A new Mishna teaches us that a husband can give his wife the get on the condition that she pay him a sum of money - 200 dinars, for example, which is significant. In that case, they are said to be divorced only when she gives him that money.
How can this be? First, and this is not discussed by the Gemara initially, how can the get come with a caveat like money owed? The point of the get is that the wife is guaranteed sustenance if the couple divorces. If she owes her husband money, then only a wealthy woman can meet the condition of such a get.
The Gemara immediately focuses on whether a woman is divorced as soon as she receives the get or whether she is divorced later, when she actually pays the money that her husband has stipulated. If thirty days are given to pay that sum, is she married or divorced over those thirty days? The rabbis wonder whether we can learn something from betrothal, where the betrothal is valid upon the exchange of money or through sexual intercourse. But at this point in time, they note, husband is eager to be close to his wife. In a time of divorce, he is not craving that closeness - in fact, he could set up this condition simply to hurt his wife.
After much discussion, the rabbis basically agree that a get offered with a condition is considered to be valid retroactively from the date that those words are spoken. The rabbis also look to other circumstances that might encourage the rabbis to rule leniently on 'ownership'. If a group of sharecroppers each water the field once over the course of the summer but one of them does not need to do so because it rains at that time, should he receive the same compensation as the others? He did not need to give the same investment in advance.... but he had prepared to do so.
The rabbis clearly wish to protect people from the ill effects of unforeseen circumstances. Their arguments are attempts to balance that desire with the need to verify their interpretation of G-d's will through previously determined halachot.
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