When a couple’s relationship runs aground and they decide to divorce, they must settle various issues that go beyond the divorce itself, especially when they have children together and/or have accumulated significant joint property. These issues generally include support payments, child custody, and the division of joint property, and they are settled through a divorce agreement.
In principle, these issues can be resolved by filing divorce claims before the Rabbinical Court or the Family Court, which will hear the parties’ arguments and rule on them. In reality, though, the couple has a better option: reaching mutual understandings on all of these issues within the framework of a divorce agreement. This route is far preferable to litigation, which by its nature consumes money, precious time, and emotional energy. It also spares the couple the painful and unnecessary clashes that so often characterize divorce lawsuits, and that do real harm both to them and to their children.
How to make a divorce agreement
In principle, a couple can prepare a divorce agreement on their own, without professional guidance. However, for the divorce agreement to be a genuinely good, fair, and professional one, an agreement that protects the rights of the parties and above all the rights of their children, and that stands a better chance of actually being honored, it is highly recommended to prepare it through an attorney who knows divorce law well and who is also experienced in mediating between parties when disputes arise that they cannot resolve on their own. Each of the parties can be represented by an attorney of their own. Alternatively, both spouses can use one attorney who drafts the agreement for both of them, which also saves the cost of double attorney fees.
What are the terms of a divorce agreement?
In general, a divorce agreement can include any terms the spouses wish, from how their joint property will be divided to who keeps the dog or the cat. That said, it customarily covers at least the following main topics:
First condition: the mutual agreement to divorce
This is a very important issue, meant to ensure that the parties will actually grant each other the long-awaited get, rather than wearing each other down before it is given, if at all. Quite a few spouses delay their consent to the divorce in order to extract concessions from the other side, including on everything that concerns the division of joint property. Unfortunately, there are even spouses who refuse for years to grant a get without any justification, leaving the other party chained to a dead marriage and miserable through no fault of their own. To secure the divorce, it is also advisable to state in the agreement that the parties undertake to seek approval of the divorce agreement, to open the divorce case at the Rabbinical Court, and to do everything required to complete the divorce as soon as possible.
Second condition: child custody
When the parties have children together, custody of the children is also one of the most important issues. The parties must decide whether they want permanent custody granted to only one of them, with the other receiving parenting time, or whether they want to establish joint custody. Naturally, this issue also has a decisive impact on the amount of child support payments.
Third condition: support payments
Divorce agreements customarily set child support payments, and sometimes spousal support payments as well. The amount of child support is affected by a range of factors, including whether custody is sole or shared between the parties.
Fourth condition: division of joint property
When a couple owns joint property, they must decide how to divide it between them, especially when they own a shared residential apartment. For example, the husband may decide to transfer his share of the apartment to the wife without any additional payment, or in exchange for her agreeing to a lower support payment, or in exchange for a payment from the wife equal to the market value of his share in the apartment. Alternatively, the couple may agree to sell the apartment to a third party and split the proceeds between them. Beyond the apartment itself, they must also decide how to divide its contents, bank accounts, vehicles, pension funds, and so on. To the extent the couple also has joint debts, they must decide how to divide those as well.
Approval of the divorce agreement
For a divorce agreement to take effect, the couple must not only sign it but also have it approved by the Rabbinical Court or the Family Court (Section 2 of the Spouses (Property Relations) Law, 5733-1973). This sets the divorce agreement apart from ordinary agreements, which take effect immediately upon signing, without any need for approval by a legal body.
At the same time, approval gives the agreement more than ordinary contractual force: it gives it the validity of a judgment, like the judgment issued in a divorce lawsuit. This means that if one of the parties violates the divorce agreement, the other party can enforce it through the Enforcement and Collection Authority, just as a judgment in a divorce lawsuit or any other judgment is enforced.
It should also be stressed that approval of a divorce agreement is not automatic. The Rabbinical Court or the Family Court does not serve as a rubber stamp. It must first make sure that the spouses fully understand the agreement’s content and meaning, that they signed it of their own free will, and that the agreement does not disadvantage either spouse or their children.
Changing or canceling a divorce agreement
Just as a divorce agreement must be approved by the Family Court or the Rabbinical Court in order to take effect, it can also be changed or canceled by them.
The change or cancellation is handled by the same forum that approved the divorce agreement in the first place. An agreement approved by the Family Court will be changed or canceled only by the Family Court, while a divorce agreement approved by the Rabbinical Court will be changed or canceled only by the Rabbinical Court.
However, changing a divorce agreement is not done lightly. It must be proven that a substantial change in circumstances has occurred relative to the circumstances that existed when the agreement was approved. For example, to change the amount of child support the father must pay his children, it must be shown that a substantial and lasting change of circumstances justifies the change. A significant deterioration in the father’s financial situation could be grounds for reducing the child support, while a significant deterioration in the mother’s financial situation could be grounds for increasing it, and so on.
A divorce agreement will not be canceled lightly either, but only in exceptional and significant cases that justify it. Since it is an agreement that carries the force of a judgment, it can be canceled both on the grounds for cancellation found in contract law and on the grounds for canceling an agreement that has received the force of a judgment. The contract law grounds include exploitation, duress, mistake, deception, fraud, a sham contract, and more. The judgment-related grounds concern cases where there was a defect in the process of approving the divorce agreement by the Rabbinical Court or the Family Court, for example, when the court approved the divorce agreement without first making sure that the spouses truly understood its content and meaning and signed it of their own free will.
* Updated for 2026
