פירוש על גיטין 7:3

זה גטך אם מתי, לא אמר כלום – that implies, when I will die, but there is no Jewish bill of divorce after death.

Introduction On several occasions we have noted that husbands may have divorced their wives right before their death (the husband’s, that is) in order to prevent their wives from having to undergo levirate marriage or halitzah (release from levirate marriage). An obvious problem is that a person does not know when they will die. Our mishnah deals with a husband who tries to remedy this problem by making the divorce conditional upon his death.

מחולי זה – implying – from this illness and onwards, for since he died in the midst of this illness, the Jewish bill of divorce would not take effect until after death.

[If a husband says], “This is your get if I die”, [or] “This is your get if I die from this illness”, [or] “This is your get after my death”, he has not said anything. The stipulations that the husband makes in this section cause it to be impossible for the get to be valid, because by the time the get would become valid the husband is already dead. A dead husband cannot divorce, and therefore when this husband dies his wife’s legal status is that of a widow and not a divorcee.

מהיום ולאחר מילה גט ואינו גט – we doubt if he had made a condition to her, “from today if I die,” for when he died, the condition was fulfilled, and it follows that it was a Jewish bill of Divorce from the time he gave it [to her]; and if he retracted, it is that retracted from what he said “from today,” for he said, “after death it will be a Jewish bill of divorce,” and that is meaningless, since he did not say, “from today if I die.”

[If he says, “This is your get] from today if I die”, [or “This is your get] from now if I die”, the get is valid. In this case, the stipulation is effective. When the husband dies, the get will become retroactively effective to the day that he actually gave her the get. This language may have been effective for a husband going off to war, or a husband who has gotten sick and looks like he will die soon. If he returns from war or recovers from illness he can retract the get. However, it would be problematic for a husband who is home and healthy because the minute he says this, he is potentially ending his marriage. This problem shall be dealt with in tomorrow’s mishnah.

חולצת – lest it is not a Jewish bill of divorce

[If he says, “This is your get] from today and after [my] death”, it is both a get and not a get. If he dies [without offspring] she must perform halizah but she cannot marry the husband’s brother. In this case the husband used ambiguous language. We don’t know whether he intended the get to be valid after his death or beforehand. Therefore, the status of the get is doubtful and the halakhah must rule stringently. Should he die without children, she cannot remarry without halitzah, lest the get was not valid and she has a connection to the brother-in-law. However, she cannot have yibbum (levirate marriage) lest she is a divorcee, in which case yibbum is strictly forbidden.

ולא מתיבמת – lest it was a Jewish divorce, and she would thereby the divorcee of his brother, we establish that she is subject to a prohibition which would involve extirpation [for it being violated].

[If he said], “This is your get from today if I die from this illness”, and he then got up and went about and fell sick and died, we estimate [the probable cause of his death]; if he died from the first illness, the get is valid, but otherwise not. In this case, the husband made his divorce conditional upon his dying from his current illness. If he seems to recover and then gets sick and dies, doctors or other qualified people would need to estimate whether he died of the original illness or of another cause. If he died of the original illness she is divorced; if not, she is a widow. If it is doubtful then she is a doubtful widow/divorcee. Again, she would be required to do halitzah and forbidden from contracting yibbum, as we learned in the previous section.