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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu |
2000.06.16 The Jerusalem Post, Naomi Ragen, p. B9 – "When [Yo•seiphꞋ] slandered his brothers, the commentators tell us, he didn't lie. He just told the truth with an evil intent.
"Rabbi Moshe Morgenstern, head of a special court that has been freeing a•gun•otꞋ (women whose husbands refuse to give them a halakhic divorce) when all attempts to reason with their husbands have failed, has been slandered, mostly by pious hypocrites who present their sin as a good deed, by saying they're defending the true faith.
"I wrote to Rabbi Morgenstern and asked him to answer his critics. I leave my intelligent readers to draw their own conclusions [from his reply to her, below].
Dear Mrs. Ragen,
I did keep my first wife an a•gun•âhꞋ for seven years, 42 years ago, because I loved her very much and we have a son. I turned over heaven and earth to save our marriage. I then went to college, Columbia University, and got a BS degree in accounting. Nothing that I tried to save our marriage helped.
It was then that I realized that you cannot force any human being – man or woman – to live with someone they do not want. I consider what I did – not to give a geit for any period of time – a crime. I was one million percent wrong. It was then that I decided I wanted to make sure that other women did not have to suffer the way my former wife did.
I have spent the last 40 years mastering the four parts of the Shu•lᵊkh•ânꞋ •rukhꞋ. I received ha•sᵊkâm•âhꞋ – approbation – from Rav Piekarski – a top rosh yᵊshiv•âhꞋ at Lubavitch in Brooklyn, NY and hala[k]hic po•seiqꞋ to the Lubavitcher Rebbi on the four parts of the Shu•lᵊkh•ânꞋ •rukhꞋ. [He had earlier been ordained by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein – N.R.]
All my learning has been geared to finding a solution in accordance with Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ to free a•gun•ōtꞋ.
It is precisely because Rav Rackman and I do not earn our livelihood from the rabbinate and allied professions that we have the independence to be honest and defy the rabbinical mafia, whose tentacles extend across the ocean to Europe and Israel. It is our observation that there are very few rabbis who are hard-core opponents. But it is these few who intimidate all others.
Our greatest opponents are those who have suffered financially because of the existence of our court, which has freed many a•gun•ōtꞋ from their control and blackmail. All the rabbinical courts link the granting of a gêt to an a•gun•âhꞋ with her acceptance of their arbitration in all domestic issues. The rabbinical courts, as a rule of thumb, shortchange the a•gun•âhꞋ on all issues, favoring the husband.
Thus, the a•gun•âhꞋ is forced to settle for a fraction of what she needs for survival and has to agree to give up custody of her children or otherwise remain celibate for eternity.
For this [dubious; ybd] service, five rabbis each charge $200 minimum per hour; There are three rabbis in the Beit Din; a rabbi who represents the husband and a rabbi who represents the wife. Thus, the minimum cost of the Beit Din is $1,000 per hour. To arbitrate all the domestic issues takes 10 to 50 hours. Thus each a•gun•âhꞋ represents a source of $10,000 – $50,000.
Our Beit Din for a•gun•ōtꞋ has freed over 300 a•gun•ōtꞋ and we are slowly approaching the 400 figure. We have thus cost our critics over three million dollars in lost revenues.
Rather than find a solution to the blackmail and agony of the a•gun•âhꞋ, our critics turn heaven and earth to destroy Rav Rackman and myself, hoping in that way to again put all a•gun•ōtꞋ under their control and mercy.
No, not all our critics are dishonest, unreliable, irresponsible, and uncaring. But even those critics, whose hands are not stained by direct collusion with blackmail and coercion of a•gun•ōtꞋ are to be faulted for not only doing nothing from the point of view of Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ to free these women, but for doing nothing against the husbands and the rabbis who are corrupt.
The coercion, insults, and threats dircted towards not only my reputation, but my life, have not been duplicated towards recalcitrant husbands and those rabbis who are granting these men special dispensations to remarry (äÆúÌÅø îÅàÈä øÇáÌÈðÄéí) without first giving their wives a geit – until she settles on their terms.
The a•gun•âhꞋ has a choice to free herself from the chains crafted by these husbands and such rabbis. There are 30 or 40 hala[k]hic solutions which our Beit Din uses to free a•gun•ōtꞋ who would otherwise be forced to remain celibate for eternity.
The problem is particularly severe in the United States and Europe, where the rabbinical courts do not have police powers as they do in Israel [Note: Israeli religious courts rarely use these powers – N.R.]. It is therefore mandatory for an honest Beit Din to annul marriages in order to prevent the debacle that a•gun•ōtꞋ face.
Our Beit Din lᵊ-Bᵊâ•yōtꞋ A•gun•ōtꞋ [house of law for problems of a•gun•ōtꞋ] will move heaven and earth to free any a•gun•âhꞋ. I invite a•gun•ōtꞋ [Jewesses; ybd] to email me via agunah.com and use the mail request to present her problem. She may alternatively call me at 718-793-2135 in the United States.
Mrs. Ragen, I have the greatest admiration and respect for your honesty and commitment to true Tor•âhꞋ principles.
Rav Moshe Morgenstern.
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