Sunday, February 14, 2016

Gittin 55 – More decrees to help society

After the destruction of the Temple and a big national defeat, the Sages were given a chance to formulate a new way of life that would last for the next two millenniums in Yavneh. Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgeda testified there about some laws that he remembered. Some of them dealt with the benefit of society.

For example, a deaf-mute girl, whom her father gave in marriage, can be divorced with a Get – even though she is not legally competent to accept it. This is true because a woman could be divorced against her will (until the Sages decreed otherwise).

Rava derived from here that if a man prepares a Get, tells a witness in secret that he is going to divorce his wife - but then tells his wife that it is a loan document that he wants her to accept – she is nevertheless divorced. But this is obvious!? – Rava had to tell this us because otherwise, we could think that the man annuls the Get by calling it a “loan document” – so Rava tells us that he is doing this out of embarrassment.

Another enactment: if someone stole a beam and made it part of his house, then by right, he should disassemble the house and return the beam. Yet the Sages decreed that he could just return the cost. Why did they do it? – To make it easier for those who want to repent of their previous theft.

Art: The Secret by Edmund Blair Leighton

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