For the source text click/tap here: Bava Metzia 18
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According to the new Mishna, in all of these cases the document cannot be returned to either of the people mentioned, because it is possible that the individual who arranged for the document to be written changed his mind and did not do so. If that is the case, then what was written in the document never took effect, since a divorce or a present, for example, only takes place when the document is handed over by the person who has the power to effect the divorce or the present. If the document is given to them by the finder, the recipient may lie and use the document as proof to the falsehood.
Today we review the scholarship of Prof David Weiss Halivni and the radical new way of understanding the development of the Talmud.