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that she was in a very bad state because her husband had left
her. She recovered after a while but then became sick again
– this happened three times. Whenever she was unbalanced
she behaved as above.”

The Beis Yitzchak was asked whether her husband could divorce her
while she was sane, or whether she was considered a woman who
alternates between insanity and sanity, who cannot be divorced? His
response is:

“In the sefer Beis Efrayim (Even Ha’ezer, 89), it says that
a person who exhibits imbecilic behavior but it can be as-
cribed to fear or to melancholy, is not considered a shoteh.
This is also evident from Rashi’s comments in Chagigah (3b)
where the gemara says that in Rav Huna’s view a person is
not considered a shoteh unless he exhibits all the types of
behavior mentioned by the gemara i.e. he goes out alone at
night, spends the nights in the cemetery and tears his cloth-
ing. The gemara asks what situation Rav Huna is referring
to: If the person acted in an imbecilic manner i.e. without
any apparent cause, then even if he shows just one of the
aforementioned behaviors he should be considered a shoteh,
whereas if he didn’t act in an imbecilic manner i.e. there was
a reason for his actions, then even if he did showed all these
types of behavior he should not be considered a shoteh. The
gemara answers: ‘He did behave in an imbecilic manner,
yet even so he is not considered a shoteh on the basis of a
single type of imbecilic behavior because we can attribute
his conduct to another cause and say that he left the town
confines alone at night in a fit of the illness known as gan-
drifas’. Rashi writes (ibid. s.v. le’olam), ‘I have heard that this
illness is caused by anxiety.’ If though, he exhibits all three
signs, he is considered a shoteh and we do not attribute his
behavior to other causes such as gandrifas etc. – thus con-
cludes the gemara. Clearly, in Rashi’s opinion a person who
shows imbecilic behavior owing to melancholic illness is not

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