Word: din
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...bridal gown, and organ chords from Lohengrin; most divorces are carried out in the dry, drab ritual of a civil court.But unlike Catholics and Protestants, Orthodox Jews have their own formal religious ceremony to sunder a marriage.Performing this seldom seen rite is the job of Manhattan's Beth Din (meaning court of justice), which last week completed its first full year of operation as the nation's most unusual divorce tribunal...
Organized by the Rabbinical Council of America, Beth Din is primarily concerned with providing Gittin (religious divorces) to Orthodox believers, although its services are available to Reform and Conservative Jews as well. Beth Din also conducts seminars for rabbis on the complexities of Jewish marriage law and rules on such peculiarly Jewish questions as whether a marriage can be voided because the witnesses did not keep the Sabbath or dietary laws...
...Orthodox Jew," explains Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, 51, president of Beth Din, "a Get is a must. You can never tell when you're going to fall in love with an Orthodox Jew, and when that happens a civil divorce is not enough. You must also have a religious divorce." Rabbis can grant divorces, but this has led to abuses-for example, Gittin from improperly ordained rabbis turned out to be invalid...
...grant from Philanthropist Gustav Stern, a retired birdseed producer. Beth Din at first intended to take only divorces involving religious problems. But Beth Din's 25 rabbis soon found themselves dealing with marriages wrecked by psychological, sexual and economic difficulties as well. The court does what it can to shore up sagging marriages before agreeing to grant a Get-and does remarkably well. Of the 500 problem marriages handled by Beth Din in its first year, all but 5% were saved. Says Rabbi Rackman: "We have made some contribution to domestic tranquillity...
John Jacob Niles entered and retired from the hall to the din of a reverent ovation, and that made him happy. For Niles was obviously pleased to be at Harvard, to "step temporarily out of retirement," to "peer into the bright, charming, and eager faces" that surrounded him, and relive once again the ballads and love songs that have been his life...