The answer to all of our problems is … Torah!

Being in touch with the various Jewish media outlets, one is never at a loss for conversation. Topics that appeal specifically to Jewish interests keep us all on our toes.

Last week I came across a few items that struck chords, mostly because they all are reminiscent of how Albert Einstein is said to have defined insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The first item: the so-called shidduch crisis, in which Jewish girls past age 22 are no longer considered a “good catch,” in certain Jewish communities, leading to a “crisis” of thousands of wonderful young women who simply can’t find husbands.

The second (though this one has a better chance of success with the talented Allison Josephs being the brains behind solution attempts): that people who leave the Orthodoxy of certain right-wing communities often drop all measures of religious life rather than adopt a more centrist or even left-leaning halakhic lifestyle as an alternative.

The third: a study of where Orthodox singles who are engaged in amorous activity fit in the Jewish community.

The fourth: a viral video of Rabbi Jeremy Stern of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA) insisting an 18-year get-withholder leave a Maariv minyan at the Yeshiva University Seforim Sale.

I believe that all of these are representative of problems which require a simple (though perhaps romantically naïve) solution: Follow what the Torah says!

A man whose marriage has ended has a commandment (see Maimonides mitzvah 222, and Sefer HaChinukh 579): write a get (or have it written) and hand it to your wife (Devarim 24:1). Your marriage together is over; demonstrate this fact through giving her a get, then move on with your lives. 

That any rabbi supports get-withholders, for any reason, is shameful. There will sadly be fights over money, property and child custody, but the chaining of a woman to a non-existent marriage has zero halakhic validity.