On Wednesday, the Rabbinic Court of Jerusalem oversaw a man get his eighth divorce. While this is an unusual number it is not yet record-breaking. The incident, however, was filled with its own drama as the divorce was filled with obstacles after the wife refused to accept the Get.

The newly divorced man is a Jerusalem resident, who is accustomed to get married and divorced over and over again. For his eighth and most recent marriage, he married a single woman and lived with her for four months before wanting to get a divorce. However, this time, the wife ran away and disappeared leaving the husband chained to the marriage.

The husband appealed to regional rabbinic court in Jerusalem and sued for divorce. The wife however refused to attend the proceedings numerous times, even after a court order was issued demanding her presence. The court instructed the Husband to locate the wife after he was told the that she was of the habit of visiting the graves of Tzaddikim to pray and sleeping there.

After the husband failed to ascertain the whereabouts of his wife, the court rabbis sent the case over to the Agunot Branch of the National Rabbinical Court. Using a private investigator, the woman was located in a private rental apartment in Tel Aviv. The woman was detained and spent the night in the Neve Tirza prison. She was brought the following day to the Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem where she adamantly refused to be divorced.

The presiding rabbis required the husband to provide an adequate sum of money for the wife, due to her disadvantaged financial situation, even though she did not have a proper Ketubah requiring this gesture. The Rabbinical judges talked with the husband for an elongated period of time and settled on the sum of 12,000 NIS to compensate the wife. With the compensation, the wife agreed to accept the Get and the couple was divorced.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)