| name | israeli-divorce-navigator |
| description | Walks a person through the Israeli divorce process end to end: the rabbinical-court vs. family-court jurisdiction choice and the joinder doctrine (kricha), the mandatory intake track (bakasha leyishuv sikhsukh and the MAHUT meetings under the 2014 family-disputes law) and the urgent-relief / protective-order carve-out, property balancing (izun mashabim, default 50/50 under the 1973 law, with section 8 deviation), spousal maintenance (mezonot isha) vs. child support (mezonot yeladim) and the Bagatz 919/15 shared-custody reform, custody / parental responsibility, the ketubah, common-law partners (yeduim betzibur), and the get plus get-refusal sanctions. Use when someone in Israel is starting or facing girushin and needs a roadmap, a property-balancing worksheet, or draft divorce-agreement clauses. Do NOT use for pension-split math (use israeli-pension-advisor), and always recommend a family lawyer for the actual filing. |
| license | MIT |
Israeli Divorce Navigator
Problem
Israeli divorce runs on two parallel court systems, a mandatory intake step you cannot skip, and a property-division rule whose exceptions trip up almost everyone. People lose real leverage by filing in the wrong forum, by assuming a clean 50/50 split, or by not realizing the marriage is not dissolved until a get is granted. This skill turns that maze into an ordered roadmap and gives the person concrete worksheets and draft clauses to bring to a lawyer.
Instructions
You are a navigator, not the lawyer. Give the person a clear map and decision criteria, produce the worksheet and draft clauses, and hand the actual filing and signature to a family lawyer (עורך דין לענייני משפחה). Never invent a statute section, amount, or waiting period. If a fact is not below, describe the process qualitatively and route to the source.
Step 1: frame the two forums and how matters get attached (joinder)
Israel has no civil divorce for Jews. Two forums matter:
| Matter | Rabbinical court (בית דין רבני) | Family court (בית המשפט לענייני משפחה) |
|---|
| The get (גט) that dissolves the marriage | Exclusive, under Jewish law (חוק שיפוט בתי דין רבניים (נישואין וגירושין), תשי"ג-1953) | No jurisdiction |
| Property balancing (איזון משאבים) | Concurrent | Concurrent |
| Spousal maintenance (מזונות אישה) | Concurrent | Concurrent |
| Child support (מזונות ילדים) | Only with both parties' consent | Concurrent |
| Custody / parental responsibility | Concurrent | Concurrent |
| Get-refusal sanctions (צווי הגבלה) | Yes, under חוק בתי דין רבניים (קיום פסקי דין של גירושין), תשנ"ה-1995 | No |
The get always goes to the rabbinical court and only there. For the concurrent matters, do NOT reduce the choice to "whoever files first wins." The governing doctrine is joinder (כריכה): a spouse can attach (join) the ancillary matters to a divorce claim in the rabbinical court, and that court then hears them instead of the family court. A valid joinder is not about filing order alone; it turns on three cumulative conditions a court tests together:
- the divorce claim is genuine (תביעת גירושין כנה),
- the joinder is genuine (כריכה כנה),
- the joinder was done lawfully (כריכה כדין).
If all three hold, the rabbinical court acquires jurisdiction over the joined matters, which can include property division, spousal maintenance (מזונות אישה), and custody. Two hard limits: the rabbinical court has NO jurisdiction over child support (מזונות ילדים) unless BOTH parties consent, and chronology still matters only as a tie-breaker for a matter that was not validly joined. Tell the person the forum and the joinder are a genuine strategic decision a lawyer must make fast, sometimes within days. See references/court-jurisdiction-comparison.md.
Step 2: the mandatory intake, and the urgent-relief carve-out
Before litigating in either forum the person generally files a Request to Resolve a Dispute (בקשה ליישוב סכסוך) under the family-disputes law of 2014 (חוק להסדר התדיינויות בסכסוכי משפחה, תשע"ה-2014). Then:
- The parties attend up to four MAHUT meetings (פגישות מהו"ת, meaning information, acquaintance and coordination) at an assistance unit (יחידת סיוע). All MAHUT meetings are held within 45 days of filing.
- A stay of proceedings of 60 days applies, during which the applicant may not file other family claims; the assistance unit may extend it once by 15 days.
CRITICAL, and this is a safety point: the stay does NOT block urgent relief (סעד דחוף). Domestic violence, exit-from-country, urgent maintenance, securing a minor's contact, and medical matters are express exceptions the court can decide urgently, within about 14 days, without waiting out the stay. In particular, a domestic-violence protective order (צו הגנה) under the Prevention of Family Violence Law, 5751-1991 (חוק למניעת אלימות במשפחה, התשנ"א-1991) can be obtained urgently, including where a person is in a domestic-violence shelter. Never tell someone in danger that they must sit through the intake before they can get protection; route them to file for a צו הגנה and urgent relief immediately, and to a lawyer or a domestic-violence hotline.
Flag that filing the Request also interacts with the forum question, so where and when it is filed is itself a lawyer question.
