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

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

See also David, Uriah, and Batsheva

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

I just read "Rashi's Daughters: Miriam" by Maggie Anton (good book, btw). She put some effort into her scholarship and it shows.
There are several male characters in the book who are merchants who travel far away to obtain goods to sell at home, they have sort of "standing gets" that their wives keep just in case.

[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.

[nobble.livejournal.com]

Hi Monica!

On the whole Ketubah thang....I'm having a civil ceremony next year, my partner isn't jewish but I want the trappings...do you know of a decent source of civil 'ketubah' words? I've seen a couple of them around the traps nothing has lept out.