Such a blessing and gift! That all should enjoy the beauty of Shabbos! Imagine then what it means to learn there is an exception to this rule – a singular exception. The one type of individual deemed by Chazal as possessing an intention and a goal to cause such misery that he can be imprisoned on Shabbos is not a murderer, or a thief, or one who has waged war.
Who, then, has committed such a grievous sin that even the blessing of enjoying Shabbos as a free man can be denied him? Who is considered so depraved that he is not welcome to God’s feast unless and until he fulfills his Godly and human obligation? It is the husband who seeks to escape and leave his wife without a valid get, rendering her an agunah.
The Mishnah Berurah is emphatic: One whom we suspect will try to escape in order to leave his wife an agunah is not included in the general rule that we may not imprison on Shabbos. Mutar haya l’chovsho –it is permitted to imprison him.
It is only this one that the beis din is allowed – no, obligated – to imprison on Shabbos. His imprisonment is regarded as an emergency permit granted to the beis din to assure that this vengeful, spiteful fellow is denied an escape route that would deny a woman her God-given right to go on with her life. This one can be imprisoned on Shabbos in order to ensure that he not destroy countless future Shabbos feasts of his unwanted wife.
Again, it is understandable that there is bitterness after a marriage fails. There is grieving for a life envisioned that did not come to fruition. But that bitterness, that grief, that unfulfilled promise, cannot and does not allow a man to become a virtual jailor of his wife’s future.
We can all weep for the marriage that simply does not succeed. But our sadness necessarily turns to astonishment and then anger when we learn that the husband, far from acknowledging and accepting this reality, lashes out in anger and vindictiveness by withholding the get.
Such a man who then seeks to flee so his poor wife will remain an agunah does not come under the category of punishment (onesh) forbidden by Torah law. Our sages are clear: being an agunah is an unspeakable curse, one that necessitates the suspension of the Shabbos rule.
That our tradition is consistently concerned and sympathetic to the agunah is made even more evident when poskim discuss this exception to the rule regarding imprisonment on Shabbos. They cite an additional example of one who may also be detained on Shabbos. In Mishnah Berurah it is written “…that it is likewise mutar (permitted) to receive testimony from a dangerously ill witness [who may very well die, unless we receive his testimony immediately, on Shabbos] about a woman whose husband died, where we are concerned that no other witness will subsequently be found to verify that the husband indeed died.”
Halacha is determined to find a way to free a married woman from remaining in a perpetual state of limbo, going so far as to allow the imprisonment of a husband on Shabbos if he refuses to provide his wife with a get or by detaining a dangerously ill man in order to receive his testimony regarding the death of a husband. In both cases, the intention is clear – to ensure a way for the wife to move on and live a meaningful, happy life, unshackled by the sadness of a failed marriage or a lost husband.