Gittin 73: Uncommon, Unavoidable Accidents; "Family Court"

We continue to learn about gittin that are written in advance of the potential divorce.  A husband might want to give a wife a get in the case that his illness worsens, or he dies, or other similar circumstances.   The rabbis compare these situations to those of a husband giving a gift on his deathbed and not dying immediately, a person selling land that is appropriated by the government, and sailors that take responsibility for the delivery of merchandise across a river that is dammed.  The rabbis seem to be trying to prove that in all of these cases, uncommon and unavoidable accidents allow for leniencies.  The get is valid, the gift can be received, the land purchaser cannot return his purchase, and the sailors are not responsible for the cost of donkeys to carry the merchandise beyond the river.

A new Mishna teaches that when a husband gives a wife a conditional get during his illness, it is unclear whether they are married or divorced in the days between receiving the get and the day the husband dies.  Must the husband and wife retain two witnesses if they are to be secluded together.?  In such circumstances, servants and slaves could be witnesses but maidservants could not.  The rabbis believe that wives might engage in intercourse in the presence of their maidservants because of the intimate nature of that relationship.Rabbi Yehuda says that a wife is like a married woman in all ways at this time, and she is thus forbidden to other men.  Rabbi Yosei believes it is not clear whether or not she is divorced.

The rabbis discuss the need for a second divorce if the couple were to have sexual relations after the wife received her get.  They also speak of licentiousness, which seems a bizarre way of characterizing intercourse between two people who just recently divorced due to the imminent death of the husband.  Is such intercourse a betrothal?  Beit Shammai say that it is not a betrothal nor do they require a second divorce.  Beit Hillel disagree.

The rabbis discuss when the get might take effect.  Not after the husband dies, certainly, but what about just a moment before he dies?  Or perhaps days before he dies?  Or, as Rabbi Meir would argue, does the get take effect as it is delivered? 

Again it feels that the rabbis are using non-congruous analogies to help them understand what should be done in the case of divorce.  Similar to the 'family courts' of modern times, contracts regarding marriage are inherently different to other contracts.  Although women were property in the times of the Talmud, they were also people with individual and collective rights.