Heter meah rabbanim
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Heter meah rabbanim (
In about 1000 CE the
Even though, Rabbeinu Gershom, the leading authority of the age, decreed that a man was not allowed to divorce a woman against her will, the force of his decree was mitigated by later authorities who allowed for an exemption in certain extreme cases, in which they granted permission for a man to marry another woman if he received permission from 100 rabbis (meah rabbanim).[3] Examples of cases where 100 rabbis allowed for a man to marry a second wife include the case of a man whose wife went missing, or refused to accept a get for an extended period. In such cases as these, the beth din will permit him to remarry only after one hundred rabbis agree with them to issue an exemption.
To ensure that a particular situation justifies an exemption, the rabbis instituted a requirement, that at least one hundred
In order to get a heter meah rabbanim, it used to be that a man who got the go ahead from a rabbinic court wandered from town to town and from one country to another with a letter from a beth din and had to plead his case with every town rabbi to get his approval. Later on, written permission by mail was accepted and sometimes an intermediary was used to plead his case. In the last century with the ease of communication, it has become a more formal process in which the beth din takes the lead and secures the one hundred signatures required.
Situations where the beth din might see a justification which warrants this process include:
- Where
- Where the wife has abandoned her husband and steadfastly refuses to accept a get.
- Where the wife disappeared and her whereabouts are unknown.[5]
- Where the wife is mentally unable to give consent to receiving a get.[6]
- Where the wife has fallen into an irreversible coma due to illness or injury.
In the last two of these cases, the beth din will, as a condition of the heter, demand a binding undertaking from the husband that he will continue to provide for his wife's care.
The heter meah rabbanim is a source of controversy for religious Jews today. In 2014, the
Sephardic Jews
References
- ^ https://www.jlaw.com/Articles/
- ^ cmtl,was-rabbeinu-gershom-a-halakhic-progressive/
- ^ Rabbi Yaakov Loiberbaum in his Nahalot Yakov responsa, ch. 5 states that the permission of 100 rabbis was of a later date than the ban. Citation from the Hebrew Wikipedia article "Heter Meah Rabbanim".
- ^ Rothstein, Gidon (21 September 2018). "Remarrying without a Get or Heter". torahmusings.com.
- ^ See for e.g. the permission granted to Mordechai Rokeach "Heter Me'a Rabbanim Following the Holocaust". www.kedem-auctions.com. type-written page.
- ^ See for e.g. a compilation from 1930 Poland heter-meah-rabbanim-brody-1930-rare-and-unknown-compilation
- ^ https://archive.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/us/JP-NUPTIALS.html
- ^ "Man Denies He Agreed to Divorce". www.timesofisrael.com.
External links
- Beth Din of America Standards and Guidelines with respect to Get Proceedings at the Beth Din of America