Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Concern for an Unfulfilled Condition

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The braisa (Kiddushin 60) had stated: If someone says, “This is your get on condition that you give me two hundred zuz,” even if the get is torn or lost, she is divorced. She should not marry someone else until she gives him the money.

Rashi explains that we are concerned that she will remarry, and if she doesn’t give the money, it will emerge that she was never divorced, and her second marriage would be an adulterous one!

The Ran writes that we can derive from this halachah to any case where a man divorces his wife with a condition; she may not remarry before the condition is met, for otherwise, her second marriage would be an adulterous one!

The Ran challenges this principle from a Gemora in Gittin (83a): Rabbi Akiva said: What happens if after this Get (if one divorces his wife and stipulates that she can marry anyone except for one certain man), she marries a man and has children from him, and then subsequently he divorces her or dies? If she now goes and marries the man that her first husband forbade her to marry, this would make her first Get invalid and the children from her second marriage are rendered mamzeirim! The Gemora asks: According to this question all conditions made in gittin should not be valid, as she could always marry someone first, have children, and then not fulfill the condition! This is the question on Rabbi Akiva’s question.

It would seem from this Gemora that we are not concerned by an ordinary condition that it will not end up being fulfilled!?

The Ran differentiates between conditions that require an action, and those that don’t. In our case, the woman must give the two hundred zuz to the man. Here we are concerned that due to an accident, she will not give him the money. However, in the case in Gittin, we are not concerned that she will willingly violate the condition.

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