GITTIN – 2a-48a 29a The Soncino Babylonian Talmud GGIITTTTIINN BOOK I Folios 2a- 48a CHAPTERS I- IV TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH NOTES BY MAURICE SIMON, M.A. UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF R A B B I D R . I. EPSTEIN B.A ., Ph.D., D. Lit. Reformatted by Reuven Brauner, Raanana 5772 www.613etc.com 1 GITTIN – 2a-48a make a proper declaration. Apropos of this, the Gemara takes occasion to enumerate NTRODUCTION I various points of difference between the Land of Israel and other countries ( 2a -8b ). The Tractate Gittin, as its name implies, is Next we have flaws in the signatures ( 9a -11b ) concerned principally with problems and then the case of a Get being connected with the kind of document known countermanded before it is delivered, in as Get. The derivation of this word, as also its connection with which the Gemara discusses primary meaning, is obscure. As used in the the rights of a wife and a slave to Talmud it means strictly ‘document’, in the maintenance ( 12a -13a ). Next comes the case widest sense of the term. In actual practice, of a Get delivered after the death of the however, it was applied almost exclusively to husband, in connection with which the whole two kinds of document — the Get Pitturin, subject of deathbed and other instructions is the writ of release or divorce, given by a discussed ( 13a -15a ). husband to a wife, and the Get Shihrur, or Chapter II commences with the case of a writ of manumission, given by a master to a Get delivered by two bearers jointly (15a- slave. When used without further 17a), then discusses when the witnesses to the qualification, the word invariably refers to document may sign (17a-19a), then the the former of these. It is with this that the material with which and on which the Get is treatise Gittin principally deals, though it to be written ( 19a -22b ), then the persons who includes in its purview writs of manumission are qualified to write out the Get or act as its also, and much of what it has to say of these bearers ( 22b -24a ). two kinds applies to documents in general. Chapter III sets forth in its various aspects From the nature of its subject, Gittin is the rule that the Get must be written concerned largely with questions of legal expressly for the woman to whom it is to be procedure and terminology, and in this given (24a-28a), and this gives an opportunity respect it has close affinities with certain for a discussion of the subject of Bererah, tractates in the Seder Nezikin. On the other (‘retrospective decision,’ or ‘anticipatory hand, through its preoccupation with writs of choice,’ 25a-25b ). The case where the divorce, it has necessarily to touch frequently husband may have died before the Get is on problems of conjugal relationships; and it given is then taken and this leads to a was for this reason, no doubt, that it was discussion of the whole question of included in the Seder Nashim. To avoid ‘presumption’ ( 28a -29a ) and a number of misunderstanding, however, the fact must be rules on the subject ( 30a -31b ). In between emphasized that the main theme of Gittin is these two passages the conditions under not divorce, either in its legal or its moral which one bearer may appoint another are aspect, but the validity of the document laid down. which effects divorce. Chapter IV commences with the The first three chapters discuss regulations under which a man may cancel a exhaustively the reasons for which a Get may Get (32a -34a ), or change his name in the Get be pronounced invalid by the Beth Din. (34b ). These regulations were laid down ‘for These advance progressively from purely the better ordering (or adjustment) of external flaws to serious flaws in the very society’, i.e., for the prevention of hardships content of the Get. The first flaw with which or abuses; and most of the rest of this chapter Chapter I begins is the omission of the bearer is taken up with a number of other of a Get from one country to another, regulations made by the Rabbis for the same especially to or from the Land of Israel, to 2 GITTIN – 2a-48a purpose, most of which have nothing to do given conditionally on a man’s dying is then with divorce. Incidentally the whole subject considered ( 72a -74a ), and then the problem of the emancipation of slaves is treated under of a Get with conditions attached to it or various headings, which include the inserted in it, and the Gemara discusses the marriageability of the slave and his right to proper formula for laying down a condition compensation for