Gittin, Daf Daled, Part 1

 

Introduction

The Talmud is still trying to solve with whom our mishnah, according to which the messenger says, In front of me it was written and in front of me it was signed, accords.

 

רַב אָשֵׁי אָמַר הָא מַנִּי רַבִּי יְהוּדָה הִיא דִּתְנַן רַבִּי יְהוּדָה פּוֹסֵל עַד שֶׁתְּהֵא כְּתִיבָתוֹ וַחֲתִימָתוֹ בְּתָלוּשׁ

 

Rav Ashi said: Whose opinion is this? Rabbi Yehudah, as it was taught, R. Yehudah disqualifies the get unless it was both written and signed on something detached from the ground.

 

Rav Ashi cuts the gordian knot by finding a tanna, R. Yehudah, who does seem to hold that both the writing and the signing must be done properly the material on which the get is written must be detached before the get is written and signed. This particular issue is not important right now what is important is that R. Yehudah believes that both the writing and signing must be after it was detached.

 

וּמֵעִיקָּרָא מַאי טַעְמָא לָא מוֹקְמִינַן לַהּ כְּרַבִּי יְהוּדָה מְהַדְּרִינַן אַרַבִּי מֵאִיר דִּסְתַם מַתְנִיתִין רַבִּי מֵאִיר מְהַדְּרִינַן אַרַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר דְּקַיְימָא לַן הִילְכְתָא כְּווֹתֵיהּ בְּגִיטִּין

 

And from the outset why did we not say that the mishnah accords with R. Yehudah.

We tried to get the mishnah to accord with R. Meir for the anonymous mishnah accords with R. Meir.

We tried to get the mishnah to accord with R. Elazar for we hold that the halakhah follows R. Elazar in gittin.

 

Rav Ashi offered a cogent ascription to the mishnah it is R. Yehudah. So why did we spend so long trying to get it to accord with R. Meir or R. Elazar? The answer is that R. Meir is supposed to be the author of anonymous mishnayot. So we tried to get the mishnah to accord with him. And the halakhah follows R. Elazar in matters of gittin. So we tried to get the mishnah to accord with him. When both of those failed, we had to agree that the mishnah accords with R. Yehudah.

From a more critical perspective I might add that the entire opening sugya served as a good introduction to some of the major themes of the entire chapter. The dispute between R. Meir and R. Elazar is one of the most well-known disputes in the entire Talmud. The mishnah over three disqualified gittin is a central mishnah in this masechet. Thus, this sugya could be looked at as a sort of introductory lecture to Tractate Gittin. This is something that happens quite often in beginning sugyot in many tractates.