Kiddushin, Daf Gimmel, Part 4
Introduction
The mishnah also uses a number in the second clause, and she acquires herself in two ways. What does this number come to exclude?
מניינא דסיפא למעוטי מאי למעוטי חליצה סד"א תיתי בק"ו מיבמה מה יבמה שאינה יוצאה בגט יוצאה בחליצה זו שיוצאה בגט אינו דין שיוצאה בחליצה קמ"ל
The number of the second clause excludes halitzah. Lest I would have said that this may be inferred by a kal vehomer from a yevamah: just as a yevamah, who does not go out with a divorce document, does go out through halitzah; so too [a married woman], who does go out through a divorce document, should go out through halitzh. Therefore it teaches us [that she does not].
The number in the second clause teaches that a married woman does not leave her marriage through halitzah. Halitzah is the release from levirate marriage, the obligation of a woman whose husband died without children to marry her husband s brother. This woman, called the yevamah, is released through halitzah. We could have made a kal vehomer (all the more so) argument. If halitzah works to release a yevamah (a woman awaiting levirate marriage) but a divorce document, a get, does not work, then halitzah should all the more so work to release a married woman. The mishnah teaches that it does not. Halitzah is only for a woman awaiting levirate marriage.
ואימא ה"נ אמר קרא (דברים כד, א) ספר כריתות ספר כורתה ואין דבר אחר כורתה :
And let us say that it is indeed so? The verse says, [then he shall write her] a writ of divorce a document severs the marriage, but nothing else severs it.
The Torah requires a document for divorce. Halitzah, which is a ritual performed through the removal of the husband s shoe, is not valid.