After refusing to give his wife a ‘get’ (divorce), a court ordered a recalcitrant husband to pay his wife NIS 550,000 for the mental anguish she endured, the daily Haaretz reports.

In this case, the couple was married for nine years. In 1998, the wife turned to the Rabbinical Court for a divorce, explaining she was no longer able to live with her husband, detailing the anguish of her day-to-day life. In 2006, the rabbis ordered the man to give his wife a ‘get’ but to date, this has not yet occurred. The wife has since sued her husband for NIS 1.8 million in damages.

Justice Ben-Tzion Greenberger did not accept the husband’s argument that his wife was suing him to pressure him to give a divorce, explaining he wanted to reconcile with her. Greenberger ruled the husband was in defiance of a Rabbinical ruling and was required to pay, adding that even without the Rabbinical Court ruling, the husband may be liable to pay the wife damages if he refuses to grant her a divorce.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)