Thursday, April 15, 2021

Anulling a civil marriage

Igros Moshe (E.H. 4:52) impotent husband. wife complained that she married a man who was impotent and he had the problem even prior to marriage and the condition was incurable. There are reasons to believe the claims are true and she has remarried without a get and had children from the second marriage.  The first marriage was annulled in civil court when a doctor under oath said she was still a virgin and had never had intercourse. The first husband was told to give her a get but he refused unless  he was given a large amount of money which was not able to provide. . She later remarried to a second man in a civil marriage  and had two sons and a daughter. Her parents testified before beis din that their family doctor,  who the beis knows to be  frum was also the doctor of the first husband from his youth, that the first husband was always impotent and was not fit for marriage and that if he had known that he wanted to get married he would have advised against it. While this doctor is no longer alive, a second Jewish doctor who has testified that the first husband was always impotent. The first husband has remained silent. The issue now is the status of the children and whether they can marry Jews.  I have already explained  and ruled in Igros Moshe (E,H. 170) that if there is a major deficit such as impotence which involves the bases of marriage that there is no need for a Get even rabbinically. So in this case, if all the facts are unquestionably true and she can not obtain a get and especially related to the status of the children. I ruled after a number of years similarly in a case where the husband was a shoteh (severe mental illness) even prior to marriage which is also clearly a great deficit [mum gadol] as noted in Yevamos (112b) that you don’t  marry a shoteh because of the rule that a person does not dwell together with a serpent in close quarters.Therefore she should be allowed because of kiddushei ta’us (mistaken marriage) if it is impossible to obtain a get.


2 comments:

  1. I have a question about halacha - as I don't quite follow the process of how things get accepted.


    For an innovation, we are told, it needs wide acceptance of major poskim. That I do understand. Now there are many leniencies whcih have been written in teshuvos by RMF for example. Are they accepted because of his great standing? or are they still subject to wide acceptance?
    and if they are accepted, can they be enacted by a regular posek or BD, who says he relies on Rav Moshe?

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  2. Ask your Rav whether you can rely on the leniency.
    I once asked Rav Belsky whether there are general rules for understanding the psak of Mishna Berura. He answered he wasn't aware of explicit rules but everyone seemed to understand what the Mishna Berura meant as halacha.
    Similarly every Rav knows whether a leniency has been accepted just as they are aware of what decrees have not been accepted.

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