One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
גירושין
Gerushin 9
Sefer Nashim · Divorce · The get that takes effect later: why a deferred divorce is not a conditional one, what a dying man must say, and how exactly an agent's instructions bind.
30
Days: the chapter's standard deferral
200
Zuz: the act that completes a get
2
Signatures that carry the get
0
Restatements a deferred get needs
Part 1Deferred Is Not Conditional
- Two divorces that look alike. In a conditional get the divorce has already been performed and only awaits completion, so the document need merely exist when the condition is met and she need not take hold of it. A get that takes effect after a time, or on an act, is not a divorce yet at all: it is an entrusted object, and it must be in her possession, taken up by her then, or lying in a place she designated (9:1, 9:5)
- What that costs her. If the husband dies, or the get is lost or burned, inside the deferral, she is not divorced. If she remarried before the time arrived she must leave the second husband and the child is illegitimate, whereas in a true conditional get she need not leave. Because it is not a condition, none of the formal requirements of conditions apply, including restating it in positive and negative form (9:1-9:2, 9:5)
- Where she may leave it. A get she set aside at the side of the public domain and that was stolen after the 30 days still divorces her, since it existed on the day it took effect and the sides of the public domain are not the public domain. The same rules govern a get made to depend on an act, such as paying 200 zuz (9:3-9:4)
- A sentence with only a failure clause does nothing. "If you do not give me 200 zuz, this get is not effective," or "you are not divorced," is not a divorce at all, neither conditional nor deferred. The correct form states both halves: if he does not return within 30 days the get is effective, and if he does return it is not (9:6-9:7)
RememberA deferred get is a deposit in her hand, not a divorce in progress. It has to survive until the day it starts.
Part 2Illness, Death, and Forces Beyond Control
- Ones is not accepted in gittin. A man who divorced on condition that he not return within 30 days, set out in time, and was stopped by illness or a flooded river, is divorced when the days run out. Even his protest that forces beyond his control held him back, and even his evident wish that the divorce not take effect, change nothing (9:8)
- "If I die" is void; "from the present time" is valid. A get said to take effect if he dies is void, since there is no divorce after death. Said to take effect retroactively from the present time if he dies, it is valid. Say "from the present time" and then add "after my death," and her status is in doubt. With "from the present time onward if I do not return within twelve months," death inside the twelve months still leaves the divorce effective (9:11-9:15)
- No retraction, and a real interim. A mortally ill man who divorces and then recovers cannot retract it; a divorce is not governed by the rules of his gifts. And through the days between the giving and the condition's fulfillment she is a divorced woman with regard to all matters, provided he does not enter into privacy with her (9:16, 9:19)
- The formula built for a frightened man. To spare his wife the rite of yibbum without declaring the get effective from now: "If I do not die, this get will not be effective. If I die, this get will be effective. If I do not die, this get will not be effective." Condition stated twice, positive before negative, opening words not speaking of misfortune, and the get must reach her before his death (9:20)
RememberEvery place the law refuses to be flexible with him, it is being reliable for her.
Part 3Agents, Timing, Exact Instructions
- Loose deadlines get precise windows. "Write it after a month" means the first week of the coming month; after a year, the first month of the coming year; after the Sabbath, by the end of Tuesday; before the Sabbath, Wednesday through Friday. Written early it is void even if delivered on time; written in time but delivered after his death it is void; delayed a fortnight past the window it is unacceptable (9:22-9:24)
- How many must write and sign. Told to write, sign and give, one writes, two sign and one delivers, valid even if one man does all three. "All of you sign," or counting them off, binds every one of them: the first two are the true witnesses, so an unfit signature among the later ones does no harm while an unfit first signature makes the get unacceptable, and one of the group dying before signing voids it. Witnesses sign in each other's presence so she is not handed a document that merely looks finished (9:26-9:29)
- Place and manner are the limits of authority. "Give it to her in such a place" and delivery elsewhere is void; "she is in such a place" is only a direction and delivery elsewhere is fine. Her agent appointed to receive her get in a named place cannot receive it elsewhere; her agent appointed to bring it may bring it from anywhere. Writers told to hand it to a named agent have effected nothing if they deliver it themselves (9:31, 9:33-9:34)
- When an agent may pass the task on. An agent stopped by illness or by forces beyond his control may appoint another, and may do so even inside a 30 day deferral since he will act once it ends. Not where the husband made it personal, told him to collect an article from her, or named who must hand it over. The order matters too: told to take the article first, he must (9:35-9:40)
RememberThe Rambam breaks off here to say his own teachers ruled wrongly on one of these cases, because their copies of the Talmud were flawed (9:31).