Thread by @RStomel

#DidYouKnow that we once had a client who was stuck as an agunah, though her husband had died, because she could not perform halitza with her brother-in-law since his foot had been amputated due to diabetes complications?

https://twitter.com/_youhadonejob1/status/1275712131107827712

Learn more about this story and other cases of halitza in this episode of @cwjisrael’s Hebrew podcast!
יבום וחליצה 2020 במדינת ישראל - זה קורה גם היום
cwjpodcast.libsyn.com/episode--2020

*Correction: she was not a client of ours, rather a case in a psak din that one of our to'anot had encountered

This particular story starts at minute 17:50

The case concerns an elderly widowed woman who wanted to get remarried. A few weeks before the wedding, when she went to register to marry at the rabbinate, they told her that she needed to undergo a halitza ceremony with the brother of her late husband. 1/

2/ She didn't know what halitza was, but she understood that without it, she could not remarry. She had not been in contact with her former BIL. After she located him, she learned that he had diabetes, his foot had been amputated and he was on dialysis.

3/ The Tel Aviv Rabbinic Court deliberated:
a. Since he was missing a foot, would it be halachically valid for the court place the special halitza shoe on this man's stump?
b. Since he was very frail, was he even halachically qualified to perform the mitzvah of yibum/halitza?

4/ (because, due to his condition, he may no longer have had "koa'ch gavra")
c. Had the woman's former wedding even been valid, since one of the witnesses turned out to be invalid?

The whole ordeal was invasive and humiliating to all involved.

5/ The rabbinic court intruded into the life of this elderly, sick man, making his private medical conditions the subject of debate, in order to see if he is qualified to participate in a ceremony where they will symbolically shame him for not fulfilling his duty of marrying her;

6/ The widow and her fiance had their marriage put on hold while the rabbinic court determined if and how she could be "released" from her former BIL; the elderly man's wife was put in the awkward situation of discussing how another woman was halachically tied to her husband.

7/ because, yes, even a BIL who is already married is not exempt from yibum/halitza. Cherem d'Rabbeinu Gershom, which prohibits marrying multiple wives, does not cancel out the mitzva of yibum/halitza.

8/ In its original context, the practice of yibum was a compassionate mitzva: When a man was obligated to marry his late brother's widow, it protected young women who had no children, no source of income and no home. Nowadays, not so much.

9/ In Israel today, the law is that we only perform halitza, not yibum (a rule known as "Cherem Yerushalayim"). There are extremely rare cases where yibum was mandated, such as a case in 1967 where the rabbinic court ruled that 2 deaf ppl could not undergo halitza and must marry.

10/ Halitza/yibum is a fascinating topic when discussed in theory, but a painful one in when viewed in its modern application and practice today.

11/ Many ppl are unaware that halitza complications exist today (not to mention extortion in exchange for halitza, which is another troubling phenomenon). This is why @cwjisrael's prenup includes a clause protecting women in the event halitza is warranted.
shtar-eng.cwj.org.il

12/12
Encourage your engaged friends to sign it!
Be informed, be aware and be part of the solution to provide recourse and dignity to women within Jewish (and Israeli) law.