פירוש על גיטין 6:6

ואמר: כל השומע את קולו – and he mentioned his name and the name of his city

Introduction This mishnah continues to discuss cases in which a man instructed someone to write a get for his wife, but did not specify that he was also to give it to her.

רצה לשחק בה – for since he did not say, “give it”

If a man had been thrown into a pit and cried out, “Whoever hears his voice should write a get for his wife”, those who hear should write a get and give it to her. The man in this case clearly fears that he will die in the pit leaving his wife subject to levirate marriage. As in the cases in yesterday’s mishnah, there is again no reason that he would want to write a get but not have it given to his wife. Therefore, someone who hears him scream out his name and his wife’s name may write out the get and give it to his wife. Note that the person screaming is referring to himself in the third person. This way people hear him state his name.

מעשה בבריא – The Gemara explains that the Mishnah is deficient and this is how it should be explained: And if his end result is evidence of his [thinking at the] beginning, then it is surely a Jewish bill of divorce. And there is a story also about a healthy individual. And the Halakha is according to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel.

If a healthy man says, “Write a get for my wife”, his intention is merely to play with her. However, one who hears a healthy man say to write a get but not say to give the get is not allowed to write out the get. The fear is that the husband wants to use the get only to “play with his wife”, which I take to mean mentally cause her pain. He wants to use the get as a threat (alternatively if she wants to be divorced, perhaps it is a tease). Therefore, not only should those who hear these instructions not give her the get, they shouldn’t even write one out. Note that what the mishnah probably wishes to avoid is gittin that are written out but not intended to be given.

It once happened that a man in good health said, “Write a get for my wife”, and then went up on to a roof and fell and died, and Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel said that the Sages said: if he had thrown himself down this is a get, but if the wind had blown him over it was not a get. In this case a seemingly healthy person told someone to write out a get. Although the person should not have written the get and given it to his wife, he did so anyway. If afterwards, the husband intentionally commits suicide, this proves that he was sick at the time he instructed someone to write the get. Since he was about to die, he definitely intended to divorce his wife and not “to play with her.” However, if the wind pushed him off the roof it is not suicide, he was not sick and therefore the get is invalid. In such a case this woman is a widow and not a divorcee, and may be subject to levirate marriage.