Daf Yomi Nedarim 5b: Does Rabbi Yehuda Really Insist On Explicit Yadot?

(Related, but not equal to this, is the following video, of Rif on Nedarim daf 5 through daf 7. Also available on my Rif blog.


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On Nedarim 5b:

כר' יהודה דאמר ידים שאין מוכיחות לא הויין ידים דתנן גופו של גט הרי את מותרת לכל אדם ר' יהודה אומר ודין דיהוי ליכי מנאי ספר תרוכין ואגרת שבוקין:

like Rabbi Yehuda, who said that handles which are not explicit are not handles. For we learnt: The essential part of a get is "Behold you are permitted to any man." Rabbi Yehuda says: And this {document} should be from me to you as a book of dismissal and a letter of release."

This would appear to be of similar type as the above, about Rabbi Meir holding a certain principle -- a far-reaching extrapolation of principle from a local law, by the setama digmara, in order to read the point of dispute of Abaye and Rava first into the earlier generation, in Shmuel, and then into Rabbi Yehuda, the Tanna.

But just perhaps this is not the point of dispute between Rabbi Yehuda and the Sages. Rather, the question is how one makes a derasha from the pesukim. The pesukim say {Devarim 24}:

א כִּי-יִקַּח אִישׁ אִשָּׁה, וּבְעָלָהּ; וְהָיָה אִם-לֹא תִמְצָא-חֵן בְּעֵינָיו, כִּי-מָצָא בָהּ עֶרְוַת דָּבָר--וְכָתַב לָהּ סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת וְנָתַן בְּיָדָהּ, וְשִׁלְּחָהּ מִבֵּיתוֹ. ב וְיָצְאָה, מִבֵּיתוֹ; וְהָלְכָה, וְהָיְתָה לְאִישׁ-אַחֵר.

The Chachamim hold that there is no specification in pasuk 1 about the content of the sefer keritut. Rather he writes her this sefer and puts it in her hand, and sends her out. And the idea is that she is divorced, and can marry anyone else. This is the result, as found in pasuk 2. And so there must be some words to that effect in the sefer.

In contrast, Rabbi Yehuda makes a specific derasha. Pasuk 1 states וְכָתַב לָהּ סֵפֶר כְּרִיתֻת וְנָתַן בְּיָדָהּ, which we may interpret as "And he wrote to him: 'A book of divorce, and he gave it in her hand'."

Thus, Rabbi Yehuda holds that part of what is required to be written in the get is what is mentioned in pasuk 1. And his formulation is essentially a translation of the pasuk into Aramaic:
"And this {document} should be from me to you as a book of dismissal and a letter of release." Note the mention of the book of dismissal = sefer keritut, and that it should be from me to you, which is = to וְנָתַן בְּיָדָהּ.

But the setama digmara instead reads this as an established principle about yadot in general, and how specific they must be.