Laws on the Bill of Divorce

It can be inferred from the mishnah: “One who writes the standard formula of bills of divorce must leave [space for the name of the man and woman]” [m. Gittin 3:2], and other sources, that the scribe would write the get [bill of divorce] on parchment that he owned, and that he would give it to the husband only after writing it.

Now, R. Jacob [Rabbenu Tam] wrote that the ink, parchment, and quill must belong to the husband, as otherwise it [i.e., the get] would be considered stolen, and we require that he shall give (Deuteronomy 24:1). If he does not have these, someone should give them to him as a gift, and he can give them to the scribe to write the get for his wife.

But I maintain that this is not necessary, even though—I concede, in order to ensure that the scribe does not forget to transfer ownership of the get to the husband after it has been written, so that it will be his and he can therefore divorce with it—it is a good idea to follow this practice, since it was endorsed by a holy man.

However, I cannot think why our rabbi included the quill together with the parchment and ink to be given to the scribe. Is a get impaired if the scribe writes it with a stolen quill? Even if the scribe had to pay the value of the quill, which would be included in the form of a salary, the owner of the quill would not thereby acquire any share in the get! All the more so if he stole the quill, he is exempt even from paying for its hire, as robbers repay the value of an item at the time of the robbery [see b. Bava Kamma 60b].

It therefore seems that R. Jacob mentioned the quill merely as an added precaution. Once the husband is giving the scribe ink and parchment, he should give him the quill as well, so that everything is prepared for writing the get. And yet it has become the custom to follow the rabbi’s instructions precisely, as he ordained and wrote.

When the husband orders the scribe to write and the witnesses to sign, he should command the scribe in the presence of two people who are fit to deliver testimony [and] who are not related to one another or to the husband or to the wife. If the scribe himself is fit to testify, there is no need for two others to observe that the husband has instructed him to write. Rather, he and another valid witness can give that testimony. Likewise, when he comes to write the get, he should do so in the presence of two people who are fit to deliver testimony, who know that he wishes to write a bill of divorce for So-and-so the wife of So-and-so. If he does not say this, they might think that he is dealing with something else entirely. Even if they know that he is writing the document for her sake, it is better for him to inform them of this explicitly.