Takkanah: On Respecting the Bill of Divorce

I further decreed at the market gathering at Troyes, under pain of a severe oath and a severe decree, that no Jew may object to any bill of divorce after it has been delivered, not even immediately afterward. If he has any objection, he should raise it before it is given. If it was not given in his presence, he may not say, “Had it been given in front of me, I would have issued this or that objection, to the bill of divorce or the witnesses or something else.”

We issued a decree and a ban with regard to all this, with an oath and excommunication [shamta]—death is there [sham mita] and he will be desolation [shemama yiheyeh; see b. Mo‘ed Katan 17a]—and with the blast of a ram’s horn, to exact punishment from him and from his whole family. May he be cursed and excommunicated by Israel. None shall have the authority to release him, until a priest arises with the Urim and Tummim [see Ezra 2:63].

However, people may release the ban between them, so that they can engage in business dealings with the one who is banned, but only occasionally and not on a permanent basis.

For there was much dispute in Israel over this issue, since unruly ones—who listen when it is in order to distance someone but not to draw them near—and those of lowly lineage use it to bring down the exalted and to raise up the lowly [see Ezekiel 17:24]. Meanwhile, crafty individuals might cite the ban, saying, “If it were not for the decree, I could provide a counter argument,” so that others listen silently to what he has to say. May the Omnipresent place him under a ban and remove him from his home and from his toil, before his stock has taken root in the earth [see Isaiah 40:24].

We have done everything for the sake of heaven, on account of the swindlers, the smooth-speaking flatterers; let them melt away like water (Psalms 58:8) while we will be guiltless before the Lord, the living God. May He, for His mercies’ sake, show us the path of truth and peace.

Jacob ben R. Meir