No, it's not a misprint. Under Jewish law, if an orthodox woman wants a divorce, her husband must grant her that right, also known as a "Get" (unfortunately, my religion obviously has a neanderthal streak, too): http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110010514.
It's not something of which I often think. Mrs. BHG and I are what is commonly known as Conservative Jews. If she ever tires of me (I sure hope not!), or I of her (which I can't ever see happening), we could just get divorced and move on with our lives. Orthodox women, unfortunately, can't do that unless their estranged husband permits it. That, in my mind, is an incredibly backward way of thinking..............
2 comments:
A Get isn't as simply as the husband kicks the wife out and that's it. For a Get to be valid, the woman must accept it. This was done to protect the woman from simply being kicked out (unlike Islam where divorce is a simply talak, talak, talak, repeating 'I divorce thee' three times). In Biblical times, if a man would refuse to give his wife a Get, he would get lashes until he did so and in modern Israel today, he can be imprisoned indefinitely. Unfortunately, people abuse the system set out by our Sages. According to a recent study by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel 'some 180 women are "chained" to their husbands, while a slightly higher amount of men are "chained" to their wives.'
Many Orthodox Rabbis are working on Halakhic solutions to fix this problem but Torah Judaism is hardly as primitive or 'Neanderthal' as you make it out to seem.
I do not know much about Judaism. I thought conservative and orthodox were the same thing. To be an orthodox do you have to be born into the religion? I agree with you that if a woman is in an awful relationship, she should not have to ask for her husband's permission to leave.
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