The Legacy of Rabbi Feivel Cohen vis-à-vis the Agunah Problem – Part 2 bv Rabbi Shalom C. Spira

 The Legacy of Rabbi Feivel Cohen vis-à-vis the Agunah Problem – Part 2 

                                                Shalom C. Spira 

 

As I wrote in my previous article at <http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-legacy-of-rabbi-feivel-cohen-vis.html>, the legacy of R. Feivel Cohen vis-à-vis the agunah problem – as he sought to publicly express it – is that the Jewish faith considers Ms. Tamar Epstein to be the wife of Mr. Aharon Friedman. At the same time, it has also been argued [by R. Mordechai Willig] that there is an additional dimension to Rabbi Cohen’s legacy, viz. that he quietly supported Rabbi Willig’s prenup to resolve future agunah cases, based on an extrapolation from shtar chatzi zakhar to the laws of gittin. My article challenged the latter extrapolation, be-mechilat Kevod Toratam. 

 A recent audio recording (dated Oct. 26, 2018) demonstrates that my opinion is shared by R. J. David Bleich. Actually, Rabbi Bleich already contested Rabbi Willig’s prenup back in 1996 in his Be-Netivot ha-Halakhah Vol. 1 (which is elaborated in Section A of my prenup essay at <http://www.scribd.com/doc/176990434/Prenuptial-Agreements>). The novelty of the 2018 audio recording is that Rabbi Bleich responds to the specific claim that the shtar chatzi zakhar should serve as a precedent for Rabbi Willig’s prenup. Rabbi Bleich orally counters that this specific claim is “nonsense.” The shtar chatzi zakhar represents a kinyan me-chayim, viz. a mercantile acquisition orchestrated from the time that the client is alive, to bequeath property to his daughter [or some other beneficiary who would not normally inherit according to the algorithm of Numbers 27:8-11] in a manner that takes effect a moment before the client’s death. By contradistinction, Rabbi Willig’s prenup consists of a penalty on the husband for not getting along with his wife and additionally not granting her get. Since there is no gemirat da‘at [seriousness of intention] on the part of the husband, the husband is not obligated to pay the money by Torah law. [And since the secular court will nevertheless enforce the financial penalty, the resulting gittin are invalid.] My thanks are extended to R. Yisrael Zvi Harari, a disciple [of both Rabbi Bleich and Rabbi Willig] at the RIETS kollel le-hora’ah, who conducted the interview and provided me with the audio recording, available at <https://soundcloud.com/shalom-spira/interview-with-rav-bleichmp3>. 

I also received supportive e-mail feedback (on Jan. 2, 2023) from Yechezkel Hirshman (a marriage counsellor and to‘en-in-training who has published an in-depth critique of many different prenups – including my own – at <https://achaslmaala.blogspot.com/2023/01/prenups-xii-straight-dope-on-yashar.html>). Yechezkel wrote to me (inter alia) as follows: 

 

“As per the situation with HRHG Rav Feivel Cohen ZTL, I agree with you that expressing agreement to a specific Halachic construct is not to be construed as an agreement on a compound Halachic innovation. I also agree with your distinction between a shtar chatzi zachar and a get. I think it is pretentious for anybody to claim a deceased gadol as a "closet supporter" of a very contentious issue.” 

 

            Accordingly, let us honour the legacy of Rabbi Cohen by politely praying that Ms. Epstein soon return with her true halakhic husband [Aharon Friedman] to Beth Din, and let us likewise politely encourage all couples that have signed Rabbi Willig’s prenup to sign a release form from that prenup [even if the latter concept contradicts Rabbi Cohen’s closet support]. Ultimately, as underscored by R. Joseph Ber Soloveitchik’s 1975 lecture recorded at <https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/767722/rabbi-joseph-b-soloveitchik/gerus-mesorah-part-1/>, a key dividing line between Orthodox Judaism and heterodoxy is that the former respects the sanctity of marriage, pursuant to the Gemara, Kiddushin 2b that betrothal is called kiddushin because the wife becomes forbidden to the entire world like hekdesh (the Temple treasury). Thus, half-baked solutions to the agunah problem must be avoided by Orthodox Jews. 

