1,803. Receiving a Get From the Sofer Without Witnesses

Hilchos Geirushin 9:31

Let’s say that a man instructs two others to write a get, sign it and give it to a particular third party to deliver to his wife, or to give it to a certain agent to deliver. In such a case, one of them should write it, and both should sign it and give it to the third party. If they deliver it to the woman themselves, divorce is not effected because they weren’t appointed agents for that purpose. If they did deliver the get, they should take it back from the woman and give it to the assigned agent, who then gives it back to the woman in front of them or other witnesses. The Rambam says that his teachers made an erroneous ruling regarding such a get because they had an error in their edition of the Talmud.

Hilchos Geirushin 9:32

A divorce is in doubt if a man tells a scribe to write a get for his wife, after which the scribe writes the get and gives it to the man without witnesses. The man then takes the get and gives it to an agent, telling him to deliver it in front of witnesses, which the agent does. As a lone witness, the agent’s word would not be enough to allow a married woman to marry someone else; it is only acceptable because of the signatures of the witnesses on the get, which are considered like testimony in court until the husband contests them, as has already been explained. If there are two witnesses who saw the husband give the get to the agent and tell him to use it for purposes of divorce, then divorce is effected.