Dear R Kornfeld,
Could you kindly explain the statement on Gittin 5b (8 lines up from the bottom) that 'if a Get is unlike the rules that Chachamim fixed for Gitin, (if she remarried) she must leave her husband, and her children are Mamzerim' (your translation)
I do not understand this. Does breaking the chachamims rules lead to pasulim d'rabbanan (surely yes, as otherwise why mention the Chachamim)? If so, why the consequences of pasul d'oraitha - that the vlad is a mamzer?
Many thanks,
Alex Benedyk, London
1) There is such a thing as a Mamzer of Rabbinical status. The late Rav Shmuel Rozovsky (1913-1979), the Rosh Yeshivah of Ponevecz in Bnei Brak, wrote in his Shi'urim on Gitin 5b (#76) that after the institution that the bearer of a Get from overseas must declare that it was written and signed in front of him, one is apprehensive that if the agent did not say this, it may also mean that the Get is forged. However, this possibility is sufficient to render the Get invalid only according to Rabbinical law. Therefore, the children of a woman who remarried with the use of such a Get are Mamzerim mid'Rabanan.
2) However, some authorities maintain that the Mamzer would be of a d'Oraisa status. This argument is based on the Gemara in Gitin 33a that says that anyone who marries does so according to the rules of the Rabanan. Tosfos (33a, DH Kol) writes that this is the reason why the bridegroom says, when he places the ring on the finger of his bride, "You are hereby married to me according to the law of Moshe and Yisrael." "Moshe" refers to the Torah rules, while "Yisrael" refers to the rules of the Rabanan of Yisrael.
The above Gemara refers to marriage, but Rashi in Gitin 85b (DH d'Mashma) states that one also writes in a Get "according to the law of Moshe and Yisrael." This suggests that there is also a principle that anyone who divorces does so according to the rules of the Rabanan (see Pnei Yehoshua to Gitin 79b). According to this, if a Get is written contrary to the rules of the Rabanan, it does not possess the validity of a Get at all, so remarrying on the basis of such a Get is equivalent to remarrying with no Get whatsoever, in which case the children of such a union would be Mamzerim mid'Oraisa.
All the best,
Dovid Bloom