Bava Batra 167 - December 9, 8 Kislev

Today's daf is sponsored by Gila Pollack in loving memory of her father, Moshe Pollack, on his 7th yahrzeit. "He is missed greatly by all his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren." Abaye suggests never to sign at the bottom of a blank page, someone can forge a document by adding a line saying that the person who signed borrowed money from them. Since a document signed by the borrower is admissible in court and can be collected from 'free' (not liened) property, this forged document could be used. Abaye also suggests not to put numbers from three to ten at the end of a line as the letters yud and nun can be added to turn 3 into 30, 4 into 40, and so forth. Two cases were brought before Abaye where one erased part of a letter or added a letter to change the document's meaning. As this messed up the spacing, Abaye realized the issue and forced the one who tampered with the document to confess. In another case, someone forged Rava's signature and Rava realized it was forged as his name appeared before Rav Acha bar Ada, the other witness, and since Rav Acha was more senior, Rava never would have signed before him, out of respect. The Mishna lists several cases of documents written for arrangements between two people. In each case, the Mishna explains who can write the document not in the presence of the other, and who cannot. It also explains who is the one obligated to pay for the document to be written. The first case listed regards a get, divorce document, and a receipt that the woman received her ketuba money. The Mishna adds that the scribe must recognize them to ensure that the person will not pass the document to someone else to use for collecting money. The reason for this is that the man can the get written not for himself but to give to a different woman to claim her ketuba money, even though she may still be married and the woman can get a receipt written to give to a different man who can claim he already paid his wife her ketuba money. Rav explains that the need for the scribe to recognize is for the man for the get and the woman for the receipt for the reason described above. However, some rabbis were sitting with Abaye and questioned why Rav did not require the scribe to recognize both, since even if the scribe knows the man/woman, it is still possible the man will pass it to a woman/man married to a man/woman with the same name? Abaye responds that Rav actually required the scribe to know them both. However, there is still a possibility that the man/woman can pass the document on to someone who has the same name as their wife/husband and the spouse has the same name as them. That possibility is avoided by a ruling that if two couples in the same town share the same names, they can only get divorced in the presence of both couples.