I understand that the accepted Torah view when a man sues his wife for divorce and the marrage is completely over, is that he should give the get without delay.
Is there any basis for the view that a man is entitled to know the terms of the divorce settlement befor he gives the get and so the Beth Din can advise him to sign the papers and leave them with the Beth Din until the terms of the divorce have been agreed? In what type of senario would the beth Din gave such advise?
Answer:
The reason we want to give the get without delay is because Beth Din doesn’t want men to use the get as a bargaining tool, giving them a potentially powerful and unfair advantage over wives who are desperate to receive a get.
However, in cases where the man stands to lose in a manner that Beth Din does not consider just, for instance if the law gives “unfair” advantage to the wife in questions of custody etc., Beth Din will not object to the husband making the get contingent on a clause of the settlement.
The issue is very delicate, because on the one hand Beth Din doens’t want men blackmailing their wives, yet on the other, in most situations a get cannot be forced on the man.
In this situation the husband had refused to give the Get. Could this ‘condition’ be used by the Beth Din as a loop-hole to persuade the man to at least give some committment?
I’m not sure which “condition” you mean. Beis Din can make certain conditions contingent on giving the get, but the question is why the husband has refused to give the get, what are his demands, and how he can be convinced to give the get.
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