)
In modern times, there is another type of aguna. Sometimes a religious court concludes that a wife is correct in demanding a get, but the husband is unwilling to issue it. The court has the right to beat him day after day until he “agrees” to give the get, meaning he states he is willingly giving it. However, there are authorities who do not allow using physical force to extract a get. Because rabbinic courts today are weak, it is difficult to extract a get when the husband is particularly intractable. The problem is intensified since beatings are not condoned by civil law. Nevertheless, efforts are made to find ways to enforce a court order of a get, and these efforts are almost always successful. The more the legislators and courts work together, the fewer cases of get refusal will remain. Eventually they will simply die out.
A wife can also be responsible for her husband being “chained,” since he cannot remarry as long as she does not agree to accept a get. However, this problem is not as hard to solve as the “chaining” of a wife; as we wrote above (section 9), a husband can receive permission to remarry in special cases, through a long process involving the agreement of a hundred rabbis. However, for a variety of reasons, the courts are often slow to apply sanctions to these wives, and the husbands remain “chained” for extended periods.
