This small book, on civil marriages and divorce in Jewish law, was published by Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ferber of London and printed by Israel Narodiczky in 1937. It has been reprinted, but this is the original first edition.
In this book, Rabbi Ferber quotes the views of many batei din (rabbinical courts) and poskim (Jewish legal scholars) from Europe and across the world. Nearly all the legal scholars agreed civil marriages do not require a Jewish divorce (get).
A civil divorce in Jewish law does not count. The offspring of a non-divorced, and therefore married, woman who has a relationship with a Jewish man are considered ‘mamzerim’, which is the Jewish legal term for those born of an adulterous relationship.
However, Rabbi Ferber quotes the views of many scholars that the children of a civil marriage are not mamzerim, although it is best to try and obtain a get.
The only two Rabbis that he quotes who disagree are Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, who was then in the United States, and Rabbi Yosef Rosen, known as the ‘Rogachover’. Rabbi Henkin was one of the leading halachic authorities of his generation, and was particularly expert in the laws of divorce. He held that witnessed civil marriages were halachically binding.
Notable in this book is the footnote to siman aleph disapproving of the decisions of some ‘Rev.’s – by which he means British Jewish Reverends who may or may not have had semicha (their Rabbinical diploma).
Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Ferber was born in Kovno, Lithuania, in 1879. He was a renowned Torah and Talmudic scholar who had studied in the Slabodka Yeshiva. He emigrated to Manchester, England in 1911 and was appointed the first Principal of the new Manchester Yeshiva (Rabbinical School), which was founded by Rabbis Yehoshua Dov Silverstone, Yisroel Yoffey, Menachem Dagutski and Hershel Levin. In 1913 Rabbi Ferber moved to London and became the Rabbi and leader of the West End Talmud Torah Synagogue (Kehilas Yeshurun) in Soho, London, until his retirement in 1955. Living close by, in Soho, he visited the reading room of the British Museum almost daily.
Rabbi Ferber was a prolific author and was renowned as a riveting orator who gave his sermons in Yiddish. He was active in communal affairs, and established the Chesed V’emeth Burial Society in 1915. He was for many years the honorary secretary of the London “Vaad Harabonim” (Rabbinical Council of the Federation of Synagogues) and chairman of the Association of London Rabbis (“Hisachdus Harabonim”). He was a member of the World Rabbinical council of Agudas Yisroel. He closely collaborated with Rabbi Dr Meir Jung and Rabbi Dr Victor Schonfeld in communal issues. He was a friend of Rabbi Kook, Chief Rabbi of Palestine, from the time that the latter was Rabbi of Machzike Hadath in Brick Lane in London. Rabbi Ferber died in November 1966.
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