What a Get Cannot Finish

About This Talk

Chapter 5 grades four acts by what each can actually finish and states the hierarchy outright: a get does not dissolve the yavam's connection entirely, a ma'amar does not acquire her completely, only the marriage establishes the bond in a complete manner and only chalitzah dissolves the connection entirely. A get from any yavam disqualifies this yevamah and the deceased's other wives from yibbum with him and every brother, as though chalitzah had been performed, yet leaves her unable to marry anyone, and that power is Rabbinic, decreed because a get ends a marriage and disqualifies a woman from the priesthood; a ma'amar consecrates without making her a married woman, so nullifying it needs a get and permitting her to others still needs chalitzah; and the chapter turns on intention, since a get given to nullify a ma'amar negates what he brought about and frees her for yibbum with his brothers while forbidding her to him, a point the Rambam marks with "it appears to me," whereas a get given to sever his connection to her bars yibbum with every brother and obliges him to give a second get for the ma'amar and perform chalitzah besides. A ma'amar is acceptable only when given at the outset with nothing before it and nothing after it except the marriage with the same yavam, so that any get, chalitzah, marriage or further ma'amar, from him or a brother, to her or another wife, before or after, renders it unacceptable, leaving exactly one sound sequence; the marriage is acceptable at the outset or after his own ma'amar; chalitzah at the outset is superior and chalitzah preceded by a get or ma'amar anywhere in the household is inferior. Consequences spread across a household of widows: acceptable relations or a superior chalitzah with one frees them all, while unacceptable relations or an unacceptable ma'amar with one bars every wife from yibbum, requires a get for the woman involved and chalitzah from each of them, and an inferior chalitzah permits only the woman who performed it until all of them perform chalitzah or all the brothers perform it with her. Relations always require a get to end, acceptable or not and even after chalitzah, and a ma'amar of either grade requires its own get; repetition is asymmetric, since a get after a get and a ma'amar after a ma'amar each take effect while relations after relations and chalitzah after chalitzah are of no consequence, so two gittin to two wives forbid the giver the relatives of both although neither was necessary, while a second chalitzah is treated as chalitzah with a woman never obligated to him and does not forbid her relatives, and once one brother has married her another brother's acts are empty. Where two brothers each married one of the wives and the order is unknown both must give gittin, after which the women may marry others and are forbidden to the brothers, and the Rambam illustrates with Reuven in Jerusalem, wives in Akko and Tyre, Shimon in Akko and Levi in Tyre, ruling that no brother should act before knowing what the other did, though one who prefers chalitzah now is not prevented. A yavam over nine years and a day but under majority acts with the force of an adult's ma'amar only, his ma'amar at the outset barring her to his adult brothers but counting for nothing after theirs, while his get and chalitzah are always of no consequence since the chalitzah passage speaks of a man, so relations before majority and none after leave her needing both a get and chalitzah, and a man of twenty showing neither maturity nor impotency stands in the same category. The chapter ends with capacity: the marriage of a minor who may annul by mi'un and of a woman who can neither hear nor speak are both Rabbinic but for opposite reasons, the first so men would not treat her unrestrainedly and the second so she would not remain unmarried forever; where all the widows are minors or all cannot hear or speak, relations with one frees them all; Scriptural standing outranks Rabbinic, so relations or chalitzah with a competent woman past majority frees a minor or a woman who cannot hear or speak but never the reverse; and because chalitzah requires speech and understanding, a woman who can neither hear nor speak has no release at all, so where she and a minor are both widowed the minor is instructed to use mi'un and the brother is told to marry her.