- The airspace of a chatzeir
The next Mishnah states: היתה עומדת על ראש הגג – If the wife was standing on her rooftop, וזרקו לה – and her husband threw [the get] up to her, כיון שהגיע לאויר הגג – once it reaches the airspace of the roof, הרי זו מגורשת – she is divorced. If he is on his roof and she is below in her chatzeir, and he threw it towards her, she is divorced when it leaves the domain of the roof, even if it is destroyed before reaching her. The Gemara wonders how the get takes effect in the roof’s airspace: והא לא מינטר – But it is not guarded, since a wind can blow it away before landing!? Two answers are offered. (1) Shmuel answers: בגג שיש לו מעקה עסקינן – We are discussing a roof which has a fence around it, and the get is guarded by the fence. (2) Avimi answers: הכא בפחות משלשה סמוך לגג עסקינן – We are discussing after the get reached to within three tefachim above the roof, which takes effect because, דכל פחות משלשה סמוך לגג כגג דמי – whatever is within three tefachim of the roof is like the roof. Regarding the second case of the Mishnah, Shmuel explains that the chatzeir’s walls are higher than the roof’s walls, so the get is contained by the chatzeir’s walls when it leaves the roof’s walls. Although regarding Shabbos, there is a machlokes if קלוטה כמי שהונחה דמיא – something contained in airspace is considered like it has already landed, everyone agrees that a get takes effect in airspace, provided it is guarded there.
- A chatzeir inside another, a box inside another
Abaye says that where the wife’s chatzeir is surrounded by the husband’s chatzeir whose walls extend higher than the inner chatzeir, and he threw a get toward her chatzeir, כיון שהגיע לאויר מחיצות החיצונה הרי זו מגורשת – once it reaches the airspace of the outer walls (over her chatzeir), she is divorced. He explains: פנימית גופה במחיצות החיצונה קא מינטרה – The inner [chatzeir] itself is guarded by walls of the outer [chatzeir], affording her some rights to those walls. This contrasts with a box of hers inside a box of his, that a get is not valid even after it enters the inner box’s airspace, until it lands. Rashi explains that the walls of a utensil are not made to guard its airspace, but to contain items held in it. Although her box is inside his, which is like a buyer’s utensil acquiring in the seller’s property (which is a machlokes), the Gemara explains that the outer box has no bottom, so the inner box is directly on the ground.
- גט ישן
The next Mishnah states that Beis Shammai says: פוטר אדם אשתו בגט ישן – A person may release his wife with an “outdated get,” but Beis Hillel forbids it. An outdated get is defined: כל שנתייחד עמה מאחר שכתבו לה – Any time that [the husband] was secluded with [his wife] after he wrote [the get] for her. The Gemara explains Beis Hillel’s concern: גזרה שמא יאמרו גיטה קודם לבנה – there is a decree disqualifying a גט ישן, because otherwise people might say her get preceded her son. He might not divorce her until a long time after the writing, and if he is secluded with her in the interim, they may have relations and she may conceive and bear a child. Although in truth he divorced her afterwards, people will assume from the date written in the get that she was divorced then, and the child was conceived out of wedlock. Shmuel is quoted as saying that if she already remarried based on a גט ישן, she does not have to be divorced from the second husband (since the get is Biblically valid). Alternatively, Shmuel said if she already received such a get, she is even permitted to remarry.
