לקוטי שיחות חלק ט׳ - כי תצא ב

It must be understood why Maseches Gittin begins with the law of “a woman whose husband went overseas” — which is an uncommon case — and why the Mishnah did not begin with the subject of the get itself.

The explanation is as follows:

Kiddushin and marriage below derive from the way these concepts exist Above — between the Holy One, blessed be He, and Knesses Yisrael. At Matan Torah, the kiddushin took place between the Jewish people and the Holy One, blessed be He, and the concept of divorce can exist only in the manner of “her husband went overseas.”

For in divorce, the get must leave the husband’s domain. But this cannot apply Above, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is present everywhere. Only when a person goes to “overseas” — outside Eretz Yisrael — meaning that he has distanced himself from “she desires to do the will of her Creator” to such an extent that by his own strength, without a ship, he cannot return, then the Holy One, blessed be He, also goes, as it were, to “overseas” — meaning that below He is concealed, to the point that outwardly it appears that the Holy One, blessed be He, is overseas.

But in truth, the entire purpose of the divorce is that the person should see that he is in fact not separated from the Holy One, blessed be He — that inwardly he is united with the Holy One, blessed be He.

This is the meaning of “It was written in my presence and signed in my presence”: the nations know that they are merely emissaries of the Holy One, blessed be He. If so, the get never left the husband’s domain, and therefore it is not a get.

Through the divorce, it is revealed that the bond between the Holy One, blessed be He, and Knesses Yisrael is an essential bond that does not depend on Torah and mitzvos, as expressed at the conclusion of Maseches Gittin: “She is your companion and the wife of your covenant.”

This is also why the get — although it is “something that severs between him and her” — is nevertheless called a “sefer,” analogous to the Sefer Torah, whose concept is unity. Indeed, the get must be “one sefer, and not two or three sefarim.”

The unity revealed through exile, the aspect of divorce, is a unity that reaches the essence. It is higher than the unity on the level of revealed dimensions, where distinctions exist — which is why the Torah itself is divided into separate sefarim — that was revealed at Matan Torah.

This is the meaning of “and she shall go out and become [another man’s wife]”: through the divorce, one reaches a higher unity — an essential bond. And from Maseches Gittin one proceeds to Maseches Kiddushin, where that essential bond becomes revealed.