Gittin 62: An Am HaAretz and a Chaver Prepare Food; Delaying Receipt of the Get

It seems that there may have been continual 'contamination' of foods.  If the wife of an Am HaAretz touches the food of the wife of a Chaver, that food becomes ritually impure.  How were the rabbis to manage these frequent opportunities for contamination?  They considered separation people, restricting interactions around food.  How might this work?  Cases describe those who knead dough and those who press olives.  The rabbis wished to ensure that these people had jobs, but the laws around tithed produce and other causes of ritual impurity were stringent.

We learn about greeting Gentiles who are working in the fields during Shemita, the sabbatical year.  Should Jews help them?  Greet them? The rabbis teach that we cannot help them, but we should certainly greet them.  But what kind of greeting?  "Shalom" is fine, but "Shalom Shalom" is not - it is repeating one of G-d's names in an untoward situation.  The rabbis consider other greetings that are kind an meaningful but not considered to be offensive to G-d in any way.

In today's world, our concern is not as it was described in our daf.  We are not as concerned about people believing that Jews also appreciate idol worship.  Instead, we worry that people might be offended by Jews and our "chosen people means conceited people" behaviour.  Common decency includes greeting all others, regardless of whether or not they are adhering to our halachot.  How different were all different societal groups and their interactions in the times of the Talmud?

Amud (b) is also the start of Perek V.  Our first Mishna  teaches us more about agents that stand in for husbands or wives in the delivery and receipt of the get, the divorce certificate.  Men and women are both permitted to send agents.  Men can overrule women's agents of receipt, however, if they wish to do so.  A man might wish to change his mind before his wife acquires the get.  In this case he can 'buy time' by insisted that the get is brought to her hand himself, with another agent, or with this agent who then becomes his own agent.

Before reading today's daf I had assumed that agents were discussed because of the need for delivery of gittin when people were far from each other.  Today I am wondering about the social reasons for agents.  Perhaps, when a couple did not wish to meet yet again after deciding to divorce, the rabbis wished to minimize conflict and agree with the appointment of agents.  Could this be about avoiding fights in peoples' homes or in the streets?