Gittin 65: Agents, Minor Girls, and the Specifics of Receipt

Today's daf covers a number of different Mishnayot.  First, the rabbis continue a conversation about redeeming the second tithe and Torah law versus rabbinic law.  In this conversation, the rabbis clarify a couple of principals that have been mentioned earlier.  A plant in a perforated pot is a plant subject to the halachot of plants that are rooted in the earth.  A plant in a non-perforated pot is a plant that is not subject to Torah law, for its roots are not benefiting from the nutrients in the earth.  This is used both as basic information as well as a metaphor to understand when Torah law applied to a certain issue.

The rabbis discuss differences between girls that are under age six, ages six-eight, ages nine-twelve, and young women.  In each group, different halachot apply regarding gittin.  For example, a minor girl is permitted to be betrothed by her father if alive and by her mother and brother if her father has died.  She is permitted to refuse that betrothal when she becomes a young woman at age twelve.  However, she cannot appoint an agent for receiving a get when she is a minor girl, for she cannot halachically acquire.  And her father is permitted to send an agent to receive the get if he is alive, which may have a huge effect upon the rest of her life.  If a husband wishes to retract the get after it has been sent to the father's agent, it cannot be retracted.  Further, if the wife or husband specify a place where the get should be received, it must be received in that place to be valid.  If a place is suggested ("you'll find her there"), the get can be received at any place.

Another Mishna teaches that an Israelite woman married to a priest will continue to partake of teruma until she receives her get.  If she appoints an agent, however, she must stop accessing teruma immediately, for the agent might receive the get on her behalf at any point in time - even that same day.  The rabbis compare this to the creation of an eiruv at the edge of the Shabbat boundary.  In that case similar arguments exist regarding the specifics of the eiruv and the specifics of the instructions to an agent.

The next Mishna teaches us that words carry specific meaning.  When husbands call two people together to write letters to their wives asking for non-specific things: release her, sustain her, do unto her as is required by Torah law, etc., no get should be written.  But if those husbands say words that specifically indicate divorce, including "Divorce her", or "Write a letter of divorce to my wife," they are able to write gittin.  In any case, those gittin are not to be delivered.  They can be written and stored.

Our daf ends with the beginning of a new Mishna.  These words tell us that a husband who requests a get be written for his wife should be indulged, regardless of the circumstance.  He might have left with a caravan or he might be dangerously ill, says Rabbi Shimon Shezuri, but others should provide this service for him.

Again the rabbis encourage the people to end their marriages according to halacha to ensure that people are not left in places where they will be more likely to transgress other laws.