Gittin - Daf 23
- How a חרש שוטה וקטן can write a get, and why a gentile cannot
The Mishnah on the previous Daf said: הכל כשרין לכתוב את הגט אפי' חרש שוטה וקטן – All are qualified to write a get, even a deaf-mute, an insane person, and a minor. Although they lack the mental competence to write לשמה, Rav Huna clarifies: והוא שהיה גדול עומד על גביו – provided that a competent adult stands over him and instructs him to write the get for these particular people. Still, an idolator cannot write a get even with a Yisroel standing over him, because עובד כוכבים לדעתיה דנפשיה עבד – an idolator acts according to his own mind, and we cannot rely on his following instructions. Rav Nachman concluded that our Mishnah would allow an idolator to write a get, because it follows Rebbe Meir who does not require the writing to be לשמה (and a חרש, etc. would not need an adult instructing them). Later, Shmuel gives a third explanation: והוא ששייר מקום התורף – A חרש, etc. may write a get (even unassisted) provided he left blank the space of the toref (the critical elements of the get) to be written by a competent adult (which even Rebbe Elazar would allow).
- If a slave could be a shaliach for a get vs. a gentile acting as a shaliach for terumah
The next Mishnah teaches: הכל כשרין להביא את הגט – All are qualified to bring her get, חוץ מחרש שוטה וקטן וסומא ועובד כוכבים – except for a deaf-mute, insane person, minor, blind person, and idolator. The first three, lacking mental competence, are disqualified from being a shaliach. A blind person is only disqualified from bringing a get where בפני נכתב is required, because he cannot testify. Rebbe Ami was asked if a slave can be a shaliach to receive a get for a woman. He inferred from the Mishnah that he could, but Rebbe Yochanan said he cannot, לפי שאינו בתורת גיטין וקדושין – because he is not included in the law of Jewish divorce and marriage. Rebbe Elazar challenged the implication that whoever is included in a law may act as a shaliach for it: An idolator has the capacity to declare terumah on his produce, yet a Mishnah teaches that he cannot be a shaliach to separate terumah for a Yisroel!? The Gemara ultimately answers that the passuk teaching shelichus says "גם אתם" – also you, requiring that just as you are בני ברית – parties to the covenant (of milah and mitzvos), your shaliach must be as well. An idolator is thus specifically excluded from ever acting as a shaliach, but a slave is not.
- A slave acting as a shaliach for a גט שחרור, and a maidservant for her fetus
Rebbe Yochanan made a statement, which the Gemara emends to be: נראים דברים שהעבד מקבל גט לחבירו – It seems that a slave can receive a גט [שחרור] for his friend, מיד רבו של חבירו – from his friend’s master, אבל לא מיד רבו שלו – but not from his own master (on behalf of another slave owned by the same master). Although he can act as a shaliach for a גט שחרור (since he can receive his own), he cannot receive another slave’s גט from his own master. Since he is the master’s property, the גט never leaves the master’s domain (when he receives his own גט, however, he simultaneously leaves the master’s domain). Rebbe Yochanan anticipates a challenge from a Baraisa which teaches that if someone hands a גט שחרור to his maidservant and tells her “You remain a maidservant, but your fetus is hereby freed,” she acquires the גט on the fetus’s behalf, which proves that she can receive a גט for another from her own master!? He answers that the Baraisa is Rebbe’s opinion that המשחרר חצי עבדו קנה – One who frees half his slave, [the slave] acquires that half of himself. Because Rebbe also holds עובר ירך אמו – a fetus is like the mother’s thigh, this act of freeing the fetus is the equivalent of freeing one of her limbs.
