[Avodah] forcing a GET

[Daniel Eidensohn]

Just want to go on record as disagreeing with Rabbi Bergers understanding
- I am not going to rehash something which has been discussed in great
detail on [another venue]

I'll simply comment on one of his assertions

Rabbi Berger states "This is also against Israeli norm, *where many
gittin* are given under the threat of imprisonment."

I just posted a translation of Justice Menachem Elon (2005) regarding
the matter: (he also disagrees with Rabbi Berger's understanding that
we posken like the Rambam)

He states:
*In reality however this[use of imprisonment] almost never happens.*
Let me explain my words. According to the section of the law, it is
possible to imprison the husband in a case where the beis din has
ordered that the husband be forced to give a get. However if the beis
din only issues a ruling that the husband is obligated to give a get -
and sometimes the language is even weaker and they simply say that it
is a mitzva to give a get or that it is proper to give a get -- then
it is not allowed to imprison the recalcitrant husband. The reason that
the law requires that the beis din specifies that the husband is to be
forced before he can be imprisoned is in order to avoid the possibility
of a get me'usa. A get me'usa is a get which is coerced against the will
of the husband and is thus invalid. *There are only a limited number of
cases where force can used in giving a get according to the halacha.*
Thus it is understandable why the secular law included a clause that a
husband can not be imprisoned when he refuses to give a get except when
the rabbinic court rules that it is necessary to force him to give a get.

*In fact the rabbinic courts very rarely issues a psak which says to
force get*. In the overwhelming majority of cases it simply says that
there is an obligation to give the get or languae which is even milder.
That is consistent with the view of those religious authorities that one
does not psaken to force a get except in a small number of rare cases
which are explicitly mentioned in the Talmud.