BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

I was raised by my father, of blessed memory - to be truthful. Being scrupulously truthful has caused me a lot of problems. People either don't want to hear it or are frightened by it coming out (and often attack you for telling it.) But I am raising my own children to cling to truth. It will set you free. By Berel Wein The Torah extols the value of truth as an absolute virtue. It teaches us to stand firmly away from falsehood. Even though the technical application of this value in Halacha is apparently limited to legal and evidentiary matters, the value of truth in Judaism as a general axiom is unquestioned. Yet the Torah itself allows for the situations when ultimate truth can be harmful and counterproductive to family harmony and social amity. The Lord Himself, so to speak, does not tell Abraham the entire statement of disbelief of his wife Sarah when the angel informs her of the coming birth of her son Isaac. She wonders aloud how she will become youthfully rejuvenate...

THE AGUNAH AND A SUMMARY OF POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS Rabbi Dr. Yitzchak Breitowitz The problem of the agunah -- the "chained" or "anchored" wife -- is a serious one, though it is not as prevalent as many Jewish feminists maintain. The term "agunah" appears in the Talmud primarily in connection with a husband who disappeared or was missing in action. While such agunot (plural of agunah) certainly exist in this day and age as well (consider the Holocaust or the Israeli soldiers who are MIA's), the primary use of the term today refers to a woman who cannot obtain a religious divorce (a "get") even after her marriage has been civilly terminated and hence is prohibited from marrying others. Husbands sometimes withhold such a divorce out of malice or spite or an attempt to extort money or concessions in the areas of child support, custody, visitation, or marital property. Whatever the reason, the withholding of a "get" can be a source of great ...

WOMEN REFUSE? Why do I have a feeling this is a skewed poll. Only 69 aguhnot? What about the ones who are silenced? Hushed up, shamed or verbally, emotionally, financially and or physical threatened? Sorry - my b.s. radar is going off on this one. Poll: More women refuse divorce than men Rabbinical Court combats claims that thousands of Jewish women are refused divorce; poll reveals there are only 69 agunot currently living in Israel Neta Sela More Jewish women refuse to give divorce then men, a poll released by the rabbinical courts' management titled: "Why is the couple not yet divorced?" revealed on Tuesday. According to the poll, there are 190 Jewish men refused divorce in Israel, which make up 20 percent of the open divorce files; as opposed to 180 women who are refused divorce, and constitute 19 percent of the open files. There are currently 942 open divorce files in Israel's rabbinical courts, and the survey was conducted among a sample of 346 of these files, ...

'WHIPS', 'CHAINS' and AGUNOT Josh over at ParshaBlog has a great post today about agunahs; commenting on an article in today's Wall Street Journal . I carried the article in full over on my abuse victims & survivors blog. Sultan Knish gave a wonderful comment and I hope you all take a minute to go check it out as well as read the whole article. I am grateful to him for his post . While I am not technically an agunah there are aspects of my agreement with my childrens' father that keep me "chained" and which he exploits and 'beats me over the head' (figuratively) with. I endure for the well-being of my children. I consider my comfort of little consequence when it comes to my children. Besides I am the adult. But, I do have empathy for these women. Making an Orthodox woman an agunah is, in my opinion, a blatantly disrespectful form of misogyny and yes, ABUSE. AGUNAH INTERNATIONAL has this to say about the agunah problem: It is tim...