Q:
It was mentioned here that divorce is a sin. So how do you explain the verse in the Torah that says a man can give his wife a divorce?
A:
And the answer is it’s a sin but he has power to do a sin.
Sometimes you pass by an operating room in the hospital and if they let you peek in you see a terrible thing. A doctor is taking off a hand; he’s cutting off someone’s hand. Now, to cut off a hand is a terrible thing. Suppose you saw that doctor on the street cutting off a man’s hand. What would you do? At least you’d call the police. Probably you’d rush in, swinging a stick at him. But in the operating room you know that it has to be done.
And therefore sometimes divorce is an amputation which is necessary; but when it comes to that necessity, it’s such a big sin – sometimes of one party, sometimes of two parties – that you can’t get away from the fact that it is a sin. If you will come to such a state; if you fought so much and so bitterly that it’s already beyond healing chas v’shalom and then you divorce, so it’s an amputation. But suppose you could have avoided amputation? Certainly it’s a sin. If a man will get a rusty nail in his hand chas v’shalom and then he must amputate his hand, it’s a sin. Who told him to risk his hand?
TAPE # 206
