One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
גֵּרוּשִׁין
Divorce 1
Sefer Nashim · The ten requirements the Torah itself sets for a bill of divorce, why a writ must send her away rather than send him away from her, and the rule that the witnesses who watch the get change hands are the divorce itself
10
Requirements the Torah establishes for a divorce, everything else in a get, including its date and its signatures, being a Rabbinic institution
1
Witness at the transfer is worth nothing, since a get given privately or before a single witness is utterly void
2
Lines, the furthest the witnesses may sign below the text, so that their names are read together with the get
3
Dating systems the chapter allows: the years of the ruling kingdom, the years from creation, or the years from the crowning of Alexander
Part 1Ten requirements, drawn from one verse
- Only by a written bill. A woman is released from her marriage only by receiving a get, and the Torah itself establishes ten fundamentals: that the husband act of his own will, by a document and no other means, that the document declare that he divorces her and releases her from his domain, that it sever the bond entirely, that it be written for her sake, that nothing remain once it is written except the transfer, that he transfer it, before witnesses, for the sake of divorce, and that he or his agent be the one who gives it. (1:1)
- Every requirement is in the verse. She does not find favor in his eyes teaches that only his initiative divorces, so a divorce forced on an unwilling husband is void; and he will write teaches a document; for her that it be written for this woman; a bill of divorce that it leave him no jurisdiction over her; and he will place it in her hand that she is not divorced until it reaches her hand, her agent's hand or her domain. (1:2, 1:3)
- He sends her, not himself. Behold you are sent away, behold you are divorced, you are independent, or you are permitted to any man all divorce, and the essence of a get is that she is now permitted to any man, while I am no longer your husband, I am no longer the one who consecrates you, and I am no longer your man do not, since the verse says that he sends her and these send him. (1:3, 1:4)
- The wrong release does not release. A writ saying behold you are free is ineffective, because that is the wording used to free a slave and not to end a marriage. (1:4)
- Leaving the house is not the divorce. The divorce takes effect when the get reaches her hand, even while she is still in her husband's home, but a husband who divorces her and does not send her out is treated as having divorced and then remarried her, so she requires a second get. (1:5)
RememberA release has to be written in the second person. A man announcing his own withdrawal has described himself and divorced no one.
Part 2Nothing left to do but hand it over
- Write, then place, and nothing between. The order of the verbs teaches that once the get is written only the transfer may remain, so a get written on a cow's horn requires giving her the cow and is void if the horn was cut off after the writing, and a get written on a plant still attached to its source of nurture is void even if the witnesses signed after it was detached. (1:6)
- The flowerpot and its clay. The standard text may not be written on anything still attached, though if it was detached before the names, the date and the words permitting her to any man were written the get is acceptable, while a get written on a leaf in a flowerpot is unacceptable even if he gives her the whole pot, lest the leaf be detached, and he may instead write on the pottery itself. (1:7, 1:8)
- Given for the sake of divorce. A get handed over as a promissory note or a mezuzah, or placed in her hand while she sleeps, is void unless he afterwards tells her that this is her get, while a husband who tells the witnesses he is giving her a get and tells her it is a promissory note has divorced her, since he lied to her only out of embarrassment. (1:9, 1:10)
- Something must be said. He must say at the transfer that this is her get, and a get placed in her hand in silence is unacceptable, unless the two of them had just been speaking about the divorce. (1:11)
- He gives it, she does not take it. A get she lifts from the ground at his instruction, or unties from his hand or thigh herself, is void even if he then tells her it is her get, since neither he nor his agent gave it, yet if he bends his body or tilts his hand so that she can take it and says that this is her get, the divorce is valid. (1:12)
RememberHe does not have to place it in her palm. He has to lean toward her, and that is the difference between a valid divorce and nothing at all.
Part 3Who watches, and what the Sages added
- The witnesses at the transfer are the divorce. Since a woman forbidden on pain of death yesterday cannot be permitted to any man today without the matter being established, a get given in private or before a single witness is utterly void, although a get the husband wrote himself and one witness signed is unacceptable only by Rabbinic decree. (1:13, 1:14)
- Signatures are a safeguard, not the essence. The Sages ordained that witnesses sign lest those who saw the transfer die and the get be no better than a shard, so a get is effective where the transfer witnesses prove unsuitable but the signers are fit, while unsuitable signatures disqualify it as a forgery, and signatures more than two lines below the text disqualify only where no witnesses saw it given. (1:15, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18)
- Read it aloud before it changes hands. The get is read in the presence of the transfer witnesses, and if it was read and then thrown into fire or sea the divorce stands and the husband is not believed that it was another document, while a get destroyed unread leaves her status in doubt, as does a get thrown among barrels in her courtyard where several documents are later found. (1:19, 1:20, 1:21, 1:22)
- A leniency for gittin alone. Signing witnesses must be able to read and to sign, the get being read to them if they cannot read, and where they cannot write their names are traced in spittle or another substance leaving no permanent mark for them to sign over, which is permitted for no other document so that Jewish women will not be forced to live without a marriage partner. (1:23)
- Names, place and date. The Sages required the witnesses to state their names and to sign in each other's presence, and the date and place to be recorded lest an adulterous wife claim she had already been divorced, so an undated, predated or postdated get, one written by day and signed the next night, or one recording the wrong city is unacceptable, while a get whose date was cut off or narrowed to a week, a month, a year or a seven-year cycle is fit. (1:24, 1:25, 1:26)
RememberEvery ordinance in the second half of the chapter exists so that she is never left in doubt. Doubt is the one outcome the law refuses to tolerate.