Photo Credit: Jewish Press

Ideally, the Get ceremony should be conducted with the husband and wife in the same room. Present at the ceremony is a court of three members, chaired by the mesader haget who acts as the officiating rabbi. Present also are the scribe and two witnesses.

In order to make sure that all the requirements of a valid Get are met, the officiating rabbi asks many questions of each of the participants in the ceremony. The thrust of these questions is to ensure that at every stage of the ceremony the following requirements for a valid Get are fulfilled: that the husband and the wife are giving and receiving the Get of their own free will; that the scribe is writing the Get and the witnesses are signing it with the husband and wife getting divorced in mind; that the husband has not and will not revoke the Get before it is delivered to the wife; that the husband has instructed the scribe to write the Get the witnesses have read and understands its contents; and that the witnesses have seen the writing, signing, and delivery of the Get.

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Once the officiating rabbi is satisfied that the husband is giving the Get of his own free will, he requests that the husband revoke any statement he may have made in the past nullifying any Get he might give in the future.

Then the attending scribe picks up his pen and paper and gives them to the husband as a gift. This is done in order to comply with the halachic requirement that the Get be written with pen and paper belonging to the husband. It also avoids any delaying tactics on the part of the husband, who may claim he forgot to bring pen and paper with him.

The husband now hands the pen and paper to the scribe and instructs him, in the presence of the witnesses, to write a Get for him and his wife. The scribe then confirms to the witnesses that he has been so instructed by the husband and that he is writing the Get with this husband and this wife in mind. He then writes the Get while the witnesses watch.

When the Get is written, it is given to each witness to read and to sign in the presence of each other and in the presence of all the other participants in the ceremony. The witnesses articulate that they are signing the Get with this husband and this wife in mind. The officiating rabbi then checks that the Get has been properly written and properly signed and again asks all the participants the questions mentioned above.

The rabbi then invites additional people into the room so that the Get can be delivered in the presence of ten individuals, which renders the divorce public knowledge, thereby making it more difficult for anybody to challenge the authenticity of the Get.

The rabbi asks the wife to state whether she consents to the Get. The husband and wife then stand facing each other in the presence of the rabbi and the other two members of the court and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the Get. These same witnesses will now attest to the delivery of the Get.

The rabbi then explains to the husband that the main purpose of the witnesses is to testify to the delivery of the Get and he requests the husband to instruct the witnesses to watch the delivery. The wife cups her hands together and stretches them out toward the husband. The scribe folds the Get and hands it to the rabbi, who in turn hands it to the husband. The husband then places the Get in the cupped hands of the wife. While so doing the husband says, “This is your Get, please accept it, you are divorced from me as of this moment and you are free to marry another man.”

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Raphael Grunfeld received semicha in Yoreh Yoreh from Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem of America and in Yadin Yadin from Rav Dovid Feinstein. A partner at the Wall Street law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, Rabbi Grunfeld is the author of “Ner Eyal: A Guide to Seder Nashim, Nezikin, Kodashim, Taharot and Zerayim” and “Ner Eyal: A Guide to the Laws of Shabbat and Festivals in Seder Moed.” Questions for the author can be sent to [email protected].