Yerushalmi Gittin 2:7 ירושלמי גיטין ב׳:ז׳

MISHNAH: Even women who cannot be believed if they say that [a woman’s] husband died are trustworthy to bring her bill of divorce: Her mother-in-law, her mother-in-law’s daughter, her co-wife, her sister-in-law, and her husband’s daughter¹³⁴These are presumed to hate her, Mishnah Yebamot 15:4; it is assumed that they would not mind tricking her into adultery.. What is the difference between divorce and death? The writing is the proof. A woman may herself bring her own bill of divorce, but she still is required to say that it was written and signed before her.

HALAKHAH: “Also those women who cannot be believed if they say that [a woman’s] husband died,” etc. ¹³⁵This paragraph is also in Yebamot 15:4, explained there in Notes 91–94. The variants are denoted by י. Would you believe her if it was written but not signed [in her presence]? If she did not say ‘it was written in my presence, it was signed in my presence’, would you permit her to remarry¹³⁶Therefore, it is not the text which allows the wife to remarry but the other woman’s testimony.? Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said, that parallels what Rebbi Abun said, he is not suspect to damage her before Heaven. Before the court he is suspect to damage her. But since he knows that if he comes and protests, his protest is void, he will choose qualified witnesses to sign¹³⁷An additional sentence, extant in Yebamot, is missing here to the effect that if one of these women would recant her testimony she also would not be believed..

Think of it, if she stayed in Rome ten years and remarried¹³⁸Since the woman is divorced once the bill is delivered into her hands, does the Mishnah mean that a woman married for the second time has to keep her bill of divorce and show it to the local court any time she moves to a new location? This is impossible since the bill is torn up by the court once the ketubah was paid to her in full.! Rebbi Joḥanan said, the Mishnah if he said to her, you shall only be divorced [by this document] at place X¹³⁹She is divorced as soon as she declares at her place of destination that the bill was written and signed in her presence. The Babli, 24a, agrees after a lengthy and tortuous discussion..