Mazel tov!
this is Shuli Ran getting married last night to Tzofit Grant.
Interesting points about this wedding (to be followed by an interesting point about this picture, and why it was selected):
- Shuli Rand is Haredi, a baal teshuva, but Haredi, and a well known one (due to his celebrity status). His new wife is Tzofit Grant, a secular television personality. Interesting. Generally such marriages in Israel happen when one part of a married couple becomes religious or becomes secular and they choose to stay together. You do not often see a Haredi and a secular choosing to get married, as is.
- Shuli Rand, as is well known, is still married to his first wife Michal. Michal Rand has famously refused to accept a gett from him. It has been said she suffers from mental health issues. It has been said she was abusive to him during the marriage. Shuli Rand received a hetter mea rabbonim to remarry. As part of that I assume he deposited a gett for Michal in the beis din so she can take it at any time, though until now she has persisted in her refusal. Good for him but it is somewhat sad that for men in this situation there is a relatively simple solution and for women in this situation there is almost no solution at all.
The interesting point about this specific picture is that it is the image of the "double ring ceremony" - actually the portion of the ceremony in which Shuli was granted his wedding ring. Double ring ceremonies are rare in the Haredi community and among Haredi men, mostly because most Haredi men do not wear wedding rings, but also because of halachic problems with the double ring ceremony. The common solution to the problem is for him to give the ring to her at the proper time during the wedding ceremony and for her to give him his ring after the official wedding ceremony has been completed, and to make a statement of love and symbol of affection rather than it being done at a time when the traditional text is being said.
Mazel tov!
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1. There are plenty of mixed religious-secular couples. We count a number of them among our friends, although it's usually the woman who's religious. The Bennetts are one such couple, or at least began that way. But yeah, it's probably non-existent among charedim.
ReplyDelete2. I suppose a cynic can point out that it sure is convenient that "it has been said" (nice use of the passive voice) that the first Mrs. Rand "suffers from mental health issues." Those of course just happen to be the magic words needed to get a heter meah rabbanim. But there's no way any issues she may have- if indeed she has them- are of the level where they'd keep her from accepting a get. She's not in a coma or completely out of her mind.
3. "Good for him but it is somewhat sad that for men in this situation there is a relatively simple solution and for women in this situation there is almost no solution at all."
And that is exactly why Rav Soloveitchik would *never* sign a heter meah rabbanim. (Leaving aside the abuses, see above.) He said it was simply unjust. Maybe if he lived in a world where men don't refuse to give gittin or otherwise try to game the system he'd have felt otherwise, but they do and he did.
4. Speaking of Rav Soloveitchik, one thing he was *very* firm about was two-ring ceremonies. "Rare" and "problems" is a gentle way of putting it. A second ring very possibly invalidates the whole wedding. (And I say this as someone who wears a wedding ring. My wife gave it to me in private after the ceremony.)
I do not know if the possible mental health issues are connected to her refusal of the gett. They could be two entirely separate issues. She very publicly abused him for several years, besides for what happened in private prior to that (was alluded to in various interviews over the past few years)- I have seen this explained as a result of her supposed mental health issues but I do not know if that was ever confirmed
Delete" I suppose a cynic can point out that it sure is convenient that "it has been said" (nice use of the passive voice) that the first Mrs. Rand "suffers from mental health issues." Those of course just happen to be the magic words needed to get a heter meah rabbanim."
DeleteWhat is the basis for your implicit assertion that the beis din involved did not verify her mental issues?
Cynicism. It's rarely served me wrong.
Delete