Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer · Siman 123

Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer 123 — English translation

Translation: Sefaria Community Translation. Section numbers match the Hebrew text above.

1. 1Anyone is kosher as a scribe for a divorce document, except for five people: A non-Jew, a slave, a deaf-and-dumb person [who is presumed to be unable to have proper intent], an insane person, and a child. Even the woman herself, if her husband would ask her to write it, can write it and cause her husband to acquire it, and he would go and give it to her. Rama: And the husband ideally should not write the divorce document himself, and he should also not command the scribe on how it should be written, but he should rather say, plainly, to write (found in Kuntresim). Some say that there is what to be stringent that ideally a relative should also not write it, when another person is available (Makarik Shoresh 106). Ideally the scribe should write with his right hand. If he is left handed, he should write with his left (M"C B'Tikun Yashan).
2. 2A Jew that apostatizes, or violates Sabbaths in public, he is considered a gentile in all aspects.
3. 3A divorce document written by one of these five people is not a divorce document, even though it is signed by kosher witnesses and by kosher [witnesses] it is given over to her. When does this apply? When the specific details are written in (toref). But if only the form text (tofes) is written, and a space is left for the toref, i.e. the place for the [name of] the man, woman, date, and [the line] "Behold you are permitted to anyone else," and an adult Jew of sound mind writes [those] with proper [intent], that is a kosher divorce document. Rama: Some say that even in this way is invalid on a rabbinical level (Tur in the name of R"Y).
4. 4It is permitted [even] ideally for a deaf-dumb person, an insane person, or a child to write the form text (tofes), as long as an adult of sound mind stands over him. But a gentile and a slave ideally cannot write the form text, even if a Jew stood over them.
5. 5One who writes a divorce document on the Sabbath or on Yom Kippur, accidentally (shogeg), and he gives it to her, she is indeed divorced. If he writes it and has it signed [by witnesses] purposely on that day [of the Sabbath or Yom Kippur] or on a festival, she is not divorced, for the witnesses are invalid on a biblical level. If he writes it purposely on a festival, and he gives it to her in front of kosher witnesses, indeed the divorce document is invalid. Rama: But if he writes it purposely on Yom Kippur or the Sabbath, indeed it is utterly invalid on a biblical level (so inferred the Bet Yosef). And one cannot divorce at night, and if one does divorce at night, some say the divorce document is invalidated (R"Y Mintz). And therefore, after the congregation prays the evening prayer, even if it is still largely day, one may not divorce (Terumat Hadeshen Sman 248). And see later the end of Siman 154 Se'if 88 and 89.

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