The Get: A Spiritual Memoir of a Divorce

While we have many memoirs that describe the marriage ceremony, it is rare to find one that describes the ritualized and formal steps that constitute the giving and receiving of a get. This book is a very personal story of a woman’s experiences as her husband leaves her, and she undergoes the period of separation leading up to the moment when she receives her get. Elise Katch is a clinical socal worker in Denver who writes movingly about her feelings and experiences, while also providing useful information on the actual process and technicalities of Jewish divorce. She describes her profound feeling of isolation when she was finally in the room with a panel of emotionally distant Rabbis and her husband. “I suddenly felt as though I were an American citizen alone in Iraq and government officials were walking me down to a dark basement room.” She chooses to recite kaddish after receiving the get to mark the end of her shared life. Although the get was difficult for her in so many ways, she also experiences closure after receiving it and considers that the ritual enabled her to move beyond her pain and anger.