Israeli Supreme Court Overturns Rabbinical Court Ruling: Adulteress Can Receive Half Of Joint Possessions

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In a landmark decision taken by a nine-judge panel in Israel’s Supreme Court, the court overturned an opinion rendered by the Higher Rabbinical Court and forced a man to share with his wife the rights in an apartment he had inherited, despite the fact that the woman had not been faithful to her husband during the marriage.

The decision overturned a previous decision by the Supreme Court itself which had ruled that the court would not intervene on a ruling issued by the Rabbinical Court. After the woman appealed the decision, a broader panel ruled by 6-3 that the woman is eligible to receive half of the apartment.

The original ruling of the Rabbinical Court stated that an apartment received as an inheritance by the husband would remain in his possession in the event of a divorce. This is in accordance with the law in Israel which states that an inheritance is not considered to be joint property which automatically belongs to both members of the couple during the course of the marriage. In certain cases however it would be considered joint property, for example if the couple lived in an inherited apartment together or maintained a joint account and joint expenditure.

In this case the husband claimed that had he known of his wife’s infidelity during the course of their marriage, he would not have given her rights in the apartment, and the Rabbinical Court accepted this as proof that the husband would not have wished to share his inheritance despite the fact that he was married.

The woman appealed to the Supreme Court regarding the ruling and initially the court ruled to uphold the Rabbinical Court ruling but the woman once again appealed to the court to review the case in a broader forum. A number of women’s groups joined the appeal but the court refused to allow the Torat Hamedina group which espouses traditional family values to present their side of the appeal.

The court ruled that adultery does not prove that the husband did not wish to divide the possessions equally and overturned both its own previous ruling and that of the Rabbinical Court.

Religious rights groups reacted angrily to the ruling. Betzalmo director Shai Glick said that “the Supreme Court is betraying the citizens of Israel and the Jewish nation. Once again it has interfered in matters which are not its business and has crossed another red line by ruling against the Rabbinical Court and harming the integrity of the family. We will continue to fight by legal means to divest the court of authority over matters which should not concern it.”

The director of the Noam party, Rabbi Dror Aryeh, said that “this scandalous ruling will be remembered for its disastrous results. This is no innocent ruling to protect womens rights, this is an attack on the legitimacy and relevance of the Torah’s command: Thou shall not commit adultery. The court is undermining the Torah of Moshe, the truth and the women of Israel. It is also encouraging adultery. The court has made another step which strengthens the lack of trust in Israel that justice will emanate from it. The court is detached from the people who want normalcy and Judaism, who believe and know that the sanctity of the family in Israel is the guarantee of our survival in the land of Israel.”