Q&A: The Ban of Rabbeinu Gershom
The Ban of Rabbeinu Gershom
Question
Does a wife’s giving of a bill of divorce disqualify the husband from marrying additional women? After all, before the enactments of Rabbeinu Gershom, it was possible to marry more than one wife.
The question is of course being asked in light of current events. (And of course, to really understand whether there is a prohibition here and how severe it is.)
Answer
I’m not sure I understood what is meant by a wife’s giving a bill of divorce. An act of giving a bill of divorce by the wife to the husband has no halakhic significance. After such a “giving,” the couple is still fully married according to Jewish law.
Discussion on Answer
Correction to the original question:
Does a refusal to receive a bill of divorce (on the wife’s part) disqualify the husband from marrying additional women?
In what way can she make her receiving the bill of divorce conditional?
After all, before the enactments of Rabbeinu Gershom, it was possible to marry more than one wife.?
The question is of course being asked in light of current events. (And of course, to really understand whether there is a prohibition here and how severe it is.)
The husband does not need to receive anything at all from his wife.
For some reason I forgot (a Freudian slip?) to add the word “not”—that is, “Does not giving a bill of divorce…” etc.
What do you mean, it has no significance? Doesn’t the husband need to receive a bill of divorce from his wife in order to get divorced, just as she needs to receive one from him (in order to get divorced)?