I'll start off by saying that we once had a neighbor that told us that she and her husband had never registered with the State as being married. They had not bothered to do so and there was a benefit in that - by being a single mother she qualified for a lot more money in "welfare" than she would qualify for if she would be married. So they were halachically married, but never bothered to register their marriage with the State. (the truth is that I do not remember now if that was why they never registered or if that was just a side benefit - this was a neighbor of ours from a very long time ago).
The current law proposal to make the legal age for marriage in Israel to be a minimum of 18 years, with the possibility of having exceptions, on a per need basis, from the age of 16, is going to create a conflict with some communities, specifically among certain chassidim.
Yoelishe Krausze has some interesting insights to offer on this issue...
Krausze says the people in Mea Shearim will not be getting worked up about this new law and will also not be changing their lifestyle in any way. He points to himself and says according to the torah he is married and has 15 children, but according to the State he is single, and his wife is a single mother of 15 children. Krausze says the only issue with this is that in the Rabbanut his children are registered as invalid for marriage (as they have no father listed), but since they will anyways get married eventually just like him - without registering, so this status in the rabbanut will not affect them.
Why not get married? Krausze ssays if he wanted money from the State, for buying an apartment or other things from the State, then it would be different, and presumably he would register his marriage. But this way, without registering, since he wants nothign form the State anyway, it is quieter to just not bother registering.
Krausze says the new law won't really affect too many people - anyways 90% get married after 18, and the remaining 10% who get married younger don't even register their marriages after 18 anyway, and this is what they will continue to do.
Krausze says the new law is worthless - in the general population, boys and girls create relationships before the age of 18 as well, so it also is not a problem if haredim do and get married. The only people affected by the law are secular people who want to get married prior to 18. For haredim it wont change anything. Anyways according to the law one can have children from age 13, outside the framework of marriage - it is only prohibited to actually marry - but if you want to marry like a gentile, you can do so from 13.
(source: Kikar)
Krausze didnt get married officially for different reasons than my old neighbor above, and he definitely has an interesting perspective on this new law...
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What happens when you combine this proposed law with the proposed law that any marriage not registered with the Rabbanut causes the officiating Rabbi to go to jail?
ReplyDeleteYou get a bunch of people breaking the law and not caring about it at all
ReplyDeleteI think that there already is something about rabbis going against the rabanut and sanctions.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is what always happens when one group tries to force its values on another even in areas that do not affect the general population because they can.
ReplyDeleteThey can't have it both ways. On the one hand, don't recognise the state so don't register the wedding, but on the other hand a single mother with X children will get a lot of money from the government. If Jews were to do such a thing abroad, it would cause anti-Semitism and with justification. Here it is a Chillul Hashem.
ReplyDeleteIt sounded to me like he doesn't have it both ways. His point was that it doesn't affect him, because he doesn't involve himself with the state. He specifically states that he wants no money from the state and presumably doesn't take any.
DeleteThere might be a ramification with family names. Back before the war the Polish government did not recognize marriages under the age of 18 so when a 16 year old girl got married and had her first child at 17 the government would make her register the newborn under her maiden name which meant the kid stuck out from the rest of the family..
ReplyDelete