ALIYAH: CONFLICT AND AMBIVALENCE
ALIYAH AND THE MARRIED COUPLE
The halakhah governs(or guides) a wedded pair in its decision to migrate to the Land. There is a certain symmetry in the rulings relating to man and wife as revealed in the following Tannaitic source, a Baraita in B. Ketubot 110b:
[f a man wishes to go up[to Eretz Yisrael] and his wife refuses, she is forced to go up. If she does not consent, she may be divorced without her ketubah. If the wife wishes to go on al/iyah and he refuses, he is forced to go up; if he does not agree, he must divorce her and pay the ketubah."
Maimonides codifies this Talmudic halakhah almost word for word but eliminates the use of force on the man or woman to accompany her/his spouse on aliyah."® The economic sanction against the woman involving the loss of the considerable sum in her ketubal or against the man who must pay this amount was apparently considered sufficient without community pressure. In any event, the Rambam rules that a woman who refuses to go up to the Land of [srael with her husband forfeits the payment of her marriage contract
THE DECEITFUL HUSBAND