A woman who divorced and met a new acquaintance but was prevented from marrying him because he was a kohein. However in an unusual step, Rabbi Zevadia Cohen, a senior dayan in the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court, ruled that the woman’s previous marriage was null and void because her former husband had hidden from her that he was a homosexual. The “Noam Danieli” organization representing the woman declared that “the rabbinate is sensitive to the needs of couples- within the bounds of halacha.”
The Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court accepted the woman’s claim that if she had known of her husband’s homosexual inclination, she would never have married him – and ruled that her agreement to marriage was meaningless and the marriage was a “Mekach Taus”, a mistaken transaction. Dayan Cohen said in his ruling that he would not have accepted such a claim in order to permit a married woman to marry someone else but since the woman had already received her divorce, the concept of Mekach Taus can be used to enable her to marry a Kohen.
The founder of the Noam Danieli organization, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Rani, said that “many couples who were about to obtain a civil marriage came to us and received a friendly solution which enabled them to willingly choose to marry in the rabbinate.” He warned that “attempts to force the rabbinate to issue leniencies by force of law “would lead to the opposite conclusion.”
The Noam Danieli organization’s goal is to help couples who wish to marry according to Jewish law to deal with the relevant religious authorities. The organization is funded by Motti Danieli in memory of his daughter (who died seven years ago today in a road accident.)
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