One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
הלכות גירושין
Gerushin 4 · Divorce, chapter 4
Sefer Nashim · How a get must be written: permanent substance, unmistakable wording, and one document for one woman.
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Second meanings a get may carry
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Woman per document: for her, not her companion
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Yuddin the scribe must leave out
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Independent roads to validation
Part 1The substance and the surface
- Permanent only. A get is written with ink, sikra, kumus, kankantum or the like. Written with beverages or fruit juices, anything leaving no lasting impression, it is void. Lead, stylus and charcoal are acceptable after the fact but not a priori (4:1)
- It must stand out. Gallnut juice may be used on paper or hide, but not on parchment already treated with gallnut, since the writing would not be distinct. Such a get is void (4:2)
- Any surface at all. Paper covered in erasures, unprocessed parchment, a potsherd, leaves, a servant's arm, a cow's horn. All acceptable, provided the husband hands over the servant, the cow or the sheet itself before witnesses (4:2-3)
- Tattoo and tablet. A get tattooed on a servant's hand in the wife's possession works even with no witnesses to the handover, since a tattoo cannot be forged. If the servant was known to be the husband's, the divorce is in doubt, since possession of a living being proves nothing (4:4)
- She may supply the surface. A get engraved on a tablet, signed by witnesses, in her possession is effective even if the tablet was known to be hers, for a woman may write her own get (4:5)
- Engraving is writing. Cutting the form of the letters into board, stone or metal is writing: "written with a pen of iron" (Jer. 17:1). Cutting from the back so letters project forward is also valid (4:6)
- But not relief. Hewing out the inside of the letter and around it until the letter stands proud on both sides, like lettering on a gold dinar, is void. The letter was never formed, only what surrounded it was removed (4:6)
- Etched or sketched. Etching the shape of letters on a hide, or sketching their form on it, is acceptable, even though sketching does not count as writing for Shabbat (4:7)
RememberThe surface is almost free, a cow's horn will do. The mark itself must be permanent and distinct.
Part 2Wording and letters: one meaning only
- Any language, any script. A get may be written in any letters and any language. Witnesses may sign in a different language from the text, provided they understand that language and those letters (4:7)
- Split witnesses fine, split text not. One witness may sign in one language and the second in another. But a get written partly in one language and partly in another is unacceptable (4:8)
- No double sense. The wording must not permit two readings, leaving a reader to wonder whether perhaps this was intended or perhaps that. It must state one thing: that so and so divorces so and so (4:9)
- Readable by a child. The penmanship must be clear enough for children of average intelligence who know those letters to read it. Not crooked, not run together, lest one letter be taken for another (4:10)
- Three yuddin out. Omit the yud from v'dein (else: a judgment between us), from v'iggeret (else: if you commit adultery), and from l'mehach (else: it is a joke) (4:13)
- Two vavin long. Elongate the vav of v'chadu, lest it read uch'dei, "on this condition," and the vavin of terukhin and shevukin, lest they say that she is releasing him (4:13)
- Three yuddin in. Write tehevyin and titzbeyin with three yuddin, not two, lest a reader think the husband is addressing two women and divorcing others (4:13)
- The penalty is pasul. A get with two implications, or crooked enough to yield another sense, is unacceptable rather than void, since it can still be read as a divorce. Missing elongations or stray yuddin make it unacceptable (4:11, 4:14)
RememberEvery near miss in the list turns a release into something else: a lawsuit, an accusation, a jest, a condition, a reversal.
Part 3For her alone, and the two roads of proof
- Written for her. "And he shall write for her" means for her and not for her and her companion. A scroll declaring that we divorce our wives is void even when handed to each woman before witnesses (4:19)
- Separate statements save it. If the same scroll then names each release individually, with the date restated, the divorces are acceptable. Five husbands may share one scroll if each speaks to his own wife (4:18-19)
- Erasure and interlineation. In the standard body of the get, acceptable. In the fundamental portions, void. A note at the end of the get stating that the letter was erased or interlined cures even that (4:15)
- Torn and faded. Torn across and down as a court tears a document, void; torn otherwise, acceptable. Faded, rotted, or holed like a sieve, acceptable. Blurred but still readable, acceptable; unreadable, void (4:15-16)
- Witnesses to the handover. All those disqualifications apply only when she holds a signed get with nobody having seen the transfer. Witnesses who saw it given, acceptable at that moment, bind the divorce even with interlined essentials or a court tear (4:17)
- Position of signatures. Two gittin one above the other with the witnesses signing between them: the woman whose text sits immediately above the signatures is divorced, the one below is not. Signatures at the top, side or reverse are not a get, unless the handover was witnessed (4:22)
- The customary text. Though any language is permitted, universal practice is the Aramaic formula: he acts of his own will with nobody forcing him, dismissing, releasing and divorcing her, so she is free to marry any man, according to the faith of Moses and Israel (4:11-12)
- An appended greeting. A greeting written after the get, signed beneath, leaves the divorce in doubt; begun with "and," it is acceptable, since it accompanies the get. Witnessed handover validates either way (4:25)
RememberWitnesses to the handover repair almost every defect, because they testify to this document reaching this woman.