Section

If he makes one pronouncement of divorce contingent upon her giving birth to a male, and two pronouncements upon her giving birth to a female, and she gives birth first to a male and then to a female—whether living or stillborn—she is divorced by the first, and becomes irrevocably separated by the second, though she is not divorced by it. If the manner in which they were delivered is uncertain, then there is one pronouncement.

His statement, “If he makes one pronouncement contingent upon her giving birth to a male, and two pronouncements upon her giving birth to a female, and she gives birth to a male and then to a female, whether living or stillborn”: If he makes one pronouncement of divorce contingent upon her giving birth to a male and two pronouncements upon her giving birth to a female, by saying, “If you give birth to a male, then you are divorced by one pronouncement; and if you give birth to a female, then you are divorced by two pronouncements,” and she gives birth to a male and then to a female.

His statement, “She is divorced by the first, and becomes irrevocably separated by the second, though she is not divorced by it”: She is divorced by the first because she gave birth to a male. She becomes irrevocably separated by the second because, when she gave birth to the first male child and was divorced, she began her waiting period. The interval between the first and the second was only a few minutes; then, when she gave birth to the second, her waiting period ended, and she became irrevocably separated by the second birth. Once she has become irrevocably separated, the pronouncement does not take effect upon her, because it occurred while she was no longer his wife.

An example of this is a man who says to his wife, “If you give birth to a male, then you are divorced by one pronouncement; and if you give birth to a female, then you are divorced by two pronouncements.” She first gives birth to a male, and so she is divorced, because she gave birth to a male and the divorce takes effect upon her. If she then gives birth to a female after him, she is not divorced; rather, she becomes irrevocably separated by the birth of the female, because her waiting period ends with the birth of the girl. Thus, the divorce pronouncement encounters a woman who is irrevocably separated, and divorce does not take effect upon a woman who is irrevocably separated.

His statement, “If the manner in which they were delivered is uncertain, then there is one pronouncement”: If he says, “I do not know whether she delivered the male first, or the female, or both together,” then there is one pronouncement, because one pronouncement is certain, whereas anything beyond it is doubtful.