daf bit: Gittin 76

[cellio]

The mishna teaches: if a man says to his wife "this is your get (bill of divorce) if I do not return within twelve months" and he dies in that year, it is not a valid get and she is not divorced. However, if he says "this is your get from now if I do not return", and he dies, it is a valid get. The mishna later makes clear that a get's "effective date" must fall within the lifetime of the man issuing it. (76b)

I have heard anecdotally, though I don't know how common it was, that men would sometimes write gets before setting out on dangerous journeys, lest they be killed but that not be provable (e.g. sea voyages). That would be to avoid the problem of the agunah, the woman who cannot remarry because she has no get (and it cannot be proven that her husband is dead). I suspect that the mishna here is discussing that sort of case, though it does not say so explicitly. (Why else would someone set up a time-delay divorce?)

Comments

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I would hope that things would be handled reasonably in the edge case of LATER discovery that the man *had* provably died before the effective date of the get, but the discovery was made after things had happened on the assumption that the get was valid.

[cellio]

I believe that is how they would rule. Ex post facto some things can be accepted that would not be permitted had you set out to do them. An example of this from kashrut: if you accidentally dribble some milk into your pot of beef stew and the quantity is less than one part in sixty, you can still eat it. You may not, however, make a very-slightly-cream sauce from the outset.

Halacha is concerned with what is correct, but also with what will cause real hardship.