Part II
The first part told the facts of the marriage of Yitzchok Nieberg of Mannheim to Leah Gunzhausen of Bonn. The marriage took place in Bonn, but the chosson behaved strangely. He first ran away. When he came back he insisted that the must leave Germany because his life is in danger if he remains. He went to London. He said that he did not want to leave his wife as an agunah and he wished to divorce her. The city of Cleves was on the way to London, and it was decided to do the divorce there. The parents of the young couple did not know of the get.
Paranoia and Melancholy
Lazar Neiberg (father of the groom) and his family waited in Mannheim for some sign of life from the young couple who were living — as far as they knew — in Bonn. Weeks passed, and still the family received no word from Yitzchok. It seemed as if the earth had swallowed him alive.
A messenger, who was sent to Bonn to inquire after the young couple's welfare, returned home empty-handed. Their son, he said, had divorced his wife and travelled to a distant place. As proof, he presented the shtar maaseh beis din that had been issued by the Rav of Cleves.
The Neiberg family was furious. Their anger wasn't directed at the son who had cast shame upon them, but at the parents of the kallah. They claimed that the mechutanim had planned everything from the start.
As the Neibergs saw it, the mechutanim had first schemed to distance Yitzchok from his parents and to isolate him. They then coerced him to divorce his wife and relinquish most of the dowry, as well as his own money. The Neibergs didn't believe that their son had initiated the divorce proceedings.
The father turned to the Rav of the city, Rav Tevele Hess. After a lengthy and wearying discussion, the Rav concluded that although the get had not been forced, the young man in question had not been of sound mind. The get was therefore invalid, and the woman was forbidden to remarry, as she still retained the status of an eishes ish. In order to invest his stand with additional authority, the Rav turned to the battei din of Frankfurt, which were more distinguished and well-known.
In a long and detailed letter, Rav Hess described the chain of events that led up to the divorce. He concluded, saying: "Anyone whose heart is touched with yiras Elokim will be greatly astounded. Is it possible to permit an eishes ish to the world with a get such as this? The statement that this man made to the av beis din (i.e. that he was compelled to flee) was foolishness, which stemmed from paranoia and melancholy. We can't assume that in the short time that elapsed, he recovered and was capable of clear, rational thought."
The members of the Frankfurt beis din convened for a special meeting. They pored over the letter from Mannheim, and noted the ten signatures of Rav Tevele Hess and his beis din. Their intense arguments and deliberations continued for four days. Finally, they reached a consensus: The get was posul. The woman was still an eishes ish.
On the eighth of Tishrei, 5527, the beis din sent a sharp letter to the Rav of Cleves, which briefly described the strange behavior of Yitzchok, of which Rav Lipschitz had been unaware. They expressed shock over the liberty the Rav had taken in granting a get to a shoteh, who "can't even speak rationally and whose face attests to his state of mind." Even so, they continued, they didn't wish to pass judgment on him, for he had been unaware of the chosson's actions at the time of the wedding. Had he known, he surely would have acted differently.
Their psak left no room for doubt or debate: "It is incumbent upon you to declare the wife of Yitzchok Neiberg an agunah immediately and without delay. You must impose a Rabbinic decree on her so that she not rely on the aforementioned get." The letter was signed by Rav Avraham Abish and the six members of the two battei din, among them Rav Nosson Maoz.
Rav Shimon Copenhagen claimed that when he went to Frankfurt in Kislev, 5527 for the purpose of testifying before the beis din, he heard from a reliable source that Rav Avraham Abish had been misled by Rav Nosson Maoz. In the end, asserted Rav Copenhagen, Rav Abish became aware of his error, and cried out bitterly against his colleagues on the beis din. As proof, he pointed out that in the letter to the Rav of Cleves, one could discern that the signature of Rav Abish had been squeezed in after all the other judges had signed. Incidentally, his signature appears only on this first letter, and not on any that follow, which gives additional credence to Rav Copenhagen's claim.
The Rav of Cleves received the letter on the twenty-second of Tishrei. Within six days, his response made its way back to Frankfurt.
He wrote that even had he known of the chosson's actions in Mannheim, he would not have refrained from arranging the get. When the get was given, it was clear to everyone present that the young man was not a shoteh, nor was he in the grip of melancholy such as the rabbonim of Frankfurt and Mannheim described. To the contrary! He was in full possession of his faculties, and "he spoke rationally throughout, just like any other normal person."
The Rav had acted quickly, although this was highly unusual when it came to matters of divorce, out of fear that the chosson would abandon his wife, leaving her an agunah for the rest of her life. There was, however, no foundation for the suspicions and decisions of the chachmei Frankfurt, he concluded emphatically.
A Campaign
Rav Shimon Copenhagen began a vigorous campaign against the Frankfurt psak din. Along with his colleague, the Rav of Cleves, he sent letters to the gedolei hador and the rabbonim of major kehillos. Even in Mannheim, he sought the opinions of his colleagues.
