A sad story, one dealing with a man who a number of years ago developed muscular sclerosis and today, is completely paralyzed other then blinking his eyes. His wife has been taking care of him for a number of years, but recently explained she is no longer capable of dealing with the situation. He agreed to give her a get.

A member of the Ashdod Beis Din and Rehovot Av Beis Din Rav Nachum Gertler traveled together with the ‘get’ sofer to the home of the couple in Ashkelon, which is the home of the patient’s mother. The witnesses met them there as well and a caretaker assisted in communicating with the man.

The caretaker explained the patient hears and understands. She gave the rabbonim a chart containing the letters divided into six lines. They began the slow difficult process of permitting him to spell out words with the assistance of the caretaker. The rabbonim were able to determine the man is alert and aware of his situation, his surroundings, his family and what he used to do to earn a livelihood. After the rabbonim understood the man was fully aware of what was going on, they gave the order to proceed.

The beis din learned that prior to his taking ill their marriage was falling apart and the wife stopped taking care of him over a year earlier. He told the beis din he did not want her to receive any portion of his assets.

The rabbonim explained that he would have to communicate with the sofer to write the get for him, and then he, the sofer, would be made shaliach to present it to his wife. After the text was written the man blinked his eyes to signal the sofer was now acting as his shaliach, handing the get to the wife.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)