Gittin 21: Women Writing Their Gittin; Sequence of Events; Paper?

A woman is permitted to write her own get! As long as there are valid witnesses, even if the slate or other material she writes upon belongs to herself, she is permitted to give the get she has written to her husband who presents it back to her.  Interesting that the rabbis allow this 'farce', where the get is only nominally given to the wife by her husband.

The rabbis then tackle a concept that is new to me.  It seems that the document must be taken into the wife's possession in a non-permanent place.  A courtyard is fixed, but sometimes courtyards can be movable, it seems.  A slave, who can act as a 'document' when a get is written into his/her hand, is considered to be included in the category known as 'movable property'.  And so how can a get given in the form of a slave be valid?  The rabbis discuss whether or not a slave is considered 'movable property' when s/he is sleeping and bound.  The rabbis discuss courtyards, the transfer of property, and the consent of a woman to receive a slave and her get.

We hear arguments regarding possession of a document that are countered by Abaye's arguments: we know that the wife receives the document in her hand, and thus her consent does not matter.  Further, a minor girl can be divorced via her father without her consent. 

So many disturbing concepts in one place!  And then it gets worse.  The rabbis briefly discuss the fact that it would be possible to cut off a slave's hand or a cow's tusk with the get information written upon them.  They confirm that nothing can take place between the get being written and the get being given to the wife, and thus one cannot cut the limb or horn of a live animal.  

The rabbis continue to consider details of the get.  It must be written; money alone cannot sever the relationship completely.  It must be a statement of severance, and so many conditions cannot be added to the get.  For example, a get cannot stipulate that a woman refrain from drinking wine for the rest of her life.  However, if the stipulation is that she cannot drink wine for another specified time, like her husband's lifetime or someone else's lifetime, the get is valid.

A new Mishna teaches that most rabbis agree that a get must be written and signed on something  not attached to the ground.  However, the get will be valid if it is detached after it was written and signed while attached.  But Rabbi Yehuda says that the get cannot be written on something attached to the ground and then detached and signed.  Both the writing and signing must be on a detached item.  

Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira states that the get must not be written on paper that can be easily used for forging, like 'erased paper', which was made of many papyrus leaves pressed together.  We learn in a note that writing on such paper could be easily erased multiple times after wearing down the top layer.  Diftera, unfinished and processed leather, was questioned for similar reasons.

The Gemara begins with a discussion of gets that are not attached to the ground.  Due to the stipulation that the get must be put into her hand, the rabbis agree that the get must be detached from the ground during its creation.  They also consider whether or not a document is valid if a space has been left within which the essential parts of the daf should be written.