"In the middle of the wedding, my wife stepped on my foot," a husband from Samaria told the rabbinical court in the Samaria city of Ariel. "It's a custom of sorts, that instead of the husband ruling the home, the wife steps on his foot so that she will rule him."
Ariel Rabbinic Court Head Rabbi Meir Freeman and members Rabbis Meir Kahan and Yitzhak Rappaport were asked to decide on two issues which came up under the marriage canopy: The bride stepping on her new husband's foot, and the sum of money stipulated in the ketuba (Jewish marriage contract).
Apparently, the officiating rabbi made a mistake when he wrote in the amount of money the husband promised to give his wife in case of divorce.
According to the husband, since his wife stepped on his foot during the wedding, she has become a completely different person and his life has been a living purgatory.
"She yells at me, and curses me and my family," he told the judges. "She's not willing to do anything for me, not even basic things such as cooking and laundry. Her screams are impossible to handle - she calls me 'a big pile of nothing' and a 'loser.' She calls my older sister a 'parasite' and a 'user.' She calls my second sister 'ugly and disgusting,' and my third sister, who lives in the US, is 'the rich queen.'"
Regarding the marriage contract, the husband said he told the rabbi to write in the numerical value of G-d's name (26) multiplied by one thousand. Instead, the rabbi accidentally wrote 260,000 NIS. While reading out the contract under the marriage canopy, the rabbi read "the agreed-upon sum" but did not mention an exact sum.
"If he had mentioned the sum while reading it, I would have corrected him and said the sum is 26,000 NIS not 260,000 NIS," the husband insisted.
In their ruling, the rabbinical judges wrote that since the husband did not bring solid enough proof of his claims, the woman is eligible to receive the full 260,000 NIS. In addition, a "bad wife" does not lose the sum promised to her in the marriage contract.
Despite the fact that the wedding video did indeed show the rabbi reading "the agreed-upon sum" instead of mentioning a specific amount, the rabbinic court ruled that the sum of 260,000 is legally binding since it had been signed and witnessed.
"The two sides divorced, at the husband's request and with the agreement of the wife," the rabbinic court wrote in their ruling. "The husband agrees to pay the wife 260,000 NIS, as agreed on in their marriage contract."