The responses that Rav Copenhagen received were mixed. The Rav of Pelz, near Cleves, Rav Naftoli Hirsch Katzenellenbogen, and his brother, Rav Eliezer, the Rav of Haguenau (France) concurred with the decision of Rav Tevele Hess of Mannheim, who had written to them remarking that this controversy was a "milchemes mitzvah vechovah." They determined that the woman was, without question, still an eishes ish. (Recall that according to the Frankfurt beis din, the woman's status had been left in question. It was only a sofek.)
However the vast majority of the gedolei hador sided with Rav Yisroel Lipschitz of Cleves. Among them were HaRav Shaul Levinstam, the av beis din of Amsterdam and author of the work Binyan Ariel. R' Levinstam didn't reach a decision until the matter was clarified by his nephew (his wife's brother's son), Rav Zalman, who served as rav of the Hamburg shul in London, where Yitzchok Neiberg had taken up residence. HaRav Levinstam also conferred with his brother-in-law (Rav Zalman's father), Rav Yaakov Emden, the Yaavetz from Altona.
Rav Yosef Steinhart and Rav Yitzchok HaLevi Ish Horowitz, who was av beis din of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbek, also joined these three rabbonim in their finding, and even sent a document to Frankfurt stating that they had received a letter from the Rav of Cleves and concurred with him in the matter at hand.
Later two of the generation's greatest poskim joined the supporters of the Rav of Cleves. They were HaRav Aryeh Leib Ginsburg, av beis din of Metz, known as the Shaagas Aryeh, and the Rav of Prague, Rav Yechezkel Landau, the Noda BiYehudah.
Rav Yechezkel Landau, the Noda BiYehudah 
The former wrote a detailed letter regarding the get, and concluded: "As long as I live, I will not allow the daughter of Yaakov (the name of the divorcee's father) to be trampled, [nor] Yisroel, (the name of the Rav of Cleves) to be disgraced. (This was a play on the posuk from Yeshaya, 42:24- "mi nosson limeshisah Yaakov v'Yisroel l'vozezim.")
He permitted the "daughter of Yaakov" to remarry, on the condition that three Ashkenazic gedolim would agree with him. The Noda BiYehudah also sharply attacked the judges of Frankfurt.
In Frankfurt, they tried a practical tack, attempting to get Yitzchok Neiberg to return from London. They succeeded in this, and on the nineteenth of Adar Beis, the divorcer returned to Mannheim. The beis din of Frankfurt summoned the divorcee to appear before them.
At this point, Yaakov Gunzhausen, the woman's father, intervened, and turned to the gedolei hador with a heart-rending cry: "...Necessity forces me to express my terrible pain and sorrow. I cry for my forsaken daughter...Everyone has already heard of the troubles we have encountered. Who has ever heard of such a thing! That the scholars of another city should nullify the act of a well-known rav and gaon, before hearing what he has to say on the matter? Neither they nor their protocols mean anything to me. I won't listen to their decrees, and my daughter and I do not accept them as judges over us. Please, let your compassion be aroused for me and my daughter. Take up arms in our defense against those who refuse to listen to the voice of reason. May He who told the world "enough" say enough to our troubles..."
Beis Din Hagodol
The deliberations took a new turn. Now, the position of the chachmei Frankfurt came under scrutiny. While the Rav of Cleves had repeatedly explained his position in minute detail, the beis din in Frankfurt had concealed their line of reasoning and protocol.
In one of their letters, they wrote: "Boruch Hashem we have no need of others. With the help of Hashem, our beis din can clarify the situation and reach the correct halachic decision without any help from the rest of the chachomim who live in our time. We have no need to consult outsiders. Our mutual decision, based on the protocol and testimony of witnesses, is that the wife of Morenu HaRav Yitzchok Neiberg is of questionable status (sofek megureshes). So she is and so she will remain until she is able to produce a ksav heter from us."
And again: "Boruch Hashem, we have no need to ask the halacha of any of the chachmei hador."
These words aroused all the gedolim of that generation, and resulted in much heated discussion about their position, unrelated to the underlying issues of the get.
The Shaagas Aryeh, who complained that the rabbonei Frankfurt didn't explain the line of reasoning behind their decision, said that he had called upon his beloved colleagues, the dayanim in Frankfurt "to inform me of the underlying logic and reasoning upon which their decision is based." However, "the answer that arrived was like a sealed book."
Their response was in keeping with what they had announced previously in the city. "The gist of their letter was that from them alone would the word of Hashem come forth. They alone would determine whether the woman required another get, without regard for any other chochom, be he small or great."
The Yaavetz wrote in his psak din: "I am greatly aggrieved on account of these men who were at peace with us. They entered a quarrel that wasn't theirs, and took up a crown to which they are not suited. What did these sharp men see, that caused them to take greatness and rulership for themselves?..." How did they dare "to approach and nullify the act of a Rav, without any proper claim or support?"
Rav Shaul of Amsterdam wrote: "I have recently received a letter which stated that no rav or teacher need be involved in this din. To them alone was this teaching given... one must wonder why this gaon and his beis din interfered in an area over which they had no jurisdiction."
End of Part 2
