I have just attended a name-reading session at a rabbinical court designed to ascertain just what names should be written in my ‘get’. The rabbinical court judge took down my wife’s details , mine and that of our parents. I am a new immigrant and suspect that he misunderstood some of the instructions about spelling, though when I queried him he insisted he had understood perfectly. I was too embarrassed to argue with him. What would happen if our names were wrongly written in the ‘get’ and yet a divorce ceremony was conducted using it ?
By: דיאנה שאלתיאל•Published on: 09 May, 2022Firstly, it is preferable to double or even treble check the spelling of all names required so that any mistakes can be corrected before the actual ‘get’ ceremony takes place . All names used by the parties, including nicknames, and parents’ names must be included, and spelt accurately.
If there is a mistake in the ‘get’, it renders it void according to Jewish Law (Din Torah). This has grave consequences for the woman. If the mistake is only discovered after the divorce ceremony, then a woman, who thought she was divorced would actually be still regarded as married. If she had remarried before the mistake was discovered, it is likely that she will have to leave her second husband and any children they had together will be bastards (‘’Mamzer’im’ ). The solution would be to make a new ‘get’ which corrected the mistakes, and to conduct the divorce ceremony again, to end the marriage properly