Permitting an Agunah to Remarry Based on Identification of Drowned Husband

Description

A man drowned and his body was identified through facial recognition by multiple witnesses and a distinctive dimple under the chin confirmed by the wife. The Chasam Sofer rules that Rachel wife of Yosef Katz of Palanka is permitted to remarry, relying on the convergence of multiple independent arguments — the extended six-hour observation period exceeding kedei yetzias neshamah, the legal presumption that the body remained in the water, the intact state of the face within the timeframe for shinui tzurah, and the siman muvhak of the dimple — each of which independently suffices in a case of only rabbinic prohibition, and instructs that a beis din of three be convened to formally release her.