QUESTION: This problem is involved in the situation which is described in the letter which follows:
"You may be aware that in Great Britain there seems to be now a more or less concentrated attack on the Reform Movement, especially in connection with the acceptance by Orthodox authorities of marriages conducted in our synagogues It has gone so far as to cast doubts that Orthodox synagogues would accept such marriages as valid, and it has been intimated that the Jewish status of children from such marriage may be in question. I speak of marriages among Jewish persons, excluding proselytes."(Dr. W. Van der Zyl, Senior Minister of the West London Synagogue, London )
ANSWER: There are certain technical differences between Orthodox and Reform marriages as to witnesses, ketubah, and so forth. Some Orthodox authorities in England have spoken of declaring marriages performed by Liberal or Reform rabbis invalid. Is such a declaration of invalidity justified by the halakha itself? In general, what is the validity in Orthodox law of marriages in which procedure varies from that which is normally required by Orthodox laws.
Orthodox Jewish marriage requires a minyan present at the ceremony, a ketubah and kosher witnesses to the declaration of marriage, the giving of the ring the reciting of the seven blessings, and so forth. While all these observances are required, are they indispensable? Suppose a marriage takes place without some of them; what is it in Jewish law which makes a marriage valid?
It must be noted that this question has been an important one and
a practical one for many centuries: for example, in the case of the Marranos in Spain and Portugal who escaped to Jewish communities
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