More On Missas Habaal

We have seen that there are two possibilities. Either the death of the husband is a פעולה and actively severs the bond between the couple. Or, he is no longer around - העדר - and thus they cannot have any connection. The difference is that if it is a severance of the bond [פעולה], but the former husband is still a "player" it is possible to entertain the possibility that there will be some legal connection between the two even after his death. But if the bond is severed because the husband is no longer in existence then it is not possible for the remnant of any legal bond to exist. How can a woman be connected to an entity whom she lost because he ceased to exist. 

The Rogochover directs us to a Rashi in Ksubos [3b] that would seem to indicate that there is a possibility that a bond would exist even after the demise of the husband. If a man gives a woman a get on condition that he fail to return within 12 months and he dies in the interim, the law is that it is not a valid get [even though he fulfilled the condition and failed to return]. The reason is explained by Rashi "דמאן קא מגרש מהשתא אין המתים מגרשים" - Who is divorcing the woman? Dead people can't divorce! This implies that if dead people could divorce then the couple would be divorced. [This is a very geshmak piece but as I write I am being consumed alive by mosquitoes. BARUCH HASHEM!!!] There is just a formal disqualification that dead people can't effect a divorce [even though we would like them to in our case because he gave her this get on condition that he fail to return and he fulfilled the condition] but it is not that the marriage is over because the husband is a non-entity. [Although I can see someone arguing that this is precisely what Rashi means אין המתים מגרשים - because they don't exist]. There is still some connection between husband and wife which can't be severed by a get because the husband is gone and halachically a dead man may not divorce. The only we can say that they are still connected is if we learn that death is a פעולה and not העדר.

In the language of the Rebbe [the Rogochover] "אך באמת רש"י כתב דאין המתים מגרשים, חזינן דאגידא ביה עדיין". 

לזכות נעכא גיטל בת רחל אסתר לזרעא חייא וקיימא די לא יפסוק ולא יבטול מפתגמי אורייתא וכל טוב סלה