Gittin 79: Dating the Get Appropriately

Amud (a) focuses on the details of a new Mishna.  We learn that if a woman is standing on a roof and her husband throws the get to her, it is valid as soon as it leaves his hand and enters her airspace.  Even if the letters disappear before she receives the get, the get is valid.  The rabbis note the size of the roof, the placement of the roof and courtyard and whether or not there was a parapet.  They consider whether or not the get might be considered “at rest” when it was “secured” in her airspace.  As well, they discuss the ownership of the land and the roof in question.

If a basket is placed on top of the roof, the Gemara argues that we change the equation.  What type of basket are we discussing? Is the basket sitting with within another basket?  Does the basket have a proper bottom?  The notion of acquisition through the ‘catching’ of a vessel is endlessly interesting.

Another new Mishna teaches us about outdated gittin.  Although these are officially not allowed to be used, the rabbis decide that a man who was secluded with his ‘wife’ after the get was delivered is still divorced and need not hand her a new get.  Similarly, if she is under the impression that her get is valid and she has intercourse with another man, marrying him, she need not get divorced again following her receipt of a proper get.  This is debated by Beit Hillel.

A final Mishna of daf 79 tells us about the importance of dating the get according to the calendrical system of the local government.  A get is not valid if its date refers to a kingdom that is not legitimate, the kingdom of Medea, the Greek Empire after it falls, the building of the Temple or the destruction of the Temple.  Further, the location of the get must reflect the location of the husband.  If the get is written in the west when he is in the east, for example, and the wife remarries, she requires gittin from both husbands. 

In an unusual fashion, the Mishna lists the normal benefits that accompany a get, detailing what the wife cannot receive if her get is dated improperly.  Even more, it notes that any child from her second husband is a mamzer, and that her husbands will not be treated with the customary respect and benefits that come to a husband in mourning if she were to die.  Finally, if she is an Israelite woman, she takes on the status of a zona and thus she cannot remarry into the priesthood at any point in the future.  Our daf ends here, but the Mishna will continue in tomorrow’s daf.

It would seem that the importance of registering marriages with the local authorities was of great importance.  The rabbis do not impress upon people the importance of following every guideline with this kind of force.  I am certain that the Gemara will address this as well.