Agunah (plural: agunot, literally 'anchored or chained women') is a Jewish halachic term for a woman who is chained to her marriage; either because her husband's whereabouts are unknown, or her husband refuses or is unable to grant her an official bill of divorce under Jewish law known as a Get. The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halakhot and Halachah with pronunciation emphasis on the third syllable, kha), is the collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law as well as customs and traditions. ... Matrimony redirects here. ... Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse. ... Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ... A get (גט, plural gittim or gittin) is the Hebrew word for a divorce document. ...

In order for a Jewish woman to be freed from her marriage; Jewish law requires that a man grant his wife a Get on his own free will. If he cannot or will not give her a Get; she now neither has a workable marriage nor is she permitted to marry someone else. She is in limbo or in religious terms an Agunah.

Since without a Get or a Heter Agunah; an Halachic exemption to remarry by a Posek (Halachic authority); a new marriage will not be recognized; and any children she will have, will be considered Mamzerim (bastards); she is stuck and finds herself in a difficult situation. Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ... Posek (Hebrew פוסק, IPA: , pl. ... Mamzer (Hebrew: ממזר) in Halakha (Jewish religious law) is a product of certain illegitimate relationships between two Jews. ...

Because of the agonizing situation these women are in; it was a major source of anguish and concern to every generation of Poskim (authorities of Jewish law), who have left no stone unturned trying to help these unfortunate women; by trying to find any acceptable means within the confines of Jewish law, to free these women from their chains. As it was a common occurrence in the past, due to the danger of travel especially by boat, where an untold number of people were never heard of again. The Rabbi's had to deal with this on a constant basis. Thousands of Responsa have been written in the last few centuries just to deal with the plight of the Agunah. Posek פוסק (Hebrew; pl. ... Note: This is based on an entry from the 1906 public domain Jewish Encyclopedia The responsa literature, known in Hebrew as Sheelot U-teshuvot (questions and answers), is the body of written decisions and rulings given by rabbis to questions addressed to them. ...

Where as, in the past, almost all Agunah cases, were due to a husband drowning or getting killed leaving very little or no telltale signs; or becoming mentally ill (insane); with occasionally a man leaving his wife an Agunah out of spite; nowadays most Agunah cases revolve around men who have found this as an opportunity to extort money, or extract a more favorable divorce settlement, by threatening to leave their wife an Agunah. In response to this new phenomenon, Agunah groups have organized to support these women and try to find solutions to this problem. Various remedies have been proposed, but at this time no one solution has common acceptance. The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... Inmates at Bedlam Asylum, as portrayed by William Hogarth Insanity, or madness, is a semi-permanent, severe mental disorder typically stemming from a form of mental illness. ...

Causes

Circumstances leading to a woman being declared an agunah are:

• The disappearance of the husband without any witnesses declaring that he is dead;
• The husband succumbing to a physical or mental disease that leaves him in a coma or insane and unable to actively grant a divorce;
• The husband refusing maliciously to grant his wife a get. A woman denied a get by her husband is technically also called a mesurevet get, although the term agunah is more commonly used.

In medicine, a coma (from the Greek koma, meaning deep sleep) is a profound state of unconsciousness. ...

Background

Because of the serious nature of adultery in Jewish law, an agunah is forbidden to marry another man, regardless of the circumstances, whether accidental or malicious, that left her an agunah in the first place, or the amount of time that has passed since she first became an agunah. A child born to an agunah from another man is considered a mamzer (halachicly illegitimate), and may not marry a Jew. This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Mamzer (Hebrew: ממזר) in Halakha (Jewish religious law) is a product of certain illegitimate relationships between two Jews. ...

Because of the dire situation of the agunah, every effort is made to release her from her marriage. This can be done in three ways:

• Locating the husband and convincing him to give his wife a get;
• Providing evidence that the husband is dead;
• Finding a flaw in the original marriage ceremony, thereby retroactively annulling the marriage.

