[Avodah] remarriage after divorce

[Zev Sero]

t613k at aol.com wrote:
> I want to ask the chevra whether there is any possible work-around or 
> exception to the rule that a couple cannot remarry after a divorce if 
> the woman had subsequently married someone else? [...]  When I told 
> him he can't marry her, he asked me, "Well, can we live in sin?"  It 
> certainly doesn't seem that that would be mutar either, but would it be 
> worse or better, or no different, from actually marrying her? 

The most obvious first resort would be to look carefully at both marriages.
If some serious flaw can be found in one of them that can retroactively
make it passul, then at least a remarriage would not be an issur de'oraita,
though it would probably still be assur mid'rabbanan.

But if nothing can be found, then it would seem to me that it would indeed
be better for them to live in sin than to get married.  A penuyah is, at
least according to the Ramban, only an issur derabbanan, and the Yaavetz
allows a pilegesh even lechatchilah.  Even according to the Rambam it
would seem to me that if they're not married then they'll only be doing
an avera a very small percentage of the time, whereas if they get married
then they'll be doing an avera every moment that they don't get divorced.
And of course if they're not married then if one of them does teshuvah
they can just leave; whereas if they're married then they'll need a get,
which requires the other party's cooperation, at least in practise if not
in theory.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher