The Ministry of Religious Affairs is preparing a law proposal by which it will be illegal for any rabbi to perform a private wedding without having the wedding first reported to the Rabbanut - and any rabbi who does will be at risk of a punishment of up to two years of jail time!
What's so bad about not involving the Rabbanut?
It seems there are many cases in which not reporting ends up causing distress to people involved, at some point or another. For example, if a man refuses to give a get to his wife, he generally cannot get married to another woman. If, however, his marriage is not listed with the Rabbanut, they have no way of preventing that. From the other perspective, an unwitting woman could also get married without reporting, and in some situations it could lead to violations of "eishet ish" - marrying a woman who is already married. Another common situation is when one of the parties is a convert - without proper registration, who is going to check that the entire conversion process was completed properly?
If the marriage is not reported, the proper background checks are not being done. The officiating rabbi could be creating an immediate problem, marrying off someone who should not be getting married, or he might be casing a problem later in which the dissolution of the marriage will also not be recorded which can cause heartache later.
(source: Kikar, NRG)
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