The only words necessary on early rabbinic divorce certificates was "You are now free to marry any [one] you wish", as found on the Massada Get dated 72 AD. Very similar wording can be traced back through Neo-Babylonian documents and to the certificate for widows of officers missing in action in the ANE laws of 1400 BC. Lower caste women who were abandoned or widowed without evidence could not remarry because their former spouse could return and claim both her and any children she had by another man. In this context, the divorce certificate of Moses gave all Israelite women the legal protection which enabled them to remarry - a right which was shared only by high-status women outside Israel.
"Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and the Origin of the Jewish Divorce Certificate"
The only words necessary on early rabbinic divorce certificates was "You are now free to marry any [one] you wish", as found on the Massada Get dated 72 AD. Very similar wording can be traced back through Neo-Babylonian documents and to the certificate for widows of officers missing in action in the ANE laws of 1400 BC. Lower caste women who were abandoned or widowed without evidence could not remarry because their former spouse could return and claim both her and any children she had by another man. In this context, the divorce certificate of Moses gave all Israelite women the legal protection which enabled them to remarry - a right which was shared only by high-status women outside Israel.
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