Step 3: build the property balance (izun mashabim)
Default rule under the Spousal Property Relations Law, 5733-1973 (חוק יחסי ממון בין בני זוג, תשל"ג-1973), section 5: on dissolution each spouse is entitled to half the value of ALL the couple's assets, EXCEPT a closed list of exclusions. You balance value, not physical items.
Excluded from the balance (section 5):
- Assets owned before the marriage (ערב הנישואין).
- Gifts and inheritances received during the marriage (מתנה או ירושה).
- National Insurance / Bituach Leumi benefits (גמלה מהמוסד לביטוח לאומי).
- Personal-injury compensation (פיצוי בגין נזק גוף).
- Anything agreed in writing not to balance.
Included by default, because the balance covers future rights accrued during the marriage: pension, manager's insurance (ביטוח מנהלים), and severance pay (פיצויי פרישה) built up during the marriage are part of the balanced property. Route the pension and actuarial split to the israeli-pension-advisor skill.
50/50 is the default, not a guarantee: under section 8 (סעיף 8) the court has the power to order that the division not be equal, and to fix qualitatively when the balance is measured (for example the severance or valuation date), where an equal split would be unjust. Present the equal split as the default the court can vary.
Tax note: real-estate transfers between spouses that are incident to the divorce are generally exempt from betterment tax (מס שבח) and purchase tax (מס רכישה). Do not state a statute section for this; route the exact mechanics and eligibility to a tax adviser or accountant.
Walk the person through references/izun-mashabim-worksheet.md, classify each asset as balanceable or excluded, subtract marital debts, then compute the equalizing payment. The bundled scripts/izun_mashabim.py does the arithmetic for the 50/50 default. Flag commingling (for example a pre-marriage apartment retitled jointly) as a lawyer question, do not decide it.
Timing lever: section 5א allows early balancing (הקדמת איזון) before the get is finalized once a balancing request is filed and a condition is met, for example a year has passed since a dissolution proceeding or property claim opened; the court may extend by three months in a written reasoned decision. This helps when one spouse stalls the get to freeze the money.
Step 4: spousal maintenance vs. child support (do not conflate them)
These are two SEPARATE claims with different bases, payers, and durations. A layperson runs them together; keep them apart.
Spousal maintenance (מזונות אישה): a married woman can claim maintenance from her husband as long as the marriage has not been dissolved (כל עוד לא הותר קשר הנישואין). It is paid until the divorce or until a divorce ruling is given. Where the spouses have no personal-law maintenance duty (for example a couple defined as "without religion", חסרי דת), the duty falls under the Family Law Amendment (Maintenance) Law, 5719-1959 (חוק לתיקון דיני המשפחה (מזונות), התשי"ט-1959). Levers and limits to flag: a woman who works may, outside special cases, lose the entitlement, and a wife found to be a מורדת can forfeit both her spousal maintenance and her ketubah. When a husband refuses the get, withheld maintenance (מזונות מעוכבת) is a pressure lever, because his maintenance duty continues while the marriage is not dissolved.
Child support (מזונות ילדים): paid for the children, follows the payer's personal law and, from age 6, the 919/15 time-and-income split (see Step 5). It is owed independently of any spousal maintenance, runs on the children's needs and ages, and does not end at the divorce the way spousal maintenance does.
Step 5: children (custody and child support)
Custody and place of residence follow the best interests of the child under the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law, 5722-1962 (חוק הכשרות המשפטית והאפוטרופסות, תשכ"ב-1962). Section 25 carries the tender-age presumption that children up to age 6 are with their mother absent special circumstances; today the framing has shifted toward shared parental responsibility, so present it as a presumption a court can rebut, not a guarantee.
Child support (mezonot yeladim) follows the personal law of the payer. Under Jewish law and case law, from birth to age 6 the father bears an absolute obligation for the child's necessary needs regardless of his financial ability. From age 6, per בע"מ 919/15 (Supreme Court, July 2017), in shared custody both parents bear support jointly, split by the time each parent spends with the children and by the ratio of their incomes. Do not quote a shekel figure; explain the method and route the number to a lawyer.
Step 6: the get, get-refusal remedies, and the ketubah
The marriage is not dissolved until a get is granted by the rabbinical court. A spouse trapped without a get is an עגונה (commonly, a מסורבת גט, a get-refused spouse). Suing on grounds can lead the rabbinical court to a ruling that obliges the get (חיוב גט) or, in narrower cases, compels it (כפיית גט). If a spouse still refuses, the court can impose restrictive orders (צווי הגבלה) under the 1995 enforcement law, and the list is broad: barring leaving the country, restricting an Israeli passport, restricting getting, holding or renewing a driver's license, seizing real estate and movable property (לעקל מקרקעין ומיטלטלין), placing a lien on a pension or allowance (עיקול על גמלה או קצבה), and in the hardest cases imprisonment. A civil tort suit (תביעת נזיקין) against a recalcitrant spouse has also been used as a separate pressure route. Tell the person a signed money-and-children agreement does not end the marriage on its own; the get is a separate, mandatory step.
The ketubah (כתובה): the ketubah sum is a monetary claim the wife can collect from the husband on divorce, adjudicated in the rabbinical court. It is part of the money picture but can be reduced or defeated where the wife is found to be a מורדת or in cases of adultery. Treat the amount as a lawyer question, not a fixed number.
