on the top of 87b
the gemara suggests that the name on the left get is his fathers name which he uses as his siman.
Q: if he signs with his siman, then the get on the right should have had the siman as well!!? if the right one was his name, then we see he signs with his name, and the left one should have his name as well!!what is the gemara's haveh aminah to have this flip-flopping?
thanks.
jay, brooklyn USA
1) The first Tosfos on 87b writes that since he signed the name of his father under the second Get, we should be lenient since we know that the name signed under the left Get is the name of the father of the man who signed on the right Get.
2) The Rashba explains this a bit more. He writes that the reason why we are trying to be lenient here is so that we should not have to say that what he wrote under the left Get was written for no reason. We know that the name beneath the left Get is the name of the father of the man signed under the right Get, so we try and look for a logical explanation for what happened. Therefore, we say that the same person was looking for a way that he could sign on both Gitin.
3) What seems clear here is that a person does not necessarily sign with the same name on all documents that he signs. For example, for argument's sake, if someone is called David Jacobson then it would not surprise us if sometimes he signs his name as David and sometimes as Jacobson. All the Gemara added in the Havah Amina here is that it is possible that a son may feel so close to his father Jacob that sometimes he will sign as David and sometimes as Jacob.
Wishing you a healthy summer,
Dovid Bloom