Revelations: Divorce Jewish Style

Fairly depressing documentary about the all-too-inevitable consequences of a Jewish law that enables a husband to refuse his wife a divorce. (called granting a 'Get')

Sure enough, women line-up to accuse their crazy husbands, men line-up to protest that it's their only defence against their crazy wife's other demands, and lots of people discuss interpreting the law in apparent isolation from their consciences.

So strong is the determination in Israel, that such a husband can even be sent to prison, not because his refusal to divorce is illegal, but to heavily encourage him to grant the Get.

Prison Rabbi: "Currently we have four to six prisoners who are there just because they refuse to give a Get. Some men give irrelevant reasons, illogical. You can feel the revenge, the anger, the defiance from every word they say. They don't talk on a rational level, but from their hurt and anger. For them, our role is to give some relief and to minimise their anger. Only then can we try to convince them."

Rabbinical Pleader: "To sit in jail it's like, for some crazy persons, it's like a present. You don't have to work, you don't have to pay child-support because the government paid those payments instead of you, you have a hot bed, you have three meals every day, you have somebody that takes care of you, you don't have to do anything for yourself and for your kids. Somebody is taking the responsibility and you yourself feel as if as a victim."

In amongst horror stories of wives waiting over forty years for a divorce, the programme repeatedly returns to a well-presented Orthodox Rabbi who believes that all of the solutions can be found in the Talmud. "... the Rabbis of the Talmud 2,000 years ago understood that husbands could act as scoundrels and there has to be a way in which the Rabbis would allow the women to be freed." He advocates actioning a person's unspoken higher will over their spoken lower one.

Many of the husbands and wives interviewed in this sound so bitter that it's actually more difficult to side with them than with their unseen opponent, emphasising just what a lose-lose situation a broken relationship can sadly be.

Review of Revelations: How To Find God here.
Review of Revelations: Muslim School here.
Review of Revelations: Commando Chaplains here.
Review of Revelations: The Exhumer here.
Review of Revelations: Muslim and Looking for Love here.
Review of Revelations: Talking to the Dead here.
Review of Revelations: How Do You Know God Exists? here.