Gittin 22: Acquisition of Movable Property; Writing

After considering writing on plants which may or may not be movable objects, the rabbis turn their minds to the acquisition of plants.  A plant is not usually considered to be a movable object.  Such objects, attached to the ground, have their own halachot regarding acquisition   What about a plant that is in a pot?  Is it automatically considered to be a movable object?  What about a perforated, potted plant that has its roots in one place and its branches, leaves and fruits in another?  How do we understand tithing in such a case?  To whom does the plant belong?  And a tiered garden where one plant is growing from the side of a hill belonging to one person into the area beneath the hill which is owned by another person... who has the right to that plant's fruit?  Can we apply halachot regarding ownership "from the earth to the sky" in this case?

One point that I learned through this complicated conversation is that movable property can be acquired  acquired acquired through the act of pulling.  Land acquisition is different.  Repairing or tending to the land can represent acquisition.

There are three types of paper that cannot be carried on Shabbat.  They are all one type of paper, actually, but in different stages of processing.  These are matza, chitra, and diftira.  Each of these stages of paper allows 'ink' to last longer than the last.  Animal skins took great time to process into the highest quality of paper.  The process was very smelly, we are told, and I am wondering how people might walk around with unfinished animal skins.

We understand that the rabbis are very careful about avoiding papers that can be used for forgery when writing gettin.  However, notes by Steinsaltz teach that the halacha does allow gettin to be written on paper that can be used for forgery.  A get writing in that way must be witnessed, transported, and set aside.  In fact it can be unopened for some time.  The rabbis discuss the 10-day delay as well.

A final Mishna teaches us that the get can be written by anyone - a woman, an imbecile, deaf-mute or minor [sic].  This is because the get is ratified only through witnesses and thus it does not matter who does the actual writing.  The Gemara notes that these people usually disallowed from such actions can do the writing if requested by the husband.