Hello Everyone,
Today’s subject is fictitious weddings. There are two types of fictitious weddings. One type is the joke wedding. A boy gives a girl a ring and says הרי את מקודשת לי כדת משה ושיראל. This happens in schoolyards many times. A second type of fictitious wedding is the wedding that is entered into in order to obtain some sort of benefit. Usually the sought after benefit is citizenship in the country of the fictitious spouse.
The salient point which the Poskim take very seriously is that the act of executing a marriage is not taken lightly. Claims such as “I was kidding,” “We were kidding,” or “We really didn’t mean it” are not automatically accepted in the Halacha when the subject is marriage. Marriage is in this respect different from other areas of contract law ( and the marriage is a sort of contract between the man and woman).
Today we will see how the Poskim ruled in various cases of fictitious marriage.