תלמוד על יבמות 16:1

HALAKHAH: “If somebody transports a bill of divorce and loses it,” etc. ⁸²The paragraph also appears as Halakhah 16:6 in Yebamot, explained there in Notes 133–144. The readings from there are notedי . What means “on the spot”? Rebbi Joḥanan said, as long as nobody passed by there⁸³This statement is missing in Yebamot. In the Babli, it is attributed to the Tanna R. Simeon ben Eleazar and the Amora R. Abba bar bar Ḥana (27b,28a); there it is declared as practice. It is also the only explanation offered in Tosephta 2:11.. Rebbi Jacob bar Idi, Rebbi Simeon bar Abba in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: as long as three people did not pass by there. If a Gentile passed by there? Let us hear from the following: Abba bar bar Ḥana transported a bill of divorce; he lost it and a Saracen found it. The case came before Rebbi Joḥanan⁸⁴The reading of Yebamot, “before the rabbis” is preferable since the verb is in the plural.; they declared [the bill] valid. This means that if a Gentile passed by it is valid. Could we say that he had a mark to identify it? But was it not stated: There are no marks for bills of divorce. That is, if he said, two or three lines. But here, the ה in it had a spot. Rebbi Ezra asked before Rebbi Mana: Why is it invalid here? I say, it was another [husband] whose name was like his name. Think of it, if they checked out that entire place and did not find another man whose name was like his name! But it is because of the severity of adultery. But did we not state⁸⁵Mishnah Yebamot 16:6: “They went and found nobody but let his wife remarry; they went there, did not recognize him, and let his wife remarry”? Rebbi Mana told him: This man had two bills of divorce in his hand, one valid, the other invalid. He lost the valid one and threw away the invalid. When he found it, I say that what he found was the invalid bill⁸⁶The Mishnah is explained away, as referring to a most unlikely hypothetical case. In the Babli, the Mishnah is accepted practice; the contrast between the two Talmudim is noted in Sefer Ha‘iṭṭur 36a..