According to most rabbis, reasonable circumstantial evidence is sufficient to prove the death of the husband, and no direct testimony is required. This is based, among other things, on the talmudic assertion: "The Rabbis taught: 'If he fell into a lion's den, there is no need to [bring witnesses to] testify [that he is dead]'" (Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 121a). In other words, if it is known that the man fell into a lion's den and did not come out, it can be assumed that he is dead, and there is no need for further evidence. If, however, it is later discovered that the husband is not dead, the woman will find herself in particularly bad circumstances: her children from her second marriage will be considered mamzerim (plural of mamzer), and she will be forced to divorce both her first and second husbands, subject to the halachic ruling that an adulterous woman "is forbidden to her husband and the man with whom she fornicated". While such situations are extremely rare under normal circumstances, they did occur in the aftermath of the Holocaust and have occurred frequently in the wake of pogroms and other forms of persecution. Rabbi, in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root word רַב, rav, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished (in knowledge). Sephardic and Yemenite Jews pronounce this word רִבִּי ribbī; the modern Israeli pronunciation רַבִּי rabbī is derived from a recent (18th... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... Binomial name Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) Synonyms Felis leo (Linnaeus, 1758) The lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. ... Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... Pogrom (from Russian: ; from громить IPA: - to wreak havoc, to demolish violently) is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious or other, and characterized by destruction of their homes, businesses and religious centers. ...

Finding a flaw in the marriage ceremony is considered to be a last resort in releasing an agunah. It is rarely used as it is typically difficult in finding actual cause in most marriages to retroactively invalidate it. In Jewish law, a marriage must be performed in front of two witnesses. In order to release the agunah, efforts are made to identify reasons why one of the witnesses was ineligible. This is typically unachievable as strong efforts are made at the time of marriage to insure the validity of the witnesses and the marriage ceremony. Another possibility is to prove that the woman did not consent to the marriage clearly and of her own free will, so that the marriage ceremony is declared invalid. This too is not generally accepted amongst the Halakhic authorities as there is generally no method to disprove intent. It is felt that the purpose of this endeavor is solely or primarily to retroactively deligitimize a marriage that was performed and accepted often many years previously. Annulling the marriage has no impact on the status of the woman's children. However, since it is not a generally accepted mechanism, it may leave the wife susceptible to a halakhic ruling that she was still married, and any subsequent relations with another man to be adultery. And it may lead to other halachic problems, so it is only used as a last resort by the authorities that do accept its use.

Only a woman can be declared an agunah. None of the prohibitions listed above goes into effect for a man whose wife has disappeared. This is because there is no prohibition in the Torah for a man to have two wives, and a child born to a married man with a single woman is not considered to be a mamzer. In medieval times, Rabbenu Gershom issued an edict prohibiting Jewish men from practising bigamy (though this was not accepted by certain remote Jewish communities such as the Yemenite Jews). To prevent this edict from causing flippant divorces previously unnecessary, Rabbenu Gershom also decreed that "a woman may not be divorced against her will." In certain extreme circumstances, however, such as the case of a man whose wife is missing, or who refused to accept a get for an extended period, a Heter meah Rabbonim (exemption by one hundred rabbis) may permit him to take a second wife; (in the latter case, after depositing a get with them). This exemption is applied nowadays, only in extremely rare circumstances. Thus, it is not uncommon for a woman to maliciously refuse acceptance of a get, in effect "chaining" her husband. Rabbenu Gershom (also known as Gershom ben Judah) (c. ... Polygamy, literally many marriages in ancient Greek, is a marital practice in which a person has more than one spouse simultaneously (as opposed to monogamy where each person has a maximum of one spouse at any one time). ... Yemenite Jews (תֵּימָנִי, Standard Hebrew Temani, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānî; plural תֵּימָנִים, Standard Hebrew Temanim, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānîm) are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors... Rabbenu Gershom (also known as Gershom ben Judah) (c. ...

In modern and ancient times, warfare has been a major cause of women being declared agunot (plural of agunah), as (especially in ancient times) soldiers are often killed with no one knowing. Many efforts have been made to resolve this problem in accordance with halachic principles. During World War II, some American Jewish and other chaplains provided combat soldiers with a "provisional get", which only goes into effect if the husband is missing in action, leaving his wife an agunah. This is based on a talmudic explanation of the incident of King David and Bathsheba (see II Samuel 11). According to one interpretation, David did not sin by lying with a married woman, since all of his soldiers gave a "provisional get" to their wives before leaving for battle. "Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: 'Everyone who went to war on behalf of David, left a provisional get for his wife'" (Talmud Bavli, Tractate Shabbat 56a). In the modern state of Israel, the Chief Rabbinate has rejected this proposal, not in the least, because of the impact it would have on the morale of the troops. For other uses of War, see War (disambiguation). ... Combatants Allied Powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Axis Powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33... A chaplain is typically a member of the clergy serving a group of people who are not organized as a mission or church; lay chaplains are also found in some settings such as universities. ... This page is about the Biblical king David. ... Cornelis van Haarlem: Bathsheba bathing Bathsheba (בת שבע) is the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of King David in the Hebrew Bible. ... The Books of Samuel (Hebrew: Sefer Shmuel ספר שמואל), are part of the Tanakh (part of Judaisms Hebrew Bible) and also of the Old Testament (of Christianity). ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... Moed (Festivals) is the second Order of the Mishnah (also the Tosefta and Talmud), Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. ... Chief rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognised religious leader of that countrys Jewish community. ...

