gett in colloquial terms refers specifically to a bill of divorce (see Rashi to
Gittin 65b and Maimonides’ commentary to the Mishna
Gittin 2:5), as we shall see below. In Biblical Hebrew, by the way, a bill of divorce is called a
Sefer Kritut (Deut. 24:1-3, Isa. 50:1), literally “Scroll of Cutting.”
The Tosafists (
Gittin 2a) cite Rabbeinu Tam as explaining that a bill of divorce contains twelve lines of text because it is called a
gett (GIMMEL-TET), and the
gematria (numeric value) of the word
gett equals twelve. Some authorities understand the Tosafists to also be explaining why a bill of divorce is called a