פירוש על גיטין 2:4

אין כותבין במחובר – because it is missing “cutting.”

Introduction This mishnah continues to deal with what a get may be written on.

כתבו על המחובר וכו' – This is how it should be said: If he wrote [the Jewish bill of the divorce] the blank form of the document [of the Jewish bill of divorce] on something attached, which is the entire Jewish bill of divorce except for the place of the man and the place of the woman and the time (i.e., date).

They do not write [a get] on something still attached to the ground. As we explained in yesterday’s mishnah, there can be no steps done to the get in between it’s having been completed and its being given to the woman. In yesterday’s mishnah that meant that if written on the horn of a cow, the husband has to give her the cow. Cutting off the cow’s horn and giving her the horn would not be valid. Today we learn that the get cannot be written on something still attached to the ground, for then the husband would have to cut it down in order to give it to his wife. He cannot give her the land to which the get is attached, because land cannot be transferred from hand to hand.

תלשו וחתמו – that is to say, that he [the scribe] wrote that part of the document that makes it binding, which is the place of the man and the place of the woman and the time (i.e., date).

If he wrote it on something still attached, and then detached and signed and given to the wife, it is valid. Rabbi Judah invalidates it until it is both written and signed on something detached from the ground. In this case, he wrote the get on something that was still attached to the ground, but then he detached it before he gave it to her. According to the first opinion, the signing of the get is the essential part, and therefore, as long as it was done on something detached from the ground, the get is valid. Rabbi Judah, however, holds that it is invalid unless it is written and signed on something which is already detached from the ground.

כשר – For since the part of the document that makes it binding was written on [something] detached, even though the blank form of the document was written while it was attached, it is valid.

Rabbi Judah ben Batera says: they do not write [a get] on a sheet from which writing has been erased nor on semi-finished parchment, for it can be faked. But the sages validate [such a get]. As I stated in yesterday’s mishnah, in the ancient world paper/parchment was scarce and expensive. Therefore they would reuse paper. There were types of materials which were rough and meant for reuse. Rabbi Judah ben Batera invalidates such writing materials for gittin, since they can be forged. Someone might erase one person’s name and write in another’s and the forgery would not be recognizable. However, the Sages say that we are not concerned about forgeries in the writing of the get. The Talmud explains that it is the witnesses who see the get being given to the woman who are critical. They will read the get when it is given to the woman and if afterwards someone tries to forge the get, these witnesses will be able to testify as to what was really written on it.

על נייר המחוק – because he can go back and erase it until [the names of the witnesses] and write upon it what he wants and no one would recognize anything, for the signature of the witnesses is written over an erasure.

דיפתרא – its erasure is not recognized. דיפתרא – that is, [prepared] with salt and flour, but not prepared with gall-nut juice.

וחכמים מכשירין – [The Sages validate] only in Jewish bills of divorce alone, as they think that the witnesses who deliver the Jewish bill of divorce [to the woman] make it [the divorce] final. For the Jewish bill of divorce that is delivered in the presence of the witnesses is the essence of the Jewish divorce, and not the witnesses who signed it [i.e., the Jewish bill of divorce]. But on other documents, we rely upon the witnesses who signed it [i.e., the document]. The Sages admit that it [the Jewish bill of divorce] cannot be written either on a blotted-out paper or on something prepared with gall-nut juice. And the Halakha is according the Sages.