Gittin - Daf 36
- The תיקון עולם of signing gittin
The Mishnah on Daf 34b had taught that witnesses sign on a get for תיקון העולם. The Gemara objects: דאורייתא הוא – It is a Biblical requirement to sign all documents, as it says: "וכתוב בספר וחתום"- And write in a document and sign. Two answers are offered. (1) Rabbah answers that the Tanna is Rebbe Elazar, who holds עדי מסירה כרתי, and signatures are never Biblically required (and the above passuk is only giving advice). The Rabbis instituted that witnesses sign a get, דזמנין דמייתי סהדי – because sometimes the witnesses to delivery will die, אי נמי זימנין דאזלי למדינת הים – or sometimes they will travel abroad, leaving her unable to prove she was divorced. Signing the get provides her with proof of divorce. (2) Rav Yosef says that the Tanna can be Rebbe Meir, who requires signing Biblically. Still, this Biblical requirement is satisfied without writing their names, התקינו שיהא עדים מפרשין שמותיהן בגיטין – and they decreed that witnesses should write their names when signing gittin. A Baraisa teaches that witnesses originally only wrote אני פלוני חתמתי עד – I, Ploni, signed as a witness, which satisfied the Biblical signing requirement according to Rebbe Meir but posed a challenge to confirm the witnesses’ handwriting, until they decreed that witnesses must sign their names, in order to simplify confirmation by knowing the identity of the witnesses.
- The takanah of פרוזבול
A Mishnah teaches the background of Hillel Hazaken’s enacting pruzbul: שראה את העם שנמנעו מלהלוות זה את זה – He saw that the people resisted lending each other, fearing that the loan would be canceled by shemittah, and thus violated the commandment: השמר לך פן יהיה דבר עם לבבך בליעל וגו' – Beware lest there be an evil thought in your heart, etc. (saying that shemittah is near, and therefore not lend money), עמד והתקין פרוסבול – he therefore arose and instituted pruzbul, which the Mishnah describes as submitting his documents to Beis Din to collect the loan for him. The Gemara asks, if shemittah absolves the loan mid’Oraysa, how can the Rabbis decree that it does not? Abaye answers that Hillel holds that nowadays (and in his time), shemittah does not absolve loans Biblically, since a different law of shemittah does not apply, namely, the law of השמטת קרקע – relinquishing land from farming. Although the Rabbis decreed that loans are canceled by shemittah, as a reminder of the law of shemittah, Hillel instituted that through the method of pruzbul, they are not canceled.
- הפקר בית דין הפקר
Rava answers that pruzbul is effective even according to the opinion that shemittah nowadays cancels loans Biblically because: הפקר ב"ד הפקר – What Beis Din declares ownerless, is actually ownerless. Thus, Beis Din can collect a loan that was Biblically canceled by declaring the borrower’s property ownerless. Rebbe Yitzchak provided a source for this principle, from Ezra’s declaring that all returning exiles who would not come to Yerushalayim within three days (when he would compel them to send away their gentile wives), their property would be confiscated. Rebbe Eliezer gave a different source: אלה הנחלות אשר נחלו אלעזר הכהן ויהושע בן נון וראשי האבות וגו' – These are the inheritances given by Elazar the Kohen, Yehoshua bin Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ families. Since the meaning of “fathers” in this context is tribes, why are they called “fathers”? This teaches: מה אבות מנחילין את בניהם כל מה שירצו – Just as fathers may bequeath what they wish to their children (and may divide his estate among his children as he pleases), אף ראשים מנחילין העם כל מה שירצו – so, too, the leaders may apportion whatever they wish to the people. We see that the leaders are empowered to assign the people’s property.
