Increasing interest in ‘Agreement of Love’ prenup, rabbinical group says
In honor of the “Jewish day of love,” Tu Be’av, the Tzohar rabbinical organization said there is increasing public interest in its halachic prenuptial agreement.
The Heskem B’Ahava, or Agreement of Love, was introduced in 2015 to prevent legal and halachic obstacles in the event of the dissolution of a marriage.
Nearly 2,000 couples have signed the Agreement of Love contract before their weddings since its launch, with many more inquiring about it in recent months.
Tzohar hopes to make the agreement standard practice ahead of all Jewish weddings, in the hopes of avoiding such issues as agunot, or trapped wives. The agreement was drafted by both rabbinical and legal scholars to address cases of “‘get’ refusal,” where one spouse refuses to allow the other to be removed from the marriage, often demanding large sums of money or child custody in exchange for allowing the spouse out of the marriage.
“Every couple that goes under the huppa deserves to play a part in addressing the growing problem of people trapped by their spouses because of the absence of these types of agreements,” said Rabbi Uri Ganzel, director of the Heskem B’Ahava (Agreement of Love) Program, in a statement. “So by signing on, a couple is able to help make this process more mainstream and combat that trend, with the hope that it will one day be completely eradicated from our society.”
Founded in 1996, Tzohar’s core program provides halachic weddings for Jewish couples in Israel as a fully legal alternative to marriage under the Chief Rabbinate. More than 50,000 weddings have been performed under Tzohar’s auspices, with 20 scheduled for Tu Be’av this year.
“When the couple is standing under the huppa and dreaming of their lives ahead together, all they can think of is love. But the reality of life is there will be other marriages that don’t thrive in the way yours hopefully will. On their behalf, you deserve to be a part of making this agreement standard practice,” said Rabbi David Stav, Tzohar’s founder. (JTA)