Beit Din Orders Woman To Give Gett
A
recent ruling by the Haifa beit din underscores the need for rabbinical
courts to reexamine the halachic status of transgender individuals with
deference to the individual’s new reality.
In the case before the beit din,
an individual who had undergone sexual reassignment surgery to become a
woman refused to give her divorcing wife a gett, claiming that she was
prohibited from doing so on the basis that a woman cannot give a gett.
The individual’s wife requested an annulment of the marriage because the
individual was no longer a man. The court denied the request,
asserting that despite the surgery, the individual was still
halachically a man. The court ordered the individual to give the gett,
to which she eventually agreed.
By the court’s
reasoning, a transgender man could not be barred from entering a
women’s mikvah, as he is still halachically a woman. A mesader
kiddushin would have no ostensible basis to refuse to officiate a
wedding between the same transgender man and another man, as the former
is still halachically a woman. And yet, imagine if either of these
scenarios actually materialized. The transgender man would be barred
from the women’s mikvah, and would also be barred from marrying another
man. The transgender man’s present and former gender would both be
denied.
U.S. courts
have uniformly recognized the new gender of an individual who has
undergone gender reassignment surgery since the issue first presented
itself over forty years ago. In M.T. v. J.T.,
140 N.J. Super. 77 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1976), the Appellate
Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey addressed the claim of
M.T., an individual who was born a male and transitioned to a female,
that she was entitled to support and maintenance from her divorced
husband. Her husband claimed that he owed no support because their
marriage was void, as M.T. had been born male, and New Jersey at the
time prohibited same-sex marriages. The Appellate Division affirmed the
trial court’s holding that “[t]he entire area of transsexualism is
repugnant to the nature of many persons within our society. However,
this should not govern the legal acceptance of a fact.” In other words,
like it or not, transgender surgery changes an individual’s gender.
Awareness of,
and education regarding, transgender individuals must continue to
improve. Regardless, as the New Jersey court opined, personal judgments
should not factor into the halachic recognition of the individual’s
reassigned gender. Further, reality dictates that any halachic
impermissibility of gender reassignment surgery cannot render the new
gender void. To simply say that the surgery was halachically prohibited
and so the transgender individual is now not a transgender individual
leaves the individual without any recognized gender at all.
Dina Gielchinsky is a counter-terrorism lawyer living in Teaneck, New Jersey.
21 comments:
We stopped shopping in Target after they shilled for Obama by allowing these freaks into the bathrooms & changing rooms. How many sex offenders have surgically altered themselves so that they can access victims this way?
In Chabad they like to boast as if they are the biggest machmirim on Pesach that no one else, not Litvaks, not other Chassidisher can match. But this is a huge farce. They throw out examples of their chumros but are speechless & deflated when hearing that Bobov, other chassidishe, as well as many Litvishe bnei Torah do the same thing. But try speaking to some of these Lubavs about hilchos Pesach & you will find they are am haaratzim who, unaware of even elementary halachos, likely do not have a kosher lePesach kitchen despite their much vaunted chumros.
In Orange County, NY, there are 3 Chabad shluchim who are all fighting with each other. 2 of the 3 are not recognized by 770. One of the three runs a Pesach program at a luxury hotel that is the lowest price program in America so one maylah he has is he is not greedy. He is both organizer & rav hamachshir. He is however fort a sick guy. You call for the hotel, he also serves as receptionist: first question, which Chabad kehilla do you belong to? He won't tell you yet that he won't allow anyone to come unless they are a fellow Lubav because he gets his jollies out of draying a kop for WEEKS any victim who calls from among the "Snags" (Misnagdim) & other non-Lubavs. He gets up on his high horse to condescendingly darshan baarichus to you about how Chabad supposedly is head & shoulders above all in chumros Pesach, while falling on his face if engaged in discussion on basic halacha.
The big farshlept head game he plays is getting the cash or check to him (no credit cards). He is coming or sending someone to you or you should come to him. He never finishes the conversation. Every time he cuts the phone call short with some kind of sudden emergency like it "suddenly got very windy where I'm walking outside, I have to call you back". He just gets his jollies to lecture you for weeks that Chabad is above all else.
One yungerman drove up with his mishpocho to this nut's house to give him the money and rings his doorbell. The kids spy him through the mail slot & go running to tell their father that a "Litvisher" is at the front door. He sends them back down to ask the yungerman's name. The kids relay that ok our father is coming. It took a minute for the Chabadnik to remember that the yungerman was someone trying to pay him to come to the hotel. At that point he is mevazeh the yungerman & his mishpocho. The kids come back to the door with the sheker that the tatta shloft - it was 4 pm - leave your # & he will call you later.
It's "good" to see that a "shaliach" of the Rebbe practices such stellar chinuch bonim & knows how to be "mechabed" other Yidden. He must think he is making the Rebbe proud.
A tracking firm that uses satellite imagery to see if parking lots of big box stores are full, say that Target has rather empty parking lots since their new policy of pandering to perverts. A lot of organizations called for a public boycott of Target and these aren't just the Baptists in the Bible Belt.
