When Lady Astor, the first female MP, (or Bessie Braddock, depending on the report) said to him, "you are 'disgustingly drunk'", the Prime Minister responded: 'My dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.'
Waking up sober does not actually solve all the problems of having been drunk.
It definitely did not help the guy who's wife filed for divorce after about a year of marriage. His wife had enough of his excessive drinking.
At the beis din she pulls out her ketuba and shows the dayyanim, to the shock of the husband, that he had promised her in the ketuba a sum of 5,000,000nis (yes, million), in case of his death or divorce.
Mr. Moneybags responded that no way did he promise that much and fraud is involved. He accused his wife and her family of having taken advantage of him and the fact that he was already drunk at the wedding when he signed the ketuba. He claimed that they added a 0 after the fact, and even the original sum of 500,000 was taking advantage of him and he had not intended to agree to.
The beis din found in favor of the wife and said he owes her 5,000,000 unless he hires a private investigator and proves that he had been drunk.
source: Kikar
Proving that probably should not be too difficult, if it is true, as they can probably go look at the pictures and video and see more or less what happened. If all he needs to prove is that he was drunk, the pictures and video should be enough. If they need to prove fraud, it might be more difficult.
Either way, the moral of the story is probably to not sign on to financial commitments when drunk.
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As the husband does not sign the Ketubah, why would his drunkenness at the time matter?
ReplyDeleteIn Israel he does, as it's a binding legal document.
DeleteInteresting. I didn't know that.
DeleteAs an aside, is the Ketubah written in a language the signatories understand, or is still a total sham of a legal document, and written in a dialect of Aramaic that few Jews can read without consulting Jastrow for every other word?
DeleteIf he was already drunk by the signing of the Ketubah, which happens well before Kedushin, then the logical conclusion of his argument is that he was never married. He should have made that claim, because that would invalidate the Ketubah, whereas his drunkenness at the time of signing has no bearing, since he's not involved.
ReplyDeleteHis state of mind at the moment he handed the ketubah over (under the chuppa) would make the difference if he hadn't signed it, but he had.
Deletewhile in chutz laaretz it is very uncommon for the chasson to sign the ketuba, in Israel it is relatively common, and especially among sefardim it is very common.
ReplyDeletewhether he signed or not, and it seems he did, he is claiming he was duped about the agreement because os his state of mind.
Avi - that is a good question. if he is saying he was duped, would that affect the marriage itself? do Jews annul marriages so easily?
Someone who's not a bar-daas can't effect Kedushin, and his claim is that he wasn't a bar-daas due to intoxication. Either the Ketubah is good, or the wedding was bad. Can't have it both ways.
DeleteSefardim do tend to put ridiculous amounts of money into the ketubah, partly as a show of love and partly to discourage divorce. The courts usually recognize this and invalidate that aspect of it. Very recently the Rabbanut declared that it had all become a joke and is no longer allowing it.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness to Churchill, he seems to have been unsteady that day because of age, not drink, which partly explains his angry response. Churchill drank a *lot* but doesn't seem to have gotten drunk too much.