Step 7: common-law partners (ידועים בציבור) change the whole map
If the couple are not married but are common-law partners (ידועים בציבור), the map above shifts. Their property is not decided by the Spousal Property Relations Law (חוק יחסי ממון); it runs on the presumption of community property (חזקת השיתוף) and general law, proved case by case. There is no get and no rabbinical-court marriage-dissolution step, though maintenance and children questions can still arise. Flag early whether the couple were actually married, because it changes which law and which forum apply.
Step 8: mediation and the agreement
Mediation (גישור) is the main way to avoid a contested fight: the couple reaches a divorce agreement (הסכם גירושין) with a mediator. The agreement must be submitted to the court or rabbinical tribunal for approval to receive the force of a binding judgment. When drafting clause skeletons, cover: property balancing per the worksheet, a parenting plan (residence, parenting time, decision-making), child support method, spousal maintenance where relevant, and an explicit clause that the parties will complete the get. Mark every draft clause as a starting point for a lawyer to finalize.
Examples
Example 1: high-earner spouse, pre-marriage apartment
A user says his wife filed for property division in the family court yesterday and asks if his apartment (bought before the wedding, still only in his name) gets split. Response: explain that under section 5 pre-marriage assets are excluded from the balance, so the apartment is presumptively his, but warn that if it was ever retitled jointly or heavily funded from joint money the exclusion can erode, which is a lawyer question. Then note that his wife filing first in the family court may have started the race to jurisdiction on the concurrent property matter, so he should see a lawyer quickly about his own filing.
Example 2: shared custody, who pays mezonot
A father with true 50/50 shared custody of an 8-year-old, earning about the same as the mother, asks how much child support he owes. Response: explain that for age 6 and up, בע"מ 919/15 splits support by time and income ratio rather than putting it all on the father, so with equal time and similar incomes the transfer can be small or none, but the exact number depends on both incomes and expenses and must be set with a lawyer. Do not state a figure.
Example 3: get refusal
A woman has a signed divorce agreement but her husband will not give the get. Response: explain that the agreement settles money and children but does not dissolve the marriage; only a get from the rabbinical court does. Point her to the refusal-sanction route (צווי הגבלה) under the 1995 law and recommend a family lawyer to file for the get and the sanctions.
Gotchas
- Do NOT assume a flat 50/50 on everything. Section 5 excludes pre-marriage assets, gifts, inheritances, National Insurance benefits, and injury compensation, and under section 8 (סעיף 8) the court can order an unequal division. Applying community-property 50/50 to a pre-marriage apartment, or treating the equal split as guaranteed, is a classic error.
- Do NOT conflate spousal maintenance (מזונות אישה) with child support (מזונות ילדים). They have different bases, payers, and durations: spousal maintenance is the husband's duty to the wife and ends at the divorce; child support is for the children and does not.
- Do NOT conflate custody with who pays support. Custody follows best interests; support liability follows personal law and, from age 6, the 919/15 time-and-income split. A parent can have shared custody and still owe or receive support.
- Do NOT tell someone in danger to wait out the intake. Urgent relief (סעד דחוף), including a domestic-violence protective order (צו הגנה) under חוק למניעת אלימות במשפחה, התשנ"א-1991, plus exit-from-country, urgent maintenance, and medical matters, is an express exception the 60-day stay does not block. Otherwise you generally cannot litigate before filing the Request to Resolve a Dispute and going through the MAHUT meetings.
- Do NOT apply the married-couple map to common-law partners (ידועים בציבור). Their property runs on חזקת השיתוף and general law, not חוק יחסי ממון, and there is no get.
- Do NOT tell the person the family court can grant the get. The get is exclusive to the rabbinical court; a family-court money-and-children ruling leaves the couple still married.
- Do NOT quote a specific child-support shekel amount, a specific izun payment, or a ketubah sum as fact. Produce the method and worksheet, and route the number to a lawyer.
Reference Links
Bundled Resources
scripts/izun_mashabim.py: computes a 50/50 property-balancing worksheet and the equalizing payment from a JSON or CLI list of assets and debts. Run with --example for a worked case.references/domain-checklist.md: coverage contract (must / should / out of scope) and the balance sub-dimensions.references/izun-mashabim-worksheet.md: step-by-step method for building the property balance.references/court-jurisdiction-comparison.md: rabbinical vs. family court and the race to jurisdiction.
Troubleshooting
- The user asks for pension division math: stop and route to the
israeli-pension-advisor skill; this skill only flags pensions as balanceable, it does not do the actuarial split.
- The user wants you to file or draft a binding document for signature: produce a draft skeleton only and recommend a family lawyer to finalize and file. State the legal facts, but do not present the skill as a substitute for a lawyer.
- The user gives incomes and expects an exact mezonot number: give the method (personal law under 6, 919/15 time-and-income split from 6) and explain the number must be set with a lawyer or the court.
- A fact the user needs is not in this skill: describe the process qualitatively and send them to the matching Reference Link rather than guessing a section number or amount.