This Chabad idiot Upstate who organized the Pesach hotel in Morris County, NJ, has an uncle in a NY County on the other side of the Hudson River. 770 gave his uncle the boot after the loser wasn't able to attract more than a minyan after 20 years. Is it any wonder the nephew has few people skills, lacks derech eretz & has little concern for basic human dignity?
Where did the Tzitz Eliezer say it? I'll look it up
https://therealdeal.com/2017/04/12/rabbis-son-wants-to-bring-48m-condo-project-to-site-of-harlem-church/
I expect UOJ to behave himself & not laugh out loud over this.
"Chafraud Poopoovitch said" 3:48 PM, April 27, 2017
FYI, this is the first comment I've made in this thread.
Imitation is not the greatest form of flattery. Especially when it comes from stalkers. Likely Lubavitch ones, who would defend the sick and demented among their brethren.
Not the first time I've seen this guy mocking my user name (which mocks Chabad anyway).
Why don't you do something useful? Perhaps do attempt to help the children who have become the victims of Beis Rivkah greed.
Doesn't sound at all like Poopoovitch is defending the shaliach & his uncle.
Depravitch, are you ex-Chabad? Do you know who these characters are?
Moshiach Itch,
I wasn't addressing anything anyone said about Chabad, only the parody of my username. An identical version of which was used to mock me at DIN blog.
I don't know the people described in the above Chabad related comments and wouldn't comment on them without finding out a bit more. Chabad malfeasance is not surprising to me at all anymore.
Ex-Chabad? Raised non-religious, and only later involved with Chabad for many years, I can honestly say I was never really Chabad (regardless of how I may have felt while in it). It just took me a while to figure it out... another BT chump separated from his money. I'm learning that's a common story.
Anyway, if the commenter above was mocking me, please stop. If not, my apologies for the assumption.
Aside from that, a good Shabbos to everyone.
R' Binyomin Kaminetzky zl niftar at 93. Made bnei Torah out of many a 5 Townsers.
Why did R' Yaakov send R' Binyomin to learn in Chofetz Chaim Willy if R' Dovid Leibowitz was forced out of YTV due to his views on Communism?
I was not aware R' Binyomin was in Chofetz Chaim. I can only speculate, That R' Yaakov sent him there it was when he first arrived from Europe or soon thereafter in the 1930s, way before he was hired by RSFM to come to YTV.
In addition, the reason for R' Dovid's dismissal was not publicized at all.
R' Binyomin ztl learned in these yeshivos in order:
Cheder of Dayan Nochumofsky in Shavel, Lita.
Yeshiva Ketana of Kelm
Yeshiva of Rakishok, Lita (Lomzer rosh yeshiva R' Zelik Ruch also learned there. The town was mostly Chabadskers & the frierdik Rebbe lived there when escaping Russia for Latvia)
Telz d'Lita (where he remained alone when R' Yaakov ztl moved to Seattle & Toronto)
Chofetz Chaim Willy
Ner Yisroel Baltimore
How old is Mordechai Tendler?
In a Yated interview with elterra adam gadol R' Shmaryohu Shulman shlita, he says he once traveled to the mountains in the summer for an appointment with R' Moishe Feinstein ztl. He says that a rather obnoxious bochur was guarding the bungalow & refused to let him in despite his protests that he had an appointment & had driven quite a distance. R' Moishe told him the next day over the phone that he was anguished over what happened.
What other bochur besides Tendler was capable of behaving in that manner?
How do you know what the bochur's kavonnos were? Maybe he thought Rabbi Shulman looked like the kind of fellow coming to tell R' Moishe some tawdry tale about so called "molesters" covered up at the Agudah by Sherer, hayitochen.
R' Yaakov knew R' Dovid Leibowitz at Slabodka where R' Dovid was a founding member of the kollel. R' Dovid was no slouch. He had a 12 hour seder for many years in Radin with his uncle the Chofetz Chaim.
Mordy Tendler is 63. And definitely hung around his grandfather in really creepy ways.
Rav Ruderman from Slabodka was R' Yaakov's cousin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Austryn_Wolfson
On the other hand, R' Yaakov also knew Dr. Harry Wolfson from Slabodka but did not send his son to learn by him in Harvard.
Like I always saying, UOJ ist duch full of sheker vechuzev. He vas making jokes a pur yur tzerik dat rabbunim in jail getting kapotas & homburgs in Prison issue orange ober zet men dat Metzger reporting to prison in same old heimishe levish:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bribe-taking-ex-chief-rabbi-begins-prison-term/
Israel’s former Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger began a 3.5-year prison sentence on Monday after being convicted on a string of corruption charges.
Metzger, dressed in his iconic long-tailed suits and ultra-Orthodox hat, arrived at Ma’asiyahu Prison in the central Israeli town of Ramle, where he will serve his sentence alongside another high-profile prisoner, former prime minister Ehud Olmert. Former president Moshe Katsav also served his sentence there before he was paroled last December.
Margo, read the article again. Metzger traveled to the prison in his frock. How do you know what he will be wearing behind the walls after being processed?
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