One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הִלְכוֹת גֵּרוּשִׁין
Divorce · Chapter 12
Sefer Nashim · Whose word is accepted that a marriage has ended, and why
1
Witness enough to free
a missing man's wife
5
Women whose testimony
is not accepted at all
2
Witnesses reckoned
as a hundred
4
Fears behind refusing
a husband's admission
Part 1Her Own Mouth, and His
- The mouth that forbade is the mouth that permits. A woman about whom nothing is known who says "I was married, and now I am divorced" is believed, since the only source for her being forbidden is her own statement; she is adding, not retracting, and the Maggid Mishneh holds this even long afterward. (12:1)
- Against a presumption her word fails, yet still binds. Where she and a man have lived openly as husband and wife, her claim that he divorced her does not permit remarriage until she brings proof. But she has disqualified herself from the priesthood forever, and if he dies childless she performs chalitzah rather than yibbum, since her account may be true. She made herself forbidden by her own words. (12:1, 12:3)
- A get in her hand outweighs his protest. Two witnesses to the divorce permit her even without the document, and a get she produces is accepted without verifying the signatures. "It fell from me and she found it" fails, because he admits he wrote it for her; but "it was conditional," "it was for safekeeping," or "it is a forgery" force her to verify the signatures or produce the witnesses to its transfer. (12:2-3)
- His own admission does not divorce her. A husband who says "I divorced my wife" is not believed, even when she agrees, leaving her a doubtful divorcee. Four fears: that he means to trap her into an adulterous second marriage, that the get was void and he does not know, that she speaks brazenly because he accepts her word, or that she does not grasp the prohibition. The court's answer: you are both here, divorce her again in our presence. (12:5)
RememberHer unproven claim works only in the direction that costs her: no license to remarry, but a permanent bar to the priesthood.
Part 2Brazenness, and What Destroys It
- Believed to his face. If she says in her husband's presence that he divorced her and the get is lost, and he denies it, her word is accepted, because a woman would not make so brazen a statement in front of her husband. The whole presumption depends on his being there. (12:4)
- Support destroys the presumption. Two witnesses saying she was divorced and two saying she was not leave her presumed married, even to his face, because once witnesses back her she may speak brazenly; if she remarries she must leave and the child is illegitimate. The same collapse happens when her husband and the agent both corroborate her story about a lost get. (12:6, 12:12)
- How recent the divorce was changes the ruling. If the witnesses say it happened just now, the court says: produce your get. If they say it was days ago, the get may genuinely be lost, and if she marries one of her own witnesses and claims certainty she is not forced out, since she and he both know. Marrying a stranger, she is forced out and the child's status is in question. (12:7)
- What the neighbors would have known. Two saying "we saw she was divorced" against two saying "we did not see it": if all live in one courtyard she should not marry, since it would have been noticed. If she married anyway she need not leave and the child is legitimate, because people often divorce in privacy. An agent holding the get is believed over the husband's claim of safekeeping. (12:8, 12:11)
RememberCorroboration is not always help: the witnesses who back her are what cost her her credibility, because they lifted off the pressure that made it reliable.
Part 3The Husband Who Does Not Return
- Her own word frees her. If the couple traveled overseas while at peace with each other and the world was at peace, and she returns saying her husband died, she may remarry or perform yibbum on her own account, because she would not invite ruin on herself when the matter is certain to be revealed. (12:15)
- Evidence the Torah would otherwise refuse. Here one witness counts as two count elsewhere, and a servant, a woman, a maidservant, or a witness repeating what he heard are all accepted, none of which Scriptural law admits. This is a deliberate leniency of the Sages so that women are not left bound. (12:15)
- Five women are refused outright. Her mother-in-law, her mother-in-law's daughter, another wife of her husband, her yevamah, and her husband's daughter from another marriage are presumed to hate her, and their testimony about his death is not accepted. The fear is that they will say he is dead while he lives, so that she marries and is destroyed when he returns. (12:16)
- A remark beats a deposition. A gentile's statement made in the course of ordinary conversation is accepted and she may remarry on it; made with the intent to testify, it is refused. A Jew disqualified by Scriptural law for a transgression is likewise refused as a witness yet accepted when speaking casually, for he is no worse than a gentile; one disqualified only by rabbinic law may testify here. (12:16-17)
RememberThe hinge of the whole second half is that the matter will ultimately be revealed, which is what lets the law accept proof it would reject anywhere else.
Part 4Counting Contradictions
- Two against two is doubt. Two witnesses saying he died against two saying he did not: she may not marry, and if she did she must leave, unless she married one of the witnesses who testified for her and says "I am certain that he died." (12:23)
- Simultaneous contradiction blocks her. When one says he died and one says he did not, or one woman each way, she may not marry and must leave if she did, because the matter is in doubt and neither mouth outweighs the other. (12:19)
- One acceptable witness is not outvoted. If one acceptable witness says he died while many witnesses disqualified by rabbinic law say he did not, the matter is evenly balanced rather than decided against her. But where the lone first witness was himself a woman or rabbinically disqualified, two proper witnesses against him prevail. (12:20-21)
- Among the disqualified, the majority rules. One woman saying he lives against two saying he died permits her, and ten against eleven likewise, because "two are reckoned as a hundred" applies only to acceptable witnesses. And a co-wife can neither permit her nor forbid her; "he died" and "he was killed" both free their wives. (12:22, 12:24)
RememberA mouth that cannot permit her cannot forbid her either, which is why a rival wife's denial changes nothing at all.