Jewish Divorce Laws

Certain aspects of Jewish Divorce Laws

• As per Jewish Divorce Laws, a husband may divorce his wife for no reason or for any reason. It is categorically mentioned in the Talmud that a husband may divorce his wife just because another woman seems more enticing to him or because his wife spoilt his dinner. In all such cases, there is no need of the woman’s consent.

• As per the law, if a wife commits a sexual transgression, her husband must divorce her, although he is of the opinion that his wife should be forgiven.

• Thousands of years ago, Judaism accepted the principle of “no-fault” divorce. This religion maintains that instead of residing with each other in an atmosphere of strife and bitterness, it is advisable that the couple divorces.

• In the marriage contract (ketubah) of the Jews, the husband agrees to pay large sums of money to his wife in case of divorce. Except when the wife commits misconduct, the husband is supposed to act as per the ketubah.

• If one wife is divorced and she marries another man, then her ex-husband cannot remarry her.

• Men as well as women are allowed to remarry after having a divorce. However, they are prohibited from remarrying each other.

• A descendant of holy priests called as Kohen is not allowed to marry a divorcee.

Jewish divorce laws regarding obtaining a divorce

If the Torah is to be followed, Jews can just write a bill of divorce, hand it over to the wife and ask her to depart. The rabbis developed complicated rules about the procedure of writing the document, delivery and acceptance to avoid the husbands from carelessly divorcing their wives in the absence of due contemplation.

The document handed over by the husband to the wife is called as Sefer Keritut (scroll of cutting off) in the Talmud. Presently, it is generally termed as a ‘get.’ It has the following features.

• It does not throw light on the breakdown of the relation.
• It does not mention any reason for the divorce.
• It indicates that the woman now has the freedom to marry some other man.
• The husband need not personally deliver the get to his wife.
• The husband may appoint a messenger to hand over the get if it is undesirable or not feasible to meet his wife.
• Some Jews adhere to the custom of cutting the get with a knife or scissor after it is written.

A Jewish marriage cannot be considered as dissolved by means of a civil divorce. In the society, a couple is treated as married till the wife is handed over the get. This has led to a grave problem in the society. There are several liberal Jews who start with a religiously valid marriage. In course of time, they fail to procure a religiously valid divorce. After such a process, if the woman remarries, then, the second marriage is regarded as an adulterous one. The children of such a marriage are termed as ‘mamzerim’ which means illegitimate or bastards.

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