gett is a document in Jewish religious law which effectuates a divorce between a Jewish couple. The term is also used to refer to the divorce itself. The get is a 12-line document written in Aramaic. The requirements for a get include that the document must be presented by a husband to his wife. The essential part of the get is a very short declaration: "You are hereby permitted to all men". The effect of the get is to free the woman from the marriage, and consequently, she is free to marry another, and that the laws of adultery no longer apply. The get also restores to the wife the legal rights that her husband held over her.
The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, also known as Yeshiva University High School for Boys (YUHSB) and Manhattan Talmudical Academy, is a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school, yeshiva, and boys' prep school of Yeshiva University. It is located in the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York City. It is the brother school to the Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls.
Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to make the religious, legal, and social status of Jewish women equal to that of Jewish men in Judaism. Feminist movements, with varying approaches and successes, have opened up within all major branches of the Jewish religion.
The Charedi Council of Jerusalem is a large Haredi Jewish communal organization based in Jerusalem. It has several thousand affiliated households and is chaired by the Grand Patriarch (Ga'avad), who also holds the title of chief rabbi. The Council provides facilities such as dietary laws supervision, ritual baths, a Sabbath enclosure, and welfare services.
Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss, commonly known as the Minchas Yitzchak after the responsa he authored, was the rabbi of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem at the time of his death, as well as a posek, and Talmudic scholar. His rulings on Jewish law (halacha) are frequently cited and relied upon by rabbinic courts and scholars.
The Lieberman clause is a clause included in a ketubah, created by and named after Talmudic scholar and Jewish Theological Seminary of America professor Saul Lieberman, that stipulates that divorce will be adjudicated by a modern bet din in order to prevent the problem of the agunah, a woman not allowed to remarry religiously because she had never been granted a religious divorce. It was first introduced in the 1950s by rabbis in Judaism's Conservative movement.
The Jewish prenuptial agreement has been developed in recent times with the stated intent of keeping the Jewish woman from becoming an agunah in cases where the husband refuses to grant her a get. Without such an agreement, Jewish marriages cannot be dissolved without the consent and cooperation of both spouses. This new type of prenuptial agreement makes provisions for the possibility of divorce. By setting up rules prior to the marriage in the form of a contract, both spouses have an interest to negotiate a divorce in a dignified manner, and get-refusal is avoided.
Tehumin is a Hebrew-language annual journal of articles about Jewish law and Modernity.
Sephardic Haredim are Jews of Sephardi and Mizrahi descent who are adherents of Haredi Judaism. Sephardic Haredim today constitute a significant stream of Haredi Judaism, along with Sephardic Hasidim, and the Ashkenazi Hasidim and Lita'im. An overwhelming majority of Sephardic Haredim reside in Israel, where Sephardic Haredi Judaism emerged and developed. Although there is a lack of consistency in many of the statistics regarding Haredim in Israel, it is thought that some 20% of Israel's Haredi population are Sephardic Haredim. This figure is disputed by Shas, which claims that the proportion is "much higher than 20%", and cites voting patterns in Haredi cities to support its position.
The Center for Women's Justice is a public interest law firm devoted to advancing and protecting the rights of women to justice, equality and dignity under Jewish law in Israel. CWJ is a member organization of ICAR, the International Coalition for Agunah Rights.
Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun is an Orthodox rabbi and a member of the Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Braun serves as a member of the Beth Din of Crown Heights, the Bais Din Tzedek of the Jewish community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; he is an authority on Halacha and Hasidic philosophy. Rabbi Braun previously served as the rabbi of the Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.
Toanot Rabbaniyot, or Toanot, refer to women who serve as legal advocates and representatives within the traditional Jewish courts of law. Toanot typically argue cases on behalf of female claimants in the areas of divorce law. The tendency for women to receive unfair divorce settlements in Israeli rabbinical courts prompted the introduction of the Women Rabbinical Advocates. The innovation of Toanot has allowed women to practice Halachic expertise in a role that does not require rabbinical ordination.
Yitzchak (Irving) Breitowitz is an American-born Orthodox rabbi, lecturer and rabbinic authority. He is the Rabbi Emeritus of Woodside Synagogue Ahavas Torah, and the Rav of Kehillas Ohr Somayach, and lecturer at Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem.
