Chalitzah Ceremony: Rare Jewish Legal Ritual in Antwerp

Antwerp saw a ceremony this week that hasn't played out in the city in years, as rabbis, dayanim and hundreds of residents packed into a hall to witness a chalitzah, the ancient and intricate halachic procedure that releases a widow from the obligation of levirate marriage.

The Av Beit Din of Antwerp, Harav Aharon Shiff, personally asked Harav Aharon Dovid Dunner, the Av Beit Din of London, to travel in and run the proceeding from beginning to end. As one Antwerp resident put it to Kikar HaShabbat, the beit din Rav Dunner heads in London, the Federation of Synagogues, regularly handles Europe's thorniest cases involving agunot, questions of mamzerut and chalitzah. Outside Israel, rabbinical courts have no power to compel compliance the way a state court would, so the dayanim who do this work have to be exceptional, and Rav Dunner in particular is known for his mastery of every detail, right down to the precise way the special chalitzah shoe is tied.

Rav Dunner arrived in Antwerp on Monday, a day ahead of the ceremony, and immediately got to work with the local dayanim scouting out exactly where it should take place, as halacha requires. Rav Shiff and the other local rabbis joined him for that walkthrough, watching closely as the details were worked out.

By Tuesday, the hall was full. Word had clearly spread, because rabbis and residents kept arriving until there was standing room only. Six senior dayanim sat at the center. Rav Shiff, Rav Dunner and Harav Amram Hennig sat together at the head of the panel, flanked by two silent dayanim, as is customary for this ceremony, Harav Yitzchok Zeikel Follik and Harav Eliezer Shimon Eckstein. Harav Asher Chaim Sternbuch and Harav Sholom Greenfeld served as the witnesses charged with the halachic responsibility for the act.

The room went quiet as the special shoe was fitted onto the man's foot, everyone following along in booklets that had been printed just for the occasion. The moment it came off, the crowd called out together, three times, "chalutz hana'al, chalutz hana'al, chalutz hana'al."

Once the procedure was complete and the woman was free to remarry, the dayanim led the crowd in the blessing traditionally recited at that moment, that the daughters of Israel should never again find themselves needing chalitzah or yibum.

Rav Dunner didn't head straight back to London. He spent the rest of the day visiting the city's leading rabbis, stopping in on the Peshevorsker Rebbe and on Rav Shiff himself, where he was received warmly and stayed on to talk in learning.