In this video, it seems Zev Brenner comes off like a Modern Orthodox feminist. In the video, Brenner doesn’t seem to be grasping basic principles of Jewish divorce law, such as when a wife is a “moredes”, her husband does NOT require a “heter meah rabbanim” (HMR-permission of 100 rabbis to remarry).
The only area in Jewish divorce law where MO feminists are consistently ultra strict: feminists demand that we verify that every single letter and signature on a man’s HMR is absolutely confirmed valid according to the strictest halachic standards.
Where we never hear any demands from MO feminists:
- demands to see the valid rabbinic permission for a wife to litigate in family court.
- demands that the wife not persecute and slander her husband so as not to cause a forced, invalid Gett.
- demands that the mother not alienate the children from their father.
- demands that a mother allow the father to have a normal relationship with his children.
In this video, Lipa Friedrich does a good job demolishing various feminist myths such as:
- the myth that a Jewish husband must support a wife who won’t live with him (in fact he probably has no obligation to support her)
- the myth that a wife who litigates in family court is an “agunah” (in fact she probably is a “moredes” in halacha)
- the myth that a wife must LITIGATE in family court (in fact the husband and wife can submit a Bais Din decision as an uncontested divorce settlement without litigating against each other in family court)
One might add that if a woman refuses to live with a man she is probably not considered a “wife” in Jewish law. So the feminist claims that her husband is a polygamist if he remarries with an HMR are pure propaganda.