Reply To: Refusing to give or accept a get

Veltz Meshugener: I’m sorry, I’m not following your point. Indeed Rabbeinu Gershom expresses a preference for dual consent(*). And that is exactly my point. If only one party wishes to divorce, they have no right without the other party consenting to it, as per Rabbeinu Gershom. If one party demands a divorce and the other party wishes to continue remaining married, declining a divorce is both within the letter and the spirit of the law and of Rabbeinu Gershom’s cherem. There is nothing jerky about sincerely exercising your legal rights that are explicitly granted to you for this very reason to exercise. I’ve explained all this in greater detail in my second comment above.

Rabbeinu Gershom specifically gave wives the right to decline to be divorced and to insist on remaining married to her husband. There is no reason she should not exercise this rabbinic right of hers if she sincerely wishes to. And the same vice versa regarding the husband.

(*) I don’t think Torah law does, though.