Tel-Chai Nation

The outmoded approach to divorce - often described by the slang "get" in Israel - is hurting Orthodox Judaism far more than helping it. Most specifically, there's also this matter to consider:

Stomel postulated that a limiting factor in marriage reform is mamzerim - referring to a religious status imposed on children conceived from relationships forbidden in the Torah. This includes a child born of a married woman and a man other than her husband. Mamzerim, often the children of chained women, face difficulties in life due to their status, including limitations in marriage.

"It's not just a religious stigma," Stomel explains, "It's also a legal stigma because, in Israel, there's no separation of religion and state."

"The state maintains a blacklist of individuals who are prevented or restricted from marrying in whatever capacity. And that on this list, mamzer is one of the categories."

On this, I have to fully agree, if anything, that to say the sins of the parents fall upon the child, to the point where the sons and daughters cannot get married, is monumentally offensive, and gives any and all Orthodox rabbis who uphold such a repellent belief a very bad, petty image. This has got to stop, but what really counts is that all Orthodox realists have to make the call for abolishing such a disgusting position, legally or otherwise, as well. It practically led to the situation we're in now, where leftists were able to perform a coup with the help of a phony rightist like Nafali Bennett. If the Netanyahu government had stood up to any Haredis who upheld this, it would've been getting somewhere, and removed an issue from the table the left could exploit. Tragically, they didn't do it, and now, here we are.

So I think the right's best path for now would be not to oppose any removal of stigmatizing laws against children born out of adultery or wedlock. In fact, they should make the call themselves to abolish it, as loudly as possible. That could be getting somewhere in improving the situation for the future of conservatives in Israel.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, Knesset, misogyny, Moonbattery