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| Rabbi Yosef Blau |
In a recent post I discussed issues pertaining to a new Beis Din designed to help free Agunos. It was
based on the views of Rabbi Yehuda Leonard Oppenheimer who – based on his own
research into the matter had raised some serious questions about it. I received the
following response to that post from this Beis Din which I am happy to publish.
It follows unedited in its entirely.
Rabbi Simcha Krauss met with Rabbi Zalman Nechemya Goldberg
prior to starting the International Beit Din, to discuss halachic
approaches to freeing agunot and received his approval for his
methodology.
Recently a rabbi under the impression that the Beit Din was
using הפקעת קידושין (annulling marriages)
and knowing that Rabbi Goldberg had published his opposition to this approach,
contacted Rabbi Goldberg and received the letter from him disapproving of the
Beit Din. None of the rabbis connected to the Beit Din were contacted,
who would have corrected that impression. The Beit Din does not use הפקעה.
While a blog is not an appropriate place for a detailed
halachic discussion a distinction between two approaches needs to be made.
הפקעת קידושין is based on the power
of the rabbinate to annul marriages כל
המקדש על דעתן דרבנן
מקדש,a power which is
restricted to specific cases. Among the methods used by the Beit Din is
ביטול קידושין (voiding marriages)
which is based on a major undisclosed flaw prior to the marriage or a mistake
in the wedding ceremony.
This method has been utilized by Rabbinic courts in
Israel and America. We are following in the footsteps of a well trodden
Mesora of contemporary poskim such as Rabbis Yehezkel Abramsky, Yehoshua
Ehrenberg, Yosef Elyashiv, Moshe Feinstein, Tzvi Pesach Frank, Sholom Schwadron, Shmuel Stern ,Ovadya Yosef and others.
The International Beit Din has committed itself to
transparency. In the future our reasoned piskei din will appear on
the Beit Din's web site. We are fully aware that freeing Agunot depends
on their ability to remarry.
(Rabbi) Yosef Blau