Mesurevet get

According to halakha, under certain circumstances pressure may be applied on a husband to force him to grant a divorce to his wife. Circumstances where this pressure may be applied are in situations where a wife is entitled to a divorce. Some examples may be abuse or neglect. Not in all circumstances is a wife entitled to demand a divorce, according to halakha. If a wife who is not halakhakly entitled to a divorce nevertheless demands one, she is not considered to be a Mesurevet get. "It is said: In cases of granting a get to a woman, the man is forced until he says, 'I wish to do so'" (Babylonian Talmud, Arachin 21a). Nevertheless, it is still required to leave the man some say in the matter, lest the get be considered a "fabricated divorce", which is halachically invalid. Pressures that can be exerted against the man include shunning, denying him communal benefits and honors, and in extreme cases, even imprisonment. According to Jewish folklore, the coerced husbands were forced to spend a night near a nameless grave. In Israel, rabbinical courts are allowed by law to implement various measures to coerce a man to grant his wife a get. Practically, one of the most effective of these has turned out to be revoking his driver's license. Shunning is the act of deliberately avoiding association with, and habitually keeping away from an individual or group. ...

Activism

Jewish feminism
Writers
Rachel Adler Blu Greenberg Tova Hartman Paula Hyman Judith Hauptman Susannah Heschel Judith Plaskow Tamar Ross Mendel Shapiro Daniel Sperber Trude Weiss-Rosmarin
Groups
JOFA Shira Hadasha
Issues
Agunah Jewish view of marriage Minyan Mitzvah Partnership minyan Role of women in Judaism
Category
Judaism and women

Many women's groups feel that rabbinical courts fail to use all the measures at their disposal to force men to grant their wives a get, thereby allowing a vengeful husband to blackmail his wife for years. Public criticism of the courts, as well as demonstrations, have been attempted to influence particularly notorious cases. Image File history File links Schild_davids_transparent. ... Jewish feminism is a movement that seeks to improve the religious, legal, and social status of women within Judaism and to open up new opportunities for religious experience and leadership for Jewish women. ... Dr. Rachel Adler is Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at the School of Religion, University of Southern California and the Hebrew Union College Rabbinical School at the Los Angeles campus. ... Blu Greenberg Blu Greenberg is a Jewish American writer specializing in Orthodox Judaism and womens issues. ... Tova Hartman Halbertal is a Professor of Education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in gender studies, and author of books on the role of women in Judaism. ... Professor Paula Hyman is the Lucy Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History at Yale University and president of the American Academy of Jewish Research. ... Judith Hauptman. ... Susannah Heschel (born 15 May 1956) holds the Eli Black Chair in Jewish Studies and serves as associate professor in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College. ... Judith Plaskow Judith Plaskow is a Jewish feminist theologian and a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College. ... Tamar Ross is a professor of Jewish Philosophy at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem She has scholarly expertise is in the thought of Abraham Isaac Kook, the modern Musar movement and the ideology of Mitnaggedism, and Judaism and gender. ... Mendel Shapiro, a Jerusalem lawyer and Modern Orthodox Rabbi, is the author of a halakhic analysis [1] (pdf) permitting women to read from the Torah in prayer services with men on Shabbat under certain conditions. ... Daniel Sperber is Professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. ... Dr. Trude Weiss-Rosmarin Trude Weiss-Rosmarin (June 17, 1908–June 26, 1989) was a German Jewish writer, editor, scholar, and feminist activist. ... JOFAs logo, evoking the waters of Miriams well The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) was founded in 1997 with the aim of expand[ing] the spiritual, ritual, intellectual, and political opportunities for women with the framework of halakha, or Jewish law. ... Kehillat Shira Hadasha, the halakhic egalitarian minyan of Jerusalem, was founded in 2001 by a group of Jerusalem residents, including Tova Hartman. ... Judaism considers marriage to be the ideal state of existence; a man without a wife, or a woman without a husband, are considered incomplete. ... A minyan (Hebrew: plural minyanim) is traditionally a quorum of ten or more adult (over the age of Bar Mitzvah) male Jews for the purpose of communal prayer; a minyan is often held within a synagogue, but may be (and often is) held elsewhere. ... Mitzvah (Hebrew: מצווה, IPA: , commandment; plural, mitzvot; from צוה, tzavah, command) is a word used in Judaism to refer to (a) the commandments, of which there are 613, given in the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) or (b) any Jewish law at all. ... The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) defines a Partnership Minyan, as a prayer group that is both committed to maintaining halakhic standards and practices and also committed to including women in ritual leadership roles to the fullest extent possible within the boundaries of Jewish Law. ... The role of women in Judaism is determined by the Hebrew Bible, Talmud (oral law), tradition and by non-religious cultural factors. ...