 

Rabbi Spira works as the Editor of Manuscripts and Grants at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research [a Pavillion of the Jewish General Hospital] in Montreal, Canada. 

Pressure mounts on House GOP to punish Santos

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3809596-pressure-mounts-on-house-gop-to-punish-santos/

Tom Doherty, who served as an aide to former New York Gov. George Pataki (R), also said Santos shouldn’t be given any committee assignments. He did, however, acknowledge the difficult position McCarthy is in. 

“At the same point, you got to stand up to somebody and say, ‘Look, this is a man of very low character, he lied, and I really don’t want him around me,’ ” Doherty added. 

“But this was a whole litany of stuff. I mean, he made up an entire life, basically. You don’t get away with that. You certainly don’t, and you certainly don’t get away with that in a competitive district. He’s not getting away with this. No, not at all. This isn’t going away anytime soon.” 

Full List of Republicans Calling for George Santos to Resign

https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-republicans-calling-george-santos-resign-1773107

 On Wednesday, about a half-dozen members of the Nassau County Republican Party publicly called on Santos to resign weeks after revelations the 34-year-old Congressman embellished almost every facet of his biography, including his academic background, his professional resume, and even claims his grandparents were survivors of the Holocaust.

"He deceived the voters of the Third Congressional District, he deceived the members of the Nassau County Republican Committee, elected officials, his colleagues, candidates, his opponents, and even some of the media," Nassau County Republican chairman Joseph Cairo said in a Wednesday press conference urging Santos to step down.

The Biden papers and the Mar-a-Lago documents: Apples and oranges?

 https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3808819-the-biden-papers-and-the-mar-a-lago-documents-apples-and-oranges/

Biden and Trump’s classified documents involve two entirely different scenarios.

The documents discovered in Biden’s office had never been sought or requested by the National Archives or any other governmental entity; this was not true of the Mar-a-Lago documents. Trump attorney Christina Bobb signed an affidavit asserting, among other things, that “any and all responsive documents accompany this certification.”

Santos refuses to resign amid calls from local N.Y. GOP

 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/11/local-n-y-gop-leaders-to-call-on-george-santos-to-resign-00077450

Officials from across Santos’ Long Island district and beyond gathered at the headquarters of the Nassau County Republican Committee to offer biting critiques of the newly sworn-in Republican. Critically, they pledged to cut Santos’ local support system off at the knees after he fabricated much of his resume and backstory during a successful Congressional campaign last year.

'Disgraced' George Santos Faces 'Major Announcement' as Republicans Attack

 https://www.newsweek.com/disgraced-george-santos-faces-major-announcement-republicans-attack-1772842

Republican Representative George Santos of New York is facing a new setback after GOP officials announced that they would soon be making a "major announcement" regarding the "disgraced" congressman.

A Nassau County GOP media advisory issued on Tuesday brought more bad news for Santos by teasing a Wednesday press conference. It is set to feature a "major announcement" and "dozens" of Republicans, including elected officials and Nassau County GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo, and billed as their "strongest statement yet" about the "disgraced" congressman and their position on his status in Congress.

Transgender woman pushed out of YU-linked synagogue after uproar over day school job

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/transgender-woman-pushed-out-of-yu-linked-synagogue-after-uproar-over-day-school-job/

A transgender woman who was asked to leave her teaching position at a New York yeshiva after an uproar over her identity late last year said she has been ejected from a synagogue affiliated with Yeshiva University due to the ongoing controversy.

Talia Avrahami was asked to leave her job in September at the Magen David Yeshivah, a religious Jewish day school in Brooklyn, and agreed to step down after facing widespread harassment.

Avrahami told The Times of Israel last week that after she left her teaching position, she was also asked to leave Shenk Shul, an Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan that is linked to Yeshiva University, the flagship Modern Orthodox institution of higher learning in the US.

Why Joe Biden Was Not Raided by the FBI Over Classified Documents

 https://www.newsweek.com/why-joe-biden-was-not-raided-fbi-over-classified-documents-1772506

However, Boston Globe opinion writer Abdallah Fayyad tweeted: "The fundamental difference in this case versus Trump's (other than volume of classified docs) is that Biden's team appears to have volunteered this info upon discovery whereas Trump's team actively misled investigators."

