According to the maskona of the gemora, that the tanay of the get is to one wife, it should be a get if I walk into the beis hakeneses and to the other wife, it should be aget if the 2nd wife doesn't die, and the gemora says to avoid the problem of 2 wives during the avoda, if the kohen gadol sees his wife dying he should go into the beis hakeneses first.
2 questions,
1) in this scenario, wouldn't the kohein kadol again have 0 wives, since the one wife died and the other was divorced becuase the kohain went to the beis hakeneses? why isn't the gemora bothered by that issue?
2) Is the kohein allowed to go out of the beis hamikdash on Yom kippur to go to the beis hakeneses? Didn't we just finish a whole mishna worth of separating and protecting the kohein gadol from any outside sources which may bring impurities.
Any thoughts or answers would be greatly appreciated.
thank you.
Yosef, woodmere, USA
Hello there and thanks for your question.
1) Let me sum up the discussion in the Gemora. The Kohen Gadol must have no more or no less than one wife at the time of the Avodah, while Rebbi Yehuda requires him to have a second wife ready as a precautionary measure. The conclusion of the Gemara according to Rebbi Yehuda is that he is married to both wives and gives them each a Get as you described. Wife A will be divorced if he enters a Beis ha'Keneses, while wife B will be divorced on the condition that wife A does not die. In this case, all scenarios are covered. If wife A is about to die, he enters a Beis ha'Keneses thus divorcing her retroactively from when he gave her the Get. If wife B dies, she was divorced retroactively since wife A didn't die. Since we don't expect both wives to die, we covered all possibilities.
2) The Beis ha'Keneses was located on Har ha'Bayis (as Rashi mentions in numerous places), and the Kohen Gadol could be escorted there to prevent him from coming into contact with the people outside.
Kol tuv
Y. Landy
How are all bases covered? If the Kohen Gadol thinks Wife A will die, he goes into the Bet Kenesset and divorces her retroactively. If she then does not die, then Wife B will also be divorced and he will have no wife, unless you say that the tenai includes a provision that if Wife A's marriage is terminated by divorce then her not dying will not activate the get to Wife B.
Dear Michael
Thanks for your question. I agree that this does not cover every single case. There is also a possibility of the first wife dying suddenly, without giving him a chance to enter the Beis ha'Keneses first. But we are dealing with the majority of cases. The statistics are "Rov Gosesin l'Misah". So I assume that the Kohen Gadol will enter the Beis ha'Keneses, only if the first wife is a Goses, in which case the odds are against her survival.
Kol Tuv.
Y. Landy