Getting to consensus

Editorial

What has been going on behind closed doors is now coming out into the open.

The Orthodox Rabbinical Council of Greater Phoenix has voted to publicize to the local Jewish community the names of men who refuse to give their wives a get, a Jewish divorce document.

The change reportedly is motivated by a case the local beit din (rabbinical court) has been struggling with for seven years. The council hopes that making the man's name public will encourage the community to exert religious and social pressure upon him to grant his wife a get.

Although a get is a simple, straightforward document, granting one is not always a simple, straightforward act.

In Jewish tradition, a get determines not only the religious post-marital status of a husband and wife, but also the status of generations that follow. A woman cannot remarry in a traditional Jewish ceremony until she receives a get. If she does remarry without a get and has a child, that child is considered to be mamzer, illegitimate, and forbidden from marrying a Jew in a religious ceremony.

The council's bold but necessary step to protect women - and in a minority of cases, men - applies to those in the local Jewish community who define themselves as Orthodox, but also those who desire to receive a get acceptable by the clear majority of rabbinic authorities across the country, as well as in Israel.

But what about those who do not go to the council? How do they determine a religious divorce?

Another group of rabbis, the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, representing Reform, Conservative, Renewal and Traditional-Egalitarian, also struggles with issues surrounding the get. Some of these rabbis accept a get only if it is written according to traditional guidelines. Others, such as Reform rabbis, issue a get based upon the interpretations of Jewish tradition made by authorities representing the Reform Movement. However, these gets are not accepted by traditional rabbinic authorities, such as those on the Orthodox Rabbinical Council of Greater Phoenix.

It's unlikely these two local rabbinic boards can reach consensus.

Why should non-Orthodox rabbis look to traditional rabbinic authorities to determine whether their gets are acceptable?

But might the same concern arise for members of the Orthodox community? Why should they expect their own rabbis to accept a get not acceptable to other Orthodox rabbinic authorities, whether in the United States or in Israel?

The simple 12-line get encompasses a morass of issues including rabbinic authority, rabbinic control, Jewish identity and the matrimonial glue that binds the religious law and tradition of our people.

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