1,857. A Messenger Reporting a Death

Hilchos Geirushin 13:23

Let’s say that we see a person from a distance and he says that he’s X, the son of Y or from place Z, and that he was bitten by a snake and is dying. If we go and find the body, only to discover that the features have distorted so much that he is no longer identifiable, his wife is nevertheless permitted to remarry.

Hilchos Geirushin 13:24

Let’s say that someone arrives and says that a court or some people told him to report that Yitzchak ben Michoel died. Now he has arrived and delivered the message but he doesn’t know the deceased (which is normally necessary when testifying regarding a death). Nevertheless, since the recipients of the message know the deceased, his wife is permitted to remarry. We are not concerned that it might have been a different person named Yitzchak ben Michoel who died.