Gittin 26: Tofes and Toref

The rabbis understand that it is very time consuming to write out full documents for people who are waiting to end conflicted situations.  They discussed whether or not portions of certain documents might be written in advance. In gettin, the names of the husband and wife should be added in the moment.  In addition the date should be written on that day that the get is 'written'.  Similarly, a loan document could be written in advance while the names of the borrower, the lender, the sum of money borrowed, and the date would be written in the moment.  And when land is sold, the names of the seller, the purchaser, the price and the parcel of land, and the date would be added to the pre-prepared text.

The tofes is the standard text.  The toref refers to the details - the names, dates, etc.  One of the sticking points, particularly for Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Elazar, would be that gittin must be written li shma - for the sake of that particular wife.  Writing out the verbiage of a get in advance automatically invalidates that get.  Intention confuses halacha.  It allows us to question rules that would otherwise be very clear.

Today's daf also looks at the differences between divorce after betrothal and divorce after marriage.  It is clear that the rabbis are concerned about husbands deserting their wives without proper gittin.  The selection of the date written on a get could impact many lives.