I see in today's New York Post that Gital Dodelson's now ex-husband finally gave her a get. That's another area in which I think we (o'dox) Jews have lost our way. That a recalcitrant husband can condemn his [ex-]wife to vitual slavery by witholding a get is male bovine excrement. A friend of mine, who is much more learned than I am, tells me that back in early Mishnaic times a beit din could, if the husband or wife was being recalcitrant, declare the marriage dissolved. As my Israelite Samaritan friends would say, where in the Torah is it written that a husband can extort a divorce from his wife? With them, while any cohen can officiate a wedding, only the Cohen Gadol can issue a divorce.
On another note, all of their cohanim (remember, the Israelite Samaritans never developed a lay rabbinate, their cohanim are their spiritual leaders and their spiritual leaders are their cohanim) work, even the Cohen Gadol. The previous Cohen Gadol, who passed away a few days before the Passover offering last year, was a nurse. I believe the present CG is a businessman. The CHship with them always passes to the eldest cohein who is capable of performing the office, so politicking (I should say, nauseating politicking of the kind that surrounded the recent elections of our 2 current chief rabbis) is basically nil.
I am waiting for the books I ordered to arrive. I hope that they haven't been lost somewhere between my parents' house in the US and here.
nb
No comments:
Post a Comment