Several solutions have been proposed to help women who are denied a get:

• Increasing the means available to the rabbinic courts to force husbands to grant their wives a get. In Israel, rabbinic courts can even imprison a husband until he acquiesces and grants a get to his wife. This is not, however, an option for rabbinic courts elsewhere, since they do not have the support of the state;
• Having couples sign a prenuptial agreement, including a "provisional get," which will only go into effect under certain predefined circumstances, or requiring the husband to pay especially high support to his wife if he denies her a get, so as to provide incentive to the couple not to delay the divorce. Many halakhic authorities question the legal validity of a prenuptial agreement.

In 2004, Justice Menachem HaCohen of the Jerusalem Family Court offered new hope to agunot when he ruled that a man refusing his wife a get must pay her NIS 425,000 in punitive damages, because "[R]efusal to grant a get constitutes a severe infringement on her ability to lead a reasonable, normal life, and can be considered emotional abuse lasting several years." He noted that "[T]his is not another sanction against someone refusing to give a get, intended to speed up the process of granting a get, and this court is not involving itself in any future arrangements for the granting of a get, but rather, it is a direct response to the consequences that stem from not granting a get, and the right of the woman to receive punitive damages." // Definition A prenuptial agreement or antenuptial agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into by two people prior to marriage or civil union. ... Posek (Hebrew פוסק, IPA: , pl. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Hebrew יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (Yerushalayim) (Standard) Yerushalayim or Yerushalaim Arabic commonly القـُدْس (Al-Quds); officially in Israel أورشليم القدس (Urshalim-Al-Quds) Name Meaning Hebrew: (see below), Arabic: The Holiness Government City District Jerusalem Population 724,000 (2006) Jurisdiction 123,000 dunams (123 km²) Mayor Uri Lupolianski Web Address www. ...

Outside Israel, an agunah could obtain a civil marriage, as legal systems generally do not recognise the agunah status. Nevertheless, as she would be in violation of halakha by doing so, most religiously committed women are reluctant to take this step. Moreover, her children from the second would be considered mamzerim and be unable to marry Jews according to halakha. Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many people who (usually) are in a sexual relationship. ...

Zaka le-Yibbum

A somewhat related case is a woman whose husband has died childless. In such a situation, the husband's brother is required by Jewish law to perform a levirate marriage (yibbum) with his deceased brother's widow with the express purpose of having children with her in the name of the deceased. The brother can refuse to do yibum, and perform a special divorce ceremony known as chalitzah, which is performed exclusively nowadays. If the brother is missing, or if he is still a child, the woman is required to wait until he is either located or has reached adolescence, so that he can perform the chalitzah ceremony. There have been recorded cases of the husband's brother trying to blackmail the widow by delaying the chalitzah ceremony, thereby effectively leaving her as an agunah. Yibbum (pronounced yee-boom) or Levirate marriage, in Judaism, is commonly translated as levirate marriage, one of the most complex types of marital unions mandated by Torah law, and which is not presently practiced in its full application. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Halizah or Chalitzah (Ḥaliẓah): Under the system of levirate marriage known as Yibbum described in the Hebrew Bible, was the ceremony by which a widow and her husbands brother could avoid the duty to marry after the husbands death. ...

A child born to a woman who was denied chalitzah may have the status of a mamzer. Mamzer (Hebrew: ממזר) in Halakha (Jewish religious law) is a product of certain illegitimate relationships between two Jews. ...

links:

• Mavoi Satum organisation for agunot
• ORA Organization for the Resolution of Agunot