Even though I am not intending to blog, still it did occur to me to mention something that I was pondering about while at the sea today. That is the fact that a "get" [doc of divorce] needs the desire of the husband, not just his willingness. This is a startling fact that casts doubt on almost all gitin nowadays. For it is the custom to force the husband against his will by many different means. Financial and others sorts of threats. That is OK as far as gaining his willingness to give a valid get--but it does not mean he wants to give the "get". He would rather that his wife would be nice as she once was.
I know I am getting a bit ahead of myself here--saying my conclusion before building the case. So let me just mention the basic issues. First: In laws of buying and selling you have a case where a man is forced to sell his field. That is valid. We nowadays might not like this but still it is a fact. We say that even though he is being forced, still because of the force he decided to in fact make a valid sell. This same thing is in the case of a get. He might be forced and thus actually intend to give a valid get. But in terms of gitin there is an extra condition--he has to want to divorce her. And so when he is being forced according to the law, then we say his inner desire is to fulfill the law of the Torah. So a forced get that is being forced by law is valid. But the cases of gitin nowadays are rarely [if ever] being forced not by law. As you can see in the teshuvot HaRema. There was a man who was playing cards and did not keep Shabat. The Rema said that is not a case where the law says he must give a get.
I am tired right now. I was out the whole day. Still I think it might be a good idea to go into this sugia in more depth. In the meantime you might look at the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach Laws of Gitin where he brings this issue.
