Tamar (pseudonym) and her partner lived together as a married couple for a total of 14 days, not consecutively, but their marriage lasted no less than 24 years because her husband fled to the US, where he lived with another woman and refused to grant her a divorce. Today (Tuesday), Surprisingly, the long-awaited divorce has arrived.
The two married in 1998, but according to Tamar, from the beginning of their relationship, the husband disrespected her and even used verbal violence against her.
The two hardly lived together, because although they rented an apartment together, in practice the husband lived most of the time in his parents' apartment on the pretext that he was caring for his ailing father.
After the birth of their joint daughter, the couple did not return to live together.
Shortly after the two rented an apartment in Tel Aviv, Tamar stopped working due to moving to another city and due to her advanced pregnancy.
During the time the parties were together, Tamar paid for her needs and the daughter's needs from the savings she had and the loans she took from her parents.
And only occasionally did the husband also participate in the household economy.
When Tamar realized that there was no place for the marriage to continue, she asked for a divorce, and at the end of 1999, Tamar filed a claim for alimony in the Family Court.
The day before the first hearing of the lawsuit, the husband flew to the United States. Tamar learned of his trip only after talking to his brother. After a while, the husband contacted Tamar and informed her that he was in the United States and that he would only return if she deleted the alimony claim.
Then she also learned that the husband had transferred the store he owned to his brother and smuggled his assets and closed all his economic affairs in the country.
In 2000, the court ruled on alimony. This is also the year in which the divorce case was transferred to the Agunot Division of the Courts. Over the years, several attempts were made by Rabbi Gamliel of the Division to persuade the husband to grant a divorce, but to no avail.
Tamar learned in 2015 that the husband lived with another woman for at least 3 years and they have a daughter in common.
The court has several times proposed divorce agreements in various versions.
These agreements were unilateral in favor of the husband so that he would be persuaded to grant a divorce, but Tamar agreed to sign any wording dictated by the husband as long as she could continue her life and build a new home.
In these agreements, Tamar agreed to give up her alimony and daughter's alimony, her address and his financial obligations.
However, each time after Tamar signed the agreement, the husband repeated it and did not agree to fulfill his part and grant a divorce.
The last attempt was made in 2016, so again the husband asked Tamar to sign a unilateral agreement but this time Tamar decided that she was not willing for him to continue to deceive her and she refused to sign this agreement.
Surprisingly, this week, members of the Rabbinical Court called Tamar and announced that the husband had sent a divorce after being persuaded by the rabbi of the community of which he was a member to grant a divorce.
After 24 years she was finally released.
Adv. Orit Lahav, CEO of "Dead End" who accompanied Tamar, expressed immense joy at the divorce granted.
"Great joy mixed with great pain, for years that Tamar lost in it could open a new relationship, bring more children and most importantly - be free. The wound of long-term refusal to divorce is etched in every woman who is harmed by it.
"The rabbinical court needs to make a mental calculation of how a woman's swimming may have been taken from her for not being wronged under the auspices of halakhah. We know that there are halakhic solutions to this mooring phenomenon and every day that passes without the courts using these solutions is a terrible injustice. "She is a free woman today and longs for the day when we will be able to resolve agunos without having to wait more than two decades," Lahav said.
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