Jooish

Seventeen years of anguish, mounting financial burdens and seemingly endless legal battles came to a dramatic conclusion just hours before Rosh Hashanah, when a woman who had been unable to obtain a get for nearly two decades was finally released from her marriage through the intervention of Rishon LeTzion Rav Dovid Yosef.

The long-awaited get was given at Israel’s Great Rabbinical Court on Erev Rosh Hashanah, following intensive last-minute efforts led personally by Rav Yosef, president of the Great Rabbinical Court, together with his close associate Rav Yisroel Meir Yonah.

The extraordinarily complicated case stretched back approximately 17 years and involved legal proceedings in both Israel and the United States, financial disputes, international child-custody litigation and repeated unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement that would allow the woman to move on with her life.

The saga began after the couple moved to the United States, married and had a child. Their marriage subsequently deteriorated, and the mother returned to Israel with the child.

What followed was years of bitter and complicated litigation. The dispute involved proceedings connected to the Hague Convention on international child custody, restrictions preventing the husband, who had obtained legal status in the United States, from leaving Israel, growing debts and continuing clashes in various courts and legal forums.

Repeated attempts to resolve the dispute failed. Israel’s Agunah Division remained involved in the case and worked extensively to bring about a resolution, but despite those efforts, the obstacles preventing a get remained.

The major breakthrough came when Rav Dovid Yosef took a personal interest in resolving the longstanding case. He assigned Rav Yisroel Meir Yonah, one of his closest confidants and a longtime chavrusa of Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l, to delve deeply into the case and find a path toward an agreement.

Rav Yonah reportedly immersed himself in the complicated details of the dispute and engaged in intensive efforts with the parties, employing a variety of approaches in an attempt to overcome obstacles that had frustrated previous efforts for nearly two decades.

The decisive developments came immediately before Rosh Hashanah.

Rav Yosef had returned to Eretz Yisroel only one day earlier following an intensive trip to the United States, where he had visited and strengthened Jewish communities. Despite having just returned from the trip, he immediately convened a panel of the Great Rabbinical Court and threw his full halachic and judicial authority behind an effort to bring the case to an end.

The intensive negotiations ultimately succeeded where years of previous efforts had failed, producing a comprehensive agreement between the parties.

Then, with only hours remaining before Rosh Hashanah, the moment the woman had awaited for 17 years finally arrived. The husband gave the get in the Great Rabbinical Court, formally ending the marriage and freeing the woman from her prolonged state of agunah.

The emotional proceedings brought an extraordinary conclusion to a case that had for years appeared virtually impossible to resolve. After nearly two decades of uncertainty and suffering, the woman left the Bais Din able to begin a new chapter of her life.

Officials in Israel’s rabbinical court system pointed to the case as an example of Rav Yosef’s determined approach toward resolving cases of agunos and refusing to abandon even extraordinarily difficult cases.

The breakthrough is one of several significant developments in recent years involving Israel’s rabbinical court system and its efforts to address longstanding cases of agunos and get refusal.

The Great Rabbinical Court recently established 13 dedicated panels of dayanim around the country to adjudicate dinei mamonos, as part of a broader effort to strengthen the role of halacha within Israel’s legal framework.

In another recently publicized case, a man who withheld a get from his wife for 30 years was ordered to pay approximately 4.7 million shekels in damages, one of the largest awards ever imposed in Israel over prolonged get refusal. The judge in that case determined that the decades-long ordeal constituted an extreme violation of the woman’s basic rights and dignity.

Another difficult case involved a chareidi mother of three who remained trapped in her marriage for eight years before ultimately obtaining her freedom following forceful intervention by the division responsible for combating agunah cases, an extensive police search and a complicated series of events involving her husband.

According to the report, the husband in that case had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and used hard drugs. He allegedly imposed extreme religious restrictions upon his wife, locked her inside their home and isolated her from members of her own family. At one point, he escaped from a psychiatric institution, further complicating efforts to resolve the case.

Rav Yosef has also maintained an active public schedule in recent weeks. Shortly before Rosh Hashanah, he conducted a special visit to facilities operated by the Israel Prison Service, meeting senior officials, delivering divrei Torah and words of chizuk, and entering closed prison wings as part of his pre-Rosh Hashanah visit.

For the woman whose ordeal ended on Erev Rosh Hashanah, however, the intervention of Rav Yosef, Rav Yonah and the Great Rabbinical Court meant something far more immediate.

After 17 years in which a resolution repeatedly appeared beyond reach, she entered the new year no longer an agunah.