QUESTION:
I read with interest your blogpost:
I have a question of my own that I would like you to discuss on your blog if possible.
You
mentioned that a GET arising from (media) pressure towards the husband
is invalid and future children from that wife with a subsequent husband
are mamzerim. Please can you clarify whether a GET that was achieved by
money being paid to the husband is equally invalid as it is also a form
of coercion? I would welcome such a halachic ruling as it would
undermine
extortion by husbands who seek to blackmail wives for their GET.
Many thanks,
ANSWER:
Paying the husband to give a GET is not extortion. The wife who wants a GET has caused the husband great suffering and has usually taken away his children to some degree that causes him much misery. Why should she not have to pay him something for this? The Torah does not give the woman a right to just leave the husband and take her children, unless the husband gives the GET willingly. If the husband wants to suffer all of the financial losses and emotional pain of the wife taking his children, and maybe his house, and his good name, that is one thing. But if he has no obligation to give a GET, and the wife pays him to give it, nobody extorted money from him and the GET is valid. This happens all of the time and nobody ever said it was extortion. But if the wife's side threatens the husband with loss of money, if he doesn't divorce, that is an invalid GET.
