![]() In the past most agunah cases were due to a husband dying without leaving clear evidence of his demise, or becoming mentally ill ( insane). Over the past few centuries, thousands of responsa have been written to deal with cases of agunot. In the past it was not uncommon, due to the danger of travel and primitive means of communication, for people leaving home never to be heard of again consequently rabbis often had had to deal with this issue. It is sometimes possible for a woman to receive special dispensation from a posek ( halakhic authority), called a heter agunah, based on a complex decision supported by substantial evidence that her husband is presumed dead, but this cannot be applied if the husband is clearly alive.īecause of the difficulty for women in such situations, it has been a task for every generation of halakhic authorities to try to find halakhically acceptable means to permit such women to remarry. Without a get, no new marriage will be recognized, and any child she might have with another man would be considered a mamzer ( illegitimate). It is used as a borrowed term to refer to a woman whose husband refuses, or is unable, to grant her a divorce (which requires a document known as a get).įor a divorce to be effective, halakha requires that a man grant his wife a get of his own free will. The classic case of this is a man who has left on a journey and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is missing in action. For other uses, see Aguna (disambiguation).Īn agunah ( Hebrew: עגונה, plural: agunot ( עגונות) literally "anchored" or "chained") is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her religious marriage as determined by halakha (Jewish law).
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