Recent claims challenging the halachic validity of the Rabbinical Council of America’s Prenuptial Agreement threaten women by undermining the single most effective solution to the agunah problem.
While we recognize the diversity of halachic opinion, the Rabbinical Council of America, the leading organization of Orthodox rabbis in North America, stands proudly behind its Prenuptial Agreement authored by Rabbi Mordechai Willig, shlit”a, and endorsed by leading rabbinic authorities in the United States and Israel, including: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, zt”l; Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, shlit”a; Rabbi Yitzchok Liebes, zt”l; Rabbi Herschel Schachter, shlit”a; Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, shlit”a; Rabbi Chaim Zimbalist, shlit”a; and Rabbi Asher Weiss, shlit”a. Copies of their endorsements are available at http://theprenup.org/rabbinic.html.
“Despite any detractors, we will continue to advocate for the use of the Halachic Prenup,” said Rabbi Elazar Muskin, president of the RCA. “Combined with continuing education and advocacy, we hope to not only ease the plight of agunot but to erase this terrible disgrace from our community.”
For more information about the Halachic Prenuptial Agreement, its use and legal authority, visit www.theprenup.org .
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9 Responses
So now a Modern Orthodox organization has gone against Rav Moshe Sternbuch. It’s also very clear from Shulchan Aruch Even HaEzer 77:1-3 that the monetary aspect would invalidate gittin and could chas vsholom lead to shailos that one can imagine – and why get into?
YWN did the right thing in reporting the psak of 44 ehrlicher rabbonim against.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/1315251/photos-44-rabbonim-sign-psak-halacha-prenuptial-agreements.html
It was not proper to print an RCA vested interest response. The fact that the RCA, aside from the serious halachic considerations, is supporting gittin on demand with no thought or waiting period, should make people shudder, all by itself.
whereas the rabbis of the RCA don’t dress with the same frum dress that the Eida Charada people do, they still have enough brains and knowledge to make proper decisions,
Divorce is getting to be quite a problem in the religious and frum world. Pre-nups are a method to keep down the hostility.
The fact that rabbis Ovadia Yosef, zt”l and Zalman Nechemia Goldberg support it, is another beacon of hope given to young people to have good lives.
A kesubah is a prenuptial agreement. Having two prenuptial agreements with possibly conflicting terms accomplishes nothing except to go the validity of both of them into question.
A more effective solution would be for Beitei Din to raise money to set up a legal aid fund to support whichever spouse refuses to cooperate. In the stereotypical case of a man getting a civil divorce and refusing to give a “get”, the prospect of his wife getting a competent free lawyer would be scarier than anything else. A man who takes part in a government court without having given “get” would be incurring significant legal expenses knowing his wife is fully lawyered up without having spent a dime.
The RCA prenup has serious halachic problems. It is unclear whether many of the poskim cited in this article actually reviewed the document in English, or were just responding to the concept. One of the problems is that the get, if forced by the contract of the prenup, could be a get me’usah, and if so, has the problem of being a potential cause of aishes ish and mamzeirus. The other angle is that even if some poskim permit it, but since others do not recognize it, there will be chaos in terms of yichus of mamzeirus later, and women who might possess a get without being able to marry. Most frum men would not marry a woman whose get is not 100% recognized.
There are other options. Just challenging the RCA prenup on halachic grounds brings out the retort that one who does so does not care about stranding women and leaving them agunos. That accusation is baseless. I would love to help these women be freed from igun, but with something that has universal halachic support.
I understand that to justify their existence the RCA has to give in to their compulsion to issue a press release per day, but this one could stand a little rethinking.
In fact, there is no “diversity of opinion” when the major gedolim of the day oppose pre-nups and (with the exception of Rav Ovadia) the only ones they can muster as supporters are, at best, “second stringers”. Rabbi Muskin says, “…we will continue to advocate for the use of the Halachic Prenup”. Who is he lobbying? The frum world isn’t going to be fooled by RCA press releases. The only ones he might impress are those who are unaware that the preponderance of halachic opinion is in the other direction.
Rabbi Muskin owes it to the multitude of well-meaning but uninformed Jews he is addressing to present all the facts surrounding this issue, including the list of Rabbonim who oppose pre-nups, and their stature, so that these people can make a truly informed decision, and do what they feel is the right thing, not the thing that the RCA is attempting to propagandize them into doing.
With the Ravaad in Yerushalayim, Rav Moshe Shternbuch shlitta, as well as the Posek Hador HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt’l among others having issued Psak Halacha that the RCA/BDA prenup causes a future Get to be a Get Me’usa due to numerous Halachic fallacies with the prenup that the RCA has chosen to disregard when shopping for rabbis offering a different permissible opinion from the aforementioned Gedolei Yisroel, this becomes an issue of mamzeirus that’s impossible to shove under the carpet.
R’ Willig and R’ Schachter are definitely of sufficient stature to rely on for this. If other Rabbonim disagree that’s fine, but you can definitely rely on the Rabbonim mentioned in the statement.
Written in the typical RCA arrogant tone…
DuhMoshe, why don’t you ask Rabbis Willig and Schachter themselves if they hold that they are on the same level as Rav Shternbuch and Rav Eliashiv, et al?
And who are you to pasken that you people can be somech on those Rabbis in favor of Rav Shternbuch and Rav Eliashiv, anyway? Are your shoulders broad enough to accept responsibility for the consequences, such as mamzeirus, in the event that you are wrong?
It boggles the mind.