DEUT1326 The literal meaning of this verse indicates that the husband is the exclusive initiator of the proceedings that culminate either in marriage or divorce. Rabbi Simeon said: "Why does the Torah say 'when a man takes a wife,' and not 'when a woman takes a husband'? Because it is in the nature of man to seek after the woman and not in the nature of the woman to seek after the man." Kiddushin 2b. Although neither Jewish nor general law places the woman at a disadvantage in initiating the process culminating in marriage, biology, society, and long-standing tradition have limited her freedom even in this realm much more than that of the man. In the matter of terminating a marriage, however, the biblical law, as at present [i.e., 1977-AJL] interpreted and applied, places the Jewish woman, in countries where the Jewish community exercises no legally enforceable authority over its members, completely in the power of her alienated husband. Even though the man may have been granted a civil divorce and even have remarried, he may nevertheless refuse to grant her a get, a rabbinically sanctioned religious divorce, or may consent to grant it only on conditions that he sets. The hardships that this frequently imposes on innocent women were recognized early in Jewish history, and, as we shall see, the Rabbis tried to overcome them. But the problem was not altogether solved evening in periods when the Jewish community exercised considerable legal authority over its members and could severely punish those who transgressed its enactments. The scope of the problem infinitely increased in modern times, when most Jewish diaspora communities ceased to exercise any significant legally enforceable authority over their members. Attempts to find a solution, therefore, we made on the level of both theory and practice, and a vast literature dealing with the subject has been developed over the centuries. (See e.g. Freiman, Avraham Hayyim. Seder Kiddushin Unsuin. Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 5707 = 1945). But no solution has yet been suggested by anyone which has won widespread acceptance both in theory and in practice. The dimensions of the problem have in the meantime continue to increase rather than to diminish.