1,827. Refusal is Different From Divorce

Hilchos Geirushin 11:15

A man with congenital deafness can divorce his wife through gestures, as has already been addressed (halacha 2:17). If his wife got betrothed to another man with congenital deafness, she may never remarry her first husband. It goes without saying that this is also the case if her second husband has his sense of hearing. However, if a woman was married to and divorced by a man with his sense of hearing and she subsequently married and was divorced by a man with congenital deafness, she is permitted to remarry her first husband (because the second marriage is only rabbinic in origin).

Hilchos Geirushin 11:16

A girl who dissolves a marriage through refusal is not considered divorced so the laws about relations with her ex-husband are the same as those of a man who had never betrothed her, i.e., she may marry his relatives and he may marry hers. She is also not precluded from marrying a kohein. If she married another man and was widowed, divorced or she annulled the marriage through refusal, she may remarry him. Not only that, even if her first husband divorced her (while still a minor), if they remarried and she then annulled their second marriage through refusal, after which she married and was divorced by another man, she can still remarry the first man. This is because when a girl dissolves a marriage through refusal, it’s not the same as being divorced with a get. She may therefore remarry her first husband even if she was previously divorced by him prior to her refusal. However, if a man divorces a minor wife with a get, after which she marries someone else and annuls that marriage through refusal, then she may not remarry her first husband. Even though her second marriage ended through refusal, that first marriage ended in divorce. It goes without saying that this is also the case if the second husband divorces her or dies. Similarly, she may not marry her first husband’s father, son or brothers, the same as any other divorced woman, regardless of the fact that her second marriage was dissolved through refusal.