Who Is Obligated to Pay a Debt to the Cheder When a Divorce Agreement Is Not Being Fulfilled
Question
A divorced woman, where the court ruling stated that the ex-husband is obligated to pay half of the children’s education costs: in practice, she is paying half and he is paying nothing, and a large debt has accumulated to the Talmud Torah. The Talmud Torah asked her many times to pay the debt in full, and she repeatedly told them that the second portion should be requested from the father. Does she have an obligation toward Heaven?
Answer
Shalom u’verachah.
The mother is exempt even toward Heaven.
Source
In my humble opinion, there is a debt here, because the father is not the one who enrolled the children and is not the one who sends them to the Talmud Torah,
and all the dealings are with the mother. Therefore, from the perspective of the Talmud Torah, there is a stipulation of a full debt, and the fact that there is an agreement between her and another person that he will pay her is not binding upon the Talmud Torah (unless, from the outset, when they accepted the children, it was on the understanding that the mother has no connection to the second portion of the payment, similar to an agent who said: “Your wages are upon the employer”). Likewise, one may cite the words of the Shulchan Aruch in siman 77, se’if 1, and in siman 176, se’if 31: two people who borrowed together are both guarantors for one another.
