Reply To: what does "Get refusal" mean?

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#1199817
Joseph
Participant

There are numerous cases brought in the Gemorah and Shulchan Aruch where when a spouse requests a divorce the Halacha is that the Beis Din denies the request and informs the petitioner to go back to living with their spouse despite their desire to divorce. And there are numerous Teshuvos throughout the centuries, from ancient to modern, ruling that the spouse cannot circumvent a denial of a divorce petition by unilaterally absconding from the marital home. Wrongfully doing so does not create a new backdoor method to obtaining what rightfully is not granted.

So the idea that if one spouse unilaterally wishes to terminate the marriage then it is automatically only mentchlich for the other spouse to acquiese to the demand and has some moral obligation to grant it, despite their being no legal obligation to do so, because “I do not want to stay married to someone who does not want to married to me” is clearly wrong as stated by Chazal and paskened l’halacha that oftentimes a divorce petition is denied and the party told to resume marital life with the spouse they wanted to divorce.

When asking gittin/shalom bayis shailos, one should address the shaila to the same caliber Rov as one would submit a shaila whether to pull the plug on grandpa’s respirator. Both are pekuach nefesh shailos that aren’t asked to the corner shtiebele rabbi. And surely vet any potential shalom bayis therapist with Daas Torah prior to going to a therapist who could potentially make a bad situation worse c’v.