The Tears of the Oppressed: An Examination of the Agunah Problem: Background and Halakhic Sources

Aviad Hacohen teaches Constitutional Law, Religion and State Law and Jewish Law at the Hebrew University and at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He is also principal of the Center for Jewish Law at the Shaarey Mishpat Law College. In this book, edited by JOFA founding President Blu Greenberg, Dr. Hacohen argues that in certain cases kiddushei ta’ut (see glossary for precise definition) offers a halakhic methodology for freeing a woman from the tyrannical control of her husband. This is the method used by the Rackman Beit Din in New York, and Hacohen argues that this principle has been used to release agunot through the centuries. Hacohen includes the complete texts of twenty eight responsa in Hebrew, ranging from the 12th to the 20th century, showing how the rabbinic authorities inquired carefully into the background of each case to determine, for example, whether the defect in question was concealed from the wife before marriage. Hacohen writes cogently and persuasively, and his book is presented in a very clear manner with a full glossary. It is a very welcome contribution to the literature about the problem of agunah and possible solutions. The detailed arguments of Rabbi Hacohen are complex and require far more analysis than the limited space of these lines. There is a 28 page long review by Rabbi Michael Broyde available online in the Edah Journal (Kislev, 5765) which can be accessed at www.edah.org. The summer issue of the on-line Edah Journal will contain a number of responses to the Broyde piece.