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Jul 3, 2014

Proposed Law: No mehadrin food to release an agunah

It has taken about 6 months, but the law proposal dealing with sarvanei get in jail has finally come to vote.

A law proposal was submitted about 6 months ago that would take away the right to receive mehadrin food to anyone sitting in jail for refusing to give his wife a get. The law proposal also states that any such prisoner, for get refusal reasons, would not be allowed to be jailed in the "torah ward". It also recommends limiting their phone calls to only immediate family and be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes. The law proposal was written in coordination with the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Dovid Lau.

According to the law proposal, sarvanei get are willing to sit in jail for a long time, continuing to refuse to give the get and free their wives, and none of the existing tools have been effective. This will give the rabbinical courts an effective tool by which the sarvan might be convinced or influenced to free his wife.

The rationale behind this, to justify it, is that if a person is not listening to the decision of a Bet Din, to give a get to his wife, he is not living a religious lifestyle, and does not qualify for the conditions a religious prisoner qualifies for.

While such restrictions might harm the rights of a prisoner, the prisoner himself has the ability to give the get and get out of this, unlike other prisoners who need their rights more protected, as they cant help themselves.
source: NRG

I am not sure why just this is considered "not living a religious lifestyle".. while someone who stole is living a religious lifestyle and can get mehadrin food in jail? someone who defrauded the government lived a religious lifestyle? someone who murdered lived a religious lifestyle? While I am in favor of making life hard for sarvanei get, this reasoning bothers me, as it qualifies to far more prisoners than just sarvanei get, but is being selectively applied.




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3 comments:

  1. The difference between this and any other crime is clear.
    A thief is in jail because he did a crime and will stay there even after he repents. So, he may be repentant and therefore is living a religious lifestyle.
    The sarvan is not in jail for something he did, but for something that he continues to refuse to do, and as you said he has the power to immediately remedy his situation by following the decision of the court.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And also, not everything against the law is against halacha. While a sarvan was jailed for a specifically religious reason.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If I recall correctly chazal actually has a recommended diet for such people. Very mehadrin actually. Quantities of dry barley followed by lots of water.

    ReplyDelete

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