How Joe Biden's Classified Documents Compare to Donald Trump's

 https://www.newsweek.com/how-joe-biden-classified-documents-compare-donald-trumps-1772552

Cases are very different. Most notably, when Biden's lawyers found these documents, they immediately notified the Archives and turned them over," lawyer and former federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg told Newsweek.

"In Trump's case, it was the government that realized the documents were missing and then tried, repeatedly and ultimately unsuccessfully, to get them back. Even after being served with a grand jury subpoena, Trump did not return all of the documents," he said.

"And in Trump's case, these highly classified documents were scattered all over his hotel, including in unlocked storage areas and his desk drawer. Finally, Biden had a security clearance throughout the time he had these documents, while Trump's security clearance was revoked after he left office. So cases are really only superficially similar."

Classified documents found from Biden’s time as VP, White House cooperating with DOJ

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3806056-classified-documents-found-from-bidens-time-as-vp-white-cooperating-with-doj/

Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesperson during the Obama administration, tweeted, “Worth noting what former government officials have said since Mar a Lago raid: classified docs get mistakenly removed from government facilities fairly frequently. You report it, turn in the docs, the government does a damage assessment, and that is the end of it.”

“OR…you cover it up, lie about it repeatedly to the government, and force them to raid your premises to retrieve the docs (ie act like a sociopath), in which case you can expect a criminal charge,” Miller added.

Astrology and off the derech teenagers

 I was asked to deal, as a psychologist, with a troubled teenager who was the estranged son of an important American rabbi. The son was no longer observant. I did his horoscope which indicated  strong conflicts (aspects) which strongly overruled his desire to behave. I told this to his father, I was told later the father and son had reconciled and developed a strong positive relationship though the son did not change. The father simply accepted that this was a case of onas and that his son could not control himself. I have heard that some gedolim view off the derech children as not having free will in this area. This is also possible justification for the common advice to accept the off the derech child with unconditional love.

Another case in which I used astrology involved the son of a friend who was in Kollel and was also the grandson of a chassidic rebbe. The Rosh Kollel asked me to try and help the troubled boy. He told me don't try psychotherapy - he has already gone to a few and doesn't trust therapy. I asked the son  if I could do his horoscope. He replied cynically he didn't believe it or any other system. But to test me he gave the birthday of his closest friend. I told him the friend was a criminal and would end up in jail. Several days later the friend was in fact arrested and I was validated. Instead of therapy I suggested learning Berachos. We in fact made a siyum attended by the Bostoner Rebbe. He went on to get married and get a job and in general to behave as expected. I view this as a case where Torah overcame Mazzel

This is Donald Trump's Favorite Movie. "He Watches it Again and Again and Again."

 https://bestlifeonline.com/news-donald-trumps-favorite-movie/

The biographer Tim O'Brien once wrote about watching the movie with Trump. When the film depicted Norma Desmond crying, "Those idiot producers. Those imbeciles! Haven't they got any eyes? Have they forgotten what a star looks like? I'll show them. I'll be up there again, so help me!," Trump whispered to O'Brien, "Is this an incredible scene or what? Just incredible."

The ‘Never Kevin’ Chaos Is Tearing Fox News Apart

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-never-kevin-chaos-is-tearing-fox-news-apart?ref=home

By the time Wednesday arrived, Carlson made it clear that he was fully siding with the “Never Kevin” crowd, all while most of his Fox cohorts were begging the group to fold and end the standoff.

Haredi woman from NY released from marriage to Lebanese Muslim husband

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-727966

At the end of 2021, the young woman, who was part of the Jewish Syrian community in New York, married a man who had been attending yeshiva in Brooklyn. His relatives did not attend the wedding, and during the wedding celebrations, the woman found her new husband's passport which revealed to her that he was not named Eliyah as he told her - his name was Ali and he was a Lebanese Muslim man.

Following the discovery, the woman left her husband and flew to Israel. Ali then turned to the New York rabbinical court and converted to Judaism before flying to Israel himself in search of his wife.