daf bit: Bava Batra 160

[cellio]

The mishna describes two types of legal documents, a plain one, requiring the signatures of two witnesses, and an elaborately-constructed folded document requiring three or more witnesses' signatures. Why did the rabbis institute this second type of document? The g'mara says it was done in a place inhabited by hot-tempered priests (kohanim) who would divorce their wives for the slightest little thing. Because a priest cannot marry a divorced woman, once this was done they could not restore the marriage. Since the elaborate folded document takes time and effort to prepare, the rabbis required it for bills of divorce so that the husbands would have the chance to cool down and reconsider. (160b)

Comments

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

The same reasoning, presumably, behind Islam's requirement that "I divorce you!" be pronounced three times.

[cellio]

I wonder if Islam imposes a minimum spacing between the "I divorce you"s. If not, you can spit that out in under 5 seconds. :-(