Agunah

So we've seen a lot of former referees.

Keith Hackett was on with Harry yesterday on the Chronicles of Aguna.

Mark Howsey did his bit in The Sun.

And then there's one other referee who did TalkSport whose name escapes me.

Jonathan Starnaw for the renowned American Jewish historian, was really helpful to me in giving me sources and talking me through certain things.

And I look at, you know, some issues that, you know, may not be on the radar screen, for example, of most Jews today, like Agunah, you know, the situation of the appropriate means to give a, whereby a husband has to divorce his wife.

McSeeding, You know, at this point, that's not a hot issue.

Everybody is settled out into where they are given the type of synagogue.

Elio? She's like, hello, you know, like, you didn't give me a get before you left.

Like, what am I supposed to do now? Is she in Aguna for the rest of her life? Right? He didn't die.

He didn't give her a get.

Is she allowed to remarry? so Shumas Adashin has a discussion whether she's allowed to remarry and Shumas Adashin says that Eliyahu's wife is free to marry another man because the Torah says an Eshes Ish is Asura but he had turned into a Malach and he is an Eshes she is an Eshes Malach not an Eshes Ish so says Rav Yosef Palaji an Eshes Ish requires a get an Eshes Isha does not require a get and if the Or in Eishas, Ish, but not in Ish of an Ish, requires again, right? Meaning if the woman would all of a sudden turn into a man, so then it's not, you don't have any Eishas.

I think modern society has done a great job in creating social pressure for halakhic performance, but less social pressure for moral behavior and personal choices.

I think that there's, especially in the United States, because the United States is a mega-community, so you don't really have, for example, when Iguna happens.

So when Iguna happens in small communities, when a man holds back a divorce from his wife, you can rally significant social pressure.

I once asked a friend of mine who lives in South Africa, how do you deal with Iguna? He said, what do you mean? We all shop in the same supermarkets.

We all live in the same three-mile radius.

We all go to the same shuls in Nicholas.

Baruch Hashem.

In Agunah I can hold my own.

Now what's amazing about Agunah, whatever question you will ask, it's tangible.

It's black and white.

Now Achueli, you brought up.

The Chazanish disagreed categorically with this Chumru the Brizgurov.

In his classic Nusr, the Chazanish said, Tevel is Nishken Agunah.

Agunah is a woman who's stuck.

She's married, doesn't have a way out.

Her husband disappeared on her.

And even according to the Shita, that ordinary Simanim are only accepted in the De'Abanon, a sim of it can help even on De'Reisa.

And we're in the halachis of Agunah.

Now let's say, a husband let's say a husband disappears so the halacha is normally we need very reliable evidence before for allowing yes to remarry but when it comes to this case that by simovic it could be relied and rashi he the way he describes simovic there's no clear edos testimony than this so it's very very strong to show us can dna become a simon movie So, Rezaal Menachemi Goldberg, he argued that when a DNA test reaches very, very high levels of accuracy, it could qualify as a simmuvik.

However, one objection was, how can we trust DNA statistics when scientists have obviously not tested every single human being that ever lived? So, Rezaal Menachemi says a very big aside, that when it comes to halacha, we rely on accumulated human experience of all time.

Well, if she remarries and she's lying, how does the husband know that? Maybe he believes her, but the point is, she could be causing him to commit adultery by taking her.

So the Aguna problem is a real issue.

The normal place you'll hear about it is, what happens if a man goes off to war? So he's taken a wife, he goes off to war, and he's MIA.

Uh-oh.

And obviously the more, the more important and sensitive an issue is, the more it's going to have real discussion about it.

And we diverged a little to talk about Aguna's, Aguna, you know, a woman whose husband got lost and, Back in the old days, that was a common problem, and everyone understands the seriousness of that.

That's a very, very serious issue.

I really can't imagine anyone would argue with me about that, but of course you never know.