Chapter 6, Mishnah 1. Our Mishnah deals with the wordings used to appoint an agent for a get - both on the husband's side and on the wife's - and with the question of until when the husband may retract.
"Ha'omer: hiskabel get zeh l'ishti, o holech get zeh l'ishti - im ratzah lachzor, yachzor" - One who says: Receive this get for my wife, or: Bring this get to my wife - if he wishes to retract, he may retract:
"Hiskabel get zeh l'ishti" - the husband says to the agent: Receive this get on behalf of my wife.
"Holech get zeh l'ishti" - the husband says to the agent: Take this get and bring it to my wife.
With both wordings alike, as long as the agent has not actually placed the get in the wife's hand, if the husband wishes to retract, he may retract.
Even though the husband used from the outset the wording "Receive this get for my wife," meaning that the agent should receive the get on her behalf, this makes no difference: divorce is not an advantage for the wife but a disadvantage - it is not something in her favor but a negative matter, and it is not to her benefit. Therefore, unless she herself appointed an agent, she is not divorced by the agent's receiving the get from the husband's hand. The husband has no power to bring the divorce into effect except when the get reaches the wife's own hand or the hand of an agent whom she appointed. Here it was not she who appointed the agent but the husband, and for that reason he may still retract.
"Ha'ishah she'amrah: hiskabel li giti - im ratzah lachzor, lo yachzor" - A woman who said: Receive my get for me - if he wishes to retract, he may not retract:
If a woman said to an agent: Receive my get on my behalf, and the husband placed the get in that agent's hand, the husband can no longer retract. From that moment she is considered divorced.
"Lefichach, im amar lo ha'ba'al: i efshi shetekabel lah, ela holech v'ten lah - im ratzah lachzor, yachzor" - Therefore, if the husband said to him: It is not my wish that you receive it for her, but rather go and give it to her - if he wishes to retract, he may retract:
The husband turns directly to the agent whom the wife appointed and says to him: It is not my wish that you receive the get on her behalf - which is the agency for which she appointed you - rather, I am making you an agent for delivery, an agent whose role is to bring the get to her: go and place the get in her hand. In this case the husband may retract until the get reaches the wife's hand, for he did not agree to hand the get over to an agent for receiving, an agent acting on the recipient's side, but rather turned him into his own agent, and the agent accepted this agency upon himself. And when it is the husband who creates the agency, the divorce does not take effect until the wife actually receives the get.
"Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel omer: af ha'omeret tol li giti - im ratzah lachzor, lo yachzor" - Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Even one who says, Take my get for me - if he wishes to retract, he may not retract:
Even a woman who did not use the wording "Receive" but said "Take my get for me" - take my get on my behalf - this wording is considered a wording of receiving, as though she said: Receive the get on my behalf. Therefore, from the moment the agent received the get she is divorced, and it is now too late to retract from the divorce.
In summary: In this Mishnah we clarified the difference between an agent for delivery and an agent for receiving. When it is the husband who appoints the agent - even if he used the wording "Receive" - he may retract until the get reaches the wife's hand, since divorce is a disadvantage for her, and it takes effect only when the get reaches her hand or the hand of an agent she appointed. When it is the wife who appoints, once her agent has received the get she is divorced and the husband cannot retract; but if the husband stipulated and said, "It is not my wish that you receive it for her, but rather go and give it to her," the agent became an agent for delivery on the husband's behalf, and the husband may retract. And in the view of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, even the wording "Take my get for me" is considered a wording of receiving.