[Avodah] Kiddushin and Bigamy

[Zev Sero]

On 3/12/2010 1:25 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> RSZN, on Areivim, pointed us to<http://www.forward.com/articles/133568>,
> a story about someone who thinks he can marry a second wife al pi halakhah
> as long as there is no civil registration violating NY State law.
>
> The names sound Sepharadi, so I'll assume these aren't descendents of
> people who accepted Rabbeinu Gershom's charamim. Still, it's minhag at
> this point not to remarry without a heter mei'ah rabbanim.
>
> I was wondering if the qiddushin would even be chal. Presumably he said
> "kedas Mosheh veYisrael". Isn't minhag part of "das Yisrael"?

You obviously didn't read the story.  The man gave his first wife a get,
and al pi halacha is completely free to marry someone else.  There is
no reason why he should wait for the civil divorce to come through.
The Torah has no objection to him marrying again, and the law has no
objection to his shacking up with another woman while still married,
so where is the problem?  The *only* effect of his kidushin and nisuin
with the second woman is to turn what would be zenus into a mitzvah;
thus it is a pure religious observance, and any attempt by the state to
the ban is in blatant violation of the first amendment and therefore
void.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher