Marriage

In the 1960s, my grandfather who apparently was a kohen fell in love with a convert to Judaism. He knew he was not supposed to marry her, but they were madly in love, and he married her under the auspices of a Conservative rabbi, who was open to such a marriage. He remained orthodox otherwise, and he and his wife moved to a new community and kept this secret, not admitting the truth. His surname was not one associated with kohanim and he didn’t tell anyone he was a kohen. He went on to have five children and many grandchildren, myself included, and many great grandchildren, with more likely in the future. Earlier this year, my grandfather died at a ripe old age. My uncle went through some of his belongings and discovered the truth. I always knew my grandmother was a convert, but I didn’t know until recently that my grandfather was a kohen who violated Jewish law. What impact does this have on me and my family?

Dear Rabbi, I am a 62 year-old man who went through a civil divorce after 22 years of marriage. I am planning to remarry this April 2023 to a woman who was widowed. My ex-wife has no plans to remarry. as a man, is it required for me to have a GET? My ex-wife is not observant and does not request one from me. Am I allowed to proceed to my new marriage without one?

I'm having a marriage of 23 years. We are not a perfect match. Never went the same direction. My wife did thing based on her own opinion, never kept her word. I'm tired. My sons, 17 and 13, know we aren't a good association. I can't stand her. ¿How do I know when is time to leave?

What are a husband’s rights when his wife refuses to have sex with him? Is it permitted to have sex with another woman?

I have been to several orthodox weddings lately and noticed that there seem to be a lot of people crashing them. I have not seen this to the same degree at any other weddings. First, a lot of people who are not invited come to the ceremony only. That’s not unusual. But I’ve also seen many more people come to dance and/or socialize, but they don’t eat anything and they view it that they are not stealing food or putting a burden of cost on anyone. For example, one wedding I went to recently had seating room for 120 guests (15 tables of 8 each), but there had to be close to 300 people dancing. I’ve seen others come uninvited and they either share a meal with an invited guest they know or take an empty spot at the meal of a no-show. I’ve seen that happening at the exact tables where I have sat. And there are people who come for the cocktail hour and feel they are not stealing because there is lots of food just being handed out that would otherwise go to waste. Before I became friendly with so many orthodox people, I went to a lot of non-orthodox and non-Jewish weddings where if anyone crashed, it was usually just a single digit number of people. But I’ve never seen anything like what I’ve seen in the orthodox community here. Is there any reason for this?

This is a topic that has gone to the US Supreme Court, and now I am faced with it myself. I have a startup business that I run out of my home making invitations for weddings and other events. I’ve been running it singlehandedly for less than a year. I’ve done it for Jewish and non-Jewish weddings alike and even some intermarriages all without thinking of that as an issue. Now for the first time ever, I got a request for invitations from two Jewish gay men who are planning to marry each other. And this issue has suddenly struck me. Is it permitted for me to take them on as a client?