פירוש על גיטין 4:1

השולח גט והגיע בשליח – for he had not intended to pursue after him to overtake him, but rather, when the agent got detained along the way and he [the husband] was on the path to there and saw him and nullified the Jewish bill of divorce, even so, it is nullified. And we don’t say that he intended to merely cause suffering, for if he had intended to nullify it, he (the husband) would have pursued after him.

Introduction The fourth chapter of Gittin begins by discussing a husband who sends a get to his wife and then attempts to annul the get. The general rule is that as long as the get has not yet gotten to her hand, he may annul the get.

אינו יכול לבטלו – that comes to teach us that even though we saw him that he ran after him to nullify it, we don’t say that this matter was revealed retroactively that he (i.e., the husband) had revoked the Jewish bill of divorce. For where a person gives a Jewish bill of divorce to his wife for a time or on condition, or says to her, “Behold this is your Jewish bill of divorce from now or from this [particular] time”; or if the specific condition had been fulfilled, and if he did not say to her “from now” – even if after her Jewish bill of divorce had reached her hand, he can annul it.

If man sends a get to his wife and then catches up with the messenger, or sends a messenger after the original messenger, and says to him, “The get which I gave you is annulled”, then it is annulled. In this case after sending the get to his wife with a messenger, the husband either catches up with the original messenger or sends a second messenger to catch up with the first and one of them tells the original messenger that the get is cancelled. The mishnah rules that the get is cancelled. Since the woman is not divorced until she receives the get, the husband may cancel it any time until this point.

If the husband arrives at his wife before [the messenger] or sends a messenger to her and says, “The get which I sent to you is annulled”, then it is annulled. In this case, the husband or his agent does not chase after the original messenger but rather the husband or his agent arrives at the wife before the messenger does. Again, since she has not yet received the get, the get is annulled. In both of these cases, even if the messenger should subsequently give her the get she is not divorced.

Once the get has reached her hand, he cannot annul it. However, once she has received the get she is no longer his wife and there isn’t anything he can do about it.