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DEUTERONOMY | 24:1 divorcement — DEUT1321 "Lashon hara for a purpose" is permitted...

DEUT1321 "Lashon hara for a purpose" is permitted when someone is doing something very wrong, and there is reason to believe that publicizing this fact will pressure the person to change his behavior. For example, Jewish law, basing itself on [this verse], invests the right to initiate divorce in the hands of the husband; therefore it is the man who must grant his wife a get, a Jewish divorce. If a man refuses to do so, the woman remains an agunah, "a chained woman," and is forbidden to all other men [since the Tenth Century, Jewish law has ruled that a woman must accept the get willingly. If she refuses to do so, then the husband is likewise forbidden to marry another.] In instances in which a man refuses to give a get, and a rabbinical court has made clear it that he should do so, it is permitted to publicize this fact, and to exert a variety of pressures on the man, including publicizing his behavior in newspapers (particularly Jewish newspapers), picketing his residence and/or place of business, and walking out of a synagogue service in which he is accorded any honor (such as being called to the Torah for an aliyah). Even in such a case, however, we should abide by the rules of lashon hara and reveal only that information which the public needs to know about the case (thus, it does not seem right to reveal embarrassing information about the person that is extraneous to the issue of the divorce).

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Source KeyTELVOL1
Verse24:1
Keyword(s)divorcement
Source Page(s)369
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