injury ( 37b -45a ). (74a -76a ). The case of a Get given on condition of a man’s not returning within a Prominent among the regulations made for certain time is then specially considered ( 76a - the ‘better adjustment of society’ is Hillel’s 77a ). institution of the Prosbul, which is discussed in ( 36a -37b ). Other such regulations are that Chapter VIII lays down the rules for a widow should take a vow on claiming her deciding whether the Get has legally been Kethubah from orphans ( 34b -35b ), that given or not in cases where it was not actually captives should not be redeemed for more transferred from hand to hand, e.g., where than their value ( 45a ); that scrolls of the law, the husband threw it to the wife ( 77a -79b ). etc. should not be bought from heathens for Cases in which a second Get is required more than their value ( 45b ); that a man may owing to some doubt about the first are then not remarry a woman whom he has divorced considered, and various types of invalid Get on account of ill fame or of a vow she has are defined, as also the penalties incurred by made or because she is barren ( 46b ); that a a woman for marrying again on the strength man who sells himself to heathens is not to be of such a Get (79b -81a ). redeemed ( 47a ); and that one who sells a field to a heathen has to buy the first fruits from Chapter IX at first continues with the same him ( 47a ). subject, discussing the exact force of the word ‘but’ introducing an exception, and the Chapter V contains a number of Gemara adduces the attempts of four Rabbis regulations of a similar type of which the to confute the opinion of R. Eliezer that a Get most interesting refer to the duties of containing this word is valid. The validity of guardians ( 51b -52b ), the penalties for other conditions and exceptions is also deliberately making other persons’ foodstuffs discussed ( 83b -85a ). The proper formula for unclean ( 52b -55a ), and the sicaricon (55b ). It the Get, and also for a writ of manumission, closes with some similar regulations made ‘in is then specified ( 85a -86a ), and a description the interests of peace,’ as that the poor of the is given of various types of Get which are heathen should be allowed to gather irregular or unusual but not invalid ( 86a - gleanings, etc., or that the wife of a Haber (v. 88a ). The rest of the chapter deals with the Glos. ) may grind corn together with the wife validity of a Get given under compulsion of an ‘ Am Ha-arez (v. Glos. ), etc. (88b ), the question whether attention is to be paid to common report ( 88b -90a ), and In Chapter VI we return to the subject of finally, the ethical grounds for divorce ( 90a- writs of divorce, and the formulas by which a 90b ). husband or wife can appoint an agent for taking or receiving the Get are laid down and The exacting legal discussions which make minutely discussed ( 62b -64b ). The cases of a up a great part of the Tractate are relieved young girl and of the wife of a priest are by a considerable amount of Aggadah. The given special consideration ( 64b -65b ). The mention of ‘sicaricon’ in the fifth chapter rest of the chapter is taken up with the provides a peg on which to hang a long validity of instructions given by the husband Aggadic description of the siege of Jerusalem to others to write the Get. by Vespasian and Titus and the War of Bethar ( 55b -58a ). This is one of the The first two Mishnahs in Chapter VII outstanding Aggadic passages in the whole of continue the same subject. The case of a Get 3 GITTIN – 2a-48a the Talmud. The mention of Kordiakos in the conditions when the Beth Din can compel seventh chapter furnishes an opportunity for him to give her a Get. This is certainly the a quaint disquisition on various common theory, but in practice this inequality was, in maladies, and their remedies — a sort of the view of the Rabbis, more apparent than Talmudic materia medica (67b -70b ). 1 real. They assumed, and rightly so, that both Interwoven with this — for some reason for a man and a woman married life was which is not quite apparent — is a highly under almost any conditions preferable to fanciful account of the relations of King single, and therefore while the man might he Solomon with Ashmedai, the prince of the trusted not to abuse his power, the woman, if demons. Other notable pieces of Aggadah are virtuous, would only in the rarest the Midrashic expositions of Scriptural texts circumstances actually desire a divorce. in chapter 1 (6b -7b ), and the discussion whether the Torah was originally written as a M.