Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn
Jewish Outreach Congregation/Torah
Family Project
2 Phyllis Terrace,
1-845-352-7267
טבת תשס"ז
Dear Friend of Torah and The Kedusho of Family,
I need your help. Already 20 years ago, the Posek HaDor
HaGaon Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev shlit”o told me to publicize the problems of
contemporary Gittin. For many years I spoke to rabbonim and activists and tried
to find a way to stem the tide of questionable Gittin. But now things are so
much worse that I have no choice but to go public and fight the invalid Gittin
in the public square.
Today Gittin are given in the Torah world to frumeh
familes that the Gaon shlit”o considers to be invalid. A woman who remarries
with an invalid GET and has a child has a mamzer. What will happen to the next
generation? That is why I need your help, personally or with a contribution, as
I will explain later. I want to assure that children of frumeh Yidden can marry
the children of frumeh Yidden. If present trends continue, thousands of
children will be considered by senior poskim as problematic for mamzerut. Can
anything be so terrible?
The problem is ignorance. People don’t have any
idea about the laws of Gittin. Therefore, when someone permits a woman to
remarry with a doubtful GET, nobody is there to warn her of the consequences.
The problems come from a variety of sources. The solution is a massive campaign
of public education about the Laws of Gittin. This requires funding. Each
public event requires hundreds of dollars for advertising to be successful.
Publishing booklets and mailings are very expensive. What is the alternative?
I once raised money to establish the program of
Gittin in
1)
The worst problem is the Rackman “Beth Din.” Any
woman can come there and have her marriage annulled. There is a sixty page
“teshuva” from a woman associated with this Beth Din on the internet. Many
people are fooled. This “Beth Din” has a principle called “Mekach Toose II”. It
says that any husband who doesn’t give a GET creates a situation of “fraudulent
conveyance” and the marriage is invalidated. When people pointed out that if
this was so the women in question were not married for the many years up to the
GET, the “Beth Din” replied, “She is married until we give the annulment.” There
is no process like that in the Torah. If a marriage is fraudulent and invalid,
it was never valid. It is estimated that about 500 frumeh ladies have gone to
Rackman and many have remarried. Their children will be mamzerim. Some are from
real frum homes or are frum themselves. But Rackman is spending fortunes to
spread lies, and nobody is spending fortunes, or anything, really, to spread
the truth.
2)
The poison of declaring valid marriages “annulled”
has spread from Rackman into the Orthodox rabbinate. The senior dayan of the
RCA recently told a couple that they did not need a GET and he declared their
marriage annulled as “mekach toose.” The entire spectrum of frumeh rabbonim
rose up in fury at this, but the senior Dayan is still there, making more
divorces than anyone else in
3)
Many divorces are made today because the wife
pressures the husband with monetary loss unless he gives a GET. Such is
considered an invalid GET by nearly all of the Rishonim, including the greatest
ones such as the Rabbeinu Chananel, the first Rishon, the Raved, a very early
Rishon, the Rashbo, the Meiri and others. Many latter acharonim great halacha
experts in Gittin such as Tsemech Tsedek acharon, Michtov Maliyohu, and Toras
Gittin throughout the generations have ruled that a GET forced by the threat of
monetary loss is invalid. And yet, many Gittin in the Torah community are
made due to fiscal pressures on the husband, whether from courts or from
threats of legal action that would bankrupt the husband.
4)
Another area of concern is prenuptial agreements that
force the husband to divorce under pain of fines. Since the husband agreed in
advance to this it is not in the same category as the above fiscal coercions,
and the Ramo is lenient in this regard. However, the Pischei Teshuva brings
great acharonim who disagree with the Ramo. Therefore, prenuptial agreements
are also controversial, and many rabbis will forbid anyone to marry the child
of such a GET.
5)
Many husbands are forced to give a GET because the
wife drains their money and energy in court actions. Reb Elyashev shlit”o told
me that not only does he forbid anyone using the New York State Get Law to
obtain a GET, but a Beth Din that permits it he rescinds their authority to
give Gittin. What does this mean for the future? Will children born from such
Gittin, and from the Gittin of such Beth Dins that permit fiscal coercion be
considered mamzerim or doubtful mamzerim?
6)
There are other aspects to the crisis of marriage
and family we hope to address as the Torah Family Project, sponsored by Jewish
Outreach Congregation.
How You Can Help
1)
We are making public meetings to teach people to
beware of the pitfalls with contemporary Gittin.
2)
We must publicize these meetings, and ads are
expensive.
3)
Please get us an invitation to speak at your shull
or group.
4)
If you can contribute to our organization, Jewish
Outreach Congregation, the founder of the Gittin project in Communist Russia
under Rav Elyashev shlit”o, and many other Torah projects, at 2 Phyllis
Terrace, Monsey, NY 10952. If you want to, call Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn at
1-845-352-7267.
5)
We want to publish booklets to clearly explain the
problems of Gittin, but these cost money. If you want to sponsor such a book,
please send us a contribution or contact us at the above number.
6)
The feminists have huge budgets and wonderful
publicity. What do we have? I have a website www.getamarriage.com, but funding is
needed to expand and improve it. (Jewish Outreach supports seven other websites
many on topics desperately needed to combat enemies of Jews or Torah as well as
to teach people the Torah way in sensitive areas. Reb Moshe zt”l and Reb Yaacov
zt”l told me to go on media and fight for Torah. Rav Simon Schwab zt”l spent
much time teaching me about presenting Torah issues to the general public.)
Please do your share. Call us at 845-352-7267
or send Jewish Outreach Congregation your tax-deductible contribution to 2
Phyllis Terrace,
Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn
Jewish Outreach Congregation
If we don’t stop the
invalid Gittin now, what will we say to the children when they can’t
marry? STOP INVALID DIVORCES FIGHT THE THREAT TO JEWISH YUCHSIN Contribute now to JEWISH OUTREACH CONGREGATION 2 Phyllis Terrace