Question:
B”H
Kavod haRav,
Thank you for your help.
Regarding the story of the man who betrothed a lady on condition that he is a tzadik and because he had a thought of teshuva, the marriage is considered valid-
I was wondering if in such a situation, the lady was agreeing to marry him, or he was able to marry her without her consent? If a lady does not want to marry a man, but he (in front of two kosher witnesses and after quickly giving her a present) says the words that are said to effect a marriage, would he be able to (according to halacha) marry her even without her consent, or is consent (as well as intent to effect kiddushin) by both parties fundamentally required for kiddushin to take effect?
Thank you sincerely.
Answer:
Hello,
We cannot marry a woman without her consentas the marriage of an adult woman can only be done with her consent.
The case that you are referring to, is a case that is meant to bring out the point that even if a person had a thought of teshuva, he can technically be considered a tzaddik, and it is possible that the kiddushin would be valid. It isn’t automatically valid because we don’t know if he indeed did have thoughts of teshuva before giving her the ring. The point of the case is not to determine if the woman agreed or not, rather that even if she did agree, if the man is not a tzaddik the kiddushin would not be valid. However, since it is possible that he did have thoughts of teshuva beforehand, we cannot automatically determine that it isn’t valid, rather it remains a “safek kiddushin”, because of this possibility
Best wishes
