Ros. 1889 B 9(2) c

Ros. 1889 B 9(2) c

Marriage

1887

Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana

Eliazar Hamburg

Hamburg

Even Ha'Ezer

TRUE

Is the evidence that a marriage was performed according to Jewish Law sufficiently strong to accept the couple as new members to the community?

A married man approaches a congregation to become a member. The established custom in the city was only to accept married members who are married according to Jewish Law. This man said that he married his wife in north America and he showed the Ketuba to the Bet Din and on it appear the names of two witnesses, one is the brother of the father of the man, and the second is unknown and ??? and in the Ketuba they saw that she was a widow when she got married to this man. They asked the wife if her previous husband had brothers from the same father or children when he died. She said that she had four children from him, that all died before his death. He also had one brother from his father but this brother also died before him. All three, i.e. her and her husband and his brother, went on a trip to a far off country and they were attacked by robbers on the way, and they killed his brother and she and her husband survived. The Bet Din then investigated further and they found that the place where she married her second husband is a place where people are irresponsible, they pay no attention to G-d's commandments nor his Torah, and this they heard from the relatives of the first husband who live here, for he had one brother from his father but they could not tell him if he is still alive or not. Now what is the rabbi to do regarding this marriage.