Divorced From My Husband, and My Faith (religious)

[Zimbochick]

Interesting article.

I stood before the panel of rabbis, waiting to have a religious divorce conferred upon me. I was dressed as the Orthodox Jewish woman I was supposed to be, modestly, in a below-the-knee navy skirt and buttoned cardigan. But I felt exposed. What kind of shameful woman, I imagined the rabbis thinking, leaves her marriage; what kind of mother uproots her life?

Before I left, the head of the rabbinical court looked me in the eye. I met his gaze, steeling myself for judgment and rebuke. Instead, he told me a story: The temple altar, the Talmud says, weeps when a man divorces his wife. When a revered rabbi got divorced, his students came to him and asked: “How can this be? Does our tradition not teach that the altar weeps over a divorce?” The rabbi looked at his students. “Better the altar should weep than should I.” All these rigid rules, all these unyielding laws.Yet here, too, was the recognition of human pain, here, too, was acceptance of human experience. It was this wisdom from my tradition that I wanted to hold onto, even as I left so much behind. “It’s a new beginning,” the rabbi told me, kindly. “Don’t look back. Go forth, become the person you need to be.” I smiled, nodded. Before I left, as they did at the end of my wedding, as they did at the conclusion of divorce ceremonies hundreds of years ago, the rabbis wished me a mazel tov.

Divorced From My Husband, and My Faith - Tova Mirvis - NY Times

[theflipflop]

One of my good friends met his current wife leaving the beis din (Jewish Court) after getting his get ((Jewish divorce document). She was next in line, and they met in passing. They've been married several years now and have several kids together, all being raised in lives deeply rich in Torah and mitzvos.

You never know the mysterious ways hashem works.