A lost and then found get. TB Gittin 27

Today’s daf TB Gittin 27 deals with the question of a lost get. What do you do when the lost get after it is found? The Mishnah teaches: “With regard to an agent who brings a bill of divorce and it was lost from him, if he finds it immediately then the bill of divorce is valid. But if not, then it is invalid, as it is possible that the bill of divorce that he found is not the same one that he lost, and this second bill of divorce belongs to someone else whose name and wife’s name are identical to the names of the husband and wife in the lost bill of divorce” (Sefaria.org translation) The underlying concern is whether the get was written specifically for people named therein (leshmah-לשמה).

However, another Mishna in TB Baba Metzia teaches that the get may be returned even after a long period of time. “The mishna teaches that if a bill of divorce was lost before being received by the woman it is invalid unless it was found immediately. And the Gemara raises a contradiction from a mishna (Bava Metzia 18a): If one found bills of divorce, or bills of manumission, wills [dayetikei], deeds of gifts, or receipts, this finder should not return these items to the one who is presumed to have lost them, as I say it is possible that they were written and then the writer reconsidered about them and decided that he would not give them. One could infer from this mishna as follows: But if the writer said: Give these found documents to the intended recipient, one gives them, and this is true even if a long time passed since they were lost, and there is no concern that perhaps this document belongs to someone else with the same name.”  (Sefaria.org translation)

The Gemara then provides three different solutions to reconcile the two mishnayot.

1.    Rabba’s solution contains two necessary conditions to be fulfilled if the get is to be delivered after a long period of time. The recovered get must not be found in a place of heavy traffic and secondly there can’t be more than one person in the city with the name found in the get. Rabbi Zeira’ position is identical to Rabba’s solution.

2.    Rabbi Yirmeya solution simply says the  get may be delivered after a long period of time is when the witnesses who signed the get testify they have only signed one get with the name contained therein.

3.    Rav Ashi says the get may be delivered after a long period of time is when there is a clear-cut distinguishing mark on the get. An example of a clear-cut mark on the get is when the witness with testify that there is a hole by a specific letter.

The Mishnah never delineates how long is a long period of time. The Gemara presents five different opinions. Remember our sages did not have timepieces to give the exact time how long a period of time the Mishna was referring to.

“§ The mishna teaches that if one found the bill of divorce immediately, it is valid, but if not, then it is invalid. The Sages taught: What is considered not immediately? Rabbi Natan says: It is when there was a delay equivalent to the amount of time it would take for a caravan to pass by and camp there. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says: There is no fixed amount of time; rather, it is within the category of immediately as long as there will be a person that stands and sees that no other person passed there. And some say that he said: It is as long as no person stopped there. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: It is within the category of immediately if there was not a delay equivalent to the amount of time it would take to write the bill of divorce. Rabbi Yitzḥak says: It is equivalent not to the amount of time needed write the bill of divorce, but equivalent to the amount of time it would take to read it. Others say: It is equivalent to the amount of time it would take to write it and to read it.”