However, suppose the couple thus informally married stay together as husband and wife, and this is public knowledge. Then the fact that they are known to live together as husband and wife proves retroactively their original intention, and the presumption(hazakah) Is thus reestablished and their marriage, therefore, is valid. This attitude is increasingly held by Orthodox authorities, namely, that they follow Rav in the Talmud , that the very bringing of the woman into his house constitutes proof of proper intention and therefore of the validity of the marriage. Thus, for example, Isaiah Trani (Riaz), quoted as part of Shiltei Hageborim to Alfasi to Kiddushin 3, says definitely:"Although there are no witnesses of the marriage itself, or even witnesses that they secluded themselves(vihud), nevertheless it is presumed in their locality that they are man and wife. This presumption is equivalent to clear and perfect testimony."
This, too, is the basis of the famous responsum of Isaac Elchanan Spektor of Kovno in his responsa(Ein Yitzhak, vol. 1, Even Haezer 47, especially paragraph 12). He discusses the case of a Jewish soldier who lived with a Jewish woman without formality of marriage, and then the man deserted the woman. Is she married to him or not? Spektor , on the basis of the above-mentioned laws, says that if they were known as man and wife for thirty days in the city where they lived, the marriage is valid and cannot be broken without a get. So also the late Orthodox authority Yechiel Epstein (Arukh Ha shulhan Kiddushin 26.11) says that if a Jew and a Jewess live together and say that their living together is meant to be a marriage- if it is known to all that they live together the marriage cannot be broken except by a get. The most recent authority is Joseph Henkin, of New York(Perushei Ibra, chapters 3 and 4) proves the